…. And then it was April 2020 – Fun while Staying Home

Hello and Welcome to my Blog this fine April weekend!  I hope this post finds you at peace as you Stay at Home !!!

I have thought of each of you that visit my blog this week.  I know many read that don’t leave comments too… sew I try to think of about all of you that may need a break from the clamor of the tv and reading a blog post can transport you away from this world wide pandemic..

Come on let’s see what photos I took for you this week!

Last Sunday was all hand work… cutting and marking the wrong side of fabric hand work though! lol

But at the end of that day the Shelbyville/Lancaster Quilt was complete….

I have ALL those pieces cut and am ready to sew together some flying geese even!  YAY 😀

I have a circle formed around my 301 ~ Julius ~ so I sat down here Monday morning and started some piecing of flying geese!

And by circle… LOOK!

The above photo was actually made when I was cutting but it is still similar to this set up… chair in the center and a table Jannessa left over here on the right side of the top of the photo… some placemats are there on the design wall waiting to be quilted… some day! lol  and I have 10″ squares of fabric everywhere else but I have 2 ironing surfaces.. 1 of which I have a smaller pink cutting mat on.  This is an environment I thrive in…

How about you??

Do you create in a clean or messy area ??

I like to start a project with a clean room and as I finish projects I try to put them all up but y’all don’t wanna see the far end of my cutting table right now!  I need a straightening day I think! LOL  REALLY!  This may make a bullet journal spot even for the coming week!!!!

Oh that last photo … if you look under Jannessa’s table you will see the parts and pattern for the briefcase Jannessa and I can make via Facetime… but we haven’t slated when it will start yet… 

Speaking of which… this is what took over the end of my week…

 Above I am making bias binding with a bias tool I ordered moons ago from MSQC… Jenny has a wonderful video making bias binding sew easy!

Once I got the bias binding made and folding in half and ironed I sat down at my non-messy 319w ~ Cleopatra ~ and strapped on a walking foot for a nice finish and sewed the binding on a rounded corner quilt for a grand baby on the way for Jannessa.  She is binding one for her other grandchild coming… I am binding this one… we are splitting the chores 😀

 Here I am being silly with hair way too long to show! lol

 Once I got it all one time to clip it down.  I rotate 8 wonder clips myself… Jannessa likes to pin her whole quilt at one time… how do you bind a quilt ???

 Here I am at the second corner ….

And that will be my slow stitching today.  I will be working on ladder stitching this binding down to make a nice finish for this little 53″ square – ish quilt for a baby boy yet to be named… in fact neither of her grandsons have a name for sure yet… so labels will wait until parents can quit being fickle…. lol!  It is the last one for each family too… so give them space to decide I say! hahaha

I am linking this hand stitching finish to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching HERE <<<

For my HQAL sisters I am linking a finish of HALF of the blocks below for the Crochet Fusion Quilt….

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Kathi,  Bella, Daisy and Connie

This is an exciting time for me with this project…  You can see above in the photo some have crochet surrounding them … well after I do a bit of quilting in the center of each block I will be crocheting the rest to match.  Then when they are all ready to lay out and stitch together will I start this same process on 40 more blocks already cut and waiting to get this far!   I am very serious about making this fusion quilt a reality to enjoy for years to come!

Here is the template I made for marking the stitching lines… the stitching on these will be the same color as the crochet thread… the quilting will be done by machine so not working on this today but later in the week….

 Here is a Coraline doll my bff Jannessa made from scratch for her granddaughter who is 10 now I think…

 She is posed with a sweet little pin cushion Jannessa fashioned for ME!!!  Next time we see each other I should get it 😀

Now here is a completed block below left and my template… made to trace outside the square and inside the diamond for 2 stitching lines in 28 wt aurifil thread on top and bobbin….

What do you think?  Others say those 2 lines of stitching will be enough to hold it together for washings, etc…

If you like this kind of hand embroidery… check out THIS website… right now for a limited time this pattern is free and many are unique… support small businesses when you can ya know!!!

Here is Molly posing for me as she watches for her daddy out the window in his shop.

 And here she is asking to go out and “check” on him ! lol

 He put up the hummingbird feeder as we learn what time of year to start feeding for them here…

And please know… if you feel lonely right now… reach out to someone in your inner circle of friends/ family.  I am blessed to have my honey and our pup during this time.

Please feel free to reach out to me on facebook or here via message below if you would like to converse via text or call or video chat.

Just please… wherever you live… keep on keeping on to whatever your government and area is mentioning to do!  For me it is staying home as much as possible…. so we are!  I would LOVE to make new close friends during this time though so please feel free to reach out to me if you need someone new to chat with 😀

Take care… thanks for visiting… and may God bless YOU!

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Lots of Handee Work but NO Quilting Here

Welcome Y’all! 

As we isolate in our home place Daisy Meadows this week… I welcome you from North Carolina USA 🙂  I hope my blog post will bring you diversion to what is happening in our world as we learn to live apart.  We are over our sinus infections I am happy to report and we have had a busy week!
I made masks for me and my honey and Jannessa and her hubby.  My bestie Connie kicked off the fun by making 24 for her and her coworkers to use over their masks at work to prolong their life.
Did you know I was a RN in a previous life?  I worked with critically ill kids mainly … cardiac was my joy and teaching was fun too ❤  Now I am a stitcher…

but Hand Quilting is not setting well with me this week so I did other HANDee projects…. and I have found a bit of whimsical fun finishing on the internet too… Facebook specifically 😀

To the left is a sweet lady that finished quilts for twins due in April!  Aren’t they cute!!!!

