Busy Week… Now time to slow it down !!!

Hi y’all!  Thanks for stopping in for a visit … we are experiencing very cool weather post Thanksgiving so I am getting lots of quilting done.  Look at the beautiful plant we got earlier this week!

When we bought it … it was just 2 stalks but water and sunshine from my sewing room window gave us blooms galore!!!

 Here are the photos we got for Thanksgiving of Daisy Meadows… from across the pond!!!

And our facebook shot with embellishments…

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with ham and lots of sides… some homemade and some store bought and all were fabulous together… still nibbling on a few of the leftovers too 💖  My favorite thing from the holidays are leftovers and family time.

Here is Molly in her fave snuggling spot… down by my honey’s feet when he is resting his hurting hip in the recliner….

And here she is trying to be my assistant while I sew in my sewing room! lol

I think this may be the best pic I have been able to catch of her and hope to do some applique of an ornament of her face or something… ideas are bubbling from this shot though!!!

Last week I enjoyed a bit of fireside stitching…

 And enjoyed a few days of beautiful sunsets from the windows by my frame….

 Then this morning I made a new Sunday morning photo for December for facebook…

 Speaking so much of facebook… look what I saw completed in one of my groups….

 It is appliqued and hand quilted and I am in lust with this pattern … so I found one for half the going price on eBay and am anxiously awaiting the directions…

This is a complex pattern to me who has done very little applique … so I will ponder the best way to make this wall hanging with my skill set but I love it and hope to have it done and hanging for our Christmas season next year !!!

As for Christmas this year… I finished the tree skirt I was working on with a piping around the edges instead of binding….  I did enjoy the string piecing of the center and working out the math… I like the star finish too… just did NOT care for the piping edge… I should have taken the extra time to do a binding edge or something instead of bagging it for my skills! lol  Lesson learned for sure 😀

 Don’t know if you can see this photo a bit better but I even made button loops and sewed on holly leaf buttons down the open side.  The photo is a bit whippy jawed I see now… but it was fairly fun… not as easy as I hoped but finished is better than perfect for sure on this kind of project!!!!

But.. instead of continuing to complain about the finish I will enjoy it for years to come… It was fun and has some pretty sentimental fabrics in it that make it completely ours 🙂

Here was a great statement I read that Bonnie Hunter shared this morning… it rings VERY true for me….

Are you doing these things??? Are you living a life you have always imagined… I AM!!!!  YAY 🙂

I finished the blocks for Appalachian Delight’s center and came up with a layout me and my honey like as far as all the colors and backgrounds go…

 I found a new website to me with calculations on making the square in a square cornerstones correctly too…

There were plenty other units they offered calculations to as well… look at my photo for the website and check it out if you have interest/need!

I cut the sashings lengthwise for less stretching during assembly and then cut the outer square parts… wrong the first time but had enough fabric in this solid burgundy to cut them right AND cut the binding for the quilt too ❤  YAY!!!

 Here is a glimpse of what the quilt center will be looking like once sewn together…

 And here are my sashings and square in a square blocks all done…

I am really savoring and enjoying this quilt assembly… I am in no rush because I have the quilt I am working on hand quilting.. then I am HOPEFULLY going to be quilting a quilt for my bestie that she is piecing now… a Swoon quilt block design 😀  I am excited to quilt this for her!!!

As for my hand quilting… I got the border and some of the center done last Sunday…

And somehow worked my way across without a photo to be found in my phone!!!  So here we are yesterday as I marked out the last of the center…

And here I am this morning with about half that done… The rest of the center and the border will be my goal for today!!  Watching Hallmark movies and stitching 😀  Yummy!

With that goal in mind.. I am linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching linky HERE… She is located in Canada and they are wishing they could exit daily life to hibernate during the dreary winter months!  I am sure in a month or so I will be ready to join her cause too ❤ lol!

