A busy and festive time of year !

As December deepens and the end of 2018 looms closer each day I feel an urgency to complete a few things that have been on my “to do list” through the year and just haven’t gotten done for one reason or another… do you do this … feel like that???   So today I am focusing on slowing it down… and even though it is gloomy and cold outside I am going to follow a good friends advice…

That friend also requested to send me a parcel and start a penpal relationship of sorts 🙂  I said yes!

She lives in Tasmania, Australia and travels avidly as well as gardens and sews as well.  She sent me this lovely package of fabrics and a rain hat and a button and a card of interesting things from her area down under.  I am now curating a package for her in return… this is SO FUN!!!  I love enhancing friendships and learning more about others cultures and ways of being as well 😀

At the start of the week I was very focused on bringing Cleo into the fold of my machines.  I shared the waiting for her with you last week…

 And here is my first photo of her… before her paint got touched up and she got a nice once over and polish by my honey….

Cleo is short for Cleopatra… such a dramatic name… and one I want to research more but Cleo she is for certain!   I went onto Singer’s website and found the W beginning serial #’s… and there she was… one of 1.5 million made in 1954.  I also read there were 1500 workers in this Connecticut plant of Singer’s … it was originally a Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine making plant!  Sew interesting!!! 

My honey rewired her as she had had that done wrong… changed the pedal to one I requested … cleaned off excess oil and oiled places he found that had been missed and greased the cam stack she has in place… ooooh … she is soo awesome!!!  We got some automotive paint in gloss black and he touched up a few boo boo spots too!!!  I am soooo blessed y’all!!!!

Here is her first photo with her in her new dress… a trapezoid Singer case…

 And a view of her top half and her excellent decals…  the decals led me to naming her too ❤

 And because she is a 3/4 machine she is a few inches short of fitting.. so my honey took some wood and make a little shelf in there… it is the perfect place to store her bobbins and a pin cushion 🙂

 I rearranged my sewing room as well before she was brought in… my honey helped me as he is really the decorating sense between us… and I am slowly moving some decor on the walls around as well…

And here is a photo I plan to hang in the blank spot over Cleo….  the 2 that got together to surprise me with this smooth stitching machine !!!! 

Here is the back of the finished wall quilt I machine quilted on Zena as her final act of service for me.

She is now stored safely in a closet of our home waiting for her next purpose in life… helping my daughter learn to create when she is ready!!!

The binding is the diagonal striped fabric I shared a swatch of  last week.  It came one day and this little quilt was hanging the next day!  Here is the photo of it hanging behind our little Christmas tree 🙂

 And a few photos of our Christmas tree…

 And a final side photo to show off the trapuntoed quilting I did on the wall hanging.

 Now before I move on… let me tell you… if you ever get a chance to sew on a Singer 319w… DO IT!  This is the most powerful yet gentle and even keeled sewing machine I have ever stitched on!!!  One stitch as a time or fast and furious… she can do it all!  Thick or thin… I love it ❤

Her next job will be to make my honey a new wallet as the wallet I made him a few weeks back is going somewhere else to be re-homed… he requested a few revisions for his personal taste… so I will accommodate those requests on my new Christmas present Cleo!!!

We added some new ornaments to our stash of Christmas displayed ornaments this year… the star at the top is new as well!

We got a Santa glass blown ornament with glitter accents from the year we got together…

And if you look to the bottom right of Santa you will see a small daisy painted ornament.  There are 6 of these in the set and these are in memory of my honey’s sister who died of heart problems too early in her life.. she holds a dear place in his heart and memories!  So these commemorate her 🙂

Finally are my 2 favorite shots… lights on … and lights off on the right… I love Christmas twinkle lights for sure!!! ❤

I got several rounds of fabric in this past week as well… here is some fabric for replenishing my Christmas stash a bit…

 All of that is vintage and it is various designers before designing fabric was trendy.  Here is a photo of things I want to make this month before Christmas….

And here is my first focused work…

 And once they are sewn and turned right side out with different threads and ribbons pulled to go along side this little wall hanging tree creation…

 Buttons pulled from my stash to adorn it…

 Stuffing each triangle is a slow and steady process… I then hand sewed all the openings closed…

 And then hand sewed all the junctions together where the triangles meet….

Now I am to sewing the buttons on over the junctions… and this is my hand sewing focus today… so I am linking this slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching HERE!  Kathy is quilting on a many year old ufo with great pleasure today!  She and her grand dog are 😀  Go check out her blog post and other linkers posts too!!!

