We have been in our cabin almost a year (12/4 will be our year mark)…. Look how nice my honey and I have it looking now!

The ferns seem to add soo much but the fresh paint and roof add more than expected too!

Here is how our cabin looked a year ago!

Our cup overflows with love for this cabin … the house is more open now including the yard!

This week I went to rehab twice and to my doctors office once for a post op check….

I am doing great in both arenas!!!! The physicians assistant I saw was very pleased I am navigating with a can and bending and stretching well on my left side! I go back in 4 weeks to see the surgeon and hopefully make plans for my right knee! And I got released from using ace wraps too!!!! They were driving me nuts! Lol

I finished the table runner to flimsy status and started the marking too….

On the center my fave marking device … a water soluble blue pen was used to make 1/2” wide vertical marks I will machine quilt this week…

Then I tried a host of white marking implements to mark the outer border with the cute holly leaf stencil I found at The Stencil Company online… above is a water soluble white pencil that has soft lead but marks nice and below is a mix of that pencil over the Clover white fine line pen!

I didn’t take time yet to mark the long borders!

This table runner will work for us from thanksgiving through winter we think :). So I wanna make it nice!

Then I worked quite a bit on the quilt in my frame slow stitching…

And I marked and started working on the swirling hearts to the right of the heart! Yay!! linking my slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers!!! Come see what everyone is up to there!!!

I’m feeling really happy with my continued weight loss… we had fresh trout from our neighbors with broccoli and cottage cheese !

Rick has totally cleaned the wood from the first half of the side porch… so while I have been busy creating and rehabbing … he has been deconstructing… he will start reconstruction of this section (16 feet approximately) next week… pics to come!

I gave myself a fresh mani this week too… pacific waters is the name…

I have a special set for Thanksgiving too… as ricks son and sister are due to come for a visit then!!!

Rick went in a thrift shop looking for winter shirts and instead came out with 2 great stencils for me…. Happy dance! They will be used in the future!!! $0.58 total for both!!!

Can’t you see that bottom one on a baby quilt border and the top one on alternate negative space blocks of a quilt???

Here’s a great photo I snapped on the way back from the doctor appointment! Have a wonderful week y’all!

Hello and welcome to my blog…

12 days ago I had knee replacement surgery …. I was so nervous about what this end would look like so I wanna share with all of ya’ll sending positive vibes and prayers that they are working!! I am now using a cane around the house to navigate and soooo much nicer than the walker… of course I will let the doctor release me to use the cane officially but I am glad I gave it a go!

I see the doctor’s Physician Assistant this coming Wednesday 🙂 I am almost able to fully straighten my leg (-3 degrees) and can bend in more than expected at this point (118 degrees)! They will put me on a recumbent bike in physical therapy to increase that second number tomorrow when I go again tomorrow afternoon.

Above is the beauty we see in Mother Nature every time we run errands… But back at home we are planting bulbs in anticipation of 2 seasons away…. SPRING!!! We bought a bundle and they came quick too as now before the first freeze for us is the time to plant them…. because we have rocky soil… we bought this auger bit too to fit a drill…

My honey found this auger bit MEGA useful if you are needing or wanting to plant bulbs yourself… each type of bulb requires a different depth of planting in the correct orientation too!!! We planted hyacinth, daffodils, tulips, crocus and irises. We planted them in an undulating row around the front yard as that is what gets the most sun esp in spring 🙂

Daylight savings time ends for those areas that follow this today as well! So we turned ours back while I cooked omelets for dinner last night! 🙂

I have ironed shirts for my honey this week… it is wonderful to get back to my chores too… and doing laundry too! I also made good headway on the table runner I am making for our Thanksgiving crowd coming….

The other 2 are almost finished as well so I can sew then into a long string and I got a holly border to add hand quilting… hopefully I will have that next weekend for my post!

And an overview shot I took last night to share I should be able to finish this row sooner than later!!! But rehab and exercise and elevation comes first atm 🙂

Linking all my hand quilting progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers <<<< HERE !!!

Our new sink got installed by my honey this week….

You wouldn’t think a thing like a sink and faucet would bring you such great joy but it sure has us!!! The butcherblock is freshly conditioned and was ours from a previous home 🙂

Hope your week ahead is awesome and please…. leave me a comment if you read this far! I love responding to each one!

