CowgirlQuilter

Another one off the frame...

2012-01-30T18:38:00.003-05:00

Another one off the frame! Today I quilted the quilt that I showed you in my last post. It is beautiful! Her mitered corners are perfect. It quilted up nicely with Hobbs cotton batting. She wanted it quilted with the "Chantilly Lace" design. I just love the fabrics used in this one. I'm always afraid to use larger scale floral, I'm never sure what to do with them and then I see a quilt like this one and I wish I had made it. LOL! This quilt was a nice size, it measures 92x104. I didn't get a photo of the backing but I think you can see a little of it in the first photo. It is a creamy floral wideback, I just love it.

I'm going to load my next one on later tonight and get started on it first thing in the morning after everyone leaves for school. I have to do the binding also on it.

During a couple of my breaks today, I sat down at my sewing machine and pieced a few more log cabin blocks. I think I'm up to 15 now. I still have problems with my hips from time to time so I have to take breaks every little bit from standing at the frame, so this was the perfect time to get a few more blocks finished. I didn't get a photo of them but you will just have to take my word for it. :)

I'm off to finish up some laundry and get that other quilt loaded on the frame before bedtime.

Kristie

I know what you are thinking...

2012-01-28T18:22:00.003-05:00

I sewed a little for me last night! :) It did feel great, but I also know that I need to stay on top of these other quilts. So I did make me a little schedule to go by, that way I can get them done in a timely manner and also sew for myself.

This is what I did last night!!! I know what you are thinking....another one?? Yep! I just love making these blocks!
My first log cabin block was back in early 2010 when I made this one and I was hooked! After we get the painting done, I plan on hanging this on the balcony wall. If I remember correctly it measures 96x96. And I know I started this Courthouse Step quilt a while back and it still isn't completed. Well, it's close! I have it sewn into 4 sections and I need to sew the border on. Not even sure why I don't have it done yet, because it would take me all of 30 minutes to finish it. :(

But I just love making these blocks! They are addictive and mindless! I'm sure some of you are wondering why I am paper piecing such a simple block but I have a few reasons. 1) Precision 2) I love paper piecing and 3) most of these are made from scraps and strings and I don't want to take the time to cut them exact! I cut them to the length needed and just start sewing! So much fun for me!

Here I have some of the pieces separated and ready to sew. I keep them organized in small baskets for easy clean up and keeping them all sorted. BTW... Bernie, if you are reading this you will see the red fabrics that you sent to me. I started to work on my red/white quilt, but not sure what I have done with my white fabric for it. I'll have to dig for it. :)

Okay, back to the log cabin blocks. LOL! I only have 5 of them finished right now but I'm hoping to do a few more tonight before bed. I'm not even sure which layout I will use for this one.

This is the new customer quilt to be quilted. I have the backing loaded on the frame but I just have the top laying there. I haven't loaded it on there yet. It is another big one and it is soooo pretty! I have 3 to do for this lady. Her name is Maruzia, she is 76 years old and she pieces perfectly! I've quilted for her before and just love doing her quilts. I think every quilt that she does have mitered corners and they lay so flat and every seam in the quilts are exact. Anyway, this quilt is very pretty and I will try to get a better photo of it later. On the supper menu tonight....Chili!! Nothing like a big pot of chili to get you warmed up on a cold night.
Supper is over and I'm heading upstairs to the sweat shop to sew!!!

Kristie

Making Progress

2012-01-27T15:33:00.003-05:00

The past few days I have been at the frame quilting. This first one, the lady called it Mariposa. I think that actually may have something to do with the fabric. It has lots of butterflies on it. Actually both of these quilts belong to the lady that owns the quilt shop. This one measures 65x75 and I quilted it with a panto called "popcorn" a very easy one to do. I ended up having to pick out the first whole row and changed the threads. It wasn't quilting that great and I'm wondering if it had something to do with the gold paint stuff on the fabric, know what I'm talking about? After I changed the thread everything was fine.

This is the one that I quilted yesterday and they both had to be delivered today! This one was pretty big measuring in at 96x106. I just couldn't get motivated with this one, I love the pattern, I just didn't like the design that she wanted quilted on it. The design wasn't even a hard one, it's just one that I find boring and I don't ever like to use it. The panto is called "cotton candy" It took me all day just because I kept walking away from the machine. :) Seems like I always end up putting things off to the last minute. I quilted on it until bedtime last night and then got up, got Richard and Hunter off to school, finished quilting the quilt and was out the door by 8:30am! How's that for pushing it??? LOL!
I delivered them both this morning and she was very pleased with them. I had several more quilts to pick up from the shop that other people had left for me, so now I have 18 waiting to be quilted. That is a little stressful knowing that I have that many waiting to be done but then again, I am very thankful that I have them to do. I'll get them done, I just need to pace myself and schedule so many a week to do. I don't want to quilt these client quilts seven days a week, I would like to sew somethings for myself too. Is that being selfish?

I have several big ones waiting to be quilted and one baby quilt that I can't wait to show you all, it is super cute! One of those quilts measures 110x118 and that is the first quilt that she has ever made. I was just shocked that someone would make one that big for their first quilt. Oh well, at least she jumped in head first into quilting.

Back to that big Carpenter's Star quilt that I just showed you above....that quilt shop sells those kits and I'm thinking about getting one to make later as a gift. I know that it wouldn't really be that hard to pull the fabrics from my stash and the pattern is easy to make, but I do like some of the fabric choices that they have in the kits. They have a couple of different colorways in the kits. Anyway, the kit costs $75 and the quilt measures 96x106 and I think that includes the binding fabric (I'll have to check on that to make sure) Is that a good price or is that high? I don't usually buy kits that often so I really don't know.

Yesterday while I was trying to avoid doing that quilt, I made Hunter a batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies. He was soooo pleased when he got home from school and said, "Mom, you make the best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the world" and gave me a big hug and kiss. He doesn't have to know that they came from a bag of Betty Crocker Cookie Mix, does he??? LOL!

Now I am waiting for them to get home from school. Supper is on the stove, we are having Spaghetti and Garlic toast with Chocolate Pie for dessert.
Kristie

What is your favorite POLY batting?

2012-01-25T13:11:00.002-05:00

What is your favorite POLY batting?

I have several clients that want POLY batting instead of cotton. I am looking for a good, CHEAP poly batting that I can buy on a roll and it not cost me an arm and a leg. Some of my clients send batting with their tops and some do not. Some love cotton 80/20 blend or Warm & Natural. I have in stock 80/20 cotton, Warm & Natural and a thicker (high loft) poly. I am looking for a thinner loft that would be about the same loft as Warm & Natural....or at least I think.

I've been online today looking around for rolls that are not too costly, but I can never find out the loft, if it is needle punched or not, or if it is just fuzzy when you take if off the roll. Some places will say it is so many ounces per square yard and then you look at that same ounce weight on another website and it gives you a total different loft thickness.

So I'm just curious that if you do use POLY batting, which one is it?

Thanks so much
Kristie

First one quilted for the New Year....finally

2012-01-23T13:32:00.004-05:00

I'm finally back to quilting! I am a little backed up and I need to get these finished. I think I have a total of 12 more as of right now that need to be quilted. So here is the first one...It is huge! 96x114 to be exact. This one was pieced so well, it was a dream to quilt. It took a while to get it done but it did quilt up nicely. Now I have to get the binding done on it this evening and deliver it in the morning! :( I have the binding cut, I just need to press it and sew it on. That part will not take too long but the had sewing will take a while. I am pretty fast at that part once I settle down and get started. After I deliver this one tomorrow I have to run and pick up some batting while I am out. Hopefully, I will get another one loaded on the frame tomorrow evening. Fingers crossed. :)

I guess I had better get started! Supper is ready and waiting for Richard and Hunter to get home. On the menu this evening....Pot Roast with potatoes and carrots, corn on the cob (Hunter's favorite), mac and cheese, and rolls (not homemade but store bought) LOL!
Kristie
Kristie

HELLO!!!!

2012-01-22T17:50:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to pop in and say that I am back online!!! This is just a quick little post to say hello and hopefully tomorrow I will post again with some photos of a beautiful quilt that I have on the frame and it should be finished tomorrow.

We are loving living in the new house! We are very tired but loving it! Still have a ton of things to unpack but I will get to those as soon as I can.....maybe. LOL! Anyway, I am still so happy that after all of this time we are living in it.

See ya tomorrow!
Kristie

Finally it is going to happen!

2012-01-14T11:07:00.004-05:00

Thank you all so much for the prayers and words of encouragement with the situation with dad. Things are still tough there for me but, I just don't know if I could live with myself if something happened and I didn't try to work through this. They did the other test and his left carotid artery is 100% closed off and there is nothing that can be done with it. The right carotid artery is 50% blocked! So the 50% that is open on the right side is trying to supply blood to both sides of the brain. Not a good thing, as he is not a candidate for surgery at this point. So a massive/fatal stroke will happen when the right carotid artery can do no more. Of course the doctors can't say when that will happen and I know that is up to the Good Lord above. Just a big mess and hard for me to deal with right now, but I did take my kids down to visit him, that went pretty good.

This may be my last post for a week or so. WE ARE MOVING THIS WEEKEND!!!! Richard is connecting the gas to the house as we speak! The electric and water will be connected to the house this weekend, but we have to wait for the phone and internet to be changed over. You know how that goes, they just take their sweet old time coming to do that stuff. If I am at mom's I'll post from there but hopefully it will not be too long.

I am so ready for this move! Everything is still a mess, but hopefully it will be over soon. Actually my couch and chairs are already in the house so all we have to sit on in here is the recliner and the computer desk chair! :( As soon as the electric is connected we will move the refrigerator, freezer, stove, washer and dryer over. Oh and our bed! Hunter and Andrew already have beds in there. Then I will move everything else over as I can. There is just mostly odds and ends junk left in here. The people that bought this mobile home say that it will be somewhere between the end of January and middle of February before they can move it, so that will work out great for me.

I am very excited! I just can't put it into words how excited that I am to be moving in this house that we have worked so hard to build and pay for as we built it. When we moved the couch in the other day, I just sat down on it and cried! Richard just looked at me and smiled.

Anyway, I will be back on here shortly....
Kristie

An emotional post for me....

2012-01-10T08:55:00.003-05:00

This is a very emotional post for me, so it may not make a lot of sense to you all. My sister and I have not spoken to our dad for probably 4 or 5 years. Just a lot of problems there, that I am just too emotional to go into right now. He has been remarried for a while and things were always going on there that I just couldn't handle being around. So I decided that it was best to just stay away. My kids don't see things like that going on here at home so I didn't want them around it if I could help it.

Soooooo my brother calls Sunday to say that my dad is in the hospital and had a stroke. He has not been in good health for several years. He has had several heart attacks and surgeries. It did upset me when I got the call but I didn't go to the hospital. Yesterday they did more tests on him and decided that they thought his carotid artery is 100% closed off. If that test is correct then the doctor says there is nothing that they can do and a massive stroke is something that they can not stop. Today they are doing a test to see if there is even a pinhole there in that artery that they can work with. If there is a tiny pinhole then they may be able to do something, if that junk doesn't dislodge and go on the the brain.

Soooooo after lots of praying and thinking about the whole thing, my sister and I decided to make the trip down to the hospital to see him. It was a very emotional time for all of us including him. We called ahead because we didn't just want to pop in with him not knowing we were coming and take the chance of messing up his vitals. After a few minutes of tears and emotions he calmed down. Things were talked about to some extent between us all. We left the hospital around 1am last night and I think everyone felt better about the whole situation.

Today he is going through more tests to find out for sure if that is 100% blocked and if anything can be done. The doctor said that if it is 100% blocked in that area then they can't do surgery. Please keep him in your prayers and pray that if he does make it through this that we can all try to have a relationship and work through things...

Almost there...

2012-01-04T15:06:00.004-05:00

It has been several days since my last post, here is a little update. Still in the moving process. The couple that bought the mobile home are not able to move it right now, so that buys us a little more time. Actually when I talked to them last night they talked like it may be at least a month. That makes me relax a little but we will be moved in to the house way before that time. Things are almost finished enough for us to move in. Just a little more drywall sanding, a few outlets, lots of clean up and then just hook up the electric and water!! Here are a few photos of some things that we have done over the past week.

This photo was taken from about midway of the stairs, this is the ceiling over my living room that is open. Mom bought us two ceiling fans for this room and my sewing room for Christmas.

This is the one in my sewing room. They match because they both can be seen at the same time. For some reason they look like they have a red tint to them in the photo but they don't.

Here are a couple of photos of the main bathroom. Everything is done in there except the trim and baseboards.
We finally got the tile down in there and I sealed the grout last night.
I don't have a clue why a couple of these photos came out small on here. Anyway, the table is moved in and I will probably add the extensions on it to make it larger now that I have more space. As you can see in the photo I still have drywall dust floating around and I need to dust the table really bad. LOL! I swear all of this drywall dust is giving me nightmares!
This is a section of our yard right now! It is a horrible mess! Richard had to dig a huge ditch for the electric wire and water lines. I'm hoping this will look a lot better by Spring! :)On to a few other things....I had planned on quilting 3 quilts for my 2 nephews and my niece for Christmas, but I just couldn't get to them. I had this one loaded on the frame before Christmas but I just needed to take a break from quilting and get some things done with the move. So I ended up just buying them gifts and I will get these quilted and to them as soon as I can. I took a couple of weeks off from quilting so now I need to get back to it because I have some customer quilts that need to be done. Today I quilted it and hopefully tomorrow I can start on some customer quilts....hopefully. :) I'll do the binding when I can and also get the other two quilted.

Here is my sewing table! I know it looks horrible right now but you should see my whole sewing room! I am using it for a dumping ground. Seems like with this move everything is getting piled in there until it can be put away. Okay, back to the table...you can see I finally got my Courthouse Step pieces out of the floor and I still have not sewed all of the sections together, I just haven't had time. Under that is a pile of curtains that need to be pressed and hung. I dread that, I just hate to iron curtains. Maybe I can talk mom into doing that, but then again I know she hates doing that too. There are also an ironing board, rolls of batting and some quilt tops under there. :( So as of right now, everything is a big dusty mess. Well, the downstairs is dusty the upstairs isn't, it is just messy! I have half in here and half of the stuff in the house...I can't find anything! It is starting to get on my nerves. Over the next few days we are going to try to get most of everything done except maybe the electric and water. I'm just not sure if we can get that done before Richard goes back to school. Actually, Richard and Andrew both start back to college on Monday, but they go to two different colleges. Anyway, I'm hoping to be moved in within a week or week and a half.

Off to do some laundry and finish supper! I'm frying chicken right now and need to make some mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and cornbread...
Kristie

What is your opinion?

2011-12-25T19:34:00.006-05:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great Christmas! I'll show a couple of photos of our Christmas and then move on the house update and quilting.

Christmas Eve we went to Richard's sister, Vanessa's cabin for dinner. His family met for dinner and gift exchange. Richard's grandmother was there, she is 91 years old and he is very close to her. After dinner we headed back home so that Hunter could get in bed before Santa came. Hunter was up this morning by 6am! Andrew had to work a 12 hour shift last night and didn't get off work until 8am this morning. He has to work tonight 8pm to 8am. So here are my boys! Hunter was excited to get to open the gift that Andrew got for him. This is Andrew's first job so he was very proud to get to buy things himself.

We had a wonderful day together. I fixed dinner and my sister and her boyfriend came out for dinner. I got a nice call from my brother and mom too. We will have Christmas with mom and my brother will be there too, next weekend after she gets home.

Here are a few photos of the house progress...everything is sooooo dusty out there right now with the construction still going on. First off is the light that will be over my dining table. I know it would look so much better if everything was painted but paint is just not in the budget right now. :(
This is the light that will be over my kitchen island....that is not there yet! :) My upper cabinets, island and all the doors are not done. So after we hung the light I am very anxious to have my island built. You can see in the background where the recessed lights are that will be in front of my upper cabinets. I still need to put the covers on them....I just haven't had time yet. Oh and you can see that I have a ton of dishes on my counter that needs to be put away. I'm just trying to unpack most of the kitchen stuff before I put it away so that I can better organize everything.
This is the bathroom sink and all of the mess on the counter is the shower head and faucet that Richard was installing. See all of that dust in the sink? I still need to take the shopvac in there and clean it a little better before I get the walls painted.

Oh, I actually didn't mean to load this photo on here but it's here anyway! LOL! This is just the kitchen BEFORE I used the shopvac to clean the dust out of the cabinets. :)
This is the ceiling over the living room. You can see the area down there where the white is showing...Richard still needs to put the trim up there where the ceiling angles. It looks much better in person, this ceiling is 22ft high so the wood doesn't make it look closed in as it might if the ceilings were lower. Oh and you can also see where the ceiling fan/light will be installed.
This is the guest room where I am storing all of the stuff right now until I can sort through it and put it all away. I've run out of boxes! :( I think I have been to every business in town bumming their old boxes. :) BTW...this photo was taken several days ago so there is much more in the room now.
Now on the quilting! The other day I needed to take a break from working so I sat down in my sewing room. Laying on the table in front of me, was my Courthouse Step quilt pieces. I've had this thing sewn into 4 sections for a while. I just haven't taken or had the time to finish it. I layed it out on the floor to see how it would look, and this is it. There are a total of 224 of these little blocks. Now I have a question...after I get the four sections sewn together...do you think it will need a border or not????? If you look close in the upper corner, I have a fabric laying there to see how it would look.
Here is a closer look at the border fabric. It has a small stripe in it, and if I use it, I want to miter the corners. Without the borders it will measure 84 x 96, with a 6 inch border it will measure 96 x 108. So what do you think????

I would love your opinions on the border. I just have too much on my mind right now to even really think about it very much. :)

Merry Christmas!

Kristie

Just a little update...

2011-12-21T09:58:00.002-05:00

If I don't get to post again before Christmas, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and let it be full of Blessings. We, well Richard, finally got all of the ceiling covered in my sewing room and the open part over the living room. A total of 1200 sq ft covered with wood. These are very high ceilings so it doesn't feel dark and heavy. This is the part over my sewing room, part of it was done for a while but he finished it and did all of that over the living room. The beams will be covered with stained wood as soon as we get to it. We just mostly wanted to get the ceiling wood up to cover the insulation. The bookshelf in the photo measures 4x6 ft so that can give you an idea of the size of the room and the ceiling. Still have to install the ceiling fan/light in there, which I don't have yet because it is a Christmas gift from my mom. :) Sorry mom, but I know. LOL!

