Full on Fall In North Carolina and LOTS of Progress to Share too !!

Do you do this where you live??  If you do did you remember??

I enjoyed an extra 1.5 hours of sleep this morning.. did you??? lol

I want to open this post with our drive yesterday… we went from Robbinsville, NC to Franklin, NC using the scenic (and scary to drive on) route so I could share some photos… I drove and my honey took LOTS of photos… so sit back and enjoy this show first and then I will share some quilty progress too!

 Our views as we left Robbinsville, North Carolina…

 And here we are going to the Wayah Road not from from our home going beside the Nantahala River… it is where LOTS of people will fish for rainbow trout and white water raft and kayak as well!

 This begins the end of our photo taking as the road got more windy and narrow.. but this is the Nantahala Lake!  It is made a lake by a man made dam that provides power as well to this area 🙂

 I hope you enjoyed the show like we did!
After all the beauty we saw yesterday I felt this was a cool meme too…

Mother Nature is full of surprises and she does have the best box of crayons for sure!!!

And Speaking of Crayons… I have some watercolor pencils I pulled out to use for the 1st time this past week!!!

 I finally figured out how I wanted to finish my borders on this Appalachian Delight quilt…

 Here is my piecing plan so I know what size units to make….

 In that photo 1 square = 2″  So this quilt top will finish a bit over 100″ square … PERFECT!!!!

Here is an example of the fabrics you will see used…

The burgandy red is the sashing…
The HST border is being produced as I make each block
The next border will have larger hst’s that have the solid olive green on one side and neutral strings on the opposite side….
The burgandy red and cream herringbone fabric will go around that and be the final binding and
A wide (7″) border of the goldenrod yellow will have an uber cool stencil design on it in blackberry thread big stitch style.

Can you tell I am excited about this quilt???  It will be hand quilted … so this progress… while being pieced on my vintage 301 Gloria… will be a slow stitched finish!!!

Last week I shared progress to the left of needle nanny you see at the top of the photo below…

 So I spent some time with this over the last week and got finished with what was marked in pink and marked MORE from my crazy looking stencil…

 Above in my “Path to a finish” picture I am showing how I have found is best to quilt this stencil and not get lost or have to break thread and start somewhere else… I am loving this design… and the pink I am using WILL come out in the end! lol  For those that are wondering… it is chalk plain chalk.

Here is a photo of my space and set up… I LOVE IT!!!

 The table to the right of my chair has casters added to it so it rolls so nice and smooth and is where I park my drink and all my quilting supplies and accessories.  The chair I sit in has arms and rollers on it as well.  The lamp is able to move easily… the other 2 lamps behind the frame I only use occasionally… but look how bright the light is with the ambient light and the lamp to the left of my chair using a daylight fluorescent bulb is usually good enough 🙂

Linking my hand quilting progress to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday gang of funloving slow stitchers HERE!  Between fixing a few things and helping my honey with a few household things… I will be making progress on this triangle pattern on my quilt!

I found this cool mini ironing board on facebook Marketplace this week and Friday we arranged to buy it for $8!!!  What a steal this vintage wood and metal hinged dual sided board is.  Probably for the 1950’s or 60’s too!!!

 So above is some heavier weight quilting cotton I had used as a backing on the whole cloth quilt I still have in progress… so I fashioned 2 covers and replaced the old hard batting there with 2 layers of new cotton/wool batting to use when I make bags or wallets.

 Yesterday we went to Franklin on our drive through the mountains and I picked up some needed elastic to redo the smaller board to make it fit better… excited to get that project in the books.

Friday I received these 2 pillow fronts hand quilted by my bestie Connie!!!!  Yay!!!

 I picked out some backing fabrics from my stash that would coordinate with the quilt we are using now and the quilt I am making… this fabric fit the bill…

 Here is the one my honey will use now with the pillow form in it….

 Here is the other pillow with the backing on it… and to the right you can see how I used those coordinating fabrics together to make an envelope backing 🙂

Here is the oatmeal fabric one on our bed this morning… I believe Connie bought both of the tops at “The Stencil Company”

 I soaked them in the sink in plain cold water for a few hours then washed them in cold water with some clothes for a good scrubbing in laundry detergent and cold water wash and rinse…. then dried them lightly in the dryer before fashioning them into pillows…

I washed them a second time once they were made into pillows in cool water with a cold water rinse and laundry detergent and some towels then needed washing this time… so they got a second wash and dried hard in the dryer this time and no marks remain that I can see 🙂  LOVE THEM!!!!

