Binding My Finish!!

I can’t believe what a week we have here in North Carolina… it was warm… now it is cold again!!!  So I stayed busy and decided it was time to empty the frame and yesterday I got to this!!

 I started the week looking at this…12 columns to stitch and the center would be done!!  Linking my progress on this project to Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy’s Quilts in Canada where she is stitching away in the cold weather they are getting HERE!

Soon enough I was on to this and chipping away at the finish!!!

At finally it was time to trim the quilt, decide on the binding, figure it and cut it and make it one long piece… then to sit down at Cleo and give her a chance to sing as she sewed down the binding 🙂

 My favorite accouterments for binding…

 And getting it started with a tan 50 wt Aurifil thread 🙂

Soon I had made my way around the first corner and down a bit and got a picture… I am sure not all my corners will miter so nicely but this one turned out nice I think… as did my label 😀

Linking all this to the Peacock Party Wendy is having HERE!

Also this week was continue to remove and replace the bottom outer border on this quilt flimsy… it is next to go in the frame….

Here is a close up of what a properly pinned border left me with… you see I placed this length of fabric border on here in a rush and measured down the center but somehow miss-measured the borders when I cut them… AND they are also set in place with miters too! lol  I can’t make this redo job easy on myself now can I!

Anyway this was taken off the bottom.. so I decided I best check the top better too so I pressed it and sure enough it waved back at me … so I took it off in the photo above you see a bit less left but still quite a chunk of fabric was removed as I removed and replaced these borders.

I will share my plan for hand quilting this wall hanging next week 🙂

My honey has been busy working on tiling this tile we have in our kitchen in 4 separate areas…

That fruit tile is Italian maybe in the bottom left???  Well didn’t suit our river mountain home anyway so in his stash my honey found and figured how to utilize some tile left over from our Florida home… that is  the bottom right.  Then properly grouted is the top photo… the glass tiles really took on a deeper color once grouted 😀  

Does he get to count this as hand work for these to linky parties this week???

The background tile was roughed up as it is very shiny and white… next week I will share a photo of our kitchen with all 4 areas fixed to forever hide this fruit that just didn’t go with wood cabinets and all… I am excited to see it all grouted myself !!!

We got a little Singer Sew handy #20 Sewing Machine in Case this week… it sold within 5 minutes on Facebook too ❤  So nice to see this go to a home where it will be enjoyed.. and it works too !!

Today our sweet pup Molly is 8 months old!!!  Hard to believe !!! 

We teamed up and gave her a haircut and bath this week (the middle shot on the right above was before her haircut and bath).  She needed both!!!  She sure enjoys me taking quilts off the frame… she jumps right on them so it was good she was all clean!!! lol  She likes playing with sticks and wood outside, playing fetch though is still a favorite!  And she will do anything for a treat!

Last week I said I was going to keep the same closing until we got fresh flowers… well I found this quote this week (thanks to Bonnie Hunter) and investigated and found this… we live in the mountains with water beside and behind us so what could be better!!!  I quote by Jack Kerouac for you from me will be my closing until we get some fresh flowers and some new inspiration this year!!!

 

So take time to evaluate how much you are in love with every bit of your life I pray!  Life is short and we need to make changes as needed to be all we can be…

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Winter Blues Remedy Needed…

Y’all I am suffering from a terrible case of the winter blues mixed with the remainder of the flu bug I had last week.  Antibiotics are finished… steroids are done … but I have no get up and go!!  I am a glass half full girl though… so I pulled this from the archives and it is my motto today… gray skies and all!

So as I battle the January blah’s (I lived in Florida for the last 5 winters!  I don’t remember this being an issue there!)  I am trying to stay busy each day.  I spent some time with Gloria this past week sewing on Appalachian Delight!

 Last Sunday I got it to this point!

And over the week I sewed together all those half square triangles I had made as I made the Bear in the Cabin blocks…

I was giddy when the sides measured out exactly right !

I pinned them in place and sewed them on … adding top and bottoms in place too…

Tah Dah!!!!