I tried to get a photo of the ceiling over the living room, but they didn't turn out very well. I'll try that again as soon as I can. Richard is sanding the drywall in my kitchen right now. I can't wait to get that mess cleaned up. After he gets it done and I can get all of that dust and building materials out of there I will start unpacking some of my kitchen stuff. It will look a little odd because my upper cabinets and island are installed. I don't even have cabinet doors on the bottom cabinets, but that's okay with me....for now. :)

I started painting the bathroom the other day and that didn't end well. First, I couldn't get the ladder to fit right in there. It would go in the bathroom but I couldn't get it positioned right so that I could paint around the edges of the ceiling or the very top of the walls. I even tried to stand on a bucket but that didn't work, my ceiling is 8ft and I'm only 5ft tall so you can see the problem. LOL! Richard said he would paint the trim areas as soon as he could get to it, so I decided to go ahead and paint the walls in there. I only got one small section done, the roller was leaving tons of lint/fuzzies all over the wall. I stopped because it looked so bad. I picked up more rollers but haven't had a chance to get back to it yet.

Hunter was sick for a few days. He is feeling so much better now, but he had a chest cold and cough. I couldn't go out to the house and work because I didn't want to leave him in here by himself and didn't want him going in and out in the cooler weather. So while I was in here with him, I packed up more stuff. It is a bad sign when you have packed for what seems like forever and you still can't tell that anything is gone. :( Most of what is packed up is stuff out of cabinets, under beds, closets, and stuff like that.

I guess that is enough about the house, this is what I have been doing this morning....making my Goat Milk Soap gift baskets for gifts. I think there are a total of 20 of them all ready to go!

Late last night Richard was putting some trim up on the living room ceiling to finish it and while he was doing that, I loaded a quilt on the frame. I know, I know, I said I was done, but......all of my customer quilts that needed to be done before Christmas are done but I had forgotten that I still needed to quilt 3 large lap/twin size quilts for my brothers little kids for Christmas. :( Which I've still got a little while because we will not have Christmas with them until Mom gets home which will be about a week after Christmas. I haven't started the quilting, I just loaded it on.

That's all for now....back to packing....
Kristie

Woo Hoo!!!

2011-12-16T20:20:00.002-05:00

Here is the quilt that I quilted today. It was pieced by my aunt and I think she said it was a gift for her DIL. It was quilted with white Maderia thread and I used the "Verdant" panto on it. This is the last of my customer quilts that needed to be done before Christmas!!! Woo Hoo! The rest of them are lined up for after Christmas. I still have one more that I have to do the binding on and deliver it on Monday, it is the quilt that I did yesterday. As of right now, I hope to take a couple of weeks to enjoy Christmas, work on the house and move.

In the morning I plan on painting the bathroom. I have the ceiling painted but not trimmed around the edges. So I need to trim the ceiling and paint the walls. The bathroom isn't that big but it will take a little time to paint around the tub and cabinets. I'm trying to get it painted before we install the toilet, light, mirror and floor tile.
Kristie

Off the frame...

2011-12-15T19:53:00.004-05:00

Here is the latest quilt that I quilted. I thought it would never end. LOL! I quilted this for a local lady that is not a quilter but bought this top and had it quilted. It was all hand pieced and it had some fullness in it that I tried to push out to the edges so that hopefully the binding will hide the puckers. There are only a few of them. But overall I think she will be pleased with it, she knew that it had a few problems. Here is view of the back. The quilting really shows up on it but I don't care if I ever use that panto again. LOL! It is a design called Camellias and I had used it once before on a tablerunner and it was fine but on a huge quilt is killed my shoulders for some reason. I think because there is so much quilting in the flowers and the quilting is so close that I was tensed the whole time. I love how it looks but I don't want to do that one again on a large quilt if I don't have too.

I have the last one loaded on the frame now but I haven't started it yet. I plan on quilting it tomorrow and I will be finished with my BEFORE Christmas quilting except for a few binding. Then as soon as Christmas is over and I get a few things settled in the house then I will start on the other 10 that I have waiting to be quilted.

Richard has been working on the house as I am quilting. He is working on installing the wood on the ceiling over the living room. The living room has a 22ft ceiling so we had to rent some scaffolding so that he could get it done. He also had to put the insulation up there before he could start putting the wood up. Anyway he has a couple more days of work doing that before he can move on to something else. We rented the scaffolding for a week so he has to have it done before Monday morning when we have to return it.

So my plan is to finish the quilt that I have on the frame tomorrow and then hopefully if all goes right I plan on painting the bathroom. I still have to trim the ceiling and paint the walls. I want to get that done before Richard puts the tile down.

Kristie

Making Progress...

2011-12-13T18:01:00.003-05:00

I am making some progress on the quilts! I must say it feels great to see the pile getting smaller. First let me show you the $1 fat quarters that I picked up at the quilt shop! I ended up getting 20 of them. A few of them I already had but I got them anyway. I was very pleased with them.

I just loved this one. I'm not even sure of the fabric line. I'll have to check to see if she has this on a bolt, because I would like to have some yardage of this.
On to the machine quilting....Here is a lap quilt that I quilted for a lady. She wanted a WVU lap quilt and pillows so I had to order the WVU fabric online and she just wanted a border sewn on it. I also made to 16" pillows but they are out in the house and I'm not. LOL! I'll try to get a photo of them tomorrow if I can think of it. I am still working on the binding on this one. I quilted it with a panto called "Happy Times" and I used navy Signature thread on top and the bobbin.
Here is one that I quilted today. I had a guy that we know wanted a quilt for his wife. He came over and we found this quilt top that I had made several years ago. He looked through a bunch of them but this is the one that he picked out. I priced it and he didn't hesitate. Actually this is one that I wanted to keep for myself but money talks right now. LOL! I didn't have a pattern, I just pieced a bunch of blocks, I think they might be 8 inches, then I added the pieced border. It still wasn't big enough for what I wanted so last year I added the outer border. Here is the back of it. I used a panto called "Verdant" I've used that on several lately and really like it. I also used a med/light brown Madeira thread. I also need to do the binding on it too. Giggle....he wants me to wrap it for him too. :)I have the backing of my next quilt loaded on the frame and I will load the top and batting in the morning. I'm tired... Anyway, I have 2 more to finish before Christmas!! But.....as of right now I have 10 customer quilts waiting to be quilted AFTER Christmas. I've told everyone that I need a couple of weeks after Christmas to relax first. Well, I won't be able to relax, I've got to MOVE! LOL!

A few nights ago I was packing up some of the quilting stuff and ran on to these Courthouse Step blocks. I really want to finish this top. It has a total of 224--6 inch blocks. I have most of it sewn together, actually I have it sewn in 4 sections so it would only take me a few minutes have it done. When I do get it sewn together I will see then if I want to add a border or not. That's all for tonight....I'm off to do some laundry! :(

Kristie

Another One Finished...

2011-12-10T15:22:00.002-05:00

I can mark another one off my list!! This is another client quilt. It is a very large Carpenter's Star quilt. The quilt shop sold these as kits and I have another one to quilt after Christmas that is done in a different color scheme. I quilted it with a panto called, Verdant. I have quilted several lately with that design and I have a couple more quilts that need to be quilted with that same design. It quilted up great and I only had ONE thread break in the whole quilt and the quilt is something like 104 inches. I got a small shipment of Maderia thread in. It is my very favorite to use. Hubby looked at it and said "That doesn't look like 22,000 yards of thread" but it is. Each cone has 5500 yards. This will last me a while. I was running low on these colors and I tend to use them a lot. I also ordered a color card. They don't really list the colors by name, just numbers so it is hard to determine the exact color. Hunter has a little friend spending the weekend so I figure I probably could not start on another quilt today. Now that I got that big one off the frame, I will fix supper and MAKE some bindings tonight. I have 4 more quilts that need quilted before Christmas and 3 of them I will be doing the binding for. I figure I can work on the handwork late at night as I am resting on the couch.

I was thinking today that I will be delivering a pile of quilts to the quilt shop on Monday and they have a sale going on......you know where this is headed right? Actually, I can't spend very much on fabric right now but they have some of their Civil War Fat Quarters bagged up and priced 10/$10. So at a dollar each, that is too good to pass up. I'm delivering 6 client quilts so I probably wouldn't miss $10 or $20 bucks....right? LOL!

I'm off to get supper started and pack a few more boxes.....I didn't realize we had this much JUNK! LOL!
Kristie

The pile is getting a little smaller...

2011-12-06T17:08:00.004-05:00

Time is slipping away and I am trying to get everything done. I'm packing a few things up as I take breaks from quilting. Just trying to keep the laundry and dishes done is a huge task for me right now. Here is a photo that I took yesterday morning, the sky was soooo pretty. As you can see I have been getting up super early and when I took this photo I had already been up about an hour.

Here are a few quilts that I have done the past couple of days...

Here are TWO exact same quilts! These are two customer quilts and I must say that even though they are made from a very simple pattern they are very lovely! I just love the fabrics used in them, such warm tones. It seemed like it took me forever to quilt them since they were both exactly alike. I quilted them both with a design called Verdant. I love using this design. I also used a medium brown Bottom Line thread in the top and bobbin.

Here is a closeup of the fabrics and you can also see that the backing was pretty too.

This is a quilt that I pieced for a customer in the colors that she requested. I hope she likes it. I still have to sew the binding on and bury a few threads and it will be ready to deliver. The fabric is actually a barn/country red with tiny cream stars on it. I picked it up from Hobby Lobby. I quilted it with a simple design called Happy Times.
I still have several more to go! But at least the pile is getting smaller. I'm not even sure how many more I have to go. I've finished the quilting on several and also added a few more to the pile. I know I have a couple of big ones coming up in the next few.

Not a lot of progress on the house the past few days. I'm too busy with the quilts and just the job of being a wife and mother to get much done. Richard has his final exams this week, so he is spending every minute studying.

I have a doctor appointment in the morning and then have a few errands to do. That will take up most of my day. I'm hoping that I can at least get another quilt loaded on the frame and work on some binding or something.

That's all for now....I'll leave you with a photo that I found on my camera that Hunter must have taken a few days ago..... I just love seeing the world from his eyes.... LOL! He loves to play at the base of this big tree in our yard. Have a wonderful evening.... ~Kristie

A Little Progress...

2011-12-01T19:57:00.003-05:00

Here we go....first off, I want to thank all of your for your kind words and prayers! I have never been able to deal with stress. I was in a panic the other day when I wrote my last post. :) I know that the Lord will not put more on me than I can handle. I know it is not going to be easy but I trust in him and I think he will help us through this.

My mom had to leave for work early this morning and she will be gone for 28 days and she will not be home for Christmas. That breaks my heart. She was home for Thanksgiving and we had dinner at her house but when she gets back home a couple of days after Christmas we will celebrate at her house with her. Hunter is excited because he will get to open gifts several different times. We had the little conversation of what Christmas was really about. Sometimes you have to remind the little ones that it is not the gifts but Christ.

So Tuesday mom came out and cleaned Hunter's room and the main bathroom in the new house. Everything was covered in drywall dust and it was horrible. As she was down stairs cleaning, I was upstairs quilting. After she got it all swept and vacuumed I came downstairs and started painting when I needed a break from quilting. It has been a long couple of days. I got the ceiling in Hunter's room and the bathroom painted and also Hunter's walls are done. He was so excited about it.

Now here are the details on Hunter's room. Please keep in mind that everything is NOT done and we will be moving in with the house UNFINISHED. :( Hunter's room measures 12x16 and only has the window that you can see in the photo, but it is a big window. He picked out the comforter, sheets, and curtains and mom bought them for him a while back but we had been saving them for the house. Hunter also picked out his own paint color. It is a little hard to tell the true color in the photo but it is "truly olive" We still need to do all of the wood trim as you can see it looks a little messy around the ceiling and floor but it will be covered as soon as we can get the trim and baseboards up. There is not any flooring down yet, just the plywood with a rug over it. :( I also plan on changing the white curtain rod. It is flimsy and the curtains are lined and heavy and it would just be a matter of time before Hunter tore it down. This is all that we have moved into his room so far. There are still tons of toys to move.

The bathroom is nowhere near finished. Richard did get the sink, counter top, and faucet installed after school. I got the ceiling painted but not trimmed yet. I have the paint for the walls but just haven't had time to get to it yet. I'll post a photo of that mess as we make a little more progress on it.

I have finished a few quilts while doing this too. Here is the quilt that I had on the frame in the last post, it is finished. Not sure what the pattern is but it is beautifully pieced. This one measured something like 92x92...I think. I quilted it with the Chantilly Lace design and used Madeira thread. I just love that stuff.
Then I loaded and quilted this one. The next two quilts were pieced by a man. I am doing the binding on both of them. I quilted it with the Barbed Wire design and used a matching thread from Connecting Threads. I finished the binding last night before I went to bed.
I quilted this one for him today. It is quilted with a Foliage design, just leaves. I used a orange thread from Connecting Threads. I have the binding ready to go on it and I will probably work on it later tonight. I'm not sure what all I will get done tomorrow, Hunter has an eye doctor appointment tomorrow afternoon and I need to do some grocery shopping. I would love to load another quilt and at least get it started. I dropped off a finished quilt at the shop on Monday and ended up picking up 2 more to do. I explained to her that it would be a while before I would get to quilt them. She said that was fine, just whenever I could get to them.....after the holidays.

That's all for tonight....I'm off to take a long.....hot.....soaking bath! :)
Kristie

I'm a total mess...

2011-11-26T15:03:00.004-05:00

I'll try to make this story as short as possible and a few details are a little personal. Here goes... A couple of weeks ago our income made a dramatic drop. Hubby only has 6 more months of college and he will graduate with a degree in Nursing. He goes to school 5 days a week and often works on homework until bedtime and weekends. And there is no way that I would want him to quit when he is so close to being finished with it. So with such a school load we have slowed down on the house. I was hoping to pick up a few extra quilting jobs through the holidays until we could figure out something to get us by. I had 2 quilts to quilt for a couple of ladies and mom and I headed to the quilt shop to pick up a backing for one of them. You know how mothers are, they think their kids can do no wrong. LOL! The quilt shop owner asks if I do machine quilting, I said "yes" and left it at that. Then mom started going on about my quilts and stuff and the lady wanted me to bring by some of my work so she could see it, they needed a machine quilter.

A couple of days later, I take a couple of things by to show her and long story short.....she loaded me up with quilt tops!!!! I know have 13 quilt that have to be quilted by Christmas!!!! 4 of them need binding but the others don't. I truly believe that if you trust in God and try your best he will show you the way and he did that for us. Then panic set in! 13 quilts and they are NOT small quilts before Christmas! Oh no! I started stressing....and I do figure that I will have to quilt through the nights some to get them all finished. I sat down with a calendar to figure out a quilting schedule.

Now there is more....See several years ago when we decided to build this house we bought a mobile home to live in here on the property so that we would have a place to live while we worked on the house. Our plan was to get rid of the mobile home when we were almost ready to move in and get it out of the way. We really had not advertised it, just word of mouth. Last night we were sitting here and a young couple that is a friend of a friend kind of thing, called and wanted to come by and look at the mobile home. They came and seemed interested but I didn't think too much about it. So today I am out in the new house doing some machine quilting (which is in the backyard from the mobile home) someone knocks on the door and it is the young couple with her parents. They look it over and he father looks at me and says....."I have cash in my pocket to buy it, how long will it take you all to get things done to move out?" I'm thinking HELLO!!!! So I now have until the end of December to be out!!!

I have 13 big quilts to quilt and that will be hard for me to do with my busy farm life but somehow I will get them done! :) And on top of that...I have a month to pack everything up and move and my house is NOT DONE!!! Richard has bee gone all day helping his mother move from Ohio so I was here alone. After the buyers left, I just sat down and cried! I'm in a panic and don't know where to start. My head is throbbing and I wouldn't even want to check my BP right now. LOL! I'm sure things will work out just fine, I just have never been on that deals well with change or stress. My mom lives on the property that connects to ours and she said that we could stay with her until we got the house ready if we needed to. There just seems so much to do and not enough time.....and here I am on the computer! LOL! I need to get busy!

Okay now that I have dumped all of my stress on you all, I will talk about something else....Thanksgiving was wonderful, except that my brother didn't get to come for dinner. His FIL fell the night before and broke his leg in 2 or 3 places and had to have surgery. Andrew was home from college and that always makes me happy. Here is a photo of Andrew and Hunter taking silly photos on his Ipad. Hunter is always happy to see him too.

Yesterday, I was upstairs quilting and Hunter got bored and wanted to sew. So I set up this little machine that he uses from time to time. I bought it at a junk store and it works perfect. He quickly tired of sewing squares together and was off riding his bike. Silly boys!

Here is the first of the 13 quilts and the smallest of them all, this one is a twin and is made with Homespun fabric. This was my first time quilting something with Homespun fabric but I just had to adjust my tension a little and it was fine.
After I got it off the frame, I loaded this one on. I'm not sure of the pattern but it is very pretty in person. I only have it loaded, I haven't started quilting on it yet. I plan on getting it started this evening and hopefully finished late tomorrow evening. Wish me luck!
That's it for now!!! I'm off to get some quilting done!

Kristie

Client Quilt Off the frame...

2011-11-20T18:03:00.003-05:00

This is the quilt that I loaded on the frame yesterday. It is finished and will be delivered to the owner tomorrow. When I deliver this one I will be picking up 4 or 5 more from the quilt shop. This one measures 92x92 and was beautifully pieced. I wanted to get a photo of it when it was finished so Richard and I were holding it from upstairs in my sewing room and letting it hang over the stairway wall, Hunter was in the living room trying to take the photos for me. It was a little funny, because Hunter was being hateful! :)

I just love the fabrics used in the quilt. Below is a photo of the backing.
That is really all that I have done today, just quilt on this quilt for a little while and then take a break. Anyway, it is finished and hopefully I can get another one loaded on the frame tomorrow evening!

Kristie

Things are getting a little busy...

