Appalachian Delight Progress!!!

I saw the above image on Facebook.. she looks like me as a child before I grew up, had kids, and turned silver haired! lol  In all actuality I did hand work as a child starting with counted cross stitch from age 6 or 7 I think! I had ever the nice collection then of dmc threads to do my cross stitch with.  I didn’t find quilting until 2011!!! 

How about you? 
When did you start hand crafting and what was your first way to craft??

I am having so much fun keeping track of my crafty and quilty adventures in my journal… and the pre-assembled pages… soon I will have it all in my journal book… that is the goal anyway

For instance because of my list of started but not focused on projects on my list above… was the crochet quilt… I worked on this block this week and finished the button hole stitch up on this one and pulled out another to work on…

 Then it was Valentine’s Day!  Happy Valentine’s to all you that celebrate such a holiday 🙂

 We celebrated with sweet little gifts.. and a trip to Franklin, NC.  I made Rick this shirt he had been patiently waiting for me to make…

 Here is a close up of the v neck and pocket detail I added with Cleopatra my 319w Singer.

 I got me a couple new shirts on a clearance sale… the one in the back is actually embroidered!!!!

 While in Franklin we went into a thrift shop and found 10 plates we really loved…

 Here is the label on the back of the plates we found…

In looking to see if we could buy others like these plates to have a full set we found they were a bit pricey to buy otherwise! lol  So if we ever need money we could sell our new china!!!  We paid $5 for these 10 plates!!!!  lol

I worked all week and rolled the quilt on Thursday morning…

 I marked the outer border on the left side…

 Soon that was filled with dark burgundy perle 12 cotton thread & the lines were spritzed away!

 Here is my focus on the 2nd area of 6 areas across I will be quilting…

 And here you can see the overview of my quilting progress and where I will be today … happily slow sitching…

 And with that I will link this content of this post to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching HERE <<<  Come see the wonderful pattern she is working on today and even an Australian link as to where to buy  the pattern too ❤

I hope your tribe, like mine, is secure for you!  I hope that you know you are awesome too ❤  Ellie received her quilt later this past week and loves it already her parents say!  I am sew blessed 😀

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A Finish and a Beginning… and lots in the Middle too!

I finished and washed the throw quilt last week… and it became a wall hanging!!!

My honey loved it soo much he wants Stars Among Us hanging on the quilt hanger in the kitchen 🙂  So here it is!!!  The colored chalk was completely gone after my traditional first TWO washings… when I took it out after the first there was a bit of pink chalk still in it… but I had used pink pounce AND pink cartridge chalk on marking the center… so back in the washer it for 1 more wash and all looked great… dried it and look how wonderful the texture turned out… we are soo pleased ❤

One day is all I could handle having empty nest syndrome…..

This is my Spiral Log Cabin quilt flimsy that has been fixed (the outer border was waving too much!) and is now became one with the frame and a flimsy no more on the Tuesday!!!

The rest of that day was spent at doctor appointments for my honey’s upcoming surgery for his hip replacement.  It is our first joint replacement in this house so we are starting the prep work in earnest now!  Keep reading you will see 🙂

Then Wednesday errands for prep and more doctor appointments for both of us locally… then it was Thursday!!!  Happy Valentine’s to me from my honey…

This expensive chocolate is our tradition for him to get me… I got him a bit of chocolate this year too and he loved the new tradition of getting some himself 😀

Here is hoping you had a great Valentine’s Day… if you celebrate where you live!

We also put this cool little Singer sewing machine up for sale on Valentine’s.. it sold out quick too!!

It is special because most of the metal parts are black.. this is called a “blackside” finish on those parts made around the 40’s in wartime to preserve the best metal for war time needs.  This machine was actually produced according to our information… in the mid 1950’s… but with parts in the 1940’s primarily on it … and sketchy records kept during this time on these machines anyway… it makes it more valuable… but it is on it’s way to a great home where it will be loved and appreciated ❤

Finally Friday rolled around and we were rested and I took a few photos and made some progress on this project…

 After assembling the tools I would use I did some stitching… this was the initial look… I knew it needed more depth though…

 So I phoned my bestie Connie and she had some perle 8 in a light brown… PERFECT  for this quilt… she said she would pitch it in the mail for me… well Saturday I got it to my surprise!!!