Now don’t look at the mess underneath this quilt top in the making… that is part of my issue with winter time blues! But isn’t this looking spectacular so far!  Just like my pattern I had drawn out that I shared last week.  These Bear in the Cabin blocks look so nice framed by the burgandy with the blue diamonds at each intersection… My honey is not a lover of scrappiness like I am but he is liking this too… thank goodness since this is for our bed! lol  With all this progress on this quilt I want to link to my friend Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE!  Come take a look at her post… she did her own thing putting together the blocks of Bonnie Hunter’s latest mystery quilt… I LOVE her original take on this!

The pages I shared last week for you to print off I filled out while I have been trying to get my get up and go to get up and go…

Julie did a great job designing this list… as you can see I used mine for crafts AND quilting… I can list out what needs to happen and am already dating things as done on the borders of Bear in the Cabin… aka Appalachian Delight!  Wonder how I will get things marked off when this winter blah leaves!!!

I did do a bit of organizing amidst the knee pain I am dealing with and low energy issues…

This organizer I found very affordably ($20) from Target.com… ordered it one morning and it was delivered the NEXT DAY to my home via UPS.  We live very rural and no big stores like Target are near us… I have ordered from them before but never have I had such wonderful and fast service!  I look forward to buying another one of these organizers … they are made my closetmaid… and while not top quality for the price the organization and adding a few screws to their product adds the stability needed… I love it … all my bag making supplies are now organized on the back of my closet door where I keep my fabric stash in the sewing room!  SCORE!!!

I pulled this off facebook.  A girl made this sweet iPad cover from a pattern…. isn’t it precious!!!  Inspires me to want to do some applique and some embroidery too!!!

 That make by her encouraged me to finally make a cover for my honey’s spool table he designed….

My honey’s first initial is in the center… he didn’t want it puffy or pieced… he wanted a plain wholecloth design and he loves the finish… it is civil war fabrics left over from the quilt I am making now 🙂  He chose the fabrics that went into this make.  I made it washed it and dried it … no ironing needed even!!!!

Finally I want to share where I have spend some of EVERY long winters day this week… slow stitching on this never ending quilting project! lol

 Above is the start of the bottom of the 5th row of stars… and below is the middle of that row.

 You can see that wooden holder on my quilt… that holds my cell phone so I can watch youtube and Bluprint videos as I stitch… sometimes I listen to Pandora music instead… but this is a contraption I wanted and my honey made for me last year that I love!

 Here was my view this morning as I close in on the end of the bottom of the 5th row on my quilting frame!!!  Progress is real here y’all!

 So I continue marking some and stitching those chalk markings… then marking some more!  I am linking the slow and steady progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post where other like minded stitchers gather… come see what everyone is linking today HERE 🙂

Here was a fun item we got in this week and sold and mailed to it’s new owner…

 This little sewing machine was a child’s hand crank from the 1950’s… this one is an oddball as it has blackside parts all over it .. not only is it painted black which is a common color for these machines… but uncommon is the black metal it is made of.  This was common in the 1940’s due to war time efforts needing the silver so they made the metal black where possible.   Rarely do you see this carried into the 50’s.. wartime was over and remaining blackside parts got used here and there… so we were able to sell this to a collector of items like this… nice to see it go to a home it will be appreciated for it’s unusualness though!

Early last week when it was raining non-stop we noticed in the warmer wet weather we had some buds coming up next to the front door….

 Well they went back down into the freshly laid mulch now as the winter cold and wet has hovered so long they decided to wait to be identified but a friend of mine thinks this could be the beginnings of hyacinth blooms… we sure hope that is what they are!  This flower bed held hostas and they had overtaken the bed.. so we may find surprises in beds like this one around this property we now call ours… will keep you posted!

Please keep me and this winter blues issue in your thoughts and prayers… just by identifying it finally I am feeling better already.  If you are suffering a similar issue… talk to others about it like I have or call your doctor … get out and seek sunlight and healthy foods… I am doing all of this already.  But talking about it here is surely helping and your thoughts and prayers will help me have a better week I just know!

So make sure you make time to take care of yourself and to…