Here is a little vintage 1930’s sewing machine we sold this week…

 I just this that old sewing machines are beautiful and feel blessed to sew on a 1950’s machine lot myself 🙂

For now I will close and wish you all a blessed Sunday and remember to …

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What a Whirlwind Week it has been y’all!

Hope each of you are having a great weekend and a peaceful Sunday!  We have had such a whirlwind week I wonder where it went until I sit down to write this post and review the photos that got taken over this past week!

Molly LOVES to play !!!  With my honey she loves to climb up in his chair while he is trying to get relief from his hip pain and crawl all over him! lol  She gets on his shoulder if he lets her perched like a bird or something so… I had to snap a photo to share!!!

I have had quilty tangents and quilty goals met this week… and all that was besides the normal household stuff, errands, and journeys to visit doctors this week too !!!

But our week started off with a duck showing up in our pond!

Enlarge this photo if you can or get to a computer if you like to view this sweet little duck… boy or girl it showed up all alone.  It stayed about 3 days feeding on who knows what in the pond.. baby fish??  We are not sure!!!  But it rested from it’s journey from the north to the south about 3 days then we never have seen it again… what a fun addition this little duck was to our week though! lol

While the duck was resting and regenerating it’s energy I finished a couple more blocks… leaving just 2 more to make on Appalachian Delight Quilt top!!!

I am getting excited to cut sashings and figure my square in a square blocks too!  That will be what comes after the final 2 blocks to make… I have carefully counted out the remaining pieces and parts and have enough… I think! lol

So then I decided a bit of Christmas music… aka classics and Pentatonix station too on Pandora… and Christmas sewing was in order…

 I pulled out my tallest old phone book… after figuring my degree wedge size needed with the idea photo I found on Pinterest….

 Wound bobbins until I ran out of thread! lol

And pulled out a couple sheets of card stock to make my initial pattern pieces with….

 I wondered if I could successfully tape this newprint phone book paper together and shorten my sewing stitch length on Gloria and glue with washable school glue my initial piecing and still successfully remove the papers when all done before sewing the tree skirt all together and without gumming my needle….

Well you can!

 I made 12 wedges… 6 left and 6 right… adjusted the top angle once I was pieced to the point… and tah dah!

Now I plan to machine quilt it a bit.. add some piping or a flange using the black fabric of the center star points and bag it instead of traditional binding with a Christmas themed toss print I found in my Christmas stash of fabrics for the backing!  All this came from my stash though… I am soo excited for this to be done in time for Thanksgiving as soon after we will decorate for our first year in this house… we don’t do much but I enjoy what we do decorate 🙂  Do you decorate much for the holidays??  What do you do???  Which holidays???




I have been VERY GOOD at sticking to my goal of hand quilting each morning and making stellar progress!

Halfway was marked on Thursday morning 🙂

And I finished that row this morning!!!

 I am using the heck out of the 2 cell phone holders too!  See one is here and one is by Gloria!  My honey made them soooo durable to enjoy 🙂  Here is an overall view of this second row done…

 And a closer up view of my stitches…

And finally I rolled and started marking row #3 of not sure how many but 6 rows of stars and this is the top half of the second row of stars you are seeing in this photo…

 And a long view in the wee morning hours… still dark outside ❤

Friday we got snow!!!  Just a light dusting but not frost.. it stuck around too long!  26 degrees farenheit and SNOW… our first of the season!

 Here it is on our brown roof too!

So this week in the USA we celebrate families and get together for Thanksgiving… From me to you I want to thank you for visiting and wish you a blessed Thanksgiving and Happy Holiday time too!

I am linking up my slow stitching progress with Kathy at Kathy’s quilts and hope you all will come HERE to visit her blog and see what all the hand stitching lovers are linking up.  Today she is encouraging us to Smile… Breathe… and Slow down!  It is always so much fun to slow down and enjoy the process with my friends there on Sundays 🙂

So until my next post… I plan to make daily hand quilting progress my personal goal and continue living a life I love… how about you??!!!