2011-11-19T17:26:00.004-05:00

This has been a long week! I'll start with the quilting first. I cut out part of two quilts. These are special order quilts. I don't have the background fabric cut for them but I will do that tonight. I cut the color fabrics at the same time for both, it was just much easier and faster that way. When finished they will be lap quilts. Here is my "Strip Twist" with the binding all finished! I was glad to get it finished and marked off my list. Here is a beautiful customer quilt that I loaded on the frame on Saturday morning. It measures 92x92 inches. You really can't tell much about it here on the frame but it has a big star in the center and other stars towards the corners and such. This belongs to the lady that owns the quilt shop. I must say that it is very well piece and lays really flat! If you are a machine quilter you know how important this is for it to quilt nicely. Anyway, I am at the halfway point on the quilt. I hope to finish it up after Church. She will be doing the binding so all I have to do is the quilting. I spoke with her this afternoon and told her that I would drop this one off at the shop on Monday. She said she had 5 more waiting for me!!!! So with this one that is on the frame that will make a total of 10 that I need to have finished BEFORE CHRISTMAS!! :)
Even though I have been quilting on this quilt most of the day and I cut the others out last night, I haven't been doing much of anything else. This is why....
My blood pressure here is 134/112 and that is with me taking 2 pills a day for it. So first thing Friday morning I was at the doctor's office. I took my monitor with me to show him how high it had been running. (BTW...I had my monitor checked and it is accurate) So the doctor flips out on me and said that I should have gone to the ER. So he changed my medication once again and over the next several weeks I will have lots of testing done on my heart and everything else. :(

Here are some photos of Andrew and his new colt that I took over the weekend. The photos are not that good, it was raining and his horse was muddy. Anyway he is 6 months old and a good size for his age. Andrew is very proud of him and you know how that goes when your kids are happy, you are happy! :)I promised Andrew we would take more photos of him when the weather was nicer and his horse was cleaned up. I guess that is all for now...I'm going to hit the couch and rest for a bit and then cut out the background for those two lap quilts.

Kristie

Off the frame...

2011-11-14T20:54:00.005-05:00

I finally got my "Strip Twist" off of the frame. This is one of my own quilts and I've had it on the frame for a long time, but just haven't worked on it. So over the weekend I got it completed. Now I am hand sewing the binding on it, that is my favorite part. This quilt has a wide variety of fabrics used in it and those are my favorite quilts. I just love scrap quilts.

I got some goodies in the mail today. Bernie sent me these wonderful reds to add to my red and white quilt that I have been trying to collect some reds for. I don't have a lot of reds in my stash. I was sorting through some stuff today and found a pack of neutral fat quarters that I had picked up from the quilt shop. They had these on special for 10/$10, not too bad for $1 each! These are now put away in my stash. Oh and I wanted to show you this little baby hat that I made from leftover fleece from the camo crib set. I stuck it in the bag with the rest of the camo stuff, just a little extra something for the baby when he gets here. You can find the pattern here and this little hat only took me about 3 minutes! Can you believe that? Very simple to make.
Now my plans are to load another quilt on the frame and finish the binding on my Strip Twist quilt. I may not get started quilting on it today but I at least want to get it loaded on the frame. I'll post photos of the quilt as I load it on. It is a beautiful client quilt and it measures 90x90.

Kristie

The whole set is finished....

2011-11-12T16:31:00.003-05:00

I'm so excited that I got this finished! This is a crib set for a local lady that is getting ready to have a little baby boy! In this set is a large crib comforter, a bumper pad for the crib and 3 camo pillows for the nursery. The comforter is made up of camo fleece, batting in the middle and the brown fuzzy stuff on the back. It will be so warm. The bumper pads came together wonderfully. I was a little nervous about making them because these were the first ones that I had ever made but they went together really well. Then there are 3 pillows for the nursery, one large and 2 smaller ones.

I've not worked a whole lot with fleece but it really wasn't too bad. Not bragging on myself but I just love how this set turned out. Now....I just hope she is happy with it too!
I always stress out over my holiday sewing but I'm hoping that I will get a few more local sales before Christmas. The extra money is always nice to have during the holidays. :)

Yesterday I was out with mom while she had to go get her flu shot and stuff like that. We stopped at the quilt shop in Ashland because I needed to pick up a special backing for a customer quilt. Here is what I ended up with.... The large piece is the backing for a quilt that measures 98x114!! The piece on the far right is the fabric for the binding for that same quilt. The others are 1/2 yd pieces. The red goes in the pile for my red and white quilt that I am slowly making. The other two pieces just go in my stash. Here are the other 12 pot holders that I was working on the other day. I still need to bind them and they will be finished! They are so quick and easy and a great way for me to use of some odd scraps and strings. Tonight I am planning on piecing together one of the 4 patch flip quilts. I have all of the blocks sewn together, I just need to complete the top. I'll have to look through my stash to find something that will work for the border. I'll post photos of that as soon as I can.

Kristie

Back to sewing...

2011-11-09T06:30:00.001-05:00

Over a week without a post...now I will backtrack and get you all caught up on what I have been doing. Actually not a lot because of my blood pressure running high for the past week. If you have read my blog for a while you will know that it does this every once in a while even with medication. So most of the time I have been on the couch sleeping. But the past two days I have actually been sewing.

First off, here is the 4 Patch Flip that I cut from my scrap basket. I'm not real crazy about the yellow border but I pulled it from my stash and didn't want to buy anything for it. I also have the binding ready for it after it is quilted. So for now it is in my pile of tops that need to be quilted. This one is folded up but you can still get the idea of what it looks like. This is fabric that I had in my stash for a while. I just cut the center piece with cowboy hats and boots on it and added borders to it. This will be a Christmas gift for one of my little nephews. Actually my other nephew will get one just like it. Since they are brothers and close in age I will probably use different backings so that they can tell them apart...you know how kids are. :)I forgot to take photos of them but I also worked on several more pot holders and fabric bowls. I think now I have a total of 20 bowls made and will be used to hold homemade goat milk soap for Christmas gifts. I will try to remember to post photos of them in the next post. I have a ton of stuff to do and the holidays are sneaking up on me.

I also pieced a little more on my Red and White quilt, not much....just a little. I'm thinking that if I have any extra time before the holidays I will work on this Red and White quilt instead of starting Bonnie Hunter's new mystery! I'm hoping that I can hold off and not start it! LOL! We will see how that goes.

I also have some client Christmas stuff that I will be working on. Some of it I can show on my blog and some of it, I can't. Maybe I can just show pieces of them. I'll just have to wait and see if I can sneak some partial photos of them in. LOL!

Now on to some family things....

Hunter got a new bike!! He loves it! He was shocked when he got home from school because he didn't know that we were getting it. Actually we didn't plan on getting a new one but caught it on a very good sale! :)Here is Hunter on Halloween! He was a boxer! Thank goodness the weather wasn't too bad, so we had a nice time.

My nephew Gabe had a birthday party. He turned 3!!! He is such a cutie! He has such a deep voice for a little guy, just cracks me up to hear him talk. This is my brother, John in the photo with him. John is the only brother that I have and I just love him so much. He has always been the best BIG brother. As you noticed I said BIG! Hehehehe! He is 4 yrs older than I am and he tells everyone that I am older! :( Anyway...he works so much and doesn't have a lot of extra time so I don't get to see him as often as I would like too. And last but not least....mom came out for a visit the other day and brought me a gift! I just love Jim Shore things! She got me several of them last year so I'm excited about getting to add this little guy to my collection. As you can see he has a RED and WHITE quilt on his bottom half. Well mom said that when she saw this one she thought of the RED and WHITE quilt that I am working on! I just love it!

Now that I am back to feeling better, hopefully I can get some stuff done. I usually read blogs through Google Reader and when I checked earlier I had 600+ blogs that were backed up that I had not read, same thing with my emails.
Kristie

The past few days...

2011-10-29T10:17:00.002-04:00

There hasn't been a lot of sewing going on this week....well actually NONE! LOL! But I do have lots of goodies to show you! First off here is that fabric book that I made a few weeks ago that I kept forgetting to post the photo of. This will be a Christmas gift for my great nephew. Very quick and easy to put together. Here are the goodies that I am sooooooo excited about! This quilt pattern is called Appalachian Memories Quilt. I LOVE IT! If you like the quilt blocks on barn then you will like this pattern. It has 12 embroidery blocks and a pieced sashing. I think you can also purchase the cheater panels instead of doing the stitching on the blocks. Click here and you can see a better photo of the quilt pattern. I don't plan on starting this anytime soon. This will be a winter project for AFTER we get settled in the house. I'm thinking that I may actually start on it next winter.

I also ordered a few reds for my red and white quilt. These are 1/2 yard cuts and I got 5 different fabrics. I ordered them from Whittle's. They have great prices and quick shipping. They are located in KY and so am I so it only takes like a day to get them!
This one is my favorite out of the five fabrics. I'm thinking that later, if they still have it, I would like to order more of this one and save it for another quilt. Here is a photo of Donkey. He is getting sooooo fat and lazy. His health is failing....only a little. He now has glaucoma and even with his meds he just isn't the same cat....but he can sure eat! Richard was trying to work on his homework and Donkey wanted his attention.
And last but certainly not least! Say a little prayer for Andrew that he will have a safe trip. He is in Tennessee picking up his new horse! This is his new baby! He is a 5 or 6 month old Tennessee Walker with champion bloodlines. I'll post more about him once he gets home.

Andrew and his uncle left out at 5am this morning with the horse trailer to pick him up. Andrew has work tonight 8pm so he will be cutting it pretty close on time. I know he will be so tired this weekend. He will be on the road probably 13+ hours and then has 12 hour shifts at work tonight and tomorrow night. Not sure if I had even mentioned about his job. He is going to college 3 days a week with a full schedule. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday he has classes all day and then he works 12 hour night shifts on Saturday and Sunday nights. He is working at a behavioral health service place and is working with brain injury and autistic patients. He loves it and the best part is, this is the line of work that he plans on going into.

I had better get off the computer and get some things done.

Kristie

Weekend progress...

2011-10-23T13:00:00.004-04:00

Our weekend started Friday evening by going to the high school football game. It was the last home game of the season. Hunter and several other kids were being "recognized" during halftime for scoring so high on their CATS and MAP testing at school. Hunter and I were ready to go when Richard got home, he had just enough time to eat and change clothes. Little did Hunter know that Andrew was going to be there too! I thought Hunter was going to cry when he saw his brother at the game, he misses him so much. I don't think Andrew would have missed it for anything, he is proud of his little brother too. I woke up Saturday morning and felt like poop! :( I think I may be getting a cold or something. I've not really done anything this weekend other than lay around the house. I had so many quilty things that I wanted to accomplish this weekend but that did not happen. Why is it that when you have something that really needs to be done and finished you find every excuse in the world not to do it? I had planned on binding that Camo crib blanket, making the two matching pillows and making the bumper pad for the crib. Anyway, none of that happened! :( I figure that I really need to sit down and concentrate on cutting and piecing that bumper pad. I don't think it will be hard but I don't want to mess it up. I just didn't feel like I could concentrate on it this weekend. So what did I do??? Something really dumb!!!

I started on my Red/White quilt!!! I know it was very silly of me but I did it anyway. I wasn't even ready to start it, I don't even have all of the fabrics yet! How silly is that? I have a ton of other things that need to be finished but crazy me started this thing. I didn't actually get very much of it done. I need 128 of these blocks and I think I only got 32 of them done. I promise that this will NOT turn into a UFO! I really like this quilt and I planned on making it AFTER I got my holiday sewing done.

Here is a photo of the quilt that I plan on making.

I did end up making 9 of these bowls! I took the photo before I finished the others. I plan on filling them with some of my homemade Goat Milk Soap and giving as Christmas gifts this year. I guess I will make up about 20 of them. So that is about all of my weekend so far. I think we are having some good friends coming over in a little while for a visit, so I had better spruce up the house.

Kristie

Loaded on the frame...

2011-10-18T17:34:00.003-04:00

Early this morning I had to make a trip to Paintsville to pick up some horse feed. This is the town where Richard goes to college but the feed store opens the same time that he has to be at school and closes the same time that he gets out, so he can't pick it up unless he gets out of school early.

So I followed him up there and stopped by Walmart as I was waiting for the feed store to open. I needed to pick up some cording for the baby crib bumper pad that I am getting ready to make to match that Camo fleece crib blanket. I'll probably be starting on that sometime this week. I've never made one but I'm sure I will figure it out. :) Oh and I picked up a couple small bags of polyfil to make a couple of pillows for the nursery too. While I was there I picked up a couple of fabrics. The cream prints are just to add to my stash of lights. I mix those in a lot with my scrap quilts. The reds I bought to put back for my red/white quilt that I am wanting to make. They feel fairly good for Walmart fabrics. Oh and I grabbed these two fat quarters that were 97 cents each just to throw in the stash. After I got back and unloaded the feed and put everything else away, I headed up to the sweat shop! I loaded this Strip Twist on the frame that I pieced a few years ago. It measures 55x60....something. I forgot the exact measurements. :) It is just a lap quilt but when I get it finished I can mark another one off my list.

The lighting up there was horrible today, it was cloudy and I don't have my overhead lights installed yet. I took this photo trying to show where I quilted that first pass with the machine but it didn't show up. I am using a panto called Foliage, I don't think I've used it before. I am also quilting this with Madeira polyneon thread. I love that stuff! I hope to get it quilted within a day or two. I keep piling things on my sewing table, it's just where I keep taking projects back and forth. Hopefully this will not be a dumping ground once we get moved in. I have been piling it up until it gets full or until I need that table and then I will put it all away. I hope to get it cleaned off tomorrow.
The weatherman says that we will be getting heavy rains tonight and it is going to turn cold for the next several days so I need to bring in some firewood for the fireplace. Richard has tons of it cut and stacked, I just need to bring some in.

Chantal, my precious baby sister spent the night with us last night and is staying again tonight so I need to straighten a few things up before she gets here!!!!

Oh before I forget....I did finish that quilted baby book last night. I'll post a photo of it next time...
Kristie

Fleece Crib Blanket....Quilted

2011-10-17T15:44:00.003-04:00

This weekend I got a total of 4 pot holders finished and have several more that just need the binding finished up on them. I just love making these little things. Today I finally braved the camo fleece crib quilt that I was so nervous about. I've worked with fleece and minkee before but not together and this brown has about a 1/2" nap so I wasn't sure how well that it would quilt or even if my machine would quilt it with a batting between them. Would you believe that it quilted up perfect!?!

The camo fleece is actually the front and the brown fuzzy is the back. I loaded it on the frame with the brown on top because I was afraid that the longer nap on it might mess with my bobbin.
Anyway, not one problem! I was so happy! No thread breaks, no skips....nothing! Now why can't everything else go that smooth??? I still need to square it up and do the binding on it. I also need to make the matching bumper pad for the crib and two camo pillows.

I'm starting to work on some Christmas gifts now. Tonight I plan on cutting out one of those little fabric panel story books for my great nephew. He just turned "1" a couple of weeks ago. I've never put one of these together but they don't look that hard. That will be one thing that I can mark off my list.

Kristie

If only I had the time...

2011-10-14T14:05:00.003-04:00

I had such plans for today but that all changed last night when Hunter woke up vomiting. :( It was a long night for us both, we spent most of the night on the couch and he ran back and forth to the bathroom throwing up. Needless to say, he did not go to school today. When Hunter gets sick he wants his "MOMMY" which is great for me. I don't like for him to be sick but I do love that he thinks he can't be without me. My sister works at the local pediatrician's office and I was telling her about him this morning and she said that they had a ton of kids coming in with the same stomach bug. Anyway....he seems to be feeling a little better right now he just says his "belly feels hot"

I had planned on quilting that camo fleece baby blanket this morning and loading another one on this afternoon but Hunter comes first. So I just thought I would update you on what I do have done. Remember my 4 Patch Flips that I was cutting out? Well, I cut 3 out of 4 out and got the blocks pieced for them. Hopefully this evening I can get at least one of the tops completed.

Here are 60 blocks enough for 2 lap quilts of these warmer tones.

Here is the pile of 30 bright blocks. Here is where I was trying to arrange some of them. I will probably try to get this one pieced tonight since I have already figured out my block placement with it. Then I just need to dig out borders for all 3 of them.
I still have my pile of blue scraps that I will cut out the 4th one in a few days. So in the end I'm hoping to have 4 lap size quilts to have on hand for last minute Christmas gifts, and not to mention I've cleared a ton out of my scrap basket.

I ran on to my box of pot holder blocks that I was working on last Christmas. I pieced a bunch of blocks from my string bin to make some pot holders for gifts and of course a few for myself. :) I found 22 more of the string blocks today that I had put away. I squared them up and they are ready to finish. I actually thought about piecing a few more and just making another lap size quilt but just decided to stick with the pot holders since I already have the 3/4 other lap quilts going. Here I went ahead and dug out some scrap cotton batting and my insulbright batting and layered them with some scrap backings that I had leftover from machine quilting. This orange was leftover from Hunter's Halloween quilt.

I'm hoping to work on the potholders later tonight, if I have time and Hunter is better. I didn't have enough scrap cotton batting for all 22 of them I think I ended up with 8 or so.

I'm sure I'm not the only quilter to feel this way but I am just itching to start a ton of new projects. Some of them I don't even have fabrics for yet, others are BIG projects that I think I would only to be able to work on it and nothing else. I want to start on this Red/White Quilt, I want to work on Andrew's Red and White Quilt, also that Scrap Quilt on the cover of Quilt Magazine. I've slowly started cutting on this one, just a little at a time as I am cutting other things from my Civil War stash. Oh and I can't forget.....I need to finish this. I have all 224 blocks pieced and sew into blocks of 4, now they just need to be pieced into a quilt top and the borders added. Oh......and I need to try to find more of this navy fabric so that I can finish this quilt. My mind is going a million miles an hour but my body can't keep up! :(

All of the leaves have turned their pretty fall colors. This is my favorite time of year but it always seems like it just goes from Summer to Winter. I will Fall would last a little longer. I took a few photos from the yard. Yesterday it rained and today it is windy and most of the leaves have fallen. :(

I guess that is all for this post, I need to get supper finished, work on doing some laundry and all of that stuff so that I can get back to quilting tonight...

Kristie

Working on 4 quilts at once...

2011-10-10T14:31:00.009-04:00

I was up in my sweat shop on Saturday loading a quilt on the frame and I kept looking at my scrap basket. My scrap basket holds anything smaller than a fat quarter and everything that has not been cut up into smaller squares and put away in tubs. When starting a scrap quilt this is the first place that I go before cutting into my yardage. My basket was running over! I had fabric piled around it. So last night I decided to start cutting my scraps to clear my basket out. Well I didn't get it cleared out but at least it is more tolerable. This is the "after" photo. I decided to cut my scraps up to make a few "4 Patch Flips" I've made a couple of these quilts in the past and they are quick and easy to do. Here is a blue and pink one.

