Back in the Swing of Sewing!

I've missed quite a few weekends of college football hand quilting. But Saturday I spent the entire day on the back patio quilting my heart out. Yay!

I also got back (finally!) to machine quilting my Sadie quilt. It's straight line quilting, and not perfect, but just what I planned.

Here's a quick pic of my new sewing room closet. It's more like a room than a closet, but it doesn't have any windows. I decided to put my antique childhood bed in here. It's a great place to display a few of my antique quilts, And also a great place to nap, perhaps?

That's it for today...enjoy these beautiful October days! I certainly am...

 

The Baby Quilts!

My daughter had her baby shower Saturday. I gifted the baby quilts so I can finally share them here! This first one will match the nursery decor and will be draped over the rocking chair. It did not turn out as I had planned because I cut some pieces incorrectly. I had to wing it and come up with my own pattern on the fly. All's well that ends well. In the end, I'm perfectly happy with it!

I love this quilt - it's the one made from thrift shop men's shirts. I concentrated on orange and blue to get a touch of Auburn colors in a quilt for our upcoming baby boy. So soft and so fun! This is a Bonnie Hunter free pattern - you can find it HERE.

And this is my favorite! I made this Eye Spy quilt using pattern inspiration from a quilt I saw on Instagram. Each block is appliqued by hand. I made my own template and used Cherrywood fabrics for the solids. I had friends give me some of the fabric and I collected some of it. Sadie may claim this one before her brother arrives, because I know she loves it! Notice that I appliqued the new baby's initials in the upper left. NJC - Noah James Covington. We are so ready to meet you, Noah! And it won't be long now....

I still need to share all about the machine classes I took last week - more soon!

 

Settling In

Here's a quick shot from my new sewing room. Yes, my machine is in place and ready to sew! At least it was for a day or so....more on that later. Those boxes are now unpacked!  But things are not put away exactly right yet. I need to do some organizing!

 

The flotsam and jetsam of unpacking...these are the things we've unpacked that we have no idea about. What are they? Where do they go? We did figure out that white tube - it's the handle from some blinds at the previous house. Yay!

I'm REALLY trying to make this house more organized than previous homes have been. If you zoom in, you'll see I have bins for different types of over the counter meds. They are separated by type: cold and cough, wound care, stomach. Yes, I LOVE what they do on The Home Edit show! Let's see if I can do this throughout the entire house...to be continued.

This will be a busy week for me. I'm taking an all day machine mastery class on my Bernina in Montgomery on Tuesday. And on Friday, I'll be taking a machine mastery class on the embroidery module for my Bernina. I've been wanting to take these classes for over a year. They are only taught a few times per year and something always interferes. So excited I can go! And that explains why my machine is no longer in place. I have it packed and ready to go to Montgomery.

Thursday I have a much anticipated Ophthalmologist appointment. I've been having LOTS of trouble with my right eye - not sure what's going on, but I really can't see much with it. I'm going to a new doctor and I hope he gets to the root of the cause. 

Until then, more unpacking and organization! We're getting there! And good news: we are under contract to sell the previous house - yippee! So happy about this!

Enjoy your week!!!

The Move

 

Here was the moving truck, pulled up to the previous home. All went well, EXCEPT the truck they brought was way too small. They had to make 3 trips between houses to get everything moved. !!!!!!!!

It was a very long day, but the movers were very careful and that was nice. Whew! So glad that is over!

Here's what the doggos thought about the entire process. Exhausting! They were right! I walked 12,000 steps that day without going anywhere.

The move is not officially over yet. We still have a storage unit full of stuff that we'll gradually move over here to the new home. Plus our golf cart and some outdoor furniture are still at the old home. The outdoor furniture will get moved to the lake and we'll bring the golf cart here to the new home. 

We've done lots of unpacking, but there is more to go. Today's focus for me will be the laundry room. I'll work on this while Sadie is in preschool. As far as my sewing room....I've haven't started setting it up yet. There are boxes and totes everywhere there! I've ordered some shelving to store plastic totes and it should be in later this week. By then I'll be ready to focus my attention there. I really want to get the rest of the house set up first.

