work in progress. organizing.

(for the kitchen pantry)

As mentioned here, I am in the process of purging and organizing.  
Yesterday I took just about every single thing off of our walls.  
Stood back and immediately felt a calm.  
We will be painting in the next few months, so I patched little nail holes.  
Honestly though, I am in no hurry to put anything back up.  

 

Not to mention, almost everything I took off the walls was carted off to our local consignment shop.  Including the baskets that Easter was sitting in and picture behind him.  (such a good helper)

Those funds are going into my paint money jar.  

I am a firm believer in, if you are not using it, get rid of it.  
Either give it away or sell it.  
If you sell it, set the funds aside for a goal you have in mind.  

In this case, paint.

So the pictures you see up above, obviously have nothing to do with painting.  I am printing off labels to organize my pantry.  It was already done (in orange - was so cute) but our needs have changed so I am opting for yellow (it is what I have on hand).  I will show you when I am done.

In the mean time, have a super day!! 

a little weekend sewing.

Friday was spent indoors sewing Suburb blocks.  This is such a fun pattern!!  I am using a Happy Go Lucky layer cake for the houses, Lecien blue with tiny white dots as the sky and my favorite go to white Bella Solids Bleach White for the rest.

Here is a little snippet of Sherri's bee block.  Sherri asked that we make Christmas scrappy trip around the world blocks.  This is going to be such a cute quilt!!  I can hardly wait to see it all together.  I am actually making two but wanted to leave the second as a surprise, since it will have some of my own fabric added.  wink.

And here is another snippet of a bee block I am finishing up.  It is for Calli.  I just adore this pickledish pattern!  It is going to be such a beautiful quilt.  Calli sent 30's style fabrics and the templates necessary to create a "melon" for the blocks.

This is what happens when I turn my back.  My little Miss Lizzy fancied my large granny square quilt a cozy place for her afternoon nap.  Little stinker!  

The binding has since been sewn on and almost finished hand stitching it to the back.  I will be updating the no waste large granny square quilt tutorial link.   It took much longer than I had planned, but believe me ... I have enjoyed every single step of the process, so was worth it!  Kathy did a beautiful job quilting it!!  Thank you so much Kathy!  I love it!!

next on my list.

The next quilting goal on my list is a Moda Bake Shop pattern that will post in the Spring.  I fell in love with Avalon the moment I saw it and am so thrilled to be able to use it with a fun and simple pattern I constructed.  

I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend, and to those of you in the north, a warm and safe weekend.  We are expecting 70 degree temps down here, so hopefully I can finish painting two lamp bases, a soft cream color.  Isn't it amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do?!

progress.

 

What a joy it has been to create Clara's Spin Cycle quilt top.  The fabrics play so sweetly together.  And you all know how much I love this pattern.  Would you like to see the next quilt top I will be making?

I will be making another one of Allison's patterns.  It is called July Stars.  Clara sent this gorgeous stack of Bar Harbor fat quarters for the top.

(I made my own last April.  You can see the post here.) 

Valerie's Christmas quilt is finished.  I washed it once to bring out that crinkly goodness and wash the erasable pen marks that I used for hand quilting.

 Here is the backing.

Wrapped up and ready to ship with other goodies.

Do you remember my Moda Bake Shop tutorial for making a charm square scarf? 

I absolutely love when other's share their creations using my little tutorials.  Pam created a charm square scarf and shared about it on her blog.  If you make a charm square scarf, I would love to see yours too!

Thanks for dropping by and visiting.

I hope you have a fantastic week!

calming.

 

When I first began this quilt, I did so with the intention of doing one block at a time.  No rush, just enjoy the journey.  Somehow these fabrics have such a calming affect on me and this is one of those projects that I know will take a while.  (You can see my block tutorial here.)

It has been "one of those weeks" and so my comfort quilt to be came back out of the box and is being put together.

There are granny square block tutorials all over the web (my very favorite being Lori's great granny block - true love I tell ya).  My granny square makes a large block (13.5" unfinished) with only the two contrasting fabrics, plus the background in a neutral.  I wanted a very simple and soft on the eyes look.  I created my little tutorial to show how you can get by with just the right amount of fabric and no waste.  This quilt is made up of a layer cake, a charm pack, plus yardage in a solid.

This is my silly cat Easter.  He is my shadow and biggest snuggler.  Nothing beats a good nap with a soft and chubby cat during a long day!

I hope you are having a wonderful week.  Thank you for coming to my blog for a visit.  xoxo

Thomas.

 

Our sweet little gentleman, Thomas ran away from home.  Will you please pray he finds his way back?  To some this may sound like a silly request, but I believe that God is in the details of our lives.  And I am hoping that He will find it acceptable to honor my petition, on this furry little guy's behalf.  I have called and called for him.  We live in the country and there are coyotes and other such wild animals.  I just want him to be home and safe, with us, who love him and miss him a whole bunch.

( nap time in my home )

ps.  I will try to keep this little spot in blog land less deep in upcoming posts.  I never want folks to feel like this is a sad place to visit.  Life has just thrown some curve balls at us the past several months.  But, I PROMISE that God's grace is indeed sufficient.  He has carried us, deepened our faith, nurtured us and ministered to our every need.  We are giving thanks and counting our blessings, one by one!

in the shadows.

Oh boy...six days later and I am finally posting again.
Have you all had a chance to check out Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival?  Sweet mercy!  The last time I checked there were well over 500 quilts posted!!  Can you believe that?  

The BQF is in part why things have been so quiet on this end.  It is like my favorite show, with all new episodes and not wanting to miss a single one! 

Golly!  The talent out there is off the charts!  

And not only have I had so much fun viewing every one's quilts, I have had a couple projects of my own lurking in the shadows.  Like a fall quilt.  I finally cut into my beloved jelly roll and made a very simple block.  The flannel will be the backing ... still working on it.

Thanks to my big cat Easter ... I hit a few bumps in the road.  And from the looks of this picture ... he does not appear the least bit repentant!  

The little rascal!

Tomorrow is Amylouwho's Sew and Tell!!  
Yay! I'll be there!

granny squares, cat wreath, theatre

 my next granny square scarf in the making

this is what I found as when

I walked into my sewing room

we had some issues with the wall 

in our closet so had to empty it 

of it's contents ... 

that included a springwreath 

and Christmas wreath ... 

both in which Easter

found quite comfy

I am so hooked on this series!  

I have not enjoyed a story this much

in a real long time.  

It is wholesome, funny, and a wonderful plot.

I would love to one day own the set, but for now I am counting my blessings 

that we have a netflix account!

Have a super weekend!

Back to crocheting scarves and

watching Lark Rise to Candleford.

fiddlin.

I crocheted my very first rosette.  I followed the "super easy crochet rose tutorial" over at Heidi Bears.  And truly ... it is super easy.  As you can see, I added a button and am thinking I need to make a large yo-yo for the backing in a contrasting color. 

Ok, back to my hand quiting!  And you know Thomas, he's always doing a quality check for me.

hodge podge.

 

playing with my camera while the sprinkler was on

there is just something magical about a sprinkler

the sound of the water pitter pattering on the

ground reduces me to 6 years old in an instant

a little hand stitching - just because

a bare glass door plus

a half yard of flower sugar fabric equals

a sweet little country cottage touch in the kitchen

 ooppssie daisy

cut too short

(felt like crying - just one of those days)

so for now I am living with it this way

but not for too much longer

drives me nuts

a great deal of laughter with our cats

who ever thought a little light 

would be so much fun

I hope you had a nice weekend.