And this one is just made from scraps.
So I decided to cut out a couple of lap size 4 Patch Flip quilts. My plan was to make the lap size and have them on hand for Christmas, never know when you will need a last minute gift. Anyway.....3 of them cut out and a pile of blues to go through for another one. So in the end I should have 4 of them.

Last night I had trouble sleeping so that is what I did. Now these quilts are so simple to cut and sew that I actually got a lot done. I was up cutting and sewing until 3am!

First I dug out all of the brighter fabrics that were in the basket. I had several pieces from various other projects. I don't use these fabrics often so I just kept moving them around in my basket so it was time to get rid of them! I'm more comfortable using warmer tones. So the funny thing is, I had this pile laying on the table this morning while Richard was having breakfast. He asked what I was working on and I told him my plan. He looked at this pile of brighter pieces and said "You are donating that one somewhere....right?" Giggle....he doesn't like the fabrics either! Anyway I have enough of these brighter pieces for one quilt. I have enough cut for two quilts using these warmer tones.And here is the stack of "blues" that I plan on cutting later for a 4th quilt.

This what I was loading on the frame Saturday. A lady bought some camouflage fleece and some fuzzy brown stuff, I'm not even sure what it is called. As you can see in the photo that it has a longer nap. She wants it crib size and also wants batting in it too. I've never tried to quilt something this thick with my machine so I'm not sure how it will go. I haven't started it yet but that brown seems really stretchy! I've quilted "minky" and didn't have a problem but this is soooo much heavier than that. Hopefully I will work on it tomorrow. I've been dragging all day from lack of sleep so I don't figure I would be in the mood to quilt it if I started having problems with it so I will wait til tomorrow. I also had a lady drop off another quilt to be quilted. It is a king size and really pretty. It is a log cabin and that is one of my favorite designs. I'll show a better photo of it as I load it on the frame later. It will probably be a couple of weeks, I had to order the backing and I'm waiting for it to come in. Over the weekend Richard and I worked on the drywall. This is a photo of bathroom #1. My job was to mud all of the screw heads and Richard all of the hard stuff...the corners and seams. My job was easier so now ALL of the screw heads are covered in the whole house and ready to sand when he gets the corners and seams done. Anyway, I didn't do the screws around the tub because it will have the tub surround over them.

And a photo of Hunter sleeping. He got up at 5am Saturday morning so that Richard could take him deer hunting. He was soooo tired later in the day and fell asleep on the couch with his Halloween quilt. I got the binding done Saturday morning. Anyway he didn't get a deer. He was getting ready to pull the trigger and forgot to cock the hammer back on his gun so it wouldn't fire. By the time he got it pulled back the deer was gone. :( Oh well he is a trooper and loves going hunting.

Well my post ended up being longer than I had planned....sorry if I bored you. :) Now I have to go finish up my sister's birthday cake! She turned 27 today! I baking her a "Better Than Sex Cake" also called "Paul Newman Cake" I call it the "Paul Newman Cake" it sounds nicer than the other. LOL! It is soooo yummy! Mom is working and they celebrated Chantal's birthday last weekend. Mom bought the stuff for this cake and asked me to bake it for her since she would not be here.

Kristie

My busy day...

2011-10-07T21:08:00.002-04:00

I got a new book in the mail the other day. It is an older Judy Martin book, I've wanted it for a long time but just now got around to ordering it. I actually ordered it from Walmart.com I didn't realize that they had quilt books until lately. It was free shipping to the local store so I did that and picked it up in there. Anyway, I love this book! So many wonderful patterns in it. I finished the binding up on my Country Wife quilt...finally! It is now folded and put away. Feels good to have another one COMPLETELY finished. I am now working on the binding for Hunter's Halloween quilt. I just started the binding on it this evening. Since the quilt measures 61x78 it shouldn't take me too long. Not sure why I made it such an odd size. Hunter had a doctor's appointment early this morning in Ashland which is about 90 minutes away from the house. Nothing major really, just an appointment with his ENT (Ears, Nose, and Throat) Back in 2009 ( I think ) he had to have a little procedure done. He has eczema in the ears. Weird, I know. He doesn't have it any other place on his body except for his ear canal. He has to have special ointment put back in his ear canal everyday. Anyway, back when he had the first procedure done he had to be put to sleep to remove all of the build up, that is when we first found out what the problem was. Now it is not much of a problem, he has that ointment that I put in and it keeps is moist in there like it should be, but he did have a little bit (very little ) back next to the ear drum. They took care of that today and also did a hearing test to make sure that none of this had damaged his hearing. Happy to report that he scored in the "high normal" range on that.

So after his appointment we drove across the street to the park! Not a good photo I took it through the windshield. No photos of him playing at the park we got excited and left the camera in the truck. It was still a little cool so we didn't stay that long. After the park we stopped at Big Lots, Walmart, Victoria's Secret, and the grocery store. Picked my sister up a birthday gift at Victoria's Secret. She likes their perfume so I hope she doesn't read my blog before Monday because that is what I got for her. Monday she will be 27!

I am sooooo tired! Driving and shopping just wears me out! :( I don't like to do either one of them.

Richard is off on Fall Break this coming week so I'm hoping that we can get some stuff done on the house.

I snapped this photo of Hunter Thursday after school. He was so tired. I think he looks so cute, I'm sure he didn't rest real well because every time that I walked by him I would give him kisses. :) That's all for tonight. I need to get in the bed soon, I have a busy weekend ahead. Lots of quilting......hopefully!
Kristie

My machine has been humming....

2011-10-05T08:47:00.004-04:00

I finally got my aunt's boat quilt finished yesterday! I started on it Monday evening and finished it yesterday. I did not get a photo the finished quilt, she was here right before I got it off the frame and I just forgot to get a final photo. Actually in this photo, I am standing behind the machine quilting it. Richard took the photo but I looked horrible! LOL! If you are wondering....I have the end of my machine off, I was cleaning it and just didn't put it back on. :)I finished the boat quilt up around 11am and loaded this little lap quilt on the frame. Nothing fancy, just some Halloween yardage with a border sewn around it. Hunter asked me if I was going to get it quilted before Halloween THIS YEAR! He wanted it quilted last year but I just didn't get to it. It is still on the frame and I will finish it up in a few minutes! Yesterday while I was quilting it, I took a short break and just didn't get back to it. So my goal for today is to get it off the frame and get the binding ready to go on it.

Other quilty news....The baby YBR that I made and quilted a few days ago was given as a gift. A lady that Richard goes to nursing school with is having a baby boy in a few weeks. They had a small baby shower for her yesterday. He said the quilt was "well received" It is always nice to know that people appreciate the work and time that goes in them. Oh and I am still working on the handwork part of the binding on my Country Wife quilt.

Monday I had to make a trip to Ashland, I stopped by the quilt shop and picked up a few little things. The larger piece is a 1/2 yard cut and the others are fat quarters. I also picked up a few red fat quarters for the red and white quilt that I want to make....someday. Not sure I like all of these red/whites but maybe they will blend in with other fabrics that I use. I guess they are just not my usual style of fabrics. The shop didn't have a huge selection of reds so I'm not sure how I will come up with enough red scraps/fat quarters to make the quilt.
Here is a photo of Donkey that I snapped last night. I have been packing and sorting stuff and I have a huge pile of boxes near the front door, Donkey loves to lay on them. :)
He looks like he is hiding or in "time out" LOL!

House news.....Richard got my countertop, sink, and faucet installed!!!! As of right now I have 20 ft of countertop! That may not be much to some but since I currently only have 8ft...I am excited. We still have a 7ft island to build but that will come later in the Spring. Oh and I sink is deeper than the one that I currently have too. This new one is 10 inches deep, with the tall faucet it should be great for big pots and stuff. I know it is still all dusty but with all of the work going on out there you just can't keep things clean.
It is almost 9:30am, I think I will go up to the sweatshop and finish quilting Hunter's Halloween quilt!

Kristie

Weekend update...

2011-10-02T10:04:00.004-04:00

I've been working on bindings! Both the Country Wife and Baby YBR are getting bindings. So no boring photos of that. I do enjoy working on bindings, I find it very relaxing. It is so cold this morning....33 degrees at 8am. :( But it is supposed to get back up into the mid 70's later in the week.

Some good news! I sold a quilt!!!! But for the life of me, I can't find a photo of it! I have it written down that I quilted it last November, but it doesn't show on my blog or in my photos. I'll have to do a little more digging. Anyway it was scrap bow tie with a blue border.

In other quilty news....I bought a magazine the other day and found a pattern in there that I really like. Sorry they are sideways but I could not get them to turn. :(
It is also shown on the cover of the magazine, American Patchwork & Quilting, December 2011 Issue. I'm thinking that I may start collecting REDS for this one. Red is something that I don't have that many of.

On to the house....I hope you all are not too bored by this but this is a huge part of my life right now. We got the wood stove installed and going! We sat out there for hours that first night just watching it burn. I know it was probably silly but we got the fire burning in it and I started crying! I think Richard was confused but I was just happy and overwhelmed. Funny how something like a wood stove made me cry but I was just thinking that we have worked so hard these past few years trying to build this house and this was just one more step closer....maybe I was just being hormonal...Here is my "house project for the week".....finish painting the front door before the weather gets too cold. This is how it looked last FALL. You can see the primer ( the lighter color ) and then the final paint color....but for some reason I never got it finished. It is supposed to get up into the mid 70's so I had better get it finished before it gets too cold outside. BTW....this door was a FREEBIE! Some friends of ours was replacing their front door and installing one with a glass panel in the middle....they asked if we wanted it.....we took it! LOL! And last....a photo that Hunter snapped! Awww.......mommy and daddy sharing a kiss! :)

Richard is installing my kitchen countertop as we speak! I'm soooooo excited!

Now to spruce up the house quickly, we have a couple of good friends coming to visit this afternoon. I plan on working on my binding while they visit. She is good friend of mine and I always enjoy talking with her. He and Richard have been friends or years and they used to work together.

Kristie

Off the frame...

2011-09-29T11:26:00.003-04:00

Here is the quilt that I got off the frame yesterday! It was a fairly large one measuring in at 96x96. This is an old top that I had pieced several years ago and I think I added the border sometime last year. The pattern is called Country Wife.I hung it up this morning in the house so that I could take a photo of the whole quilt. I have the binding ready to be sewn on. Since I was in a hurry to get this one off of the frame, I just did a fast and simple panto on it called "Happy Times" After I got the Country Wife quilt off of the frame, I loaded the baby YBR on the frame and started quilting on it this morning. I'm about half way through this one. I just had to take a break for a bit. My hips still ache and throb after I stand for a little while. Anyway, I'll have this one done later in the day. I also have the binding ready to be sewn on this on too. I had planned on starting the quilting on this YBR as soon as Hunter left for school. I was on my way out the door (to the new house where my frame is) and the phone rang. It was Andrew! I instantly thought "This is Thursday and he has late classes today so he sleeps late....something is wrong" You know me, I always worry and panic. So I answered the phone and I heard a very weak "m....o......m" He was sick. :( See that just goes to show that they will always need their mom. The way that he described it he either has a stomach bug or his acid reflux is acting up. Several years ago he had a big problem with acid reflux and did take medication for it but he stopped taking it. So I call every hour to check on him and told him that if he got worse to go to the doctor.

Yesterday evening we had a little rain shower and Hunter spotted this rainbow. He grabbed the camera and took this photo. He loves taking photos of everything lately.

That's all for now. I'm going to finish my break and then go finish quilting that YBR!
Kristie

Top Completed!

2011-09-26T21:36:00.002-04:00

I was lazy all day today! :( It was one of those days that I just could not get myself going. I think I was just still tired from the weekend. I did get a couple loads of laundry finished but I started cleaning house like a mad woman when it was time for Richard to get home from school. LOL! Not that he would say anything anyway, he knows that I stay busy all day.

I mentioned earlier that I needed to move some stuff away from my frame so that I could finish my big quilt, but I didn't even get upstairs to the sweat shop today. It is such a mess since we were working on the ceiling up there. But I did get this baby top finished! These colors are really bright and way out of my comfy zone! I need to get my quilt off of the frame and get this one and a couple of other customer quilts quilted real soon.
I had bought a blue backing but now that it is together I think I will use a lime green backing and quilt it with lime green thread. Do you think that would look okay? I also need to decide on a quilting design. I want something simple but maybe something geometric, I don't really know I will have to think about that a little more.
Richard and Hunter had homework this evening so nothing was really done in the house. Actually, Richard was outside feeding the horses and yelled for me. I went outside and he took me in the house to show me that he had moved the new stove over on the concrete pad that he had poured a few days ago. It looked great but I'm afraid that he will pay for it later. It took 4 men to carry that stove in the house on Saturday and then he picks it up this evening by himself and carries it over and puts it in place! Shame on him! :( I love him so much but I really have to stay on to him about silly stuff like that.

I guess that is all for tonight! Hopefully tomorrow I can get my big quilt off of the frame early and get started on some of these others.
Kristie

New Quilt and House Progress...

2011-09-26T09:07:00.002-04:00

Not sure where to start! I am soooooo tired! First off, the weather here is going to be bad later this morning. It is starting to cloud up and they are forecasting severe storms and tornado watches. I took this photo about an hour ago while I was outside moving the goats. I am so far behind on emails and blog reading. I clicked on my email early this morning and it said 600+ in my inbox.....so I went and did a load of laundry! LOL! I'm just not up to sorting through that many emails yet. Hopefully I will get to them later in the day. Also my Google Reader has 300+ blog updates that I haven't read yet. :(

It has been a long but productive weekend. First off, Andrew was home for the weekend! I am so happy when my boys are home. Richard even commented on the fact that I seemed to rest better when they are both at home. We had a wonderful weekend together just hanging out.

Saturday morning we went on a little shopping trip to get a load of stuff for the house. We hooked up to the 16ft gooseneck trailer and headed out. We got our new stove!!! It isn't hooked up yet, we are waiting for the concrete pad to dry before we can set it on it. In a few years we plan on taking that out and building a huge fireplace but right now that is not in the budget to do. So I am happy with our new wood stove!

We also picked up the other 10ft section of my kitchen countertop! Here you can see some backer board stuff for the bathroom floor tile, water line, more stove pipe. We also picked up the big electric wire, 35 breakers, grout and sealer and a bunch of little odds and ends that we needed to get these jobs done.
Oh and here is the faucet that I got for bathroom #1, which is the main bathroom downstairs. It is oil rubbed bronze. Giggle, I have to wait a couple of weeks to get the shower faucet for that bathroom.....we ran out of money! :(
Here are a few photos of what we got accomplished on the house this weekend. The living room walls now have the FIRST coat of drywall mud on them. I'm trying to think here......I believe we still need to put the first coat on the kitchen ceiling and all of the laundry room. Then we can do the 2nd coat and then the sanding.....such a mess. Worked more on the ceiling over my sewing room. Mom and I stained boards last week and we were trying to get those put up. We didn't get them all up but some progress is better than nothing. That center beam will be covered too and section that you see in the bottom right corner of the photo....that is where my living room ceiling starts. It will be done in this wood too. And you can also see where the electric wire are hanging that is where my recessed lights will be over my frame. My sewing room is a HUGE mess right now. We had to move my sewing table and a bunch of stuff to make room for the ladder so that we could get that section of ceiling up. This is how it looks right now.That is my quilt on the frame and I need to get in there sometime today and get it finished. Oh and we are getting rid of that roll-away bed. We slept on it those few nights that we camped in the house. After we move in I will not have a place to store it. While we are out Saturday I picked up 6 fat quarters and some border fabric to make a baby quilt that is needed October 4th. I decided to make a Yellow Brick Road quilt. I'm made 2 or 3 bed size YBR quilts and they are easy to make. Late last night, I couldn't sleep so I started cutting out this quilt. I should not have even tried that as tired as I was. I messed it up! I cut them wrong but I managed to salvage it! I will not look like the actual pattern but I'm sure a baby would not notice it! LOL! Here are a few of the blocks, I had these fabrics here trying to decide on one for a narrow border before I add the 6" border, which is not shown in the photo but it is a blue fabric. I hope to get this top completed sometime day.

Here it is almost 10am now, I had better get off this computer and get my butt in gear! Tons of things to do!

Kristie

Change of plans...

2011-09-21T21:15:00.003-04:00

I had plans to start quilting a quilt top that belongs to my aunt. She made this quilt for her boss. She works on a boat just like my mom does but for a different company. She didn't have a pattern and designed it herself. I think she did a wonderful job. You should see all of the detail on that boat close up. She had brought me a king size white bed sheet to use as the backing. I know that some people don't like using them but my machine doesn't have a problem with them and I use them most of the time for my own quilts. So I get this king size sheet pinned on the frame and start pinning on the quilt top.....the quilt top is LARGER than the backing! :( This quilt is HUGE!

So my plan is to pick up some backing fabric for it this weekend while we are out picking up stuff for the house. I didn't really want to take that backing off of the frame after all of that pinning that I had done getting it on there. So.......since this is my aunt and I explained to her what was going on, I decided to use that backing for myself and buy hers this weekend. It all equals out in the end anyway.

At last count I still had 34 quilt tops of my own that needed to be quilted, so I just dug out one that needed a king size white backing. This one is called, "Country Wife" I made it several years ago, as you can probably tell by the fabrics used. It is probably 6-8 years old, but I added that border on sometime last year or so. I got this pattern out of a quilt magazine, not sure which one it was since it has been so long. This one measures 96x96.

I'll so more of the quilt after I get it off of the frame. This was not my original choice for a quilting design but I am in a little bit of a hurry to get it done and off of the frame so that I can get hers back on and quilted. After all of the pinning and unpinning that I did today, I only ended up getting about two passes with the machine quilted on it.

I had planned on just using a white cotton thread from Connecting Threads. I have used it several times and not had a problem with it but for some reason I think my machine was being hormonal today! LOL! It didn't like this thread! It kept breaking, skipping and I even broke a needle. So in the end I changed thread and bobbin. I switched to white Bottom Line for the top thread and bobbin, it worked GREAT! I quilted those two passes with no problems at all.

Nothing done on the house today. :( I cleaned house and worked on this quilting stuff. Richard had clinicals so those are his late days. By the time he got home, he changed clothes, ate supper and is still doing home work. He has clinicals again tomorrow so he probably will not have time to do anything when he gets home then either. But that is okay, the weekend is coming up and we hope to get a ton of stuff done!
Kristie

Monday's Progress...