I am planning to make myself a wristlet wallet soon… so I have pulled fabric for that ….

 I found a great youtube tutorial for the wallet of my choice I can add the wristlet with donated hardward from my current wristlet wallet… and I bought a new phone case that now allows me to push all the buttons much easier than the leather one that was way past it’s usefulness did…  this photo is from eBay where I found this sweet swanky case for under $5 including free shipping and it came FAST too 😀

 My favorite stretchy bracelet with beads on it broke the other night… so I have been looking for elastic string to string it… I thought I had some but haven’t located it just yet! lol
So I found this one for $1.50 in Robbinsville yesterday at a Thrift Shop we enjoy going to every now and then. Right is a close up of it on my wrist… it is a very light pink.. 🙂

Well… it has come to an end now… time to cloase but as you can see I take my own advice and am truly finally Living a Life I love!!  Are you???

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Lots of Fun Ideas Bubbling Up!

First I want to open with a Happy Father’s Day to any Dad’s or Dad’s to be or Step Dad’s in the reading today!!!

I have lots of fun things to share in this post… first let me start with a great announcement!!!

I am 33% done with the quilting on my current hand quilting project… This will be linked over at Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday post too right HERE 😀

Here are a couple close up views showing all the different thread types I am using… 

 Yes, my thread stash is quite fun!!!

 And a view of my view and the quilt frame in full… I am working on the red row just up from the bottom of the frame presently …. ROW 5!!!

My progress slowed a bit this week as I watched vids and stitched learning how to make a divided caddy for my honey for his Father’s Day celebration 😀

He was a wonderful support for me in looking at things from a guy’s perspective as I raised my kids… and he is also the father of a son himself who is also grown… now that we are enjoying empty nesting though… I thought I should make him a bit of a Father’s Day something and this fabric yelled to be included….

 Train fabric… like the tracks we have running right beside our home… and like the trains he loves!!!

 The inside fabric I covered in vinyl to make it water resistant watching a video by Sara Lawson HERE…  I used Pellon MATTE vinyl I ordered via Walmart and picked up there for less 😀

 This divided caddy has ribbon I had in my stash for handles but otherwise the instructions came from a youtube video by SewSpire… HERE 😀

I will say that Sara’s vid is quite comprehensive and if you follow her channel you will be blessed to find out she has Sunday night and Tuesday evening live shows where she shares some of her bag making knowledge….

Andrea’s videa for the divided caddy was easy to watch  but harder to put into reality of sewing… I was happy to have boxy knowledge and sewing background to figure out some of the finer points she didn’t explain… I had watched A LOT of videos on different pouches and totes before I found this perfect one…. and as you see my honey ❤ loved it and put it to use right away in our bathroom holding his man stuff for shaving and whatnot!  SCORE!!!!

Still waiting to be done is his pillow top….

And layering that charity quilt and starting the machine quiting on it.  But my honey… who is still suffering with his sciatic nerve flare on the right side…  (thanks for those of you who have been inquiring and sending up happy thoughts and prayers for healing)… decided to do a bit of painting yesterday to finish the kitchen… he got most of it done but still has some cutting in to do before he had to quit for the day and rest his body.  So the counter I would layer on is full of painting and household stuff he took off the walls… lol!  So…. I have an excuse not to iron all that stuff and layer it up today anyway!!!

Have you heard of Jacquelynne Steves ???  She is a home decor and quilting super star and she is starting a 4 block BOM in August but you must sign up soon …

It will finish like this… however I plan to make the 4 blocks in the center (Only 1 block made per month with her FREE pattern if you join the BOM group) 

And instead of finishing her way … I will do the applique and embroidery and piecing with her guidelines… and finish with one of these kind of ideas maybe…
These ideas are for finishing a panel creatively… but this should be about the same size… we will see… I just don’t need a large wall hanging but a medium one 🙂

So wanna give it a go??? Come ask to join my closed group facebook group where we share all things quilty … hand or machine quilting / piecing / home decore… and general chat like this! 

Patchwork Friends 

We have the links there too to sign up for Jacquelynne’s QAL and will be sharing our progress there as well as there is a facebook group Jacquelynn runs and she shares her link when you sign up for the QAL 😀

Here is Shakespeare in the Park by Judy Martin … I have a book this is in and am planning this as the second quilt for our bed… I plan to do something more like the quilt on the left but the directions are for the quilt on the right… hmmm… will take a bit of mind bending to cut it out right !lol  We shall see how it turns out once I start with the leftover of my current quilting project 😉

And here is a swoon block renovation I LOVE <3!!!  I think this would be fun in our kitchen supersized a bit … and in cream and reds… lol with the blue sky still… I have some fun fabric for that!

