Celebrating settling in ... FINALLY!

 Hi Y'all!  Welcome to my Kentucky blog stop and thanks for visiting!  Grab a cuppa something yummy and see how we have settled (no cardboard boxes! YAY) and ALL I have been quilting and up to in my sewing studio :)

First, I hope each one of you Understand your Value in the world... we each have a place to be and a purpose... look into your life and FINE YOURS!  It is there :)

Nothing hit MORE home with me than this JUNE ______ meme (?).... than during a party we all had at my parents home for their 60th anniversary... it was a SURPRISE to them!  They had no clue! lol

First to show (after we snuck the cake in showing up about an hour before everyone else) was my daughter Brandi and her beau Ryan....

Molly really enjoyed Ryan the MOST! lol

Next showing up was Michael and Kristen!  I failed somehow to get them with Nana and Grandpa or solo or with us!

Then my brother and his wife and 2 youngest kids (middle and high schoolers) showed up and the complete jig was up and the party began!

Here are me and my brother when younger.... much younger! lol  He is 5.5 years younger! lol

And here is Nana and Grandpa with all their grands (my bro has 2 kids that have grown and gone... so only they are missing!  YAY)

And here are mom and dad with the 60th anniversary cake and cake topper commemorating this special day!

And here is our whole clan - Ryan agreed to be the camera guy... I left the tripod at home :(

It was fun and festive and an event my parents' still can't believe I pulled it all off without spilling the beans! lol  In closing on this topic... Here are the 60th anniversary items we gifted or used at my parents party along with a restaurant they love gift card too!

This is why I didn't blog last week.. completely worn out!  Everyone brought finger foods and drinks, cups and plates and plasticware...it was amazing the collection of food... and I brought the desserts... Mom could stay satt long but she truly enjoyed being hosted instead of hosting even though we had it at their home. 

That following Monday I saw a podiatrist and am following his requested regime with no foot pain or very seldom do I have any!  AMAZING without medications too!  I so have a topical I can use on my feet but that is only if needed and over the counter strength!

Wednesday Rick had his appointment with the Kentucky area VA Clinic in Somerset... it is a simple but effective clinic Rick said... and his MD even called to clarify a few fine points with my honey after... that was AWESOME in our book!

The rest of the week I have been hand quilting and chipping away at my sewing room while doing projects too... around the house!

First my sewing room... because I am CELEBRATING!!!  Let me show you why!!!

I had most of the room gone through except these last 2 crates that are sitting on the floor dishevelled...

Yesterday I emptied those bins!!!!

See... look at this pic of my fabric cabinet and beside that is my 301 covered up with the machine dust cover.... GONE!

The cabinet where may fabric and such stays is very organized too!

All my fabric fat quarter and up organized by color or solids...

Top drawer consists of rotary mats, and rulers and templates of all kinds...

Drawer 2 has all sorts of quilty goodies and some craft stuff too... it also holds ALL my cutting tools :)

Finally... that bottom drawer holds quilt backings or large amounts of fabric that can be used for that!

My closet is completely organized... feels like I covered this last post... if I didn't and you are interested just drop me a comment at the end :)  I LOVE THIS SPACE MOST!

This cardboard box you see is the last one in the house now I do believe!  It is all the decor - personal stuff mainly - that may or may not get used here...some may get destashed as we like a sleek uncluttered look overall... and this wall will be a design wall in the near future!

Next to that is my NEW ironing board with a NEW cover besides the poor one that came on it.. it is under the Brabanzia one I purchased separately from Amazon!  Black denim rocks!

Here is my one window... with my wholecloth ready to hand stitch on...

And here is my desk and printer... ALSO... see those crates under the 319w cabinet?  I have moved them now to under the wholecloth... and I have the 319 ready to roll soon!  YIPPEE!  I have missed sewing something :D 

Isn't this pic the truth?!!!

Here is my hand quilting progress on Connie's Granny Square quilt ...

And planning to work more on this block TODAY!!!!

>>>>ANYONE <<<< 

Interested in this cross stitch chart with threads to complete in these colors?  Just add 14 ct Aida or Linen 28 ct... your choice and a cross stitch needle????  Send me an email HERE to claim... NO COST in the USA 48 :)

Linking this slow stitching progress and other HAND y work to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching....

HERE<<<<<  Come see what everyone is up to and see how you answer Kathy's question of the week.

My honey got a Shopsmith - it is a multi wood working tool that works like a transforming tool that turns into several... very cool if you like wood working like my honey does... this one is from the 80's but he had one in Florida to Topton that was in it's 50's!  They used to have commercials for them... if you remember those! lol

In completing this LOOONG Post I want you to be Happy as Life really is too short to be anything else!

Have a fabulous Sunday and I do hope you find something Hand-y to do today!

Back to HANDQUILTING here!!!

 Hi Y'all!  Hope your Sunday is going Stellar!  You will never know how Joyful I felt this week getting back to Hand Quilting!!!

June is a time to find JOY without making it feel so hard to fill your own cup up instead of everyone elses.  A great example of this is making time to Hand Quilt again!