2011-09-19T21:44:00.002-04:00

Another busy day! This is hubby after he got home from school Monday evening. After the long and busy weekend that we had, he was just exhausted. He ate supper and napped in the recliner for about 30 minutes and then got up and went to work on the house!As you can see, it was dark outside and he was still working. This wall between the windows is where we eventually plan on putting the big fireplace. But it will be a couple of years before we can add the fireplace, so meanwhile we plan on buying on of those new wood stoves. Actually we are picking it up this weekend. Here Richard is measuring for the concrete pad that the stove will set on. During the day yesterday, mom and I stained more wood boards for the ceiling over the living room and my sewing room. As you can see in the photo a few of the broke! :) Oh and I almost forgot, I got another coat of stain on my french doors in the master bedroom before mom came out.
It took us a while, these boards are 16ft each. Hopefully Richard can get these put up on the ceiling soon. I think this is enough to finish the ceiling in my sewing room. There are still a ton of them left to stain for the living room.
I'm hoping that I can settle down for a little bit of sewing some time today. Honestly, I am sooooo tired so I'm not even sure that will happen. But I do plan on going out to the house and cleaning up some of the construction mess so that more work can be done.

Richard and Hunter left for school a few minutes ago, so I need to get my day started. Actually I've been up since 5:30am but I don't usually get my day started until everyone is out of the house. Anyway....Hunter gets home around 4:30pm and Richard about 5:30pm (on Tuesdays) and then it will be the same routine.....supper, homework, and working on the house. With the limited time that we have during the evenings it is only small things that we can get done....but something is better than nothing!
Kristie

Weekend progress...

2011-09-19T07:17:00.004-04:00

It has been a busy weekend! The weekend started on Friday with me picking up several buckets of drywall mud. Hunter snapped this photo of Richard working on the master bedroom ceiling. He is actually on stilts but Hunter didn't get that part of him. :) Ended up getting the FIRST coat of mud on the walls and ceilings of the master bedroom, master closet, hallway, and the kitchen walls. Next it will be the kitchen ceiling, living room and laundry room. Oh and the second coat of mud was put on Hunter's room.

He also cut, raked, and baled somewhere around 100 bales of hay!!! Didn't get any photos of that. The only time that I was out there during that part was to drive the truck as it was being loaded and I didn't take the camera with me.

Here are my girls Friday evening. It was getting a little late but Hunter wanted to get them out to play. At this time, Richard was still out cutting the hay. As you can see, Sweetie is ready to be milked!

It was a nice weekend....busy but nice! Andrew was home!!!! It was wonderful! Even though I talk to him several times a day it's just not the same without seeing him. He is loving college and is doing great so far! He called me last week or so and was worried about an Anatomy test that he had. His exact words were, "Mom, I'm worried! I don't think that I did so well on it." Now this coming from a boy that has always made straight A's.....I was worried!! So we waited for his grade to be posted online and the silly boy got a 95% A!!! Anyway, here are a couple of photos of our time with Andrew!It was very hard when Andrew left, but I am proud of him and very thankful that he is going to college.
Hunter has played with the camera this weekend and you would not believe some of the photos that he has taken! Let's just say that only a little boy would take the camera in with him when he had to go to the bathroom.....imagine my shock this morning when I was loading photos on the computer and find one of the toilet!!!! Not very pleased with that! :(
But they are my boys and I love them with all of my heart! Now everyone is back to school this morning and I have to get my butt in gear and get my stuff done. Lot's of housecleaning to do and animals to feed!

Oh I almost forgot! I had a nice little visit from my brother and family after church yesterday! I really enjoyed that. He works so much so I don't get to see him much even though that he only lives 20 minutes away. My SIL is a nurse and she works with my sister, Chantal. So everyone is very close. They have 3 wonderful little kids and I always love seeing them. The little one, Gabe, he cracks me up! He is 3 yrs old and has the deepest voice!! I smile everytime he speaks! I'll have to catch him on video so that you can see what I am talking about!

Kristie

Feeling a little overwhelmed...

2011-09-16T08:33:00.005-04:00

In my last post I mentioned that life was a little busy, well I am starting to feel a little overwhelmed. I guess I just need to concentrate on ONE thing at a time but that is hard for me to do.

First off, here are a couple of photos of my Courthouse Step blocks. I have all 224 blocks sewn into sets of 4. Now to just keep connecting them all. My plan is to have it 14 blocks wide and 16 blocks long and add a 6 inch border.

I am just working on this quilt when I have my sleepless nights...which is pretty often. LOL! I'll get it finished before too long.
Not sure when I will get it quilted but I will just add it to the pile when I get the top completed.

Now on to everything else....okay the house....the seasons are changing so fast and we still have so much to do. We want so bad to move in before WINTER! Like I said before the house will not be finished but I can live with that for a while. This evening we plan on jumping in and getting this drywall finished within a week. I just hope we can do it. At first we thought about hiring that job out but the money just isn't there for it. I figure I can mud the screw heads and put the tape on the seams if Richard can mud the seams and the ceilings. We will see how that goes. Also there is more hay to cut this weekend. Just a small field, should end up with something like 100 bales from it, but it is something that HAS to be done.

So here is my list of stuff for the house that needs to be finished before WINTER!

Mud the drywall

Purchase our wood stove for heat

Purchase more electric wire that goes from the pole to the box

Connect the million wires to the fuse box

Hook up all of the water

Tile the bathroom floor and tub surround

Bathroom door

Finish bathroom cabinets

Install sink and toilet

Finish bottom kitchen cabinets

Install kitchen countertop

Install kitchen sink

Put up all of the lights

Okay.....I'm stopping here!!! LOL!

Finish staining wood for the ceiling over the living room and sewing room

Richard and I were talking about all of this last night and we decided that it was not IF we can get it done......WE WILL GET IT DONE!! We just need to buckle down and do it.!! At this point, I don't even expect to have all of the rooms painted, just because there is not extra money for that right now.

Now to quilting.....I love to quilt! And it keeps me sane, or at least I think so. LOL! I truly enjoy doing this stuff, but I have several things that HAS to be finished. I'm not as stressed with this, I just need to make a list in order that they need to be finished and get my butt in gear!

Quilt a quilt for my aunt. Still need to load it on the frame. I honestly dread quilting around the center of it. I'll post a photo of it when I load it on so that you can see what I am talking about. She made it for her boss and has a million hours in it.

Piece and quilt table runner or wall hanging from an old antique quilt top.

Pick up another customer quilt and get it quilted.

Make a WVU (West Virginia University) lap quilt for a customer. Has to be done in October.

Make a custom baby quilt, pillow and curtains for the same lady. It is camo.

Donation quit. I was contacted last week about doing a donation quilt to raise money for a Blaine School Reunion. This is the school that my whole family has attended. My parents, my brother, my sister, me, my kids and everyone around here. At this point....I just know that they are buying all of the fabric and I just need to piece something and quilt it. They want it QUEEN size and just something done in school colors. Oh this doesn't have to be done anytime soon but I just want to get it planned and don't want to wait until the last minute.

Soap to make for Christmas gifts

Clothesline bowls, pot holders, and a zillion other things for Christmas gifts

This is not counting things of mine that I would like to get finished too.

Two table runners (one large and one small)

Two Halloween quilts to quilt

Oh and several other quilts of mine that I would LIKE to get finished

I'm sure there will be a ton of other things that will pop up between now and then. And I'm also sure I have forgetting several things.

A few quilting projects...

2011-09-13T14:45:00.004-04:00

Another week has gone by since my last post. Things have been really busy around here, family stuff, house stuff and some quilting stuff. LOL! I'll start with the family stuff first. Mom is home so I have been spending a little time with her. I hate when she is gone. I know she has to work but I just don't like her being that far away. She had to fly back home this time so she was pretty tired.

We had our little county fair/festival this past weekend. That is always a busy time in our little town. The main day is on Saturday. Andrew had been there all day on Friday (he doesn't have school on Fridays) and again most of the day on Saturday. He was actually doing some of his community service hours that he needs for college. So on Saturday, Hunter went in with mom about 2pm and Richard and I worked on the house for awhile before we headed in later that evening. When we did get there it was nice...most of my family was there....Mom, Hunter, Andrew, Chantal and her boyfriend, Ronnie. I missed my brother he was in there a little earlier in the day. After we got there we walked around a bit and then we took Hunter and Andrew for pizza. I was so tired afterwards, my hip and leg was killing me.

This is what Richard and I were working on before we went....the main bathroom cabinets!!! It's hard to tell much about them right now but we wanted them to be a little rustic. If you are wondering why there are parts that don't have stain on them yet....these are some of the boards that I had been staining for the upstairs ceiling. So now I have to go back over the cabinets and stain all parts and then add an extra coat. Richard also did a tongue and groove with the boards so that they would fit together perfectly. The big cabinet on the end will hold the hot water heater and then the cabinet above it will just be for storage. I don't have the sink, mirror, and light fixture installed yet but I have them and I'm hoping to get them installed soon.

I layed out a piece of our tile to see how it will look with the cabinets and the tub. We bought them a couple of weeks ago. We got a great deal on them because of an overstock. I think they will look great once we finally get the walls painted a lighter color. That dark green sheet rock in there looks horrible. And here is a photo that I snapped of Richard mixing the bucket of drywall mud to get started on Hunter's room. The first coat is on and dry, now just waiting to get time for him to add the finish coat. It is hard with him going to school 5 days a week. When we do move in, the house will NOT be finished but we would like to have Hunter's room completely finished. He is so excited about moving in.
On to a little quilt stuff....I made this little hot pad/trivet out of cotton clothesline and some strips. Got it finished and threw it in a box and plan on saving it to use in the new house.
I also got in 2 rolls of batting!!!! I'm hoping those will do me for a while. I have a ton of tops that need to be quilted and also I get a few customer quilts along.

Finished up the binding on this customer quilt. I will be delivering it tomorrow. With downtown being so busy with the fair I have several things to do tomorrow. I need to deliver this quilt, mail out 2 more, grocery shop and get new tags on 2 vehicles! Shhhh....don't tell anyone but I am the world's worst at remembering to update our tags every year! LOL! Richard noticed yesterday that the tags had expired......in JULY!!!! :)
Anyway, still having a little trouble sleeping! :( I would say that 95% of my quilting stuff is already moved out in the new house. All that I have in here is one sewing machine, iron and board, and a few scraps. Soooooo.....one sleepless night I got the big idea that I would make a HUGE tablerunner for my kitchen table in the new house. When we move in, mom is giving me an antique table that she has. I plan on extending it out to the max size so it will measure 54x78 or something close to that. Giggle....I called and woke my sister up late one night and had her to measure it! :) So here it is...I don't have the blocks sewn together in this photo but you get the idea. I still have to quilt it. But I ended up making 40 of these 6 inch blocks but only used 32 of them in this runner. I will use the other 8 to make a smaller one. This runner ended up being 24x48. I made it from leftover scraps from my Courthouse Steps. BTW...I am still trying to get all 224 of those blocks pieced into a quilt top!!! :(

Kristie

A little Donkey time...

2011-09-06T12:58:00.005-04:00

It has been a week since my last post. Not a lot of quilting going on but lots of other work. I have put up so much fresh corn and green beans that I could cry! I am extremely thankful for having it but it is also a lot of work and rather messy.

I have also been doing a little bit of packing, as you can see here. Now I just need to find more boxes. My house is a wreck!! Just don't feel like cleaning too much, with all of this rain just makes me stiff and my hips and legs ache.

If you have read my blog for a while you know how much that Hunter hates school....right? Every morning it is a fight just trying to get him up to go. I have a horrible time trying to get him to do his homework and he is constantly begging me to home school him because he just doesn't want to go. He loves his friends but just doesn't like school work! Every evening when we are doing homework, he complains about it the whole time and swears that he doesn't understand it and doesn't know how to do it. I guess you get the idea....right?

So this morning around 11am, the phone rang and the caller ID had his school's name on it. So I'm thinking....he is sick. The lady on the other end introduced herself and said she was the "special education" teacher at his school. So I'm thinking...."OH CRAP!" Not that there is anything wrong with it and if I thought Hunter needed extra help I would gladly welcome it. But I have always thought in Hunter's case he was just being lazy. So she begins to explain the reason for the phone call......something about "rank 1", "graduate school" and a "masters degree" and that she needed to conduct a case study for HER EDUCATION. So I'm listening to all that she has to say. And she needs to conduct a case study and they need to be the same gender, same age, and same class. She will study their habits, hobbies and stuff like that and see how it affects how they learn and stuff. She said she needed a "high functioning male" and a "low functioning male" to conduct this study. So you know at this point what I am thinking....then she goes on to say something about Hunter being an extremely high functioning male. And I am like "EXCUSE ME?" LOL! I started to explain to her what a hard time that I have with him about school in general. She laughed and told me that he was "playing me" :( She said that his scores showed that he was the highest scoring male in his grade level at his school! Imagine my surprise!! LOL! I am always proud of my children and all that I expect is for them to do their best. So now this little guy has some explaining to do when he gets home.... Here I thought he was struggling. hmmm....

Oh and I must add that if we agree to this, at no time will these children be studied together at the same time and they will not know how the other one is doing or even if they are the high functioning or low functioning student. That is one thing that I asked about, if Hunter was the low functioning male I would not want it thrown in his face and made to feel bad. I don't expect my kids to be perfect and I know that each one of them are completely different. Even if Hunter is doing that well, I still believe that he does struggle with it. And if we do agree to this, if at anytime one of the parents or students want to stop, it will stop instantly. She will be sending lots of papers about it for us to read. I don't know who the other student is and neither will Hunter but she said that the parent and boy seem to be very excited about it all. So we will read all the paper work before we make any decisions.

Now on to some "Donkey Time" He doesn't go outside now because he has glaucoma and I'm just afraid that something might happen to him out there in the big world. LOL! So now he just stays in and is getting extremely fat and lazy! Here he is trying to get cozy in my bucket of beans.

I swear there is a sewing machine under there! LOL! I had it apart cleaning and oiling everything, took a break and this is what I saw when I started back to it.

Here he his still holding that sewing machine down and toying with a seam ripper.
And last but not least.....he is watching me getting his food ready! Silly cat!Now I guess I had better get my butt in gear and get some stuff done. I have a long day tomorrow.....grocery shopping, mailing a bunch of packages, and picking up a load of horse feed.

Kristie

Sleepless nights have paid off...

2011-08-29T01:00:00.003-04:00

Another sleepless night...it is 1:08am and I am wide awake! :( This is driving me crazy! So I've done what I always do when I can't sleep, SEW! They are all finished! All 224 Courthouse Steps!! Can you believe that???

224!!!

I never meant to finish these anytime soon but there is nothing else to do during these sleepless nights except to work on them. All of my other sewing projects and fabrics are in the new house, so the only thing that I have in here is one machine, these strips, mat/ruler/rotary cutter.
Now I don't have a clue as to when I will sew these together. There are so many of them that I will probably take them out to the new house so I will have plenty of room to lay them all out. But first I have some other things that need to be finished up that are already out there waiting for me. I mentioned before that I was paper piecing these and I'll tell you why. Most of these pieces were just scraps and some where strips. The scraps were all just a bunch of odd sizes and I really didn't want to go through the whole part of measuring every little piece. This way I could just pick it up and sew, perfect when you can't sleep and are too tired to concentrate. :) Anyway, I made a huge mess when I was trimming them up and Donkey had to get right under my feet. I looked down and he was covered! LOL! Crazy cat! Poor Donkey is not doing too well, he has glaucoma and it is pretty bad so I don't let him outside much now. I'm afraid that he will not be able to see well and get hurt. So he now spends his days inside doing exactly this...
And of course, Jasper had to get a pic taken too! Isn't he so cute? I didn't get a photo of Smokey but he was snoozing in the recliner and snoring very loud! :)And last a photo of Zoey before she went home. Hunter had some clothes and a quilt on the couch and Zoey just made a bed out of them. She was so happy to see my sister when she picked her up. I'm off to clean up my mess and maybe do some laundry or watch some tv.
Kristie

Check this out...

2011-08-26T14:41:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to drop in quickly to let you know that www.meemawlovestoquilt.blogspot.com is having a giveaway!!!! While you are there, check out her blog!

Have a great day!
Kristie

Meet Zoey!

2011-08-26T08:23:00.002-04:00

This is Zoey! She belongs to my sister Chantal. I am dog sitting for a couple of days. She is the sweetest thing. She is soooooo fat! She has FAT ROLLS! And when she wears her bikini she has a "muffin top" LOL! She has a huge fat roll that hangs out over the bottom part. :) Most times she has her tongue out panting, so funny. She is not so big that she is unhealthy, just "pleasantly plump"

She thinks she is human too! I swear she does. I laugh at her every time that I am out to mom's house. She will only drink bottled water and loves her clothes, it's almost as if she feels naked without them and is embarrassed. Anyway, I love her and enjoy dog sitting her. Smokey and Jazz just love her. I tried to get a photo of them together so that you could actually get an idea of her size, but I can't keep them still long enough.

My silly sister is on her way to Virginia Beach! My first reaction was...."silly girl, don't you know there is a hurricane on the way?" LOL! Actually She and Ronnie are on their way out there to buy some kind of a boat motor about 20 minutes from the beach. They may drive on to the beach if the weather is not too bad, they have been on the road for about 4.5 hours so far. Anyway, hope they stay safe and they should be back late Saturday night.

As far as quilting goes....NOTHING! Lol! Actually, late last night I did try working on a table runner. I am trying to take apart an antique quilt top that most of the seams have came apart. I was trying to repair some of the blocks last night and found that some of the fabric was shredding from my stitches. So I will probably try to figure out some on it today.

Andrew loves college so far! He calls me all of the time so that makes me feel better. I'm sure he knows how much I worry and miss him and I can't help but thinking (hoping) that he misses me too. :)

Kristie

Destressing with a new project...

2011-08-23T11:12:00.003-04:00

Look who was there to greet me this morning as I went to get some hay for the horses. Festus!! And also my girls were peering through the wire trying to see if I was getting hay for them too. :)Today I am just trying to DESTRESS! Wow! Friday afternoon we get a call that Richard's brother had been in an accident at work and was being flown out to a better hospital that are more able to deal with traumas. So at this point we are in a panic! He is okay nothing really life threatening but very sore and tons of stitches in his face and head. His wife said that yesterday he couldn't understand how bad that he looked at the hospital before they did surgery on him. I was trying to email them the photos that Richard took but couldn't get them to go through so I had to put them on facebook. So if anyone was wondering WHY I would post something that looked that bad, it was so that he could see for himself how he looked. Anyway...we got home around 3am.