I have made some other slow stitching progress earlier this week but due to lots of things the end of the week no slow stitching on the quilt Stars Among Us has happened… Monday starts a new week though 😀

Here is a close up of my progress this week… I went from the border to the mid point of this row…

 Meanwhile… our pup Molly went from this….

 To THIS!!!!

 In one day!!!!  Tomorrow she will celebrate 6 months old too !!!

 I have a pair on gingher pinking shears up for sale… they are like new and are $25 to include shipping in the USA.. nothing wrong with them as you see the cutting in the photo 🙂

I acquired these things this week…

 The fabric, Best Press, and small rotary blades were a great sale Craftsy was having and I ordered through my friend Karen’s affiliate link you can find at the bottom of THIS blog post.

Here is a close up of the 40 different fat quarters I picked up for about $33 all together

 They fill gaps in my stash just right too… the top one is fun prints and the bottom one is tone on tones 🙂

And our Christmas cactus we picked up earlier in the week is doing GREAT!!  It gets good sun in the sewing room window 🙂

 I got this new shirt… Mountain Mama… and a long sleeved winter shirt too

 And a hair cut myself as well!!!

So it has definitely been a BUSY week at Daisy Meadows 🙂

How about you… have you been busy this week and if you have is it because it is December and you are tying up loose ends or because you have just been busy  or has it been holiday related???!!!  Inquiring minds want to know!!! lol

For now I wish you a Happy Holiday season and a very Merry Christmas to come.  Thanks for visiting ❤

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Slow and Loving Stitches Here!!!

Happy Sunday Y’all!!!

 This week I have had a very busy week to be slow stitching… but I find the beginning of a project busy as I gather supplies and make final design decisions on the hand quilting…  So I have been to the beach a few times!

We also were celebrating here more this week… my honey celebrated his birthday this week!  This was a pic I posted on facebook 🙂

 My bestie Connie took a couple of good shots of us when she was here… nice to have an ocean background as that is our fave place of late!

There is NOTHING to me besides hand quilting that equals beach visits for therapy of the soul!!!

Speaking of stitching let me show you the progress I have made slow stitching on this beauty Amethyst Stars…

I shared this planned stencil to use on the outer border…

 Here is where I marked it with Pounce Chalk… and enhanced those markings as I went along with a chalk pen I have…

 Here is the right side stitched up…

 Here is the joined area… this is a directional stencil… so because of that at the center of the sides, top and bottom I have a “join” area to deal with… which I prefer actually so it is all good…

 And here is that joined area stitched and cleaned and dry 😀

 Here is a fun photo I caught in the early morning one day this week too…

 Thought you would enjoy that shot! I love catching the stitching in different light.

Here is the inner border in the design I had planned… and argyl-esque look with 2 colors of perle cotton in use here…

Here is a shot of the “Argyling” I did… it looks oh so cool in real life.. I hope that is captured in these photos taken with my iPhone though! lol

Now I have rolled the quilt yet again (yep that is twice in a week!!!) and have ordered some stencils… I get stencils from 2 different places… The Stencil Company and Quilting Stencils International.  Both can be google searched and ship in the USA as well as overseas for a price I think!  I had exhausted the fun charm square sized stencils from the first place so I checked out the second place… I am now patiently… NOT… waiting for my stencils to arrive via mail.

I do wish there were local hand quilting outlets… I live 1 hour from a big city but there is no hand quilting shops near me … so most of my shopping is done online.  So I wait PATIENTLY! lol

As I wait I am using the stencils I had in my stash/or had ordered from the first mentioned place anticipating my need for charm sized stencil designs.  In this shot you can see my markings from a stencil to the far right charm square…

 And in this shot you can see that charm square is now stitched … as are the 3 stars …

So how many different threads am I using on this quilt all together you may wonder??! hahaha… let me share this shot with you then…

Yep, I am using Aurifil 28/2, YLI 40/3, Valdani 12 wt perle I get from the Rusty Crow online shop, and DMC 12 wt perle cotton too!!!  Each different brand has it’s own texture though so just like using lots of fabrics can make a quilt scrappy.. using lots of different types of threads can make it more scrappy in it’s finish too… I only bought a couple of these for this quilt… the rest if from stash!  I LOVE THREAD!!! lol

And here is my Pounce marking pad…

It comes in white, blue and pink … there is a good video on YouTube by Leah Day showing how to properly use a pounce marker… there is a definite learning curve to this way of marking… and when you “charge ” it to use you have to whack it against something pretty firmly and it makes a startling noise to others around who may not be expecting it! lol  So if you need a quiet environment or quilt with others in the room work out a communication for when you are charging your pad to mark is my advice 😀

I have a Facebook group that I started several years ago… it hums along usually but of late has been languishing… so I am trying to resuscitate it…

 Here is the group name and the Facebook header I just put up this morning 🙂  I have been so preoccupied with my honey and his health and my own health concerns… I am just getting back to keeping up with things I enjoy like this Facebook group ❤  If you are interested in quilty talk and sharing in a small group setting… as to join in this group if you like!  Would love to get to know you each better… if you aren't already in my group that is.