June is  also a nice time to be almost out of boxes :)  There are 3 1/2 in my quilt cave that need stuff before they can be sorted...  Rick has several in his room ... which hasn't been sorted yet in his defense! lol  He has been working on settling ALL the rest of our home!  Finally there are 2 in our master closet.  Pretty cool I can now count boxes down instead of having 2 of the 10' x 10' x 10' tall storage lockers full of boxes and things that wouldn't fit in boxes mostly placed or replaced because we didn't need that in this home!!!

Finding Joy in June for me is sharing a bit of a view of our home then a close up of my hand quilting I have started on!

We have 2 ferns maturing on our front porch... a flag flying in the breeze and...

Look at this rose bush we brought along with us...

I had originally received this for a Valentine's from Rick.  It was enjoyable but not hugely productive with actual budding and growing... then the last 2 years in the cabin it did better... but we hit the sun and water it likes here... there are NINE buds actively blooming and more coming!!!

I love the front door the previous owners picked... It is lovely!  And  the door mat was a gift from them to us... our new Home Sweet Home for sure!

As you enter our home there is a bit of a foyer time area.... but nothing formal...

My quilt frame ... also a chest I found through Amazon to house all my quilting supplies for any project in my frame....

Above you can also see I update my lighting at my frame... this new light works  well... Rick wants to install some track lights though... we shall see down the  road ;)

Our dining room really is enjoyable!

I love the table/chairs/buffet/plants & decor...

And our latest find... a table to sit our internet below with a nice plant above!

Our kitchen is awesome... we use ALL the  drawers but not all the cabinets on the bottom yet! lol

We will delve into our bedroom and the guest room and other shots I wanted to share with you next week ... but for this  week... I must share... Connie came for a visit...yes,  my bestie drove 2 1/2 hours to help me get organized.... I haven't missed a day since she had to return to her life... of nesting or organizing something in here or elsewhere if needed :)

Tah-dah! My bestie at the end of  her visit  with sew much progress we celebrated!

This is a look at the door that leads into the quilt cave from the hallway.  The silver cart is bag making supplies and patterns for that... the black  doors are my quilting supplies and scrap fabric organization :)

See!  More to share on this closet next week because I used every little inche thanks to Connie and her awesome organizational skills!

Above.. the center drawers are all scraps separated by color... nothing bigger that a partial fat quarter in there.  The baskets on the doors each hold quilting goodies I use only intermittently and we liked them there.  On the left side of the closet is batting stabilizers and interfacings as well as stuffing etc.  On the right those 2 columns of  boxes???  See Those????  There are 14 of those white lidded crates and I think some are double filled with UFO's and WIP's!!!  I am sew embarrassed by this... 18-20 UFO's???

Here is my fabric storage for fat quarters and up... finally organized by color or family... for instance all the solids and tot's are in 1 area and all the rest IS divided by color with exception to some plaids I was gifted and plan to make quilts from all those homespun plaids.. and my civil war repros we love so much are in a basket to themselves :D

Here is where I am quilting on the Granny Square quilt.... It sew nice to sit down occasionally now and just stitch... Such a luxury and definitely a Joy this June!

Linking this post and all our handiwork to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching HERE <<<  Come see and come link too what hand work you are up to this week!

I would like to see what joy June has brought your way... or how you took time for you and how you felt about that ...  Come back next week for some Handy Progress!

Welcome Y'all ~ From Monticello, Kentucky!

 Sew Happy to be greeting you this June the 4th, 2023 from Monticello, KY...

Monticello was named after President Thomas Jefferson's home place in 1800 ... Jefferson became President that year and the name seemed fitting to the founding fathers of this town... now it is known as the Houseboat Capitol of the World located on a tributary of the Cumberland River!  Boy I have learned A LOT of History !!! LOL

Since my last post on April 16... I have finished the row of the quilt I was on before it had to be packed up... I am just OVER halfway!!!!

And I mean packed it up!  We had 2 storage units to hold all our hobby and important other stuff... yet over half of what we took was ALL OF MY SEWING AND QUILTING SUPPLIES and SOME of Rick's WOODWORKING SUPPLIES!

We left our cabin with a lot of great memories and a couple of final shots... here is one on a drizzly morning as we went to our closing on the cabin...

What a busy day that turned out to be!  We went to our cabin closing then to our friends home Jack and Theresa!  They made us feel right at home in their cabin... and when dit was time to meet the mover to load our storage units Theresa was there on deck and Jack helped me manage Molly back at their home.... (I am still having intermitent seizures) all our possessions besides our truck holdings were.  Here is where we landed a day later!

Monticello, Kentucky is the blue dot below the Kentucky name on this map...  it is just an hour and a half north of my parents home in Cookeville, TN!  We moved so much closer to my parents!  Though  this move took a lot out of us both we are amazed that we sold a 912 sq ft home in the mountains and got a 1916 sq ft home where delivery of groceries free is so easy!WOWEE!!!!

We saw my parents once for an occasion... they have also been to our new digs... 

And this is where and how we spent our first few nights before locating vertical blinds for the windows and mattress and bed frame for the new bed too!

