Giddy with Progress this Week!

Ya’ll I couldn’t come up with a better label for this week’s post… I am simply GIDDY with the progress I have made around here since last Sunday’s post!

And I have also continued to give thanks for all the good in my life at this moment…

How about you?

Last week I had sooo much happening I didn’t share that I got 2 new little cutting mats.  But I did share this project I was interested in…

 Made possible by my friend Jannessa who gifted me this Winterlude fabric and pattern… but if you recall I shared how my bar in the kitchen needed a longer and skinnier table runner so I used their blocks and made up a different plan…

 First…
I decided the center would be the blue blocks with vanilla polkadotted center spots…

Now on the left or right you can see the ruby Olfa rotary cutter I won along with the pink floss and true blue Olfa cutting mats!  What better way to give them a test run but with this project!!!!

I used Julius for the piecing of the 3″ finished blocks…

 And soon I had the 12 center blocks done…

 Low time to add the outer triangles for the square in a square like the pattern called for 😀

 Soon that was done and sewn into a long strip and I cut red and green from this same Winterlude line to make all the little squares around the outside of the blue ones…

 Like this…

 Soon it was ready to get the float border done and then add these 42 squares… all have the cream portions for centers.

 Finally I got it ALL pieced this morning …

 And here is a close up of the right side of the table runner….

I love it!  Jannessa is going to fmq the center and I will add organic straight lines and a flange binding I will try to manage on my own by machine 100%!!!!!  Oh my!!! I have never done this binding… Jannessa has shared her favorite tutorial on this topic…

DO YOU HAVE A FAVE PIPED / Flange BINDING????  

Please tell me how to find it in the comments below so I can be ready!  

I have also been making stellar progress on my Swoon hand quilting…

Here I had finished the first swoon block and was working on the sashing where we had marked a medallion but it was so light it needed a re-marking… so I did!

 Soon that was done and I outlined each segment of the top of the second swoon and prepared it for the big stitch filling in…

 Finally … with all this cold weather that is way colder than usual… by Thursday morning as it was teens outside when I woke to quilt… I turned on the fireplace and enjoyed a bit of a fire to keep me warm… mmmmm

 And I made it to halfway that morning filling in the second swoon block top…

 Soon I was to the second sashing … after the second swoon and before the 3rd…

 I love how we decided to quilt these medallions … they are really gonna show off the negative space on this quilt when Connie has it displayed on her bed!!!

Finally to the 3rd Swoon top block…

 Morning… nooon… and night I hand quilt on this frame…. I really enjoy it too.. it IS my sanity…

 After going around each section with regular hand quilting thread…

 I fill in the lines about 1″ apart with big 12 wt thread… looks sew nice on these busy blocks!

 And this is where I am this morning… working on these 2 pinwheels and the outer border as well as edge basting to be done!!!

 I am linking this wonderful progress to Kathy’s Quilts HERE <<<< Go see what others are linking and check out Kathy's finish this week… ALL by hand instead of machine pieced like mine are!!!

And our Christmas cactus started to bloom this week… sew many blooms!!! ❤

 I was lamenting to Connie about being stuck on a secret project I am working on for a special Christmas something for someone …
I sent her the fabrics on the left along with some other fun things I had collected for her since our last meeting… and she is now sending me the gorgeous Hexi Flowers on the right!!!!  SCORE!!!!

Then yesterday Jannessa came over and remembered her wall hanging… so my honey snapped this shot for us…

 I am definitely Thankful, Grateful & Blessed to have her and Connie in my life.. as well as my honey of course! lol

We are almost done with our backpack purses we have been working on .  I think she is using hers herself and I am sending the one on the left ot my daughter….  it has been an arduous but interesting bag to make! lol

I let sweet Cleopatra (Singer 319w) do this heavy duty job… Jannessa used a Singer 301 for hers 🙂

How has your week been?  

My honey has mulched and vacuumed the yard again this week…The cold encouraged leaf dropping from several of our trees…along with new growth!  Hoping they hibernate well and re-bloom next year okay!!!  We also experienced difficulties with the inflow and outflow with the freezes affecting the pond … so my honey worked on that too.

Our car is running as it should and drives great since getting new front tie rods put in.  So with 2 trips to Asheville under our belt this month.. I sure hope nothing else happens 😀

Have a blessed week!

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Busy November….

Wow this month is non stop so far y’all!

My honey made some yummy spaghetti this past week… and last night I heated up some leftovers… even BETTER!!!!

Today is our Molly’s birthday day 17 months ago…

I made this collage… she spent Friday getting groomed while we ran errands around Asheville!  She had more fun though 😀

My great friend Jannessa keeps her when she is groomed and Jannessa has a white poodle named Max that is Molly’s good friend too… they love to play and nap together 😀  We are definitely blessed!

As we were leaving… her husband blessed us by sharing some home laid eggs from his chickens too!

I snapped this shot of our back yard…

 From “across the pond”! lol

And here is just a small portion of all the limbs we picked up using our golf cart to haul them away!  It has been VERY windy and cool here in the mountains of North Carolina!!!  But I am loving it and so is my honey 😀

Last Sunday I asked you all for pattern suggestions for a table runner / placemat we will use in our kitchen from these fabrics Jannessa gifted to me…

 Many of you liked the pattern that came with the fabric… a honey bun and some yardage enough for this pattern.  So I designed something similar that would meet our longer length and skinnier width requirements…

I had fun designing it… and have the colors already picked out in my head 🙂  This will be fun… I hope to start on the piecing this week!

