Blessed Memorial Weekend Y’all ~ and a thumble finger cot step by step tutorial!

As this weeks start… it is a solemn long weekend here in the USA… It is a time to remember those that have lost their lives to let us have freedom in America.  So sad it has had to be this way but it is nice to have a national holiday to slow down and remember all that has been lost to give us a democracy.

As I have been pondering this… I have been quilting and also been very busy with other things around the house… so I didn’t think I got that much quilting done to share today… but I HAVE!!!!
I am linking my handquilting progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday … come see what others are stitching up too and just follow This LiNK!!!

 I finished 5 set in triangle areas with heart motifs like above.  And below you can see more than 1.

 And I got the butterfly corner motif done too!!!

Now I am ready to roll the quilt a bit…

 And I rolled it… LOVING THE TEXTURE this quilting gives the solid burgandy fabric 😀

 Here it is all rolled now!  I just needed it rolled just a bit to do some stitching in the ditch in each block…

Any suggestions on how to quilt the blocks?  I am still batting around several ideas… lol!  I am just sooo in love with the quilt and the quilting thus far… so happy to have these stencils from my bestie too!!!

I have lost about 17 pounds recently… I have been very focused on this topic to help me and my knees which have debilitating arthritis presently.. but until I lose another 20 pounds or so no one will replace them… so I am staying fervently on the trail of weight loss!

 I am happy to see photos of my self with all this weight gone from me … and excited to see what 20 more pounds will bring 🙂

that close up above was cropped from this photo below.. on the swing in my happy place in our back yard overlooking our pond!

 Here is the pond and the grist mill/water wheel…

 And here is a great big fish swimming in our pond… this fish watches over the baby fish that swim in this area 😀  Can you see the fish??

We have rainbow trout, bass, and crappie… now sure what breed this one is but it likes to swim near the top and swim slowly too! 🙂

Also this week I got a much awaited for plaque for my sewing room with this years theme on it… Hand painted by an Etsy artisan in California…

 Here it is on my main wall you see as you enter the sewing room….

 and here is a closeup of my fave area of the wall…

Do you collect corks?  I love my ampersand cork collection spot!  Lots of crafts in the future will come from these I do believe… and I have FUN collecting them too:D lol!

My honey was VERY busy this week… aside from overworking and getting sciatic pains he drilled the inner divots out of my walking foot making it an open walking foot now!!!

 And he installed our new dishwasher … the appliances were mainly old in the house when we moved in so they all got replaced with stainless but the dishwasher which was new but white… so now the dishwasher matches the rest of the appliances 🙂  And we LOVE it!

 Last week I offered a tutorial on how to make a thumble finger cot … here is the tutorial I made up in Florida but it is exactly as I do it today… in fact I still have my original roll of electrical tape.. it may cost about $5 at a home improvement store but it is well worth it I think!

The only supply you need is white electrical tape.. I do prefer this Scotch brand and some sharp scissors… I use my thread cutting scissors and it doesn’t dull them.

The first photo shows the finger cot on my thumb and the brand of tape I use.  Then cut one piece of tape about 3-4″ long and another piece of tape a couple inches longer.

Cut the shorter piece in half lengthwise and wrap the other piece over itself until it makes a thick 3/8″ or more narrow roll (this is the 3rd photo)

 Now take that rolled up tape and place it on the sticky side of one of the skinny pieces of tape.

Put this on your thumb where you believe you push the needle most often… put the second piece below that but overlapping it … then custom fit it to your thumb to the pieces overlap…

You can take it off when you are done with a sewing session and put it back on the same way just keeping it all one piece now…  Works like a charm 🙂

Happy stitching and don’t forget in this world to …

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I have been FEARLESS this week!!!

Happy Sunday Y’all!!!  and I have been fearless since cleaning and organizing my sewing room!!!