And check out this border quilting Y’all!!!!  >>>> INSPIRING for sure!!!!

So I decided it was time to cut into the layer cakes and start making some flying geese bodies for the Shelbyville ~ Lancaster Quilt …

There is a LOT of cutting in making over 288 flying geese bodies y’all!!!!

So here is the corner of my sewing room I am hanging out in…

 I have the window open to hear the river running down the side of our yard… and to hear mother nature in the form of birds and squirrels and such… I have music playing on my little Bose speaker from my cell phone app for Pandora… and I am waiting for a friend to go live on facebook so I can have some conversation virtually… have you tried this yet???

Here is a look at my flying geese bodies and pairs and pairs of wings too… waiting to be stitched all together…

 Above you will also see the masks I made for Jannessa and her husband!  Whenever I can get these to her 🙂

Below I am marking lines on the back of squares for snowball blocks for this same quilt… oh my!  Sew much cutting is happening here!!!

 I made a bag for the washer and dryer for our cpap straps.  Both my honey and I use CPAP machines when we sleep for apnea… those straps need a good wash every so often so I made a mesh bag thanks to a stash of mesh from my friend Jannessa 😀

 I am on the last block that I have prepped on the button hole stitching… this is another HANDY project…

Linking all this Hand-ee-ness to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching HERE…. no fast sewing happening here!  Comfort is her word of the day!!!

And I kept up with my bullet journal this week!  YAY 🙂

 Now to draw out this weeks grid!!! lol

Look at this 1870 Grant Brothers Sewing Machine we sold this week!  I will miss it …

 Here is a sweet pic of my dd… darling daughter… she sent me… I miss her!  She has her life in Kentucky these days though!

A life without a work day is hard to become used to… you must create routines for yourself and hold yourself accountable.  Bullet journaling helps me focus my creative time but you can use it for anything!!! 

I hope to finish all the cutting for the Shelbyville-Lancaster Quilt top… Jannessa and I are to chat about when we will start our briefcase building this week so I will know better then as we are doing it virtually on FaceTime I think!  I want to quilt and prep for crochet all 40 fusion quilt blocks and spend time with my honey and our pooch enjoying life… 

What are your goals for this upcoming week?  Please share! Did you know Bluprint is running a free 2 week trial until April 9??  Go to Bluprint dot com and check out the free classes and see if it is your cup of tea this week 😀

Have a blessed week and thanks for visiting with me 🙂  I pray you feel uplifted from your visit!

Happy March Y’all!

I am just giddy that March is here… I have enjoyed winter … but Spring… OH MY!!!!

You see we are still seeing THIS …..

 SNOW!!!!

 A look back toward where the above pic was taken… Rick is doing this on the golf cart to test out how it handles on snow…

This tree we call the “popsicle tree”… not sure of it’s type but it held this wet snow well!

 Here is a photo Rick took of the flag in front of our home…

We loved this photo of the flag flying…

 Even the cabin we keep an eye on for the owner got a scenic view!!!!

We even made a video of Rick doing donuts in the yard… on our golf cart that actually traveled on the snow quite nicely!!!!  I tried to add the video here but Blogger doesn’t like it! lol

So besides enjoying Mother Nature’s last hurrah of winter…. I have done some journal keeping and quite a bit of sewing too ❤

working on the base stitching layer of the crochet blocks to be…

Sew when I have the chocolate and purple block done… there is just 1 more block and then I can look in the bag and dig in the closet to find the rest!!!  I can’t remember if I have more ready 😀  I play these games though so that I will see FIRST if I can stay consistent with a project…

Today I may focus on these little squares.  I may ALSO spend some time at my frame though too!!!

Look at this cool shot I took as I stitched this week….

And >> I rolled Appalachian Delight yesterday… I took this photo before rolling to share my progress…

and this close up…

 And this view here looks GREAT rolled down some doesn’t it ❤

The snow made it very bright through the windows so I cropped most of that brightness out! lol
Linking this rolling progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching gang HERE <<<  Come visit her blog and see all the benefits hand stitching can do for you too ❤

I am also pondering a new quilt … it won’t be ready for quilting for a while!

Here is the layout….

 It has 72 snowballed blocks and 71 pieced blocks… all the white centers will be ivory…

I am going to you 2 layer cakes… I need to get 1 but have the other…

The one I have is this one here…

 The one I think I want to add for it’s medium tones is this in a layer cake….

 The great news is after some quick calculations I did buy enough of the background fabric… 6 yards and I need 5 for this quilt! whew!!!!

So I won’t be starting this yet… but you will see the Shelbyville~Lancaster Quilt starting soon here 🙂

I have straightened my sewing room so that I could use the cutting mat and cut out & made some reusable cloth dish towels made to be used in place of paper towels… I like them but don’t love the way I made them… I will make some this week and share that photo… but me and Jannessa bought some toweling and now I need to make some proper used rags from it that coordinate with our kitchen and look presentable too.  I will say what I made cleans and washes well though!

Molly has adopted this chair with this quilt in it to nap on when we are in the kitchen… she is soo cute!

 Here is a great shot of sweet Ellie….

 Here is some placemats that I desperately need a plan for quilting…

And now I bid you adieu… I hope you have a great first week of March and don’t forget….

Have a blessed week… Lion or Lamb 😀