I'm still having trouble sleeping and it is starting to wear my body down. I am dragging! I think I mentioned before that I do NOT deal well with change of any kind. I think it is probably because EVERYONE has started back to school here and everything is on a total different schedule. Hunter is in the 4th grade now and I so enjoyed having him home during the summer. Richard has started back for the Fall Semester and his schedule is 5 days a week, all day long. Then when he gets home, he eats, changes clothes and works on homework until somewhere around midnight.

And....Today is the first day of class for Andrew! I know that I am not the only mother in the world that her son has gone off to college but man I miss him already!! And I know that it will get easier as time goes on, but today I am sad.

Andrew has asked me for the past couple of years for a RED & WHITE Snail's Trail quilt. So whatelse could I do but to start his quilt TODAY! Here is the pattern that he picked out a while back. It is a Judy Martin pattern, it was published in a quilt magazine several years ago and that is what I have but it is also in one of here books too. I just don't remember which one. It is called Shakesphere In The Park. I have 2 Snail's Trail blocks finished...And 2 of the star blocks...I have all of the red pieces cut out and very few of the white pieces. I need to pick up a few more yards of white. But I'm not in a hurry, he has several years of college and this will be my "missing Andrew quilt" I'm not going to set a deadline on it to have it done, as long as I get it done before he graduates! LOL!

Now I am too tired to work on it anymore today. Think I will watch some tv or something, this lack of sleep makes it hard to concentrate on anything for very long. I have a ton of emails to respond to, so if you have emailed me in the past few days I will try to get them all answered today or tomorrow.

Oh, before I go....I have been sewing a little more on my Courthouse Steps. What I like most about them is that since I am paper piecing them, I don't really have to put much thought in them, so they are the perfect thing to work on when I can't sleep. I am up to 160 blocks now!!!!
Kristie

Mindless Midnight Madness

2011-08-18T16:19:00.002-04:00

Having trouble sleeping again for the past week so I have been doing a little midnight sewing. I go to bed but can't sleep so I get back up watch some tv and sew some blocks. These are mindless so I don't have to put much thought in putting them together. I am paper piecing these blocks, I have the strips cut and sorted in sizes so that makes it go faster. Tearing the paper off gives me something to do with my hands as I sit down during the evenings to watch some tv.

I am now up to 100 of these 6 inch blocks. I hoping to hang in there until I make 224. If I can get that many made I will do a 14x16 setting and it should come out to something like 84x96.
I'm not in a big hurry to get this finished just work on it as I feel like it or if I can't sleep. I'm loving them so far. Hunter just got home and Richard should be home somewhere around 6:30pm. I just started supper. We are having....southern fried chicken, fresh corn on the cob, fresh garden green beans, mashed potatoes and cornbread. Hmmm....maybe this is why I am overweight! LOL!

Kristie

Off the frame...finally

2011-08-17T20:04:00.003-04:00

What a week so far! UGH! First off, I finally got my client's T-shirt quilt off the frame! So that is a good thing! I have been working on the binding and repairing some skips on it today and it will be dropped off to her tomorrow. I have another quilt loaded on the frame but haven't started the quilting on it yet. We've had a very busy week here just trying to get into the groove of things. Richard started back for his Fall Semester on Monday and it has been hectic ever since. He is gone from the house something like 12 hours a day now, comes home, changes clothes, eats, and starts homework. They told him that he would have an average of 2-3 hours of homework/studying PER NIGHT! So I have been having to take up some of the slack here at home so that he can get this stuff done. I just keep telling myself that "he has LESS than a year and will graduate with a nursing degree" It is so hard right now but it will all payoff in the long run.

Hunter and Richard sit at the table each evening and do their homework together. This makes it much easier for us to get Hunter to get his finished too. Andrew starts college on Monday! That is really stressing me out! But I am very thankful that he is going to college to further his education. I think I should get some type of degree just for trying to keep up with these 3 and their homework! LOL!

Hopefully tomorrow I will have more quilty photos to show....if my day goes as planned! :)
Kristie

**Update** Kentucky Granny...if you read this post please email me at layne1142 at yahoo dot com. I tried to respond to your comments but it comes back as "no reply" Thanks so much!

I have a question...

2011-08-13T19:50:00.003-04:00

I have a question for you all.... Christmas will be here before you know it and I have been pondering about gifts. I know that there are so many ideas and quiltly projects out there and every year it seems that there are a few that really stick out to us quilters and everyone is making them for gifts. I remember in the past there were the Criss-Cross Coasters, Pot Holders, Oven Mitts, Rice Bags, and a million other things. So my question is.... What are you making for gifts this year? Have you seen any FREE tutorials out there on blogs with neat little gifts to make? If so which blogs????

As for me, I don't have a clue what I will make this year. Last year I made several rice bags and gave them to almost everyone in the family. Oh and I made a few pot holders too. But this year I have drawn a blank. Please help!

The past couple of days, Hunter and I have been a little under the weather with head colds. Nothing major, just enough to drive you crazy. As far as quilting goes.....nothing new here. Still plugging away on that T-shirt quilt, still breaking threads and skipping like crazy. But I am on the last row of blocks so not too much more to go. Then after I get it off the frame I will take it to my domestic machine and fix anything that needs to be fixed. Right now I am taking a break, I'm home alone and doing NOTHING! LOL! Richard and Hunter are at my sister's house shooting rifles with her boyfriend. Not too far from here, I can hear them shooting. :) Andrew went down to the Coon Club for the evening.

I got a small order of thread in from Connecting Threads. A great sale at only $1.74 a spool.

Richard picked up his books for this semester starting Monday. Look at them!! And a bag full of nursing supplies for class. And he still has two more books that he needs to pick up as soon as they come in.

And I will leave you with this photo of Hunter when he got home from school on Friday! He was soooooo tired. Have a wonderful weekend

Kristie

Such Plans...

2011-08-09T15:56:00.002-04:00

Oh I had such plans for this week but....it's not looking good at this point! Here we go! Yesterday was spent cleaning the house and doing the grocery shopping for the next two weeks. I got all of that taken care of yesterday so that I could have the rest of the week to finish up some quilting. So my plans were...

Tuesday...quilt large T-shirt quilt for client. I wanted to get it all quilted and off the frame today so that this evening I could sew the binding on by machine and work on the handwork over the next few evenings.

Wednesday...quilt Musical quilt for client. Get it all quilted with music notes and off the frame. Sew the binding on during the evening and work on the handwork over the next few evenings.

Thursday...finish bindings if needed and load 3rd quilt which is one of mine and start the quilting. This quilt needs to be completed quickly too.

Friday...deliver client quilts back to her and finish quilting on my quilt. And have the binding finished by Saturday morning and delivered.

I know I was pushing it anyway but at this point things are NOT looking good!

I started quilting the T-shirt quilt at 7:30am, it is now 4:20pm and I am still on my second pass with the machine!! :( The client did a wonderful job piecing the top and that is not the problem, it is just everything else. This is the first T-shirt quilt that I have ever quilted so some of it may just be me. Here is a sneak peak of the quilt...

This lady likes high loft poly batting, I really don't have a problem with quilting with that but I thought that might have been part of my problem today. Everything quilted great on the bottom border, not a problem at all until I started my second pass and hit the T-shirts. I started having skips and top thread breaks constantly. When I say constantly I mean like every 2-4 inches! So I changed threads, changed needles, and adjusted tension, none of that worked. So at this point I decided to pick all of this out and change the batting. I switched to a cotton batting again quilted great in the border and started doing the same thing again in the T-shirt area. Not hardly as bad as with the poly batting but still bad enough that I wanted to cry! :(

Never had the first problem with the bobbin until this...

Not even sure what happened there unless it was just messed up from all of the top thread breaks that I was having. So at this point I just stopped for the day! And I realize that my goal for the week probably will not be met at all.

I just put supper on and I'm hoping that I can settle down for the evening and relax before trying all of this again tomorrow. BTW...we are having fried chicken breast, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and good ole fashioned buttermilk cornbread and of course chocolate pie for dessert. Mmmmmm.....

Richard and Andrew both had to go pick up their books for the Fall semester. Both going to different colleges. Richard is going here in KY and has about a 45-60 minute drive. His college has 3 different campus sites. Sometimes he has to go to a different campus for a class or two. Andrew is going t college in Ohio and has a couple of hours drive. He left earlier to get his books and just called to say that he got them and is heading back.

All for now, have to turn my chicken over before it burns!

Kristie

Having to replace a border...

2011-08-06T17:32:00.003-04:00

First off, thanks so much for your votes on my Dakota Log Cabin quilt at the quilting gallery! Last I checked I was in 4th place and the voting stops Sunday night. There are so many beautiful quilts posted that it is hard for me to find a favorite.

I have spent today jumping from project to project and nothing really to show for my time. Don't you just hate when that happens? I have cut a few more strips for my Courthouse Steps that I have in progress. I also pinned a backing on the frame but have not loaded the batting or the top yet. I hope to start quilting on it tomorrow if it is not too hot upstairs. I also worked on ripping apart an old antique quilt top that is in pretty bad shape, I am trying to salvage enough blocks to make a table runner, wall hanging or a lap quilt. Now I am working on this mess...

I have a couple of drawers in an old wardrobe that I store some quilt tops in. I pull those drawers out all of the time and get in there, but I did not realize that I had a quilt top border that was stuck in there and every time that I pulled the drawer out it was ripping a hole in a quilt top!!! :( So the other day I decided that I would get a certain quilt top out and maybe quilt it in a few weeks. It was stuck and I had to take the whole drawer out to get it. And look what it did.....Thank goodness that this was only in the border. So while we were out shopping yesterday for Richard's school shoes and scrubs I picked up some fabric to replace that border. I was only one side. Then when I got it home this is what I found...

The first fabric is the border that I took off the second is what I bought! So now I have to take off the whole border all the way around and replace it!! :( Right now I have the top and half of the side border taken off. I'll probably try to finish taking the rest of them off tonight while watching tv.

Now on to some family stuff...Friday my mom was babysitting two of my brothers kids, his daughter was in school. Anyway I just love these two little guys they are so precious! The oldest is Zeph, he will be 5 in a couple of weeks. The little one is Gabe and he is 3. They are wonderful little boys and just like all little boys, they certainly keep you on your toes! :)
Snapped this one of Richard working on his old tractor. He always stays busy and very seldom just sits down. I think doing nothing makes him very nervous. LOL! As you can see in the background, Hunter has his tent set up and plays in it.
And I ran on to this paper that Hunter brought home for Mother's Day when he was in 2nd grade. It makes me smile every time that I read it.

It says...

My mom is special because....she makes quilts for me and dad and bub and her.

I like it when my mom... plays with me.

My mom can do many things! I think she's best at... quilting and work.

My mom has a pretty smile. I like to make her smile by... coming home and hugging her.

My mom is as pretty as a... rose.

My mom is smart. She even knows... every step to quilting.

I'll have to remind him of this stuff when he is a teenage and thinks that he knows it all and that I am weird! LOL!

I guess I'll get back to working on my few projects.

Kristie

Your VOTE would be nice.... LOL!

2011-08-05T07:15:00.004-04:00

If you have an extra minute hop on over to the Quilting Gallery and vote for your favorite log cabin quilt. Of course, I would not want to ask you to vote for mine unless you really do like it, but a vote for mine would sure be nice....LOL! I tried to link to it but if it will not let you vote there, but click the "click here" in the first paragraph.

Here is the log cabin quilt that I made last year. I call it Dakota Log Cabin.

Most of the fabrics used are Civil War repro but I did try to blend some others in with them.
It is machine quilted by me.

I made this quilt with plans to display it on a huge wall in my new house. The quilt measures 96x96. I entered it in our local art show at our art gallery and it won a first place ribbon.
I named it after Hunter (his first name is Dakota) he fell in love with it as I was making it.

Don't forget to go vote!!!

Have a wonderful day!

Kristie

Cutting into fabrics and a WIN!!

2011-08-03T09:27:00.003-04:00

I think this is going to be a good day! Or at least, I hope so! The hay is done for a while anyway....maybe next week sometime. It has been so hot here and now it is pouring rain!!!! We so needed it! The weatherman is saying that we should have rain on and off for the next few days! And since the hay is done right now we can REST!!!

First off, I won a giveaway!! I was soooo happy, I never win anything! And the best part of it was, I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted to win it! My friend, Janet of Rogue Quilter was having a giveaway of a pattern, ruler set (needed for the pattern) and some homemade soap and I won! She had shown the pattern on her blog before and I just fell in love with it. You know how so many of the patterns seem to look alike or they just don't really catch your eye, well this one was different. I had planned on ordering it when I got a few extra dollars, but now I don't have to. :) She took a photo of the store sample and that is the photo that caught my eye, click here to see how pretty it is. If you like scrap quilts, you will love this one! She is actually making hers as a leader/ender project. I think I will start cutting some pieces for mine as I cut other projects and put them aside. Oh, while you are over on Janet's blog, check out the quilt on her blog header, another leader/ender project, I love it!

Today since it is raining and my legs are killing me because I have been on them so much this week. I plan on kicking back and cutting more strips for my Courthouse Steps. I only need a zillion more blocks! LOL!

Do you ever find it hard to cut into your fat quarters and yardage?? I certainly do! I always cut my scraps first and sometimes it just makes me sick to my stomach to cut into anything else, but I guess we have to from time to time. When I run out of scraps or can't find anything in them that suits me I start with the fat quarters first. As most of you know, I am in love with Civil War Repro fabrics and I am just now getting my stash built...if only I could win the lottery! LOL! Anyway...I am sitting here this morning debating on cutting into these. First I will start with these scraps, actually I have another pile of them but I didn't get a photo of them... Oh and before you say anything....I know not all of the fabrics in the following photos are Repro fabrics but they still blend well with them. :)

These are what I am dreading cutting....my fat quarters and 1/2 to 1 yard cuts. I counted and there are 79 fat quarters here...I wish there were 790! LOL! Here are a few yardage pieces that I save and use for borders. I think I have more that is already boxed up and moved in the other house.
I've had these two for a few years now. I guess I am lazy, these are to be used for the borders for my Civil War Love Letters quilt. I have all 121 blocks paper pieced, sashed and sewn into a top now I only need to add borders. I'm sure you are wondering why I haven't done that yet??? Well....silly me left all of the papers on the 121 blocks and sewed the top together and now it is a little overwhelming trying to take them off...In other news....Hunter is on his 3rd day of 4th grade and hates it!!! I really dreaded waking him up this morning because I knew the mood that he would be in!! I just hope he learns to deal with it better. He is a wonderful student he just doesn't want to be away from home.

And...Andrew!!! Andrew, Andrew, Andrew!!!! I love him with all of my heart, a very good kid, never in trouble or anything like that, just a little mouthy but I guess that is a teenage thing. As most of you know he is 18 now and off to college in a few weeks and like any mother that just worries me sick! But what does he come home with the other night????? A BIG HONKING TATTOO!!!!! I know it is not the end of the world but I just never imagined Andrew getting one!!! I know millions of people have them, Richard even has on on his back from years ago and my sister has 2 on her back but I just didn't want my boys to have them, I guess that is a "mom thing" anyway it is on his upper arm shoulder area and will be under his shirt sleeve and it is a HUGE bull that is inked red. Oh well....I guess life goes on, not like I can do anything about it now.

I'm off to do some laundry and start cutting strips!!!
Kristie

A few more blocks...

2011-08-01T09:45:00.003-04:00

The past few days I was able to finish 20 more Courthouse Step blocks. This makes me a total of 60 of them so far. I still have a long way to go with them. Unless my mind changes or I get really tired of making them I plan on making 224 of them. I know that is funny that I say that because I'm sure I will stop long before I get to that number! LOL! Now I need to take a few days to cut more strips and sort them into sizes. But that will probably take longer than usual because we are still working in the hayfields. Today was the first day of school for Hunter! He is now in the 4th grade! He was NOT thrilled at all this morning. He doesn't like going to school he says it takes away from his playtime! LOL! He makes really good grades in school but just doesn't want to go. He is my little country boy, he would rather be outside running through the hills than be sitting inside. Andrew starts college August 22nd and hubby goes back August 15th. So this is a busy month for us. (Not sure why all of my photos have turned out blurry today) Anyway, it will probably take us all a few days to get back into the school routine.

Looks like it will be another scorcher today! I snapped this on the way to take Hunter to school this morning. I guess Richard and I will be back in the hayfields today. Actually Richard is already out there and I am heading that way in a few minutes.
I hope to get a little more sewing done between everything else that is going on.

Kristie

Searching for fabric and got some goodies...

2011-07-29T19:21:00.002-04:00

I took today off from the hayfield so that I could finish up some school shopping. Hunter's school starts Monday, August 1st. I had everthing for him except for his new shoes so Mom and I took him shopping for them today. While I was down in Ashland, we stopped by the quilt shop so that I could pick up a tiny bit more of this blue for this quilt. If you remember, I had just enough to finish the quilt but cut some triangles the wrong size. :(Well wouldn't you know....they were out of that fabric!!! So now I have to try to find it online and it is an older Marcus Brother line so I hope I can still find it. While we were there, Mom fell in love with the little shop. They still had their sale going on so I picked up more fat quarters. I got 15 for $15, can't beat it for $1 each!Yesterday I spent all day in the hayfield and I am still exhausted! As you can see that big ole sun ball was blazing! It was soooooooo hot out there! See this little opening in the trees? I know it is hard to see it but that is the trail to walk back home. I kept wondering how long it would take Richard to miss me if I slipped off and went back home. LOL! I did take some yo-yo's to work on while I was taking my breaks. I really didn't get very many of them done but I am one that has to always keep my hands busy.

I left the field before Richard did and I snapped this photo as I was driving off the hill from the hayfield. See the lake! That is just a small part of it but I think it is something like 2300 acres.

I guess tomorrow I will have to get back to the grind.

Kristie

More sewing...

2011-07-27T18:07:00.003-04:00

Richard has been busy cutting hay, it is sooooo hot! I've been back and forth, he usually doesn't want me out there unless he needs my help because he says it is just too hot for me.....awwww... Anyway, I will have to be out there the next few days, because he will be raking and baling it, then loading it. But it all has to be done, I'm just thankful that we have hay to cut. Hunter had been out watching his daddy cut the hay. That bunch of trees there on the left in the photo is actually an old building/cabin that is falling down.

