A Tiny Bit of Sewing and a BIG CHANGE COMING!

It's been a bit crazy around here lately...I'll explain why later in this post.

 I have had very little sewing time lately, BUT I did start the quilting on my Sadie portrait! I had planned to do intricate free motion work. Then I thought it through and changed my mind.

My upper body strength has not been up to par since my mastectomy a few years ago. I was afraid I'd end up sore and miserable during the process of free motion quilting. So I decided to do straight line quilting instead. I'm letting my machine do all the work with dual feed set. 

I'm not marking or using rulers....just aiming and sewing. This is a great technique for me because I can try to sew a few lines on the quilt each day. It's not hard to pick up where I left off and I don't have to get into the rhythm of free motion work each time.

And here is the progress on this baby quilt. All these pieces are sewn together now. This top will get only one or two more rounds of blocks and it will be ready for quilting. I wish you could see this in person. The colors are so nice and it's SO SOFT to touch.

(First zinnia bloom from seeds Sadie and I planted!)

And now for the craziness....

Yes, we custom built our home.

Yes, we've only been living in it for 2.5 years.

Yes, we love it.

BUT...

1. We decided earlier this year that we wouldn't mind moving back to the other side of town - the area where we lived when we first moved to Auburn 10 years ago. (Can you believe we've been here 10 years???)

2. We decided we wanted a little more house, something a bit bigger. Our needs have changed in the last couple of years.

3. We wanted to live closer to the elementary school Sadie and her upcoming baby brother will be attending. (I imagine picking her up from school and bringing her to our house quickly.)

4. Though I was previously against having an upstairs, now that I've lost more than 40 pounds, stairs don't bother me so much.

And so.... for the past several months we've been looking. We were even open to building again, but lots are hard to come by in that area of town. We even made a couple of offers on homes, but couldn't come to an agreement with sellers.

Thursday morning a new listing popped up. We have learned that here in Auburn homes can sell FAST! So we made an appointment and saw the house at noon that day. That evening we made an offer. Friday it was accepted. No counter offer, no dickering. It was meant to be, I believe. 

And so...if the inspection goes well, we'll be closing on that home in a few short weeks. We love the decor of the new home. The only thing we will want to do before we move in is to add wood floors to the two rooms upstairs. We'll wait until that is complete before moving in. 

(First lime from my lime tree!)

So we are now preparing our current home to sell. Luckily there is not too much to do. But we are clearing some things out and touching up paint here and there. The worst part so far?  Removing 168 foam stickers from the wall of my sewing room. They held up my design wall felt squares. Advertised as ‘easy removal, no wall damage’. WRONG on both! It took hours! The wall is now smooth and spackled, ready for a touch of primer and paint. 

I will reuse these felt tiles in the new home, BUT I will not use the same sticky pads that came with them.

This week we'll have the home inspection done at the new house, but since it's only a couple of years old I doubt anything major will be found.

God's timing is really perfect. We needed this to happen exactly when it did, though we didn't realize it. We'll be moved in before the new grandson arrives. Sadie starts back to preschool this week, giving us a bit of extra time to get packing done. 

Every house we've owned in Auburn (this will be the 4th) we've thought would be our forever home. Haha! That's okay. Moving is really not that hard. It IS hard to move from a home you've living in for 20 years. But it's not hard when you move every few years. We're excited.

The biggest challenge will be to finish 3 baby quilts quickly. I haven't even started one of them. But, trust me...it will happen!

 

A Productive Weekend!

I DID IT! I finished the portrait of Sadie! Woohoo! 

I immediately made some FrankenBatting. I had two large chunks of Birdie Bird batting and I zigzagged them together.

Next I pieced the backing. I decided to use this map fabric designed by Timna Tarr. The portrait technique is Timna's - I took her class online to learn to do this. So it was only fitting that I use her fabric! It's so colorful and fun - totally fits in with Sadie's personality.

Here is the fabric selvage - you can zoom in on it if you are interested.

Time to baste! Because I'm using Birdie Bird batting, there is really no need to pin baste. I did put a few pins around the outside perimeter just in case....

Now I'm ready to free motion quilt the heck out of it! And that will be an adventure in itself! Wish me luck.

Saturday I drove over the Sew Bernina shop in Montgomery. I purchased the embroidery software for my Bernina 790. I can't wait to try it, but I haven't had time to even open the box yet. I did buy a bit of fabric while at the shop, too. LOVE this shop - this is my favorite shop in my area. It's totally worth the drive.

I have only made three more blocks for the eye spy quilt. That's okay. I have one pinned and ready to stitch tonight.

And lastly....my Anniversaries of the Heart. I had told myself I'd finish the July block early and get a head start on August. Didn't happen. I procrastinated. I finally finished it this afternoon in the nick of time.

The only personalization I did on this block was to add the year. This block is slap dab in the middle of the entire piece, so I like the year being here.

I have barely started the August block. I still want to get ahead at some point. Maybe August will be the time?

I hope you've had a great weekend, too. WHEW! Ready for the week ahead!

 

Quilts are Growing!

I finished the blocks for the next round on this sweet baby quilt. They are not sewn on to the middle section yet, but maybe sometime this week I'll get to that. Plus I'll try to get the next round of blocks cut.

And I made five more eye spy blocks. This quilt top is growing, too.

And what about my Sadie portrait?????

I made THREE rows over the weekend! So glad these rows are getting shorter and shorter. I predict I will finish the quilt top next weekend! Woohoo!

At our quilt guild meeting last week, a member taught needle turn applique. Each of us had a free kit including a heart basted to a small background and a threaded needle. I've been doing needle turn for years and years....and yet I learned a new tip that will help me so much! Learning never ends in life.

Keep on learning!

And stay safe - I know so many people with Covid at the moment - it's still running rampant.

 

Stitching and Cross Stitch

I figured it was about time for a cross stitch update. Here's where I am on the july block. I'm making progress and should be able to finish before August. I would love to finish this early though!

I made 4 more eye spy blocks during the week. Someone local was selling some stash - I noticed there were some conversational prints in the mix so I bought them. All except the ladybugs above came from that purchase. 

I also finished another row of my Sadie portrait, but I may not share a picture for now. I only have EIGHT rows left! And at least half of these are simply solid pieces of fabric for the squares! So close to finishing! So excited! I'll be ready to quilt it by Fall. And that will be so fun!

This week I plan to cut the next round of hourglass blocks for the orange and blue quilt made from men's shirting. Sadie might even help me sew some of these.  She loves to sew with me!

Enjoy your week!

 

Blocks, and More Blocks!

Woohoo - I've begun to sew on the baby quilt for Little Dude - the one made with men's shirts. It's coming together just as I'd hoped!

Time to audition the next round of fabrics...

These two won! I'll start cutting them today.

Yesterday I actually cross stitched while I watched a floss tube! I'll give an update on this soon.

I also made a few more eye spy blocks.

I happened across this photo on the Internet over the weekend. I think this will be perfect for the Little Dude baby quilt which will match his nursery - you may remember I purchased French General fabrics in blues to make something, I just wasn't sure what the pattern would be yet. I love this one! I have some coordinating solids which will be perfect for the stars.

And last, but certainly not least, my Sadie portrait is coming along. It's going much faster now that the rows are shorter and there a a lot of blocks with not applique.

After I finish all these projects, I want to make a new quilt for Sadie big girl bed. There's always another quilt to make! 

We've had such a busy summer since there is no preschool, but I'm thrilled I've been able to keep my sewing going at a good pace. Where there's a will, there's a way!

Happy Birthday to me, today! I get to spend the day playing with Sadie - one of my favorite things to do!

 

More Weekend Sewing...Long Weekend

We went to the lake for a couple of days over the weekend. I only took hand sewing along: eye spy blocks and cross stitch. As you can see, I got several more blocks done!

Cooper spent his lake time relaxing. He can get SO comfortable!

I had bought a few more shirts for Little Dude's second baby quilt - I deboned them on the way home from the lake, with Mickey in my lap, and Hubby driving.

When we got home yesterday, the new eye spy blocks went up on the wall - they're adding up!

Next I pressed and lightly starched all the deconstructed shirts and cut them up into 2.5" strips with my Accuquilt. Next up I need to cut the strips into triangles with my specialty ruler. I'm thinking I'll set up a small cutting station on the kitchen island. Then I can easily work on this while watching Sadie during the next couple of weeks. 

I got a good bit of stitching done on the cross stitch piece (!) and I also got another row on my Sadie portrait (!!), but you'll have to wait until another post to see them! 

Enjoy your week!

 

Cross Stitch Update

 

Here's my progress on the June block of Anniversaries of the Heart. At this point I got stuck. I was going to personalize this to honor all the dogs we've owned, but then I couldn't figure out exactly how I wanted to do so. After staring at it for a couple of days, I decided to quit wasting time and go on to the July block! 

As for the above June block? Now I'm thinking that this will be dedicated to our new grandson, Little Dude (as I call him), due later this year. The block has so much blue and I think this will be appropriate. I'll stitch his name and birthdate in the box at the top once he arrives. DONE!

And here is my progress on the July block. I think it's a pretty good start considering July is not even here yet! It was easiest to start working on this one from the bottom up.

I haven't stitched on this any this week...I've been too tired in the evenings. Maybe tonight? Hope so!

Enjoy your day!