 And I made headway with it earlier…

 I have the bottom border mainly marked now… you can see the blue lines of what will be a natural YLI thread stitching…

 And I took a photo to include the new ball of perle in this beautiful color ..

 And here is a photo I shot this morning 🙂

I don’t have any plans for stencils on this quilt… but the center is yet to be decided… do you have ideas that strike you when you look at this photo for quilting the center inside the black border???

Linking the quilting in this post to:

Kathy’s Quilts… Slow Stitching Sunday HERE

& Wendy’s Quilts and More … Peacock Party HERE

Along with the 2 spools of thread was a surprise….

 Connie made us this most BEAUTIFUL doily to go on our wood shelf… you can see this wall in our kitchen below houses lots of vintage stuff and a while back I had asked her if she could crochet us something for this long shelf…

 I think it turned out perfect too ❤ 

I mentioned last week that a friend asked me to make something for her sewing room on her farm.  The girl in the photo below on the far left is Holli… she is standing with her hubby who is a Chief in the Navy…

 Holli is such a joyful friend… that is rare these days too!  So when she sent me a charm pack of her theme fabric I was thrilled to play with it and make her a banner bunting personalized for her…

 Here I am sewing on my Singer 319w… boy did this baby handle all that thickness like a dream!!!

I got to use this special applique foot too… and I see why people love it now… and I love it too for applique to look more professional… I think I could use this on bags too!!!

So that bunting is about 2/3 done or a bit more… and we have a “mock up ” area in our kitchen set up so I can hang it when finished and custom fit it to her windows where this will be hanging 😀  YAY!!!

Finally … what I am most excited about!!!!

Yesterday this happened!!!  My honey was out in his man cave building and came in to tell me he found a drawer that matched our kitchen.

And the day ended with the floor removed on this part of the kitchen proper… 

 And another view…

 And here is the bar top marked for removal…

The sample just to the left of the demolition line is a 12 foot by 8 foot piece of vinyl thick flooring we have had about a year… waiting for the opportunity to move the bar out and change about the kitchen… well that is happening NOW! lol

This prep for surgery is taking on lots of angles for sure… Rick understands as the day for surgery gets closer that he will be recuperating for A WHILE and unable to get down and up so much and learning new ways of doing things so he doesn’t make his new joint pop out … oh my!

Meanwhile the weather here has been mainly rainy but that took a hiatus yesterday and we did a ride about on the golf cart… things are starting to bud out a bit… I am getting excited that during Rick’s recuperation we may have the windows open at night again… I sure miss that about winter… I am not wishing away the seasons .. I love each one.. but this has been a very cold winter and we haven’t gotten the worst of it for sure!

I hope this post has brought you thoughtfulness about what you could do to shake up your own life .. or at least brought YOU some joy in reading about our escapades this week! lol  Take time to evaluate and be in love with your life my friends <3… every minute of it too.. if not make changes so you are!!!  No time like the present 🙂

Slow Stitching is my SANITY ya’ll!

Looking for just the right opening for this post… I found this …

And wish each of you that came to read my blog today a very Happy Weekend!

I have made very good strides hand quilting this week and have moved the quilt 2 different times!

Here was where I was when I wrote my blog last week…

 But through the day Sunday I made great strides…

 By Tuesday I was here…

 And on Wednesday… Happy Belated Valentine’s by the way…  Isn’t this patchwork and applique someone on facebook shared just lovely!!!!  I hope to make something like this one day…

Meanwhile… I was here on the wholecloth quilting…

 Then I made this progress….

Finally the packing has moved us into our bedroom so now my quilting area is here…

 where the desk used to be attached to the wall! lol

 Here is a view of my quilting area this morning after my second move of the quilt…

 And a close up of where I will spend my quilting allotted time today! 😀

I am loving this project as we are packing and sorting and selling and trashing .  It gives me consistency to turn to when everything else is just “will this go… if so will it fit the u-haul moving truck we are renting?”  That is our question for everything we are taking these days too!

So this is / was our dream home in the Appalachian foothills…

the fairly curvy steep driveway opens up to this lovely view of the home we want to call home.. but inspections are coming back and problems are being unearthed.  So it is not clear but what we do know is that we will be closing this house out midweek and moving up to North Carolina with each other and our pup Daisy Mae… in a uhaul.

Our car is having some manufacturer issues with the transmission… and we are negotiating it’s return before leaving too… so we don’t know if we will be traveling alone following each other or if we will all be squeezed into the uhaul for our journey north…

Someone in one of my facebook groups shared this picture this week.. from Pinterest… aren’t they lovely!

I think we are likely to see cute birds like these in Appalachia country… we shall see!!!

More info to come as we know more too… I will be sharing a Friday or Saturday post on this topic so that next time I share with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching it is only about lovely slow stitching I will be doing not all the angst happening behind the scenes as well.

Please keep this home in your mind and keep prayers for us making the right decisions in your hearts is our request!

Have a blessed weekend and week ahead whatever your focus is.  We are excited to leave Florida in our rear view mirrors however things turn out and return to a land where there are seasons while the beach will just be a short driving vacation away!!!

Now go on over to Kathy’s Quilts blog and see what other slow stitchers are linking up right HERE!

Here is our goal in this move… what is your goal for this month… or this year??!!

Leave me a comment with your response if you like 😀

Sharing a Little LOVE!

So now that Valentine’s and the long weekend are over it is time to show you a bit of what I have been up to!

For Valentine’s my honey finds a card and a certain kind of boxed chocolate for me 🙂  I get giddy every year for this tradition!!!

And I got him a card…

and made him some oven mitts for our kitchen 🙂  He loved them both!!

Wendy, sent me this photo and I put it in a frame until I can shop for the “perfect” frame…

 Wendy lives just outside Melbourne, Australia…

Yep, almost 10,000 miles away as the crow flies!  Wowee… we have been good friends for a couple years now and I love this latest photo she sent me.. don’t you??

In my next post I will give you a full reveal of my just finished wall quilt.. “Tennessee Fall” I have named it!

So until my next post remember…

Feeling LOVEly Here!!!

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day around the world… I am sorry I didn’t have more time to be able to chat with you all… but you are important to me ❤

If you are friends with me on Facebook you saw this Valentine Sentiment I shared with my followers…

But here I like to share the WHOLE story and not just snippets…

It has been over a week since I have chatted with you all here… let me catch you up!

I have been doing some slow stitching 

this week as I worked on the binding of the Tennessee Fall wall hanging…

I have been calling this my Fall Wall Hanging… but when it was time to make the label I thought this quilt would surely deserve something a bit more sentimental to me… I am in love with this wall hanging!!!

Below is a shot I took that doesn’t show my quilting really… as it hasn’t been washed yet.. but is just after I sewed down the binding to the front… then I slow stitch it to the back of the quilt… as I am doing above 🙂

And here is my “practice label” I wrote out on a sheet of paper to decide how big my triangle needed to be to include all the info I wanted /needed to put on it to properly label this beauty….

I bought the pinwheels and the embroidered pumpkin in 1 lot off someone on Facebook.. so I wanted her to have credit on the label.. thus the Pinwheels by info above 🙂

Now I have that label blind stitched into place along that loose diagonal edge… the idea for this style label can be found on Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltville blog site btw..

I am finally to the hanging sleeve …

I am following Bonnie Browning’s AQS video on Youtube for my hanging sleeve instructions… makes a perfect sleeve quick and easy… now to get it slow stitched down! That is my goal for today…

Once I get this hanging sleeve stitched into place I will wash and dry it so it crinkles ever so wonderfully and hang it for pictures and enjoyment for a couple days!!!!  Yipee for that!!!

I can then store it away rolled up for fall! 🙂  Now I am excited for Fall to come to Florida… even if not in cool weather with leaves turning all fun colors… I can enjoy this wall hanging in our foyer all season long!  And still go for long walks on the beach too!  Best of both worlds for sure!!!!

Linking this slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post HERE!

I have also been doing some fast stitching…

I made my honey a very cool Valentine’s gift on Zena … my Singer 401a 🙂

I bought a yard of this cool fabric and first cut out the mitts per her instructions on Youtube…

I used 1 layer of Insulbrite and 1 layer of cotton batting per the Insulbrite directions… 

They are fit perfect… but we took a poll of our home and decided a bigger pair was in order… so I will make a second pair and gift these to my daughter for her future home… is this gonna be the beginning of a hope chest kind of thing?? lol!   I don’t know!  She is planning to move back to Tennessee when she graduates high school… she is on the downhill slide of her junior year currently.