Hunter was waiting for me to take a ride so that we could cool off. Don't worry he was not riding it by himself and he does wear a helmet. :)
I had a small gift certificate from Connecting Threads and used it to buy a few spools of threads and a couple of downloadable patterns. I really do like their thread, it is a little linty but not too bad. It is on sale right now for $1.74 a spool until August 15th. I plan on trying to order several more spools.Between everything else I did get to sew 20 more Courthouse Steps. This makes me 40 of them right now. This is not even a third of what I would like to have to make the quilt. I just hope that I can stay interested in making that many. LOL! I think my log cabin quilt has 144 blocks in it and they actually seemed to go fairly fast considering the size of them.
I'm hoping that we can get a break in this heat so that I can get upstairs and get back to quilting on my frame. I have several that needs to be done. Well I had better get off of here, I need to finish supper and get the milking done.

Kristie

Cutting Strips...

2011-07-25T20:52:00.002-04:00

I've been cutting and sorting Civil War Repro strips for my Courthouse Steps quilt. I did this when I made my log cabin quilt and after I got them cut and sorted the piecing seemed to go so much faster for me. One good thing is that these stack up and don't take up that much room while I am not working on them.

This is still all that I have done on this quilt, but I do like it really well.
Anyway....I probably will not get too much sewing done this week. I have a busy week ahead.

* Tuesday ---- My aunt is coming out so that we can design some blocks and borders for a special quilt that she is making. She has the center done but that is it. I'll take some photos of it while she is here. Then Hunter has Readifest at school at 4pm and then Mom will be home tomorrow too!!!!

* Wednesday --- Working in the hay field!

* Thursday --- Working in the hay field!

* Friday --- Working in the hay field!

* Saturday --- Working in the hay field!

Here is the hay field that will be my workplace this week! LOL! The weatherman says it will be a little cooler ONLY in the mid 90's! UGH!

Yesterday we had some wonderful friends come to visit. Of course, Mark and Richard were outside most of the time but is gave me and Mitsie lots of time to catch up. I really enjoyed their visit! The funny thing is, when they got here I had her some of my homemade goat soap ready to give her and she pulled some wonderful smelling candles out of her purse that she had made. I forgot the scent of the brown one but I think she said the orange one was called fruit slice.

Have to run....my sister is coming over to spend the night!!!! :)
Kristie

A Few More Blocks...

2011-07-21T20:07:00.002-04:00

I really didn't plan on posting tonight because I just didn't feel like I had that much progress to show. My plans were to get up early and load one on the frame, but like I said my frame is upstairs in the new house but we don't have power in the house yet. I always just run a power cord upstairs to plug in my machine but I don't have A/C out there! It is just too hot up there right now. I was up there for a bit and I got sick to my stomach it was just too hot. So back in here I came where I have A/C.

Today was filled with housework and a little bit of sewing in here. I ended up making 10 more blocks today. I am now up to 20 of these Courthouse Steps. I'm sure I have a few more of them somewhere and they are probably upstairs so they will just have to stay there until it cools down. I'm not sure of the design yet. I may just piece them like this or I did see online where they had alternated the blocks. I do like these blocks but right now I'm not as happy with them as I was when I was working on my log cabin blocks. I loved them! Then again maybe I am just cranky from this heat. LOL!

That's all for now, hopefully tomorrow I will have more to show.
Kristie

Courthouse Steps

2011-07-20T20:54:00.002-04:00

Just a little sewing today. I had planned on starting another big project quilt as soon as I got my red & navy Civil War Wreaths quilt finished. But now that I have to wait a week or so before I can finish it, I really didn't want to drag out everything to start something big. And besides, I have several other things that need to be finished also. For one, I have an antique quilt top that I need to try to salvage some of the blocks out to make a table runner or a lap quilt. That is for a customer. I also have two other customer quilts that need to be quilted. One is a T-shirt quilt and the other is another Musical quilt. This will be the 3rd Musical quilt that I have quilted for her. And I have one of my tops that need to be quilted by the 3rd week of August. Plus all of the farm, house building and hay stuff! Speaking of hay....the next couple of weeks will be filled with HAY!

So today I cleaned up my sewing table and did get out one of my UFO's. I figure I will work on it for a while in between all of this other stuff. I don't have any plans on finishing it right now but just something to work on during the evenings. See, my frame and most of my sewing stuff are out in the new house in my sewing room and then I have another sewing machine set up in here on my kitchen table. I had a few blocks finished and I have several more almost finished. At this point, I'm not even sure how big I will make this quilt. I do love paper piecing these little guys. These measure 6 inches, if I can stay interested in them I would love to make it as large as I did my Civil War Log Cabin quilt last year. I think I made 144 blocks for it.

Yesterday Richard and I worked some on the house. He worked on some drywall and I stained more wood for my ceiling. Here are a few of them but in all there is a little over 1000ft of boards to be stained. :( But it will be worth it to me in the end. I also got one coat of stain on my cabinets. He doesn't have them all built yet but I just couldn't help myself. LOL! Oh and I stained that big support beam in the middle of the kitchen too, actually that will be where my island will be. I can't wait to get the upper cabinets built and the island. I think my island will be 7 or 8ft long. I'm excited about that because I've never had an island before! :)And last I will leave you with a photo of my little one....very dirty after a day of play outside. :( Now he is all clean, freshly showered and ready for bed! LOL! Hopefully I can get a few more Courthouse Step blocks sewn in between everything else!
Kristie

Burns my butt!

2011-07-18T18:18:00.003-04:00

Are you tired of seeing this quilt yet? LOL! I sure am! I do love how it is turning out but I am ready to be finished with it! Do you see anything wrong with this photo? :(

In my rush to finish my last 2 rows (7 of each block) I made my half square triangles too small!!! Just not paying attention. I had made all of my sections and was ready to piece the blocks together before I realized what I had done. The bad part is.....I don't have enough of the navy fabric to finish my quilt, but the good part is....I can get it at my local quilt shop as soon as I get down that way. :( I need less than 1/2 yard! I was really looking forward to finishing this up tonight, I even had my borders and bindings cut.

As of right now, I guess I will just piece together what I can on it until I can get the fabric to finish it up. I have a new quilt in the works IN MY MIND! LOL! So I may go ahead and get things together for that and I also have a few customer quilts to work on too, so it's not like I don't have anything else to do.

Kristie

Sewing right along...

2011-07-17T20:33:00.003-04:00

Yesterday evening while Hunter went with his friend to see the new Harry Potter movie, Richard and I took the 4-wheeler out to check on the big bottom to see if it was ready to have hay cut from it. It was getting late so we took the 4-wheeler instead of walking out there. As you can see here it is dark in the woods but the sky is still light. I took several photos but I'll only post a couple of them.

There is also a small older cabin/building out there but it is all grown up around it and you can hardly see it. Anyway after that we went back to the house to watch tv and wait for Hunter to get back home. He had a wonderful time.

Today I got all of my scrap windmill blocks sewn together to make a top. Now I will put it away until I get upstairs and can dig out something for a border. Right now it measures 54x63 and I would like to have it a little larger. I don't have it all spread out here but maybe you can get an idea of how it looks. Very quick and easy!!

Here is what I have done so far on my leaders/enders project. I really wish that I had used Civil War fabric for these but, I guess I should use up the regular scraps first.....or maybe not.... I just think the Civil War fabrics would look great with the cheddar solid.
And right now I am trying to finish up my last 2 rows (14 blocks) of my Civil War Wreaths quilt. I showed what I had done to mom when she got home and she asked me this morning if I had finished it yet so I think that was a hint to get my butt in gear! LOL!

Back to quilting....
Kristie

Sewing most of the night...

2011-07-16T13:40:00.003-04:00

Well let's see....Mom came home late Thursday night so I'm getting to spend some time with her. She is supposed to be off for 28 days at a time but will probably have to go back to work in about 4 more days and work a week. She has been working on the Mississippi River so she is a little further away. Yesterday evening we went out to visit her and she was cutting her grass and my sister had just gotten home so we jumped in a helped her. Richard cut her grass and Hunter, Chantal, Mom, and I moved some rocks for her to make another flowerbed. Hunter had his wagon out there so that was a big help.

Afterwards Hunter and I took the 4-wheeler (ATV) out for a ride. We had a nice time together and after we got back home Richard took it for a longer ride to cool off. It has been hot here, like it has pretty much everywhere but we finally got some rain in the wee dawn hours.

For some reason last night I couldn't sleep, I do that every so often. Anyway, I started sewing on those blocks that I cut last week. The windmill blocks. They go together so fast and before I knew it, I had 45 of them sewn together!! That is all that I had cut out, so I'm not sure at this point if I will just use what I have and do a 6x7 setting or try dig up more white and make more blocks. This is the 3rd quilt that I have made using this block. This first one is a king size

And this one is a full size. I don't have this one anymore, I sold it at Christmas. I really liked the fabrics in it.

And I also decided to jump on Bonnie's Bowtie Leaders and Enders. I actually pulled fabric for a bowtie a few weeks ago just from scraps and set it aside. But when I read her post, I knew I had to pull some background fabric for them and use them as my leader and ender project since I wasn't working on one at the time. Now sure how big it will be, I guess until I get tired of it or I run out of scraps! I'm not crazy about that green block but I guess that is the best part of scraps....if I use enough of them, you will never notice this in the quilt!And the whole time I was sewing last night my precious little Smokey stayed up with me. He is so sweet and lovable and only weighs in at 4lbs. And now an update on Hunter's eye. If you remember last month he got hurt with a piece of rebar at his birthday party....now look how well he has healed! I'm very grateful that the Lord was looking over him because it could have been so much worse than it was.
Now I had better get my butt in gear and clean my house and get something planned out for supper. Mom just left a few minutes ago, she came out to see our progress on the house since she had been gone. Maybe after supper this evening I can get these blocks pieced into a quilt top and I really need to get back to working on my Civil War Wreaths. I am so close to having that top finished but I have been avoiding it like the plague! Only two more rows and borders and I can call it a top!

Kristie

A few goodies...

2011-07-13T09:18:00.003-04:00

So tired after yesterday that I missed my doctor's appointment this morning. I just didn't feel like going so I will have to reschedule it. Yesterday Andrew and I had to make a trip to the college that he will be attending in the fall. It is just a couple hours away but we were gone for a total of 12 hours!! He is now all set and ready to start August 22nd. There were several classes that he will not have to take because of his test scores so he was very excited about that. I'm not sure if I had posted them but here is one of his senior photos, this one is one of the proofs that I got from the photographers website, I'm just too lazy to scan one. So while we were out yesterday I stopped by the little red hen quilt shop in Ashland, just little over an hour away. I had received a flyer last week that they were having a big sale. Since I had to drive right by there I just had to stop. LOL! They had fat quarters on sale for $1 each and they are only $1.50 regular priced. I only bought 15 of them, I was in a rush to get back home but I am pleased with what I bought. You know how I like Civil War Repro fabrics so I was very excited! Of course it is all quilt shop quality fabric and is only $5 to $6 per yard regular price!!!! Hunter stayed home with Richard yesterday while I was gone and they worked a little bit on my ceiling in my quilting room. I'm loving it!!! After he gets it all finished he will be going back over it and touching up the screw holes with stain. See those yellow electric wires hanging down? I will have 3 recessed lights there and they will be centered over my frame for extra lighting. I can't wait to get this done and get the trim up!!!! It is hard to see in this photo but the ceiling goes from 6.5ft up to 12ft in the center. What you see here in the photo is the short side.

Have a ton of housework to do today so not sure if I will get any sewing done today. And I might just be a good little wife and go help Richard out in the house today too.

Kristie

Started a new one...

2011-07-11T09:53:00.002-04:00

It has been a long weekend. Not sure what I have done but my hips and legs were killing me all evening and through the night. I had hip and leg injuries a year or so ago and from time to time they still bother me but this is the worst that it has been for a while. Better today but still not completely better. Anyway....

I finally got that antique quilt quilted and off the frame. I will post photos of it later as I have to trim it up and bury knots. I started a new quilt! I know I really don't need to do that but I've been a good girl and working on and finishing some UFO's lately so I thought it would be okay. Here is my first block! It is a traditional block called "Wheel Of Fortune"
The other day I decided that I wanted to do this quilt so I printed out a zillion of the paper piece sections, bought some red solid and was ready to go.....or so I thought! Silly me cut up all of my scraps from my scrap bin a day or two before for the "Road To Jericho" and "Windmill" quilts that I planned on cutting out and bagging up for kits! Can you believe that????? So now I guess this quilt, as much as I love it, will end up being a WORK IN LONG PROGRESS! I will just piece it as I collect scraps for the centers. Oh well....

Now on to a little more house progress....first off here are my kitchen countertops. It is not attached but just sitting on there so that I could see exactly what it was going to look like. Hopefully, if my hips can stand it, I will be staining my cabinets this week. My countertops are nothing fancy but they are what I could afford and I am very pleased with them. Now I just have to dig out the new sink and faucet that I have stored.....somewhere. LOL! I think I bought those back in March. We plan on having a wood ceiling over the living room and my quilting room and that measures 24x40 ft and the living room ceiling is 22 ft high so I dread Richard putting that up. Yesterday he cut down the 12" pine boards that he had drying out and had planed down smooth. When he sawed them on the sawmill he cut them 12" wide and we decided that we would go with 6" boards on the ceiling so he is cutting them in half. So while he did that I was staining them. Let's just say that his job went a lot faster than mine. That is almost 1000 sq ft of lumber that needs to be stained! :( So this morning since my hips are still bothering me a little, he is out there staining them for me. Here are a few of them that are leaned up in the living room drying. I'm loving them so far!I guess I had better get off of here and try to get my butt in gear!
Kristie

Weekly update...

2011-07-08T22:11:00.002-04:00

It's been almost a week since my last post, just been a little busy. So here we go....my sister came and spent the night one night this past week! I really enjoyed her being here even though she lives on the property that connects to mine. LOL! It was nice to have her here and just sit down and talk. She will kill me for posting this but here she is when she feel asleep on my couch! LOL! I am almost finished with the antique quilt that I was quilting. I should have been done with it a long time ago, but had some problems with the quilting and I am still have to go extra slow because of thread breaks but it is much better after I changed battings. You can see a little of the quilting in the photo below. I always wonder about the people that piece these quilts, what were they like? What was going on in their lives? Did the fabrics have special meanings to them? Stuff like that. I still have not cut out the last two rows of my Civil War Wreaths quilt that I showed in my last post. I just needed a break from it for a few days. So meanwhile, I have been cutting up the fabrics in my scrap basket. I started cutting fabrics for a "Road To Jericho" and a "Windmill" I've make them both before but they make great scrap quilts and with what was left over I cut 2.5" squares to put in my bin. Not sure when I will start piecing these quilts but they go together quick and are nice when you need a top to quilt as a gift or something. Now on to a house update. We have been doing a lot of cleaning and sweeping. Everything gets piled up and messy when you are building. Tomorrow we will be buying the electric wire that goes from the electric pole and runs to the fuse box in the house, that wire alone will cost us $400. And this week we have plans to start installing our wood ceiling over the living room and my quilting room. That will be a total of about 1000 sq ft of wood ceiling to put up. My job will be staining the wood and Richard will be installing it. He makes me nervous when he is up high, but he says that is only because I am afraid of heights! The ceiling over the living room is 22 ft high. But I am excited about getting it done.

I am a person that has to actually see something, I'm not that good at imagining how it will look so that has cause Richard some extra work in the kitchen. See, he is building my kitchen cabinets and I know what I want but I also need to see it just to make sure. LOL! Anyway, he set my bottom cabinets up TEMPORARILY. They are just tacked together, now that I know that I like them, he will actually build them. The front framing is what he will use but has to build the backing, sides and shelving....and then the doors. Upper cabinets and my island will come next too. But at least you can get an idea of them in this photo.

Let me explain them. Just so you know that microwave will not actually be sitting there! LOL! But on the end beside that microwave I will have a floor to ceiling cabinet there but he just didn't frame it up when he did the rest of them. My sink goes under the window and on the left of the photo my stove will go in that section where I have the boxes with my lights in them. And then there will be one cabinet (as seen in photo) between my stove and refrigerator. And of course, upper cabinets over top of them and my island will go there where that beam is and it will be a pretty good size too.This is the view of the kitchen by the big window where my table will be. You also see my back door and the doorway behind it is my laundry room. See that cabinet there along that side wall? Richard built it for me too!

Speaking of Richard building stuff... I had mentioned that I wanted a desk in my quilting room for a computer and papers and stuff. He built me one the other day!!!! See, just another reason that I love him so much! LOL! As you can see, Donkey likes it too! It is actually 5 ft long and has a small drawer in the center, it will work perfectly. Since I'm showing photos of my sewing room, I hung a wall hanging up the other day. It is not exactly centered but I will take it down and reposition it, it is only pinned up with stick pins. I made it several years ago but never used it. It fits perfectly between the two closets up there. And the closets still need doors and trim but all that will come with time....and money! :) Anyway, my frame sits right in front of this, you can see part of my machine there.

That is all for now...hopefully in a few days I will have more quilting and house photos!!!!

Kristie

Well...toot!

2011-07-02T22:39:00.004-04:00

Well.....toot! I really wanted to get this top pieced tonight. I had it planned to be 7 x 7 blocks, but I'm not real big on square quilts, but I figured that I would be cutting it close with the yardage that I had for it. I do have a little more fabric leftover and I'm hoping that I can squeeze two more rows out of it. If I'm short on anything it will be the beige print. I just had my heart set on getting it finished tonight but I don't think I will be happy with it being square. I still have 4 yards of the navy left and about 2 yards ( I think) of the red. I will also be cutting a 2" red border and a 6" navy border too. As you can see here, Smokey is checking it out too.I still need to press the rows but you get an idea of how it will look. I do like the quilt but I just want it to be a rectangle and it will fit my bed better too. I'm done for the night and we will be having some visitors tomorrow but hopefully I can try to do the other 14 blocks to make 2 extra rows.Thursday was actually Hunter's 9th birthday and we had his party the Saturday before so Thursday was spent as a "family day" I baked him another cake and later that evening we headed to the lake. Actually we live within 5 minutes of the lake so it wasn't that far. We had a blast! Hunter is trying to climb on Richard to turn his tube over! LOL!Hunter had his remote control boat with him too. He was chasing Richard with it!
A few geese went by...We stayed until late in the evening and had a wonderful time. Now I'm off to bed...

Kristie

I Goofed...