Also to add to my productivity this week I straightened my sewing room quite a bit…

 The top shot is my 401a (on the left) ~ Zena, and my 301a ~ Gloria ready for action… you can see my design wall and ironing surface there too… then below to the left is my cutting surface and it is MUCH tidier.

My bestie gave me that cool wood ruler organizer/holder over a month ago… I finally made a space for it and put a note she left me LAST summer on it along with my small cutting mat and my most commonly used rulers 🙂

To the bottom right is a collage I made of my next project coming up to piece and thus the reason my sewing room needed this tidy.  I now have all the major cuts made to this Christmas wall hanging… you can see the red and green and white with grey fabrics I am using… this will be a wall hanging for the foyer when the season arrives I am hoping!  While I was ordering the white/grey fabric during a clearance sale online… I found some remnant pieces I felt needed to be added to my existing stash to enhance it! lol  They will be used on a future quilt I am planning also!

Here is a closer up shot of my 401a… Zena… with the cool pin cushion my bestie gifted me for my birthday… I sent it to the lady on etsy that fashioned it from vintage stuff … and filled it at my request with walnut shells!  It is weighty and useful… I LOVE LOVE LOVE it ❤

Here is a cool way to use art to decorate and say something meaningful too that I found on Pinterest I think.  I sent it to my daughter but it has spoken to me also…

 I haven’t heard from my daughter since the 4th of July (my birthday) .. hoping all is well with her and helping her to see a silver lining if life isn’t working out as she thought it might!

For now I encourage you to each …

Stitch and enjoy… come over to Kathy’s Quilts to see what others are slow stitching this week too… that is where I will be posting this too!!   HERE is a direct link to make it easy for ya! 🙂  She has a fun interpretation of this too… this is just mine because it has the ocean in it!!!💕

Y’all … there is PLENTY of meanness in our world of late… please be the change in your area… I will be in mine by showing my love to others… won’t you try it too?!!!  

Have a blessed Sunday and a great upcoming week and grab the opportunity to make a difference around you!

…And after this unplanned 3 month blogging hiatus…

I have a catch up post to share with you all… I have been thinking of all my regular readers 🙂

First I want to dedicate this post to my good friend who is now in heaven… Kathy Porter.. she passed in January from ovarian cancer… her death was not sudden but did hit me hard… she was a very sweet quilting and blogging friend of mine.  If you knew her please pray for her family she left behind like I have been !!!

Over the Christmas season I found this photo on Facebook .. my grandmother (will be 99 years young this September!!!) with my brother and his family 🙂  It is now on my refrigerator! lol

Now let’s get into some quilty business… I worked very hard all of November and December and on January 4 I finally finished so we could sleep under what is now known as “Chain of Diamonds” quilt…

 And here it is on our bed 🙂

I designed this myself but was inspired by this quilt called Emily’s Wedding Quilt found in a Fons and Porter magazine/website 🙂

We have since added a quilt I made with my bestie Connie a few summers ago from a book she had.  It lived as a throw and backdrop for featherweights for those years… and now it will be for Daisy to sleep under!!! lol

Yahoo 🙂   These are BOTH hand quilted btw … I am so happy to see these both going to good use now in our daily life!  A fresh start for sure!!!

Soon after finishing these I decided to start sewing my stash up into quilts for 2 twin beds we have in our 2 guest rooms… this summer we are expecting friends and family to come for visits and I wanted real quilts on the beds … but my poor hands were worn out from Chain of Diamonds quick quilting … so my honey sat me down and had a chat with me and it was decided that these 2 quilts would be machine quilted on my newly fixed up 401a Singer from 1952 😀  WOW honey thanks for getting her back into running condition … mending got done and quilting to do after that… all my piecing was done on Gloria my 301a from 1956… she is an excellent straight stitcher…

You see to the right of this machine is my ironing station… and to the left is my design wall… so it all works soooo nicely… she sits in a Queen Anne style #40 Cabinet… and is quite at home here 🙂

Hopefully this will give you a better idea….