Our sink faucet in this home lights up and pulls out and changes water configuration too!  So cool! lol

This translucent frosted glass leads to a stellar laundry room with window and a utility closet for the front side of the house... the original part of the home has a different HVAC unit!

Once we got a bit settled when the movers delivered our boxes... and more boxes... and more stuff too!  My honey got right to work with Molly assisting... putting together my quilt frame...

Then we unrolled the thickly covered (for protection) poles with Connie's quilt on it... Rick had to carefully cut off the covering... then it took us a while to get the right layout for the quilt.  Finally it was on and ready to work on when I find my quilting things and figure a storage mechanism that won't be as messy as previous attempts...

P. S.... I found a rolling drawer unit and filled it YESTERDAY that matches our decor here and works GREAT!  Will share next week ;)

The month of May was all about getting more settled and replacing and adding to furniture we left in North Carolina with the grey cabin.

Adding ferns and a FLAG!

We found a COOL leather topped vintage side table and the Quilt Shop night light fit perfect there!

Our new bed and headboard... came with a footboard too but we will make a window seat from it !

A cool very vintage buffet with some of our fave decor and plants too!

The yellow paper that is taped to the glass of a frame is... MY WINNING SCORE on 5 Crowns card game we enjoy with Mom and Dad!  I never win and I stomped em all! :)

Our new dining table with a bit more view of the whole dining area!

The kitchen... from this angle...

A shelf they added over the sink window... we love how our fave decor fit there!

And here...Make Today Awesome sign had a magnet on the back from long ago when Connie gifted in to Rick.  it now lives on our vent in the kitchen :)

Though we didn't have a built in microwave space... WE LOVE this LG countertop 1200 watt one!

Don't forget to notice we finally found the perfect place for the fish cart of ours from Connie on top of the refrigerator too!

My sewing room... starting the job!

More unpacking... gets worse before it gets better right???!  Wait to see the big reveal next week !

My PVC frame rediscovered the wholecloth... now year 8 of enjoying the hand quilting process... we have covered it up now to keep the sun off of it as it sits in front of the window.

We needed a riding mower for this yard ... it had lots of trees in the past... now, though the yard is green and pretty... underneath lies lots of roots so it is very bumpy.  The mower makes this doable vs our rear wheel drive push mower we used in NC.  It WILL be used here though too for a drainage area on the edge of our property (we are on a corner lot).

Then Mother's Day occured and we visited my Mom and Dad :)

Here is mom holding her cake!  She got a gift card to one of their fave restaurants too!

Here I am in a new shirt and below new house shoes for my Mother's Day gifts :)

Below... we discovered a nest in our fern soon after hanging them out front... with my Dad's help we discovered this was a baby egg from a Hermit Thrush bird.  Mom laid 4 eggs here... she had already had a clutch of 5 babies in a wreath that was staging decor when we viewed the house.  It was hanging on the front door about 4 feet from the new nest ... we think the same mom.... but this time something ate or stole all the eggs because the next day we went to take pics when there were 4 the day before there were none!!!  We haven't heard or seen mama bird since :(  Survival though is for the most fit and this breed of bird lays eggs close to the ground and in ferns is a popular place our research revealed!) 

We found this awesome Quilt Cave sign at our first thrift shop experience.  This sign on the wall and the calendar of all things remain the ONLY things on the wall in my quilt cave atm :) lol

Has anyone made this yet?  Once I can add a project to my MULTITUDE of found and organized projects.... (pics of that to follow next week)... I would love to make this!  The 2 heart version <3

I haven't been hurt one bit by enjoying my fabric wrapping and storage filling...

>>> THIS WEEK I WILL BE CREATING MYSTERY BOXES <<<

Each lbox will include a quilting/hand stitching fiction book G rated.... and a box full of fabric - all different sizes.. a few scraps. fat quarters and larger cuts too!- equally divided from my unable to keep fabrics ...  I plan to sell these boxes of mystery fun to YOU ALL and on Quilter's Classified on Facebook by next weeks blog post I hope... if not sooner!  Let me know how to reach you if you want first dibs on this sale... $30per medium sized flat rate equivalent box & each box should contain about 2 pounds or MORE of fabric plus the book and a special goody from me 💞 to the buyer :)  YIPPEE!

Enjoy spending time with a truly friend this month... have your own slow stitching party!

Speaking of slow stitching... I have managed a bit myself during and since the move... in our new rocking recliner loveseat!!  Pics of our whole living room next week and more home shots!

Connie came up with the idea to try cross stitch style stitches for the base of the tea pot...  I love it too!! Now back to chain stitching around the outside... Unsure of how I will do the handle on the actual top of the tea pot not the handle above that you hold to move it.  Any thoughts???

Linking this slow stitching progress and my life update (LOL) to Kathy's Slow 
Sunday Stitchers HERE <<<<<  Click that link to open a NEW tab with Kathy's blogpost and check out everyone's progress this first Sunday of June.... over 90 * F AGAIN today too!  CRAZY!!!!

In closing today I want to thank you all that made it to the end PLEASE leave a comment or send me a direct email HERE as blogger can be tricky sometimes ... Joy has been a great word this year for me.  Also please  pray for my honey .... that is all I will say right now but more later if needed ~ Thanks!