This past Wednesday I had my left knee joint replaced due to severe osteo arthritis!

The day after this major 3 1/2 hour long surgery…. we got home and found this sweet card from a great friend. It really brightened my return to home … though to be honest with all the bruises I got in the hospital that short 24 hours there…. I was so happy to be back to our cabin in the North Carolina mountains…

Before leaving on Wednesday morning for surgery… I had the first after lunch slot… My honey was busy building a temporary but very sturdy and functional ramp out front….

Before surgery I worked on putting together some of the Nordic Star table runner blocks for our bar in the kitchen over the winter season….

Rick did LOTS AND LOTS of other things as did I in preparation for me being out of commission for a bit but post op now day 4 … he is still surprised at all I did behind the scenes… I am still not released by him to move about with my walker alone because I still have pain meds on board and I have had 2 near unsteady moments that he caught me. I will be glad to be independent again and back to my little nest of chores I keep up around the house.

The most exciting thing though is that I am sewing again… I did a bit of hand quilting the day after we got home and I machine quilted a strap my honey cut from a long piece of nylon strapping he found in his building that had never been used… Physical therapy had me using this style strap of theirs for increased range of motion exercise but I fell so in love with this aid I was happy as a clam to have a handy honey!!!

My honey also fixed up our front guest bath for me to eventually be independent and now he just watches me as I sit down and stand up in there…

Above he took down the existing towel bar and added 2 different bars for me to pull up from the raised toilet seat… it is awesome for my goal of complete independence and safety!!!!

My bestie asked what I would like most for recovery and offered a myriad of ideas… but I knew initially what I wanted was a subscription for just a few months to Audible!!! Yippee 🎉

So while I work on hand quilting the cross hatching in the heart of this full sized quilt on my frame I will be listening to some books now 🙂

Although there isn’t a large amount of work done on this since we returned home…. all this cross hatch stitching following the chalk and water soluble lines has been done since I got home from the hospital. I am so pleased with this 🙂 Linking this slow stitching progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers HERE <<<<

I hand sewed the binding down to the back side and gifted this to neighbors who fed us a delicious meal prior to my surgery… Here is it hanging in their hallway….

So here is my right leg not fixed and my left leg now straight and fixed….

My left leg was MORE crooked than my right so my doctor and I chose it first and I can weight bear very well already but aid with the rolling walker they gave me at the hospital before check out!

Nail Mail was waiting for me the first day we got home… the cup of smiles card came the next day and the audible subscription I got signed up to use and downloaded my first book yesterday so all is going well.

Can you guess which one of these nail polish strips I decided to use first???

I was so happy to get nail polish strips back on my nails… they are so much more durable !!! But it all had to be off for surgery.

So today will be lots of time exercising and keeping motion in my knee… I wear 2 ace wraps instead of TED hose… the dressing is clean and dry and comes off Wednesday according to discharge instructions and then the following Wednesday I go back to Chattanooga for my post surgery follow up… if no problems come up between now and then I will plan a visit with my surgeon to get the second knee done too!

The worst of the pain is behind my knee and my knee cap which was off center and had to be re-set… My surgeon told me this would be most painful part of the surgical recovery and he is right!

Today is Halloween (which is also my honey’s sons’ birthday!!! Then next weekend is time change for us here in the USA too! So much going on!!!!

Thanks for visiting and have a blessed week ahead…

I have been like I had roller skates on this week I have been constantly busy…

I made this darling bag with tassel to go along with the Christmas gift we are giving her… more released later but isn’t it precious for a 2 1/2 year old girl!!! I used a FREE pattern by Blue Calla patterns called “Sweet Pea Saddle Bag” from her website following THIS video tutorial series 🙂

Rick put the charm on that tiny zipper head 😉

I rolled that quilt yesterday morning! Now I just have a fairly quick path across hand quilting 🙂 …

The blue star above represents halfway so next start up after surgery will be downhill then I am hoping!!!

I found this ufo when I was cleaning my sewing room up …. it is hand quilted and not quite finished here…

Well the neighbor I have the machine quilted bed runner … she and her hubby LOVED it … so I asked her if she needed a cushion or table topper out of this hand quilted piece if I finished it…. She sent me the below photo.

No cushion for the bed but she would love to have one that could be a wall hanging in their new cabin being built…

So today with Kathy and the gang of slow stitchers HERE <<<< I will be sewing down the binding by hand … I have already started it 🙂 … and hand quilting some too! Click the link and see what everyone is up !