Notice also the “k” thread spool and bobbin holder my honey made and gave to me over Christmas 🙂

So to work I got making half square triangles from a Missouri Star Quilt pattern I watched on youtube called a Herringbone Quilt…

I used some 10″ batik squares and creamy light yardarge I found in my stash…

 and made fresh friends with Zena to machine quilt this using a vintage walking foot I found

that Bonnie Hunter had recommended as a better choice for these vintage machines in a quilt cam session I watched…

And this is how it turned out!!!

Hope you can see the machine quilting on this one… I followed the zig zagging of the quilt overall and love how it finished … it is about 76 x 100″ done 🙂  A nice LARGE twin just as desired!

Just needed 1 more quilt and I had this panel I wanted to incorporate in a design…

then I found THIS blog post with a free pattern on it… I used a jelly roll instead of 3 1/2″ strips from yardage… and made mine scrappy instead of color blocked as they did in this shot of theirs…

This is also a Wedding Quilt! lol  I don’t know if I have attraction unknown to that or what!  But again, I was inspired and used some of their directions but I cut and pasted the pattern to make it my own…

I did take a few more pics of this one along the way… it went from this with 1 jelly roll I bought on sale and yardage I had in my stash…  (the center fabrics came from Connie though! lol)

To this fun flimsy!!!

And here is the Wavy Sea Turtle Quilt getting quilted on Zena my 401a…

To make this finished quilt about 74 x 90″ when done…

 and a close up so you can see the quilting better 😉

So I am finally up to February.. and I am working on an all new project… did a bit more mending of stuff that needed mending while Zena was being so agreeable… you see before my honey fixed her she was breaking thread for no reason no matter what he or I did! lol  I guess she just needed a time out or something.. I actually bought a Singer 347 for my zig zagging needs but it just wasn’t heavy duty enough… so after the holiday was over my honey spent 1 on 1 time with Zena and now she is EXCELLENT!!!!

This project I am working on now is my first time working with 1930’s reproduction fabrics… I followed a Moda Bake Shop recipe for Simply Woven HERE to make the center and added a couple borders and this is what I finished with… on Gloria my 301a of course 🙂

My top ended up at 46″ x 60″… nice size for a 2 year old and her daddy to enjoy snuggles together 🙂  And on Valentine’s day I added a pieced back with 2 little hearts in the piecing…

I love those little hearts a lot!  HERE is a close up with directions on how I made them with leftover 2 1/2″ strips ;)… they don’t show off enough here but once they are properly quilted from the front in the overall pattern I have chosen they will be more fun.

This quilt will be for the 2nd birthday of my granddaughter Kaydence…  So 2 hearts on the back.. there will be 2 on the front also in the border quilting.. The pic to the right is a fun shot I caught… the one below is a pic I took just for this post… and for my facebook followers too 🙂 

I will tell you that it sure it AWESOME!!! (after having to machine quilt 2 quilts) … To be back at the frame HAND QUILTING again y’all!!!  This Hinterberg frame we bought as a kit and my honey built into a frame really is…

My Happy Place!!!

Notice above… I have wireless headphones… quilting helps… and a glass of sweet tea on the table beside my chair (table rolls and my honey made me a few years back… chair I got at Walmart for $70) and my fave lamp to the right moves around the quilt with me and it’s a fun gooseneck ( it came with an attached torchier part too but my honey took that off as it was useless really for my needs.. $15 at Walmart)… I have a second one of these lamps but one is all I need presently 🙂  The shade is painted to make it opaque so it doesn’t blind me as I quilt and points all the light at my work also!

I hope to catch up to each of you between posting this now as well as sharing Sunday…. when we can all see what you are slow stitching over at Kathy’s slow Sunday stitching linky HERE where she is sharing a favorite podcast and how to bury machine quilting threads in a tutorial link 🙂

I haven’t been reading many blogs during my hiatus… since about the time I quit blogging because I got so immersed in quilting… and now I am on a timeline as I am having a necessary knee replacement surgery in March just next month!  Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers for a quick recovery and painless healing!!  

I wrote this post on Friday and read over it this morning adding this photo in to show you how I am doing the center… 

With baptist fans from THIS great tutorial!!!  I made a template from some template plastic I had and punched holes with a tiny hole punch I had saved from my paper crafting days… I am marking with a blue water removable marker 🙂  More on this in my next posting !!!

I look forward to hearing from you all… have a blessed day and until my next post.. hopefully sooner than 3 months from now!!! lol

And in this time of turmoil in the US as a whole… as well as the world overall… remember to…

 Every Day & Do Something Nice to Someone Else Friends 🙂