2011-06-29T21:41:00.002-04:00

I got up super early this morning so that I could do some machine quilting. I had no more than got started when Richard needed to plug up his welder. See...my machine is upstairs in the house and we don't have electric in there yet so I have to run his big cord up there, but he needed to finish his trailer because he needs to use it. So I'm going to try to finish it up in the morning. It is hard having to share the electric cord. :(

After cleaning the house I sewed some star blocks. I noticed that I messed it up a little bit but I'm not going to change it now. I have all 25 of my churn dash blocks finished and I had planned on doing the centers beige, not sure how I ended up doing them ALL navy! Oh well life goes on, it just changes the whole look of the quilt but that is okay because I am not changing them now!

I don't have them sewn together they are just laying there. I still have several more navy star blocks to do but you can get an idea of how it is going to look. Tomorrow is actually Hunter's birthday! So tomorrow will be spent with lots of "Hunter time" It's hard to believe that my baby will be 9 years old.

Before I go I have a little "funny" to tell you. As you know we had Hunter's birthday part last Saturday evening but we also had a wedding to go to earlier that day so it was a very busy day for us. Now most times when I am home and not going anywhere my hair is up in a ponytail and no makeup. So I was in the bathroom and had just fixed my hair and was finishing my makeup when Hunter popped in and said "Mommy you look beautiful"

I know it is sad that he doesn't see me fixed up more often but I am still far from BEAUTIFUL. LOL! He went into the living room where Richard was and I heard him say "Daddy, when mommy comes in here you need to tell her how pretty that she looks" LOL! So when I did walk into the living room Richard was being silly and whistled. Now here is the funny part...

I was standing there putting my jewelry on and Hunter walked up to me and it went like this....

Hunter: "Excuse me, are you from Tennessee?"

Me: "What?"

Hunter: "I was just wondering because you are the only TEN that I SEE!"

LOL! Now is that a line or what?????? We all had a good laugh!!!
Kristie

Sewing Progress...

2011-06-28T15:35:00.003-04:00

Well my boy is pretty sore! This photo was taken yesterday and today it has a much "greener" look to it! Poor little thing he is "milking it for all it's worth" He had a doctor's appointment yesterday, just routine to get medication for his ears. He has eczema of the ear canal so I have to put medication in them every other day to keep them from drying out. Anyway....all checked out fine with his eye too. He did have a x-ray just to double check the cheekbone but it was fine. The doctor did put him on an antibiotic just for a precaution. Now he has decided that he wants lots of "mommy time" he wants to be loved on and taken special care of so I'm not going to turn him down on that, when he gets a little older he will not want me to do that so I will take advantage of that now! LOL! So he has camped out in the living room all day, lots of pillows, quilts and toys scattered everywhere. I actually moved my sewing machine in the living room too so that I can sew in between the snuggles. Before he got up out of bed this morning I did get to work on the antique quilt that is on my frame for a few minutes. I must say that changing the batting did make some difference but I am still having some thread issues but I think that is because of the different fabrics being used so I have to really go slow and it is not too bad that way.

I've got a lot of sewing done today but not any housework but that is okay. I have been working on my Civil War Wreaths UFO and it is coming right along. I have all 25 churn dash blocks finished but those are the easy blocks. Oh and I even recovered my ironing board! LOL! It looked horrid! I only have one of these star blocks pieced and this one is just laying there and is not sewn together. I need a total of 24 of those blocks. I have all of the strips sewn together for the 4 patches now I just need to sub cut them and sew them to make the 4 patches. And I only have just a few of the star points done. So hopefully I will have this top completed within a few days. I have really enjoyed working on this one and it also feels good to get another UFO out of the way. If you remember last week I completed the 30 blocks needed for my spiderweb quilt and that was a UFO too. But I still need to get the fabric to finish that one up but after I get the fabric it will not take too long to finish that one into a top. Not sure what I will work on next, as far as piecing goes. I have a couple of my quilt tops that I would love to machine quilt after I get these customer quilts finished but I also like to have something to piece going at the same time.

I guess that is all for now, Hunter is wanting me to watch another movie with him...
Kristie

Birthday Party and a Black Eye...

2011-06-26T11:51:00.003-04:00

Hunter turns 9 next Thursday the 30th of June but we had his party yesterday. Nothing really fancy just a few of his friends over, some family and neighbors. Here is a photo of his cake...he loves Star Wars! This is one of his friends, Chris and his GIRLFRIEND, Olivia. I keep telling him he is too young to have a girlfriend but he doesn't listen. Isn't she cute with that curly hair?
And here is Andrew. It is hard to get a photo of him, he doesn't like his photo taken. For some reason it turned out really fuzzy. It's hard to believe that he will be starting college in the fall.Now on to the black eye...you know how kids are and they don't always listen to their mom, well that is what happened here. Hunter had a piece of rebar and was throwing it pretending it was a spear. I told him to stop and he did but grabbed it again when I was getting the burgers off the grill from Richard. He threw it at a tree, it hit the tree and bounced back and hit him in the face! I didn't see it happen. Chantal, my sister started yelling at me and when I looked her way all I saw was Hunter with blood on his face and his eyes rolling back in his head! I guess it almost knocked him out! Of course, I grabbed him and in the house we went to clean it up to see how bad he was. It looked worse at the time than it really was. I was afraid it would need stitches until I got it cleaned up but it doesn't. This photo was taken last night before bed, it looks much worse today.He was very lucky that it didn't put his eye out! Of course we had a little talk about listening to mommy! He is very sore today but maybe next time I tell him something he will realize that I am not trying to be mean to him but just don't want him to get hurt!

Shamefully I usually only check my mail about once a week unless I am expecting something. Today as we took his little friend home I stopped by the mailbox. My mailbox sits down by the road which is a little over a mile from my house. Anyway....I got some goodies!!! This is from a sweet lady named Laura! She sent me these wonderful reproduction fabrics as a thank you gift for something that I had sent to her. They are lovely! I didn't have any of them and I just can't wait to use them in some of my quilts! Thank you so much Laura!
Now that Hunter's party is over I need to get everything cleaned back up and get back to quilting! Actually I have one on the frame right now! It is that antique quilt that I was having trouble with a few weeks ago. I have it pinned back on the frame and I am going to try a different batting to see if that works. Wish me luck! I also have several others floating around in my head that I want to work on too.
Kristie

Lots of sewing going on...

2011-06-22T09:30:00.006-04:00

I'm feeling really good about the past couple of days of sewing! I got all of my string blocks pieced and the top sewn together! I'm satisfied with the size of it now, it will fit my bed. I promise that the borders are not that wavy. LOL! Monday afternoon Hunter started asking a million questions about when we could move in the new house. Well we still have a little way to go before we can do that but we made him happy by "camping" in the house. We packed up blankets, pillows, drinks, snacks and a portable DVD player for Hunter and stayed in the house. It was fun! The only room that doesn't have a bunch of tools and saws in it is my sewing room! So we spent the night in my sewing room! Hunter slept on the love seat and Richard and I shared a rollaway bed. Here is Hunter snoozing away...Actually we stayed up there last night too! Maybe that is why I am getting a lot of sewing done! LOL! Here is Festus while I was working on my string quilt, he was wanting some attention.If you look close you can see a place on his nose, I guess he has been fighting again. Last night while we were staying out there I got out my Civil War Wreaths UFO. This was started with a free pattern by Mary. I had to change my color placement a little from the original because of the yardage that I had. I was sorting through the box and I could have sworn that I had more of it cut out and pieced. I put it away because I didn't want to recut what I knew I already had...somewhere.

Next I got out another UFO. My spiderweb blocks. I had several of these done but needed to pieced more of them to get the 30 blocks that I wanted. I want to do a 5x6 setting, that will make a nice bedsize quilt. When I started this quilt I picked the ugliest scraps that I had so that I could get rid of them and use them up. Here I have a few of the blocks out so you can get an idea of how it will look. I still need to purchase fabric for the pieces between the blocks, which are just triangles sewn on 4 corners and a border. Not sure what I want yet but I'm thinking maybe a red. I'll know when I see it. So this one will be set aside until I get the fabric to set it up with and I still have to peel the paper from the backs of them. I'll do that a little bit at a time as I'm watching tv during the evening. That gives me something to do with my hands.

This morning after breakfast we all set in and got the animals fed. Here is Cocoa munching on some leaves. She is so funny! She is my favorite goat! She is so playful, she runs and jumps constantly. Hunter gets her out and plays with her almost everyday. I'm thinking....she may have a baby somewhere along September. We'll have to wait and see...

After breakfast and feeding the animals, I was on a mission to find those missing pieces to my Civil War Wreaths.....I found them!!! As you can see there are a ton of 1/2 square triangles that need to be pressed and the papers peeled from the backs. I do love sewing my triangles on paper they come out wonderfully. So this is what I will be working on. This quilt will be a huge one I think the blocks that I have planned will make it just shy of 100 inches square.
I'm loving that I can actually see what I have to work on instead of having to dig through every tub and tote that I own and destroy the closets in the process. Now I have some major house cleaning to do before I can get back to quilting. :( My sister is picking up a different type of cotton batting for me this evening after work so that I can try it with that antique quilt that I mentioned the other day. I'm hoping this will help, wish me luck! I'm hoping to get it quilted this weekend!!

Kristie

Sorting the sweatshop

2011-06-19T16:53:00.004-04:00

Today Richard worked on my kitchen cabinets! This a slow process and he is completely making them himself. He sure is handy to have around! LOL! Anyway...I know that when building or hanging cabinets you usually do the top cabinets first, but the money just isn't there to do all of the cabinets at once. So I would rather start with my bottom cabinets until we get moved in and finish the top ones as we can. Like I told him if he wants me to cook then I at least have to have a countertop! LOL! Anyway, I didn't get any photos of them yet, not a lot to show as of yet but they are coming along nicely.

While he worked in the kitchen I sorted some stuff up in the sweatshop. I'm sure I will move everything around up there once I actually start using it to sew in. But I took a few photos, I'm sure you all are probably tired of sewing them.

This is just an old stool that I love to sit on and I dumped several hundred yo-yo's in that Longaberger basket. I'm slowly working on Hunter a yo-yo quilt and need at least 2,000 yo-yo's. I made mom and Andrew each one several years ago. Mom's has 2,500 yo-yo's and Andrew's has 2,000 in it. I enjoy working on them a little at a time.

My bookshelf again. Sorry for all of the dust but it is hard to keep it dust free with all of the drywall sanding. I brought my featherweight out and set it up on my antique ironing board/chair/ladder. Mom bought the ironing board for me years ago for $10. I didn't recover it, just left it as it was but it is tattered and dirty. I put my featherweight case under it, but I may move it later. It has the pedal and all the attachments. I bought is a couple of years ago for $5, cleaned it up and it works perfectly. Love those junk stores! Oh...and as you can see, I still need to finish painting the walls. My floor still isn't down and it will probably be a while on that. Richard is making our own wide plank hardwood flooring and we will start with the downstairs first. They are 10 inch wide oak planks with tongue and groove. The ceilings up here will be oak too they are not dried out enough yet to install either. On around from the old ironing board starts the 20ft wall of closets....but they are only about 5.5 to 6 foot tall. But at least it is storage. These will also have doors on them so that I can hide the stuff. To the left of the small self is several hundred romance novels in boxes. Those will be moved after some of the other rooms are finished. The bookshelf holds my quilting pantos and rulers. The tubs are precut scraps and strips sorted into different sizes. A box of misc. quilting stuff and the two boxes on the bottom are yardage. On the other side of the boxes is where I will put my drawers of fabric that I posted the other day. Starting left to right here. On the bottom is the tile for bathroom #3. On top of those is a tote of yardage. The other 3 larger totes on the bottom are just bits and pieces of backings, sheets, batting, and stuff like that. The small clear totes are UFO's/WIP's. The boxes have the same thing UFO's/WIP's and scrap batiks and odds and ends. I had my sister to save boxes for me from her work so that I could box up some of my stuff for the move. I do plan on buying more clear tubs so that it will look neater and I can see what is in them. Oh and I have some batting and stuff stuck over in the corner. Richard still has to build shelving in the closets too.

As you can see, I haven't even started to paint this wall. I still need to paint/stain my table that Richard made for me too. My machine will sit here along with my ironing board and iron. The big basket in the back has scrap fabrics in it. The 3 smaller ones are actually "mangers" that I bought at the Dollar Store. They are wood and I thought they would make good little baskets so store leaders and enders in or something like that. The other small basket just has paper and pens in it. And my pin cushion... Oh and I plan on changing that chair out too, it was just upstairs.

I still need move in my cutting table which is an antique round kitchen table but it is still in the storage building and I can't get to it yet. :( I still have some fabric and a huge tote of UFO's to move and .....about 6 more sewing machines!!! Not even sure where they will go yet.

And my frame/machine sits in front of my closets as you have seen in past photos. He is installing lighting over my frame too.

Tonight I will start working on my strings again. I would love to get those finished soon.

Kristie

Need more strings...

2011-06-18T16:22:00.002-04:00

I have been working on my string blocks and thought I had them all finished. I stopped when I got 120 of them. For one thing I was tired of making them and also I figured this would make a good lap quilt. Well....last night I peeled the paper off the backs and started sewing them together. Got up this morning and started sewing again. I got them all sewn together and even pulled fabric for the border, but when I spread it out on the floor, I just wasn't happy with it. So after I saw it like this, I really wasn't satisfied with it, I want it BIGGER! :) Now I'm thinking that it needs to fit my bed. I just really like bed size quilts. So back to the string bin to dig out some more.

While I was upstairs in my sewing room, I had a visitor...Festus! He had not been around for a few days but he dropped by for a visit. Then he decided he wanted to play with my pins. He and Donkey both want to pull them out of the pin cushion and play with them.I am slowly trying to get my "sweat shop" pulled together. Not sure if I posted a photo of my bookshelf lately or not but I snapped a photo anyway. I have all of my quilting books and magazines on it now and I have been slowly digging out my Longaberger Baskets. I have a ton of them but they are all boxed up. So far I have found 8 of them. All of these will not stay on this shelf. When we move in, I will spread them throughout the house. The funny thing is, I have them on this shelf and they are all empty except the one with the patterns in it. I figure the big one in the floor would be great to store a hand project in. Anyway, I guess I will get back to sewing strings...
Kristie

Depressing fabric stash...

2011-06-17T15:30:00.004-04:00

Yesterday evening I was outside with Hunter and sat down on a old tree stump, I looked down and what did I see? Do you see the little yellow dot in the center of the photo? That is one of my stick pins! Hmmm....still not sure how it got out there and this stump is over next to one of the horse lots. Oh well...Snapped this photo of Hunter while he rolled around in the grass. Silly boy has a long sleeved shirt on! I promise that he dressed himself. LOL! And my precious little Smokey rolling around too! Isn't he soooooo cute? I love him so much! He is the best little dog and not a minutes trouble. Last vet visit he weighed a whopping 5.1 pounds! Now to show you how creative that hubby is! See this rusted steel? He is in need of another trailer. Living on a farm you always need several trailers for different things. Buying one is not an option for us right now so what does he do? He gathers up some old rusted steel that he had in various lengths and started cutting and welding. This is just the start of it but I will take another photo as he gets more of it done. After it is all welded and gets the axles on it he will sand and paint it. He is pretty handy to have around! :)Now on to quilting...I haven't had a chance to load that antique top back on the frame yet. Hunter has a friend over and he is a VERY active friend! So going out there and machine quilting is not an option tonight. Still not sure what to do with it yet.

I think I am finished with my string blocks. I now have 120 of them finished. Now to peel the paper off and sew them together in some type of design. Not sure about that yet either.I realized something today.....MY STASH IS VERY SORRY LOOKING! :( If you have read my blog for a while you will remember that hubby got laid off December 2009 and is currently going to college! :) He will graduate June 2012 with a degree in Nursing, I am so proud of him. I know it was hard for him to go back to school after so many years. ANYWAY....I have been on a LOW BUY since then with fabric. I have purchased some but not enough to amount to anything. I guess that is one good thing about having a stash, without it I would not have had anything to sew this past 1 1/2 years. Don't get me wrong I do have fabric but nothing that I want to use! LOL! I have some yardage that goes from 2-3 yards and I try to save those for borders and don't want to cut into those for piecing. I was digging around in my fabrics today and realized just how low that I actually was...

This drawer has my greens in it! Not much there, right? Actually I have some of them out I will show a photo of that later in the post. The other row of fabric is some novelty stuff and panels. I don't actually use a lot of that stuff. This drawer has my blues/pinks/reds in it and a few solids that are in the back. These drawers hold fabrics that vary from 1/2 yard to 1 yard cuts. This last drawer is a little mixed up, it has browns, blacks, purples, yellows and oranges in it. I really need to sort this drawer a little better don't I? I also have scrap tubs that have been cut down to strips, strings and 2.5" squares. I'm not sure how everyone else selects fabrics for scrap quilts but if I don't have it precut, I always go to my scrap basket first, shown hereMy scrap basket has pieces that are smaller than fat quarters but pieces that I'm just not ready to cut down yet.

After I sort through my scrap basket for pieces I then go to my fat quarters. I didn't get a photo of them but I probably only have somewhere around 25 of those.

Then I head to my drawers that I just showed photos of. These drawers hold cuts from 1/2 yard to 1 yard. If possible when I cut into these pieces I cut a fat quarter out and put it in the FQ tub.

I also have a very small stash of Civil War fabrics that I LOVE and a small tub of neutrals that I use for scrappy backgrounds.

I guess I do have a stash and I am thankful for what I have but just depressed that it is not what it used to be! LOL! I'm sure I will live! Now on top of this I have a zillion UFO's that I need to finish but they just get on my nerves anymore and I don't want to mess with them.

I mentioned earlier in this post that I had some of the greens out of the drawer, here they are.

I'm not exactly sure what I will do with them but I'm just not real crazy about medium/lights. So I would like to use them up and get them out of there. I tend to go more for the darker fabrics. I'm thinking that I want to make something fairly simple with them and be done with it. Oh and I did pull some darker greens out the other day to plan a quilt with, just haven't used them yet. I guess I am finished complaining for now. Anyone else ever feel like whining about their stash? Hubby said that I was just being "hormonal" today! :(

Kristie

Advice?

2011-06-16T14:54:00.003-04:00

I'm back! Hopefully things have slowed down for a while. The hay is up and we were also just working around on the farm doing somethings that needed to be done. I am sooooo tired from it all and put my back out. It is getting better now just a little bit "quicky" One evening this past week Hunter wanted to go back fishing so Richard took him down to the pond. I stayed home and nursed my back. Here is a photo of a few catfish that they caught. They are now in my freezer and I will fix them for supper real soon. Now I have a question for some of you machine quilters out there. Let me give some background first. If you remember I moved my machine/frame into the new house and set it up. