Friday, April 24, 2015

Blogiversary One!

One "G" or two? I looked it up and it's in the Urban Dictionary with one so I'm going with it.

Yep, it's been one year since I published my first post on Pedal Sew Lightly. It's also been a month since my last post but I swear I have a good excuse or two.

Have I mentioned that I rent my house for the week of the Master's Golf Tournament? Maybe a few too many times, you say? Well, it puts such a damper on my sewing space setup that I can't help it and I'm going to play that card again.

I just couldn't squeeze in time at the computer during my pre-Master's prep to put out a post. I had several projects that I needed to finish or get to a good stopping point so that I could stow them before I reverted my sewing space back into a proper dining room.

Now that the rain is gone I have taken some photos of my first ever quilt started around 1995 and finished in 2015.




I had to finish my arcs for the Pieceful Hearts' charity quilt. Trust me, they are finished and in the proper hands. And I did have enough fabric!


I had to cut sashing for my granny square quilt so I could work on it while I was on vacation. Here's my nice little setup in my sister's new craft room.



Here is the granny square quilt as it looks today.




One more border and she will be ready to quilt!


I also had to finish one VA donation quilt top before I left so I could share it with my guild and have a second prepped for finishing on vacation. Here is a sneak peek and I'll do a proper share at a later date. I did get that second top done at my sister's house between visiting, sightseeing and even an outing on my bike!


Don't ya love the porta-pottie in the background, or Portable as we call it in the construction biz. Sis moved into a half finished neighborhood so the Hubs had plenty of NC hurricane zone projects to survey and compare with GA non-hurricane zone building practices. He's still a big engineering geek on vacation.

Biking freak too. He rode all but one non-travel day. He drew the line at lightning.


Here he is the day we rode together. We did 18 miles of flat. No hills but no rest either. It was fun and we liked this little party pavilion architecture so much we had to stop and check it out.

I also had extra work at the office prepping for an 8 day absence to keep me away from the blog.  

Then when I got home I had to un-B&B the house, set up the sewing area again, catch up at the office and sit down at my 301 just because I wanted to sew. It may be approaching an addiction I am not sorry to say.

So, for those of you who like to peek into other people's homes, like me, here's some shots of my real dining room in it's best B&B form.


I like to keep it spare 'cuz that's my preferred style and I don't want the guests to have to worry about breakage.


You can see this is a post rental photo by the spots on the table cloth. Looks like the dining room got used for its special purpose. My effort was not in vain!


I have a confession, I didn't take all of the "Sewing" out of the room. Two machines where tucked into a corner. My 15-90 in the cabinet and my Juki on the cabinet. 


I doubt the guys even noticed. Both of our TVs were on the golf channel when we got home. I am pretty sure they were too mentally fixated on golf to notice an unusual feature in the dining room.



That brings me to a final excuse for my blog post delay. I covered this vintage sewing stool with a remnant of Ikea home dec so it would look better with my dining suite chair cushions. I would have liked more orange but I still think it looks cute.

A big Thank you to Erin at Sew at Home Mummy for her series, "Beautify Your Blog", that I used extensively for early inspiration and guidance.


Some stats on my blog as of April 24, 2015:
66 Published posts
84 Bloglovin followers (Not exactly taking the blog world by storm)
15 email subscribers
Most popular post (Click to check it out)
12,234 Pageviews to date  
487 Comments
And best of all, I have connected with a number of wonderful bloggers and I have finally gotten more involved in various forms of social media, which is great since our family is flung far and wide across the USA!

Thanks for visiting!

Linking up with:
She Can Sew's Show Off Saturday
Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Bee Social
Crazy Mom Quilt's Finish it Up Friday
Things I Make, hosting TGIFF
Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Can I Get a Whoop Whoop
Needle & Thread Thursdsay on My Quilt Infatuation

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations on one year! I have really enjoyed the sneak peek into your life and hope you keep going. Your dining room is so attractive and inviting. Love the new chair cover. And I absolutely love your granny square quilt!!

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  2. Your granny square quilt turned out lovely. Nice job. Congrats on the blogiversary. micki@2dogsstudio.us

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  3. Your quilts are lovely - congrats on one year of blogging, such a cool way to share your work.

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  4. I love your granny square quilt! It is definitely inspiring me to start one. Thank you for sharing.

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  5. Great post, Gayle! I feel like I know you a bit better already. :-)
    Granny square quilts are so appealing - and yours looks so fresh and pretty. How great to be able to sew with your sister!!!
    Congrats on your blogiversary. Have fun settling back into your home and your projects!

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  6. Congratulations Lil Sis on your one year Blogiversary! I am so proud of you! Especially of all the hard work you have put into your quilts. Thanks so much for taking me along on your quilting adventure...I have learned so much from you. You have given me so much encouragement that has allowed me to have enough confidence to quilt on my own. I have to admit it's much more fun sewing with then without ; )
    Keep on pedaling!

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  7. Thanks for linking up with me for TGIFF. I love your granny square quilt and I love your green walls in your dining room. Thanks for sharing. :-)

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  8. Love your granny square quilt -- can't imagine getting my place ready to rent out for a week -- too much stuff here!!

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