I started cutting and sewing units for this table runner….

It’s a Julie Cefalu pattern and she is so easy to follow!

These cute oven mitts got sent off to my friend in Florida for testing…

They are waiting in her mailbox last night delivered late in the day!!!!

My honey has taken on a new project… while I recover he will rehab our side deck!!!

You can see he has already removed some of the railing and stair treads when I was able to get this starting photo….

Here he is harvesting and turning to the back side as much deck lumber as possible!

Here is the harvested deck lumber waiting for a good pressure washing if mother nature doesn’t clean them enough ! lol

My left knee replacement surgery is due to be Wednesday and I won’t know what time til Tuesday afternoon. Molly is being boarded during my hospital time and Rick is able to be in the hospital with me the entire time. I am blessed.

I plan to type a message next Sunday but may not link to Kathy’s as I won’t have much to share I doubt… we shall see but rehab will be my focus and rest! Thanks for stopping by today!

Hope you are having a happy Sunday … I am… I am hand sewing and machine sewing like crazy now that I know I will be having left knee surgery on October 27 sometime. Unsure of my time but we have scheduled to board Molly and they said Rick can come in!!! I am giddy about that for sure!

My honey’s latest make…

Can also hang this way too….

I sewed my honey a shirt that turned out too small in the chest so I made another and it was perfect so I will press those shirts today and have them ready for the week ahead.

We picked up some lumber and screws… my honey is gonna focus on redoing our side porch….while I recover from my knee surgery #1….

Molly looks so cute holding down the wood! lol

I finished the left side of the heart after marking and stitching on and off all week….

And I marked all the crosshatch on the heart with my pounce pad chalk… refilled it for heavier marks too 🙂

And I realized when I finish this row and the top of this row that I can’t reach yet I will be halfway!!!!

I finished making the bedrunner and will have the binding on probably later today….

I really like how it turned out based on what she seemed to like!

Here is the label I made for them…

Thinking this hand quilting and hand made full post to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers HERE <<< Come see what everyone is linking up today!

This quilt has been in my mind since I found out my honey couldn’t be with me after my surgery… have a quilt with me as a comfort object… My daughter bought me most of the fabric as a Birthday Gift .. It is FINALLY done!!!

This quilt is machine pieced… designed from pics I saw and my own imagination… follow my blog if you like to design on the fly.. I had some 10″ squares left over but very little else! YAY 🙂

I machine quilted the binding too! Quite a positive experience I tried it on curves on a project… didn’t work as nicely!!! lol

I added my label with my KC initials and the year added 🙂 I heat set the additions with my new iron (I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new iron btw!!!)

Now just waiting for the green light to pack my go bag 🙂 Excited and nervous but mostly ready to feel less pain!

Rick has been busy fulfilling orders for others… but he made time to make a special block for his sister… they are the last 2 living in their family …

Needless to say she loves it and was speechless with the gift from her brother 😀 Weepy eyes of happiness to them!

I bought a new blouse and love it! I tried it on then washed it as it was second hand from Marketplace … my first shipping transaction!!

Now to get it pressed and ready to wear 😀 I got some better fitting pants and another long sleeve sweater I will share when I wear them together 😀

Then fresh nail mail came too! One just happens to coordinate with my new blouse while the other is complimentary to it!! YAY!!!

I have been so busy with the Boho Heart quilt… I finished the cross hatch last Sunday….

Then to the right of the crosshatch got finished yesterday and tah dah!!!!

Here is a view after I rolled !!!

Above you can see where I preparing for each type of marking … blue water soluble markers from Leonis that I find on Amazon… And chalk pounce that I mark the cross hatch areas with because it is a busy pattern…. I love each method differently too! This color of pounce is light pink… but they have white and light blue as well…. I do not use the iron away pounce powder though only the pounce chalk powder!!!!

Linking This Slow stitching Sunday update to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching HERE <<<<

Next up to hand quilt is starting the piecing stage yesterday….

Yes!!! The bed runner is in process!!!! In fact….

I have all the pieces cut and am sewing on the opposing corners flippy corners saving the bonus hst from each of these flippy corners… for a special job!

Where I will be today …. Paradise!!!!