In the meantime cleaning out some clutter taking up room in my brain too! (lol)…. I went into high speed piecing on the blue quilt… I was drawn to this project large a huge magnet was attached pulling me awake early every morning and working on and off on it though out the day… THIS IS NOT LIKE ME! lol  Then I went to Kathy’s Quilts to see what she was talking about and this is her topic today…

Please MAKE THE TIME to read her post… and P. S. >>> It is NOT political in any way… a nice rest from that for a minute at least!  Go HERE to read her post… then come back and read what I had planned to write before this took precedence 🙂 hahaha

So now I can fearlessly I have had an amazingly busy and productive week… I shared some things in my last post that are already being appreciated…

This was a hit on facebook!  One girl even suggested Daisy as the quilter 🙂 lol

The hand quilting is happening when I take a break from piecing the blue quilt… I am about half around the shadowing of the flowers 🙂

I did finish all 64 blocks early Friday morning and snagged this shot on our kitchen table…

Well facebook enjoyed my doily almost as much as my block production… lol!  

Now here they are laid out waiting for my honey to rouse for the day! hehe

A few adjustments were made in an effort to even out reds yet not have any duplicates in the diamonds or beyond 🙂

And I must say my Gloria (301a) only required maintenance 1 time during construction of this quilt and it was soon after I started webbing the top together… I changed the needle with the bobbin and the new one must have been bent or misshappen somehow… as then Gloria refused to stitch with each revolution fast or slow!  My honey came to the rescue when I was thought out of what could it be that she didn’t like… he replaced the needle with a NEW one… from the same pack as that was all I had on hand… and she didn’t quit stitching properly til the sections were all sewn together..

A great example of the coolness of this quilt is the blue and black paisly square the yellow/orange arrow is pointing to was sent to me by a dear friend… and the blue and white plaid block the pink/fuscia arrow is pointing to is one from my grandmother’s stash 🙂  I love that!!!  This quilt is filled with memories in the form of fabric.. I can’t wait to sleep under all the love that is going into this one!!!

While I am stitching away in the sewing room using my design wall to hold block parts and sewing away on Gloria… my honey and Daisy got in LOTS of snuggle time! lol

I love the shirt he is wearing above.. it is all patchwork 🙂  He made me crop his face out though! lol

I also received a goodie in the mail… a secret present I had ordered for a friend abroad… and this cool walking foot!

It has metal feed dogs instead of plastic like the newer ones.. I have always used a zig zagging machine to attach my binding but the next few quilts will do okay on my 301 with this cool walking foot I think… I emailed a pic of it to Bonnie Hunter last week with a note and she agreed the $12 including shipping I paid for it was a Bargain Bin price for this beauty!  Bonnie recommended this in a recent quilt cam… so I looked and was gonna buy another I found for $20 with ship… but lost track of the end of the auction.. this one was buy it now .. so I did! lol

Finally yesterday I finished the “center” of this top to this point…. 

 And I had a hand quilting plan that included a white outer border….

 But on the bed it was already a generous quilt…

I believe once markings and a good wash are done after a quilt is bound and ready for that step a nice dry in the dryer is in order…

I am using 80/20 cotton/wool batting in this quilt… I want some wrinkly puffiness only this batting will give me.

So the quilt that was languishing on the frame got removed after I woke this morning and in under 3 hours I had this one loaded…

 Then I gathered all I could think I would need for this… so far I have used all Aurifil thread… I will be able to say that also when I am done here as I have only Aurifil 28/2 wt thread and some white DMC Perle Cotton for the occasional design I will be adding!

 So you see… FEARLESS describes my week…

And my sewing room is back to a baseline clean space and my fabric chest is nice and tidy… I still have some projects to complete on the design wall but that is a good thing… gives me more to ponder than political things.. lol!

MOSTLY THIS QUILT NEEDS A NAME… any suggestions would be most welcomed!!!  A fun prize you help me choose from my fun fabric chest if you post your response and I use it too!

Have a blessed week y’all!  And made sure to make time to …