Either way.. this pair will NOT go to waste! lol  We will use them until I buy more insulbrite 😀

My Review…

I really love her pattern… and Vanessa’s instructions on Youtube are wonderful as she walks you through the tricky spots… I contacted her via email when I read that my Insulbrite said to you in conjuction with a layer of cotton batting to be best… she said then use that in her reply … BUT this change put more bulk in that outer layer … so the fit is a bit more snug than it should be… but I do LOVE how well they work!!!  Thanks Vanessa the Crafty Gemini for a fun and easy project!!!!

Next up is….

A lot of quilt marking on this beautiful flimsy that has been PATIENTLY waiting it’s turn …

This is a partial sketch of my idea… I did this by importing a picture I took of just the center star and drew on it in PAINT… the more I use this method to decide quilting designs.. the more I like it and am getting used to what different functions do… how do you decide your quilt design???

You can see I have been pondering this project a while… This is over 10 days ago that I worked on this drawing… and I still haven’t sketched it ON the quilt itself yet!  Just haven’t had any time though it seems….

Ebay has been stellar… we have nothing that didn’t sell that we want to list again… so we are done with that for the moment and we have the $$$ to pay the house tax that is due… in Florida if you don’t pay your property tax on time… they will auction your house off!!!  It is crazy the hoops you have to jump through here when owning a home.. much different living in a high tourism state versus Tennessee where it isn’t that way… for instance here you have to show up in the tax office when you buy a home to prove you live here year round via evidence they ask for… mail etc… then they give you a homestead exemption on your tax amount owed.. .basically a discount because it is your primary residence.  It is also expensive to tag a car from another state in Florida… we paid a very high tax the year we moved here to get a Florida license plate and stay compliant to the laws.  

That said though..

 I would do it all again to live in my Shangri-La!!!!

Well… Off to slow stitch that hanging sleeve… but oh so happy I got to catch up with you!  Have a great week my bloggy friends!!!!

BLOG CANDY WINNER and Valentines ~ Happy February!

Welcome to my blog… I wanted to share some cards with you for ABC Challenge blog… I really love their blog challenges and this week is Valentine’s themed!

But first let’s give away some BLOG CANDY!!! Yay for Doodlebug delight being mail bound Monday!  The lucky winner is:

Amy E. with her post:
Yay for giveaways! As you well know, I’m already a follower! Haha! I just found your Pinterest button and followed you there too….

Thanks Amy for following me here and on Pinterest!  Check the end of this post for a link to contact me!

As for Valentine’s… I am mailing my sweet Sis-in-law her card so I decided to make my nieces and nephew cards too!  They are blessed with 4 amazing children and I love them each so much!  Now on to some Valentine fun… these cards came together quick and easy … some washi tape, ribbon, glue and imagination brought it all together!

 So I punched holes to sew on these cards… and as you can see… there is faux stitching but not actual thread there because I punched to close to the card edge and the yarn I used was a little think making the holes a little bigger… maybe I could have sewn on them with thinner thread but this is supposed to be fun NOT tedious… so off with my markers I went… using by Sakura gel pens I used a different color on each card!

First is Jared’s… he is the oldest

 I added black ribbon to his and this was in the kit I got these in.  It looks heavy and manly so I thought his card was perfect for it!

Next is Madison’s card… and this is the card I will feature on ABC cards… I made the hearts with….

 washi tape!  Yep, I laid it on the side of the sewn on paper I wanted to throw away… about 4 strips in a square gave me more than enough to punch out these floating hearts… and here is the inside of this one!

 Next is Hayley’s card… she is a huge ball of energy in a cute little body… so I put hers on a action wobble by CTMH!  It is way bouncier than my homemade version and quite economical when I was ordering things anyway… SCORE!  The heart with the arrow through it is a heart Pammy made for me to use when we had our Valentiney craft day… I wrote Hayley’s name on it with my Zig marker and whallahh!  A fun interactive Valentine..

 And finally little Delaney is so sweet… so I told her on the outside…

 and the inside too!

Hope you enjoyed this Valentine smorgasboard…

Amy email me with your info here.

Blessings!

Kathi

More Saturday Inspiration ~ February!