I got my official hard copy of my Drivers License for North Carolina this week too… goood until 2026 😀  Yipee!!!!

 So until my next post … make time to Live a Life you Love!!!

And if you aren’t already a member… I hope to see your invitation come through Patchwork Friends facebook group by clicking that name above ❤

Quilty Pillow Talk

For about 6 months I have planned to remake the first quilted thing I did… a pillow that my honey has since slept with EVERY night! lol  I never knew it would become his lovey of sorts… So finally.. during a visit from my bestie Connie… I remade that pillow!

Here it is fresh out of the dryer… and snuggly approved!

So let’s now back up a bit… I was overwhelmed with how to make a good STURDY long lasting pillow… so I chose high quality fabrics and high quality thread for hand quilting and sewing the pillow together once quilted.

I also wanted to use the SAME pattern I had quilted on the original pillow….

you can see the center of the muslin sandwich my wonderful teacher gave me to show off my first stitches well… just wasn’t made for every day use 🙂  But back then who knew it would become a heirloom of sorts… my first quilted piece… the pillow was put together by my mom… and enjoyed over 3 years now by my honey.. so upgrade we did!!!

When Connie got settled in we chose fabric… I found a lightboard my daughter uses I decided to borrow for this job…. and I traced the pattern onto the chosen fabric with graphite…

 Then I made my quilt sandwich and pinned VERY WELL!!  I even used nicer fabric for my backing some vintage white fabric that should hold up to many washings in the future this time 🙂

Here are my first stitches and I focused throughout the day and a half it took me to stitch this 14″ square pattern onto my fabric sandwich to make it a wholecloth pillow top!

Although you can’t see the pattern very well I used a dark blue grey thread for the stitching… my honey is in love with this pattern! lol  He says it is just perfectly quilty for sleeping with! lol

Here are some shots of Connie and I stitching…

She came in town from Tennessee on Monday and decided to stay beach side a couple nights and really treat herself… so beach side she stitched on her granddaughters snuggle quilt.  Her granddaughter is 10 I think and picked out lots of fabrics used in this quilt as well as colored the blocks in the quilt… it is really looking good and I am sorry I didn’t get a full shot to share with all of you!  But it has a very neat story…

We endured the cooler temperatures as much of the country endured deep freezes and snow by quilting !!! lol

So now it was time for Connie to teach me how to make the top into a pillow!

First I marked with a pen and scissor cut along that line just the bottom of the quilt sandwich… the BACKING side is cut to your specific pillow form size plus seam allowances… my pillow form has been washed and was now 15″ square so I cut mine to 16″ giving me about 15 1/2″ finished pillow.

Then pin those layers together… this was a great opportunity to use the new pins Connie just gave me not too long ago 🙂  We enjoyed using them! …

I made the back of my pillow a envelope style close that was double thickness for durability and used Best Press on the crease to help it not buckle there with washing… it washed well and no future ironing will need to be done I think….

Hope you have enjoyed this Quilty Pillow Talk post 🙂

Sorry I haven’t been more bloggy but get ready for a busy week on my blog… I have much still to share and going back to the circles on the Byrum Family Quilt and I have solidified future projects and some order there… so I have lots going on… Do you Follow Me???  Now is a great time to follow me as I have a finish and some totally fab projects in the horizon if you enjoy my style!

Also,  don’t forget my LINKY PARTY!!!

Starts Friday Morning EST and goes til Sunday at Midnight… Simply write a blog post about your accomplishments and goals for the upcoming busy month of December… and link to my LAUNDRY LIST LINKY PARTY!!!

Friday is called Black Friday here in the USA… so I will be hosting a special giveaway to anyone that links on Friday by Midnight EST 🙂  YIPPEEE!!!!  Then there will be linky loot available to all that link over the weekend too!!!  WHOOOOOP!

So come on and link up next weekend… plan ahead and have your post… with LOTS of pics please!!!!… to my LInky Party… and don’t forget to get inspired reading others posts & leaving bloggy love!… I always leave this one weekend a month GUNG HO for progress!!!

Have a blessed Slow Sunday Stitching… I am linking this post up just with Kathy as well.. as my Sunday will be slow stitching circles… I am currently 50% done with the border and need to finish it and get it bound and washed !!!!

May you find Joy in your Stitches today 🙂