Sunday Update

 I skipped last week because I didn’t have a lot of progress to show.

I have completed the words on my Psalm 23 piece and it seems to be moving along pretty quickly. I still recite the Psalm daily to make sure I can remember it.  I plan to hang this in my bedroom where I can see it from my side of the bed.

Next is the Noah quilt. I sewed the binding on, but still have a few areas that need quilting.

If I were to never get back to it, at least it’s usable. 🤣 I do plan to finish hand quilting it. This is going to be my lap quilt, made for me. 

I’m sharing one of our favorite recipes from a Taste of Home cookbook. It’s a freezer recipe cookbook and the instructions tell you how to make one meatloaf and freeze one. I make one big meatloaf and we always have leftovers which are delicious. This is on our menu for today.

I’m showing off my new tulips that I planted this past fall. Aren’t they gorgeous?

I hope your  Spring is beautiful and pray that things are looking up for all of us!

I’m linking to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. Click to see what others are working on this week.

Making slow stitch progress

 I have accumulated several new  hand stitching projects (how does that happen?) so I’m trying to steadily work on this one. I refuse to start a new project until I can finish this Psalm 23 piece and the Noah quilt. 

I’ve been aiming for at least one hour a day, usually in the evenings while watching tv, to work on this piece. I really enjoy these vintage stamped embroideries. 

I didn’t do a lot to the Noah quilt this past week, but I’m moving it to the top of the list for this week.

I almost took this tired little wreath down this week. It was dusty and lifeless and just plain ole “blah” to me.  

I cleaned it up and added some apples, and have now decided I like it again.  A friend made this for me several years ago and I think I’ll enjoy it a few more years.

Do you decorate for Easter? I really don’t, but my sister in law sent pictures of her cute decor throughout her house. It sparked me to find my rabbit and put this little arrangement on my dining room table. 

After I took the first picture, I put the white egg inside this little crochet chicken egg cover. I didn’t make the chicken, but would if I knew how. ☺️ I found it at a thrift store this past week.

I just love all the granny crafts! 

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. Click on the link to visit others and see what their busy hands are working on today.

Slow Stitching

 I’ve enjoyed slow stitching all week and only sat at the sewing machine once.

And that was just to stitch the seams for this little pillow. I enjoyed this little cross stitch and hope to make something larger next time.

I’m treating myself to easy stitching on this stamped sampler I found on eBay. It’s The 23rd Psalm. Recently, I was trying to recite Psalms 23 to myself and found that I no longer knew it very well. 

I spent all last week “re” memorizing it, and thought this sampler will be a good reminder. How about you? Can you still quote it? 

I’m still hand quilting in the evenings on the Noah quilt. I enjoy seeing the progress on the back side of the quilt.  If you zoom in, you can see the Lion pretty well in this photo.

I’m heading into the kitchen to put this crockpot dish together for our lunch. My daddy eats with us on Sundays and lately, I’ve been looking for easier dishes, so that my Sunday mornings aren’t so rushed. I hope this will be yummy with oven fried onion rings.

Easy or prepare ahead recipes are welcome. Do you have a favorite?

Linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching. It’s always fun to see what others are sewing too.

Cross stitch finish

 The stitches are in, but I need to decide what to do with the empty space. The original design (shown in last week’s post) has a vintage safety pin and a fabric scrap in that area. I’ve ordered a Christmas tree charm, but not sure if it’ll look ok or not. 

I moved my Noah quilt to my Barnett hoop. I have better control of my stitches in the lap hoop than I do on the frame. I can turn the hoop in my lap, whereas I can only stitch from right to left in the frame. 

I think I’m making better stitching time this way, plus I can sit on the couch to stitch.

***off topic: I’m a nurse and I’ve donated blood numerous times in my life. However, I had not donated in over 15 years until yesterday. My favorite thrift store was having a blood drive and I promised. 🤪 when I was younger, my coworkers and I would give blood during our working shift and go right back to work. Y’all, I almost fainted! I came home and could hardly make it through the door. I drank water and rested for a couple of hours. And then I had another episode last night! 😱 I’m better this morning, but I think my blood donation days are over. Do you give blood? 🩸 

Linking to : Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching 

Slow Stitch Sunday

 This has been a busy week for me, but I was able to get some sewing things done.

I hand stitched all 420 inches of binding onto the Quilt of Many Colors . 

This is the best photo I could get of the pieced backing. 

This picture shows a little more of the frugal red gingham binding mentioned in my previous post. I had quite a bit left over, too.

It was too cold to go outside today and I didn’t have an assistant, so here’s the completed quilt on a queen sized bed. I hope to get a better photo with my daughter when she visits and takes the quilt home with her in April.

I started a new cross stitch project, something I didn’t think I would ever do again. But this little primitive pattern makes me think of my Mama, who used to sing this little song to us. 

This is a small project that shouldn’t take too long to complete. The picture of my beginning project shows approximately two hours of stitching.  Does anybody else remember this little Christmas song?

Check out my new bluebird couple. I received the bluebird box for Christmas from our daughter and am excited that we already have a family moving in! 

One more thing: I read this book last week. It was a great unraveling of several families, who were all connected somehow, through a Singer Sewing Factory a long time ago. A really good read if you haven’t read it before.

Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday. Click on the link to see what others are sewing this week.

Frugal Slow Stitching

 It’s a quilt top! Ready to bind!

I spent all week tying knots. A true labor of love. Really, I enjoyed it! I definitely will do this again for my larger size quilts.