February is the month of LOVE!  Are you ready?  If you have a sweetie or not Valentine’s are for everyone that is good in your life… 🙂

I recently had a fence installed and during the installation my cable and my backyard neighbor’s cable got cut… she was distraught by it and they fixed it the next morning… but I felt bad for her so I made her this cute Valentine from a kit CTMH sold in January!

The kit comes with prescored and cut boxes and I punched out this crooked square and added fancy edges… I stuck it with a glue dot and couldn’t get it straight… so she got it a bit crooked!  lol  The real problem was I had embossed under it UPSIDE DOWN from the way the box sits when finished… so I covered my boo boo with another sentiment and still made it turn out wonky… oh well.. I laughed because I enjoyed making it and I hope she enjoyed it and one of the owl cards I focused on this week.. in my posts 🙂

Midweek my bff Pam came over and she made this card for her honey!

 The pictures were taken by her and came out a bit shiney but she made this heart embellishment with rose paper for the heart and glitter on the arrow.  Washi tape to the top and bottom .. then inside is this!

a cute 3D pop up card that says LOVE!  It was made from the Artiste cart you get from CTMH!  So stinking cute!  I can’t wait for him to get it for Valentines and know she made it all herself 😉

As for me I have been piddling with the frame I started…

 Only the top is glued down… what do you think!???  This is a surprise I am hiding in the mess on my desk!  lol

 I fell in love with the doodle pop blue birds and wanted to give a nod to when we were brought together with the established heart… then I added some bling and a knot of red tulle thanks to Pammy!!!

Heads up on washi tape… it doesn’t want to stick to mod podge… so I had to add some quick dry adhesive paper glue and it stuck perfect!  Yay for having the right tools!

Are you in a Valentines mood yet?  I sure am… gonna craft today??? I sure am 😉

Hope you are finding inspiration in my posts… I sure am!  lol

If you have time check out this cute vid from Simon Says Stamps from youtube here for cute inexpensive Valentine card ideas 🙂

Kathi

Give Away Coming… Enter now!

Happy Valentines!

I have been wanting to do a give away for a while now.  And I think it is time to finalize it… I have one prize package for a card maker and one for a scrapbooker…   So what I thought I would do is ask YOU to tell me what you want to see.

Leave me a comment from today forward and on February 2, 2013 I will pick a winner.

To win you MUST be:

1. A follower of mine via email ~ it may be labeled something ebay business.. that IS me 🙂
2. Leave a comment about something you would like to see on my blog
3. Leave in your comment if you are a paper crafter in cards/scrapbooks or both
4. Living in the USA only please

That is it!

Thanks for taking a minute and leaving me a comment… no pics of the prizes but they will be from my own stash some of my fave things… depending on what your specialty is 🙂

Have a great January and be ready to win your own Valentine’s present.  Winner will win at least $20.00 of crafty goodness and be featured on my blog 🙂

As always with my giveaway current followers get 2 entries and new followers get 1 entry.  Follow me on Pinterest for another entry if you like.  I am found under Kathi Clower or just click the link on my blog 😉  Tell me in your comment that you follow me in Pinterest if you want credit for it!

Kathi AKA Gypsy Chik

Some Saturday Inspiration :)

Welcome… hope you are having a blessed weekend 🙂  We are still removing wallpaper from the kitchen but have managed to get the doorway closed off and painted over… looks like it was never there!  My honey rocks at home renovations 😉

I have been getting crafty in my studio and wanted to send you a little teaser about what’s on my workdesk!

Lots of Valentiney stuff 🙂

But here is my desk clean with a kit laid out ready for me to figure it all out!

I got the kit from CTMH consultant Wendy Coffman’s blog Stamping Rules here!

It makes this…. times 2 cuz I bought 2 kits to get the stamp set/kit too!

I don’t know if she still has any available as the stamp kit is in high demand and short supply but she is very helpful and will get if for you if she can 🙂  Check out the cards and holder I will be making!

Now for some real inspiration… here are some scrapbook layouts I found in a mag I have…

 I like this one for the creativing in it to have a big tree with a swing in hemp on it… so cool!

 This layout is fun but also has some really cool stitched clouds in the upper left corner… see the close up here….

 And this one is a fun idea for those large family photos and most of the journaling is in the title… again with the stitching around the page too…

Hope you like this segment and will come back for a dose of inspiration next time you need it!  Comments are coveted if you can make the time to give me feedback on what you like and don’t like… what inspires you?

Kathi