It has been a crazy busy week around here… I finished the machine quilting on my Get Well Soon quilt and even did machine binding back to front with a straight stitch and it turned out awesome… unfortunately no final pics to show.. it is waiting for the hospital trip but I will try to get a photo this week to share next week with y’all! 🙂

Each morning when I make time to enjoy a cup of coffee and hand quilt I have found that the results are exceptional!

I managed to get the crosshatch for the heart pounced onto the heart… I will go over it with my chalk marking pen once I start doing the cross hatch… So this progress I am linking to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching gang HERE <<< Come on over there and see what everyone is up to… it is ALWAYS eventful on Sunday’s link up! This week Kathy also shows some of her fave tools for hand quilting!! 🤩

I bought a layer cake of gorgeous fabric and some backing fabric I may use for the background of the front too once I see it in person… it is a tone on tone and I ended up with a great deal on the Moda layer cake and backing for the bed runner I have planned from the same seller on Ebay!!!!

Above is my basic layout and block count for this bed runner… but I hope it turns out in mid to dark tones in the cross colors and lighter in the background to make the cross colors really pop! You can see in my graph papered layout that the top will measure 22.5 x 85.5″ but it will shrink with washing and be 20″ x 82″ or so once ready to gift… I am excited about this fun project….

My honey continues to be busy making and selling these wood indoor Barn quilts….

The links for the top two on eBay are HERE and HERE respectively and yes the second one is 3d bear paw!

Those links will open up directly to ebay on a new screen so you won’t lose your place on my blog either! lol

By special request of a very good bloggy friend … My honey made and mailed this one this week… it is called Card Trick and is a challenge but he was up for it!!!

If you have a special request for a quilt block up to 11 1/2″ square indoor decor type quilt blocks please feel free to email me or mention your interest in your comment and we can chat there off the post 🙂 His work is professional and amazing *I am NOT partial about this either* He is a long time woodworker and it shows in his products and he loves a great challenge… And <<<< He got a couple new to us saws this week too… they look GREAT and work GREAT so the older tools he had for making these quilt blocks and future of outdoor quilt blocks will be much easier and safer for him 😊

Thanks for visiting my blog today … hope you have enjoyed your visit and my wide range of sharing with you all! Please comment … I do try to reply to each one personally too!

This week since the 22nd has been cool and crisp here in North Carolina USA! In fact a few nights we have had to close up the house and turn on the heat!!!! WOWEE 40’s here they are!!!

Although warm weather will return intermittently I am anxiously awaiting sharing some wonderful autumn pics in the near future as the leaves change before falling in the Appalachian mountains we live in 😀

We have been doing some autumn cleaning and decor changing around….

The neighbor who gifted us all these beautiful plants has offered us more when we can house them! We need some macramé hangers though… are they still a thing???

Here’s an autumn quilt I made a couple years back and is a mix of machine and hand quilting …. The turkeys represent me and my honey!

My honey finished this beautiful star pattern I call a log cabin star but it is the lemoyne star with a neat background pattern framed and hangs by a wire because it is 21″ square! My best friend bought it! YAY

He completed this Bear Paw / Claw pattern and it is for sale locally or on eBay HERE …. it is 9″ square or 12 3/4″ diagonal measurement and has a picture hanging hook on the back for easy hanging in your home.

Then he decided to try a 3 dimensional block and made a card trick block 12 1/2″ square! I really like it… someone is due to buy it today!

His next focus is to make a 3 dimensional bear claw block after liking how the card trick came out… Bear Claw block seems to be his most popular atm.

When I haven’t been helping him with wood quilt blocks …. I finally finished quilting the Get Well Soon quilt and am planning to try attaching the binding using THIS tutorial I found from Julie Cefalu online.

The binding is a grey patterned binding that will finish this quilt nicely… that binding fabric is from my bestie’s stash some time ago… so I am happy to have her love into it too since I will be in the hospital alone during my stay due to Covid restrictions. So far my date for surgery for knee replacement #1 (left) is set for October 27. I am excited and nervous at the same time but the excitement definitely wins out as I am tired of being limited and in pain 24/7!

I have made lots of progress on hand quilting too….

And I have rolled the frame to finish the rest of what I had marked but couldn’t reach 🙂

I am linking all this fun and creative hand quilting to Kathy’s Slow Stitching crew at Kathy Quilts HERE <<< It is a fun spot to link up your progress each Sunday and see what others are up to!