Now for the frugal part. I had figured I needed approximately 1.5 yards fabric for my binding strips. My plan was to go to Hobby Lobby yesterday to buy fabric , but it rained all day and was too cold!

I had purchased this cotton twin sized bed skirt for $1 from a thrift store sometime back, knowing I could use the cotton fabric for something else. And who doesn’t love red gingham?

After cutting it apart,  and if I did my math correctly, I have approximately 2 yards of usable fabric!

Not bad for $1. 

Not my idea, but I had read somewhere to save the thin white part of the bed skirt to use as foundation fabric for string blocks. So, back into the closet that part goes. (My kids will have fun going through my things when I’m gone 🤣🤣🤣)

Surely I could do something with those thin strips! How do you like my new rag ball?  

I’d say I got my dollar’s worth. 

This is all I threw away! The tag!!

So if you like to be frugal (cheap) like me, look for bed skirts with pretty usable fabric. They are cheap and easy to take apart.

Hopefully I’ll get the binding cut and sewn this week, so I’ll be able to share a finished quilt by next Sunday.

I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts and Slow Stitching Sunday. Click on the link to see what others are slow stitching this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Stitching

 I’ve been doing something a little different with my slow stitching this week. 

I am hand tying this king sized quilt!

Knot after knot after knot!   Call me crazy, but I am enjoying every minute of it. 

 (I guess that's the point of having a hobby, right?  But it's not always the case when trying to wrangle a huge piece)

Trying to keep this quilt as scrappy as possible, (using what I already have), I started out tying with a leftover collection of Sulky quilting thread.  Once I ran out of that, I switched  to tying with embroidery floss. 

You guessed it, I like the look of the thicker floss much better.  So I'll be going back and retying (or reinforcing) the first threads.  

I like the fact that it's spread out on my dining room table and it's easy to stop and put in a few knots at anytime of the day.  I'm not stuck in the sewing room all day.

I may still put it on the sewing machine for a few quilting lines, once it's all tied.  But not too many!

I haven't put in that many hand stitches on the Noah quilt this week, but I've done a few, just to keep the finger callous strong. I finished two lions this week!

I'm linking up with Kathy's Slow Stitching to share what others are slow stitching this week.  Click on the link to see lots of pretties!

Slow Stitching

I'm trying to retrain myself to hand quilt.  I hope to discipline myself to put in a row of stitches daily, so I can keep my finger callous.  It sure gets sore with each restart.

However, I find that I no longer "quilt" the way I did when I was younger.  I used to load several stitches on my needle at one time and then pull the needle through.  I find it easier to do one stitch at a time these days, which seems to be easier on my underneath finger.  I do use a metal sticky dot thimble, but do need to feel the needle on my skin when it comes through the fabric.  

This is a vintage Noah's Ark panel that I am working on.  It'll be a baby size quilt.  I love the "Rules for the Ark" listed in one of the blocks.  

New to me, is this Ulmer Quilting Frame.  It fits perfectly in my little open spot by the window and fireplace.  I had seen a couple of these frames owned by other bloggers and just knew it would be the easiest one for me to use and still be pretty enough to leave it set up in the living room.  So far, I absolutely love it.  ( I found it on ebay, not having to pay full purchase price for a new one.)

I'm linking up to Kathy's Quilts for Sunday Slow Stitching, where you can go and see what others are hand stitching.  I really enjoy seeing what others are making.

Machine stitching:

I finished up all the blocks for my daughter's quilt.  We are calling it her Quilt of Many Colors as we love Dolly Parton and her  movie about her little patchwork coat. 

I have trimmed the blocks and hope to arrange 

and sew them together this week.   

Stay tuned...…. I hope everyone is doing well.

Happy New Year (2020 in reveiw)

It's been a long time, but I'm still alive and well.  

A few pics for my very quick review of 2020.  (in no certain order)

A little hand stitching here and there.  My first attempt at EPP with hexagons.  I'm now an EPP fan!

Vintage potholder embroidery.

Six more blocks like these, and I'll have enough to complete the king size quilt top that my daughter requested.

I completed this king size quilt requested by my son this year.  It's warm and cozy and that's all that matters.  And that it was made with love.  

I swore I'd never try another one that large, but then our daughter said " I want one for my bed, too."  LOL

I made a few of these from some vintage looking Halloween fabric.  

I hand pieced and hand quilted this little table runner from my scrap basket.  This was a fun project.

I didn't really love it on the table, so the table runner hangs on the back of my granny chair in the dining room.  

I took this guy to the hospital during the pandemic for an urgent aneurysm repair, that he discovered on his own.  He did well and is as good as new! Edited: this is my 80 year old dad. 

Had a Covid picnic with these kids on the way to pick up the 4th cousin in Asheville.

A little more hand piecing and quilting on small projects.

We said sad goodbyes to this sweet fellow on February 19.

Hand stitched a couple of Kathy Schmitz rabbits for friends.

Matching aprons for the granddaughters.  (no hallmark moments with these...lol.... grandma liked them more thant the girls did)

I caught this fabulous rainbow over our house one day during 2020.  God always keeps His promises.

Easy cross stitching on pre stamped pillow cover.  

Stitched a vintage Christmas piece (pre stamped) that I bought from eBay.  This was a fun piece to do.

Okay, that's it.... I hope to blog more this year so that I can document my year.  

May God continue to bless us all!

Happy New Year!

Linking with Kathy's Quilt Blog for Slow Sunday Stitching. Go here to see what others are hand stitching.