I will also be making Jannessa some place mats that are a bit smaller than the traditional placemat and more the size of some I made when we lived in Florida… you will enjoy seeing those come about too I bet…

But for my HQAL friends and for my Slow Sunday Stitching friends… I finally have lots to show this week!

There are 4 rows of swoon blocks on this quilt and I am on the top of the 3rd row!!!

Here I am just starting the outline stitching with regular 28wt Aurifil thread outlining each swoon section that will then get big stitch quilt with Aurifil 12 wt…

 Here is a photo showing the stabilizing stitching and the big stitching all done…

 Now I am on to the medallion bottom part as I move later on to the 2nd swoon top in this row 😀

 While in Asheville Friday… and again last night…

I worked on blanket stitching by hand the crochet thread around a block for my crochet quilt in the slow making progress.  This is my long term handie project… all by hand once the squares are closed and the fabric is the same on both sides 😀

Above you can see we were listening to some music, enjoying a soda and stitching as we chatted 😀

Earlier this week I was watching one of my faves on a facebook live chat and she posted this question….

 So my challenge this week … as we enter the busy holiday time is to take a breath and a few minutes…
 Ponder this question… what are your answers to 5 things you are most thankful for?

Write them down and keep them on the mirror or by your work station… remember what keeps you grounded 😀

I want to shout out to Kathy’s Quilts for the Sunday Slow Stitching link up HERE <<<  Come see what all the chatting is about this week including all of Kathy's finished and starting Gail Pan designs!

I also definitely wanna say hello to my slow stitching sisters in the HQAL group too >>>>

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. 

We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  

If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Bella, Daisy and Connie

Come play along with a link up every 3 weeks … contact Kathy if you are interested … she is the first linker in the list of names 😀

Our colors in the mountains aren’t as brilliant as they were last year because we lacked rain at the end of the summer and into the fall… we are caught up on rain now I think… but that lack of rain made us miss out of leaf looking as we drove to run errands and such.

I hope you each have a great week… I am thinking of 2 of my sons’ having birthdays this weekend <<<  One is 29 and one is 25… both are settled and happy so sew am I for them !!!

Showing off my Sewing Room Decor and Rolling the Frame!

Well this has been a BUSY week around our home… getting ready for some freezing weather was quite an undertaking for sure!  And I have been sewing on a secret project commissioned to me by a very good friend… using my Cleopatra for the job of appliqueing letters and fashioning the intended banner… more to show when it has been sent off and received by my friend 😉

I started the week, however, slow stitching quite a bit on the Swoon quilt and machine stitching this rooster to the background fabric…

I don’t know if you can tell but I carefully mitered each corner… I will machine quilt the rooster as there are sooo many seams and fabric bits on the back side of this lovingly english paper pieced rooster… it is a pattern by Violet Craft… but I and my bestie who pieced it by hand do NOT recommend her EPP patterns as they are quite a challenge!  But now it is done so I thought I better get on with finishing it… it will find a home in our home to be displayed year round as yet another dual effort of Connie and me 🙂

The rooster now measures 28 1/2″ square & I still need to trim out the black fabric from the strips I appliqued it on to the rooster with… so no shadowing of the black through those neutrals happens!  That will be tediously slow and may be part of my hand work today!

Then before I could do anything else… my honey decided it was time to decorate my room with me!  Yahoo I said and stopped all my other efforts to focus on what would go where ….

My honey has had the honor to work with some of Nashville, Tennessee’s finest decorators so his knowledge in this area is VAST!!!  

Here is how it turned out… 

the left wall as you walk in the room …. over the buffet

to the right of that… or what you see from the doorway directly

to the right of that… as you look out by the pond & around my 301 Julius

finally the last wall in the room is my design wall and up high I can’t reach well so he added my banner there!

I don’t know if my captions made sense but here is a panoramic view of my room before decorating to help you see where all things are now…

I got my hair trimmed on Friday… and was I GLAD!!!!  I’ll share a selfie I took… 

 And on Saturday I rolled the frame… see how foggy it was over the pond through the windows that morning???

 Here is a close up of the quilting I worked on this morning…

 I am linking all this hand stitching and other hand work I shared this week being glad God gifted me with 2 hands that are ambidextrously useful… to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching Crew HERE .  Click on the link to open a new tab on your device to see what everyone else is linking up too!!!!

>>> Finally I need some input from y’all! <<<

My best girlfriend Jannessa gifted me this honeybun & yardage – fabric kit by Moda called “Winterlude”.

 It comes with the above pattern… or I could create my own!  Do you like one of these other options???  Or do you like the original???
I like both but this would make a table runner 18″ x 60″ for our kitchen & 2 smaller sized placemats as a gift for Jannessa.
The one on the right seems fun for this but I can’t figure out how to make those flatter than 45 degree zig zags… hmmmm

 The pattern is in this PDF only version of a book published in 2009 and now out of print….

Here is a photo of the book called “On the Run”  by Heather Moulder Peterson.  Anyone own this book and wanna sell it???  Or have you heard of this talented designer before and know how easy to follow her patterns are???

I would love to own the book over a PDF that is harder for me to use in the sewing room without LOTS of printing!!!

And that wraps up my week.  Hope you are having a great weekend and having tolerable weather no matter where in this world you live… I am enjoying our cold weather for sure!!!  It is 35 degrees F at this writing and supposed to top out at 55 later this afternoon.

Until next Sunday… I may have a bag completed (we worked on it yesterday and got about 1/3 done) as a Christmas present for my daughter. 

I certainly hope you leave feedback on your thoughts on this post if you read to this point 🙂  Have a good week ahead and hope you turned your clocks back an hour too (if you live where Daylight Savings Time is a thing! lol)