Now … I need your help. I want to make this pattern into a bed runner for our neighbor that gifted us the plants next up on my to do list… once I tackle that machine binding… and hand quilt it….

Anyone used a Doug Leko design before?? It is a free pattern to see how you like his designs I guess… so I have downloaded it and plan to peruse it today. AFTER I tackle that binding….

So they have a queen bed… I am figuring 24″ x 80″ for a bed runner??? What do you all think? I have never made one before! lol I will be using my stash and have the beige background aplenty already I had set aside for another project that has gone by the wayside for the background and I will pull natural tones for the cross bars of the design. I just need feedback on the size I guess for a nice cozy finish… they picked the design from several ideas I shared with them.

I hope you are enjoying the change of seasons… Spring in the south of the world and Autumn in the north… Thanks for visiting and please let me know if you have dimensions for a queen bed runner!

Last Saturday I slept most of the afternoon and just felt yucky all day Sunday… no fever or sniffles… just yucky… at my besties urging I left a note here that I was under the weather and not posting… thanks to soooo many of you that posted well wishes too 😊

We have great neighbors in this community we live in…no one is too close in proximity but we are close as friends… One neighbor even gifted us 4 house plants from her “stash” … here are 3! And some autumn silk flowers my honey picked out for our bud vase 😀

The back porch is our main place to hang out so last week and this week we have been organizing and added blinds for the afternoon sun that blares in… and 2 matching ceiling fans… we got 1 on marketplace (same place we found the 2 sun shades) and 1 on eBay… both together though cost less that 1 at Home Depot!!! YAY 🙂 We love them and they adjust with a chain or can turn them both on/ off with a switch just inside the door going into the cabin!

We also found a big clock on marketplace with accurate time, temp and humidity on it that matches our cabin exterior colors….

We are pulling out our limited fall decor items….

Look at our cabin!!!! Those ferns and that begonia are looking sooo nice and the hosta by the front entry have really been hardy this year… we have a neighbor who doesn’t believe in leashing his dog so the pet comes and pees on our plants for fun! It is very frustrating and we have told him so… Now lately we haven’t seen his dog… so maybe he has leashed it… time will tell… and autumn will let all these hardy plants slowly wither so I am glad I snapped this shot as we were leaving for errands one day this week 😀

I am down to only 8 blocks… top and bottom borders… and binding on this “Get Well Soon Quilt” … slow and steady finishes the job though… I just do not adore machine quilting like I do hand quilting! lol

I have gotten lots done on the hand quilting front… I finished what I shared 2 weeks ago…

And marked the left side and quilted it about 2/3 of the way up… which is as far as I can reach! lol

Then I marked the cross hatch of the heart with my pounce pad and Allary chalk cartridge pen…. And got it quilted yesterday 😀 YIPPEE!

Next up is marking and quilting 2/3 up on the right side of the hart and I can roll and get the top 1/3 all the way across. Can I get that done for next week’s show??? I hope so!!!

This is my focus today 🙂 Linking this hand quilting fun to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitchers…. HERE <<<< Come see what everyone is doing by hand… there is crochet, knitting and of course some hand quilting and embroidery too!

My knee replacement surgery #1 is scheduled for end of October due to Covid… it had been scheduled for end of September but rates are just too high for the ortho surgeon to do in patient surgeries like mine will be.

I continue to lose weight and am at 50 pounds gone so far !!!! You can see my saggy neck in this photo I tried to capture a happy photo of me and Molly…

You can see my CPAP mask strap indention on my face too LOL… didn’t realize that until now! I made Molly a fresh bandana but she will need one soon for autumn too ❤ I love spring and autumn… esp in these mountains!

I got a new iron this week too… Amazon had it a bit less that Walmart but last I looked Walmart is now less expensive and in stock at the big stores…

So far I like it better than my previous black and decker that all the rubber on it for easy ironing came off! Also it started spitting water … this one is made in Germany so I am hoping it holds up better… it has a ceramic soleplate too!

Now check out my honey’s latest adventure… wood barn quilts! This one is 12″ square and we will be selling them in various colors but I loved this combo of the friendship star! It has a hanging claw on the back or it could stand up like we did for this photo!

Hope you each have a great week now and thanks for visiting… please leave a comment so I know you were here 😀

Feeling a bit under the weather today so will catch up with you all next week!!!

Have a blessed Sunday y’all!