Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hello my bloggy friends… I usually find it fun to blog 2 or 3 times a week… but time has slipped away from me and now I realize it is almost a week since I have shared with you!  For shame!!! lol

Squirrels play in our bird house and birds live in the trees!  Silly animals 🙂

Well, Saturday the 9th of August, my brother and his family moved into their “new” and they hope final home to raise their family in… on that day I also finished their quilt top… AND before they had their old home cleaned out for the new family I had the backing all pieced in the shape of a cross made from fabric with the 10 commandments on it… I am just soo excited with that progress…

Where I finished up “The Byrum Quilt”

Flimsy pictures you say?? Well first of all this is TOP SECRET right now.. and second of all the top is 94″ square… yep, HUGE!!!   The backing measures out 104″ square itself as well… so we plan to move the living room around for the pinning of the quilt sandwich this weekend and will get pics then!  Yippee!

Look for a post Sunday for Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy as I will be linking there and delighted that (once the batting arrives to the pinning party Friday) the pinning will be over and the hand quilting will begin!  Yippee 🙂

In the meantime.. I do have something fun to share … I have been doing some hand piecing on my hexi star flower table topper…

Now I have 2 done

and am working on the 3rd… there are 7 to make before I join them to make the flimsy properly 🙂

I started this project to try multi-tasking… as hand piecing affects different parts of my fingers than hand quilting… so we shall see how it goes with both projects going!!!  Very soon I am hoping!!! lol

Meanwhile, my honey has put together a little railroad for himself on a piece of plywood we salvaged for free (someone hurricane shutters they decided they didn’t need… in Florida really???)!  Check this system he has designed!

He has 3 working trains… one from the 60’s, one from the 70’s and one from the 90’s all working together on the track he bought on eBay for a deal and has carefully sanded each piece to get great connections all around.. screwed in each piece of railroad… and the trains love it!  So fun that we have interesting hobbies… to us anyway! ha 🙂

For my hand piecing project I am staying organized and using my portable design wall to hold my pieces in place together :).. my bestie Connie made them.. along with my design ideas .. during her July visit for our birthdays… this was my birthday present and I think she rocked it!!!

 Here on the left is my portable design wall as it was intended to be used… and being used today on the right!

 I love the buttons Connie added that we both fell in love with during a visit to the LQS 🙂

 So what are you up to this week? 

Well.. must go for now and fondle my fabric! lol

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2 Hand-y Projects at once :)

Thanks to all that have already linked up to my goal setting linky… if you are interested in knowing more… check out this post…

So did you catch my title??  I have two hand projects going at once!!! lol

One of my personal goals with my List, Tick, and Party idea is to start having more than just 1 project going.. not many more.. but more than 1 most of the time at least… keeps my mind more active and keeps me out of trouble too! lol

So in meeting an M4 goal I have 2 projects going at once.. both are on my list of projects to complete during this month too!

First up is Oh My Stars..

I am having a blast quilting this just intuitively…

This is a great shot of the texture too!

I am using Hobbs Tuscany Wool batting… my first experience.  I will do a review of it when this project is done but be prepared for the batting you have around your edges picking up every stray thread and scratching your arms as you rub against it… very very uncomfortable… but the loft is AMAZING!  The way my quilting shows in real life is stunning in itself.. so I think overall a good choice for a wall hanging… wouldn’t want to snuggle under it though I think… just not my preference… I think bed and snuggle quilts should be ALL COTTON! lol

My other hand project was actually inspired to get done because of need and Project RJq sparked my love for working with high quality batiks.  So back to batiks I went for this hand piecing project… a table topper for my kitchen table…  Here is a pic from the recipe before being bound

but I am using batiks in that color family instead of prints..

It is a Moda Bake Shop recipe they mark as “ambitious” but is really easy if you can cut and measure and hand piece already you can do this recipe for sure!

So I am calling this a Star Flower Table Topper to follow along on my blog if you like.  And here is my first star flower laid out…

Then put together!  Took me a couple days because although this batiks needles well by machine… it is very tightly woven as many batiks are and is more of a stab stitch motion to hand piece… bummer.. but fun overall.. just requires taping my finger for the tight weave to get this!

Next up is this earthy toned and textured star flower hexi…

Would love to hear about what your pallets look like… for me it is earthy or patriotic…

Share with me.. and check out the linky party at Kathy’s Quilts for more handy work… leave a comment on her blog for a chance to win 1 of 3 cute fat quarters 🙂  Turtle inspired print!! lol

Better yet.. after you finish checking out the loveliness there come on back and click the link above to read about MY LINKY PARTY !!!