BUT, I have picked up my hand stitching! I've been working on binding a quilt for the last couple of evenings. It's so good to hold a needle again!!!

The day after the move we took in some high school football. What a gorgeous sunset! Our team didn't win, but it was nice to be out and about. 

Enjoy your week! Hopefully there will be more sewing posts in the near future!

Packing, Packing, Packing!

Another Aubie photo opp! Yes, we do get cleaned up every once in a while! We took a break from packing to attend a celebration as one of our daughters was named to the '20 Under 40' inaugural class for Auburn University. 

It was a wonderful respite from all the chaos going on with moving.

Also in attendance were our other daughter, very pregnant, with her husband. It was a fun time for our family and we all really enjoyed it.

And then it was back to packing! We have three more days to prepare for the big move on Thursday. We're right on schedule, maybe a bit ahead even. We've taken carloads of small things every day and put them away in the new home. By the move day, my new kitchen will be set up and ready to go - almost all my dishes, cookware, etc., are already there and put away. There are two beds there already (purchased with home) and they are both made with fresh linens.

I really think we're going to LOVE out new neighborhood. Some of the women have already reached out to me, though we haven't met in person yet. I've been invited to two events by the ladies there so far and will attend one tomorrow night. We are so excited and can't wait to have all out things there and slowly unpack. SLOWLY! We are tired of the rush. We are just plain tired. But all is going well and I'm sure this week will pass quickly.

That's my update for now. I'll be back to sewing VERY SOON, I'm sure. And Hubby will be back to playing golf.

Enjoy your week!

 

No Sewing...But LOTS of Fun...And Packing!

 

This was last Friday - I was my Daughter's guest at a luncheon on Auburn's campus. (FYI - that's Aubie with us!) She was the keynote speaker at the event for high school senior girls, promoting Engineering at Auburn University. Yes, she and I are both Auburn Engineers, along with Hubby and several other family members.

If you look closely at this slide she's presenting, you see me. There I am in the photo as a senior at Auburn wearing the special interview suit my mother bought me. I still remember shopping for that suit. It helped me land several job offers.

This luncheon happened only a couple of hours after we closed on the new house. 

Here I am a day or so later, sitting on the back porch, waiting for Hubby to finish doing something. No, we haven't moved in yet. The previous owner left the outdoor furniture for us though, so I do have a place to sit. 

The carpet was pulled out in the upstairs and new wood floors have already been installed. A painter is starting today to paint the rooms upstairs and do some touch up work throughout the house. We already have a few TV's there. Internet is up and running. And there are two beds already made up. Even my sewing machines are already there, tucked away somewhere. 

The big move is next week, but we are taking a few small things over here and there. This is the EASIEST move we've ever had. And that is good. Local moves from one house, straight to another, are pretty easy.

I'll get back to sewing very soon, I'm sure. Can't wait to set up my new sewing room. It will be really nice!

Happy Fall to all!

If It's Football Season....

If it's football season....then I'm hand quilting!

I've pulled out my Marshal quilt. I started the hand quilting on this last year during football season and didn't finish it. And so it sat since then. I'm determined to finish it this season!!!

I adore the texture of hand quilting!! It's so good to have this in my lap again. And I'm making great progress so far. 

And now for an update on the baby quilts. I finished the tops! My friend quilted them! I have made all the binding and machine stitched it on. The hand stitching is in progress. I won't share them again until they have been gifted.

So my friend, Beth...(she is also my quilter)...sent me down a rabbit hole. She is a very talented quilter. But she has also recently rediscovered needlepoint. Yup. And for some reason, I always want to do what she is doing. Do  you have friends like that?

Beth suggested I order a Stitch and Zip kit. It's a zippered pouch and it's all put together. So no finishing is required. I found this little ditty on ebay and grabbed it. It's not big and should be a good way to get back into needlepoint after years away. And I can always use another zippered pouch.

If you look closely, you'll see that I have just started the white background in the corner. 

So yes, I've been very busy this week!

We close on our new home Friday - EEK! YAY! But we won't move in for another couple of weeks. We'll probably start packing later this week. And I'm not even dreading packing - I really don't think it will be so bad. Let's hope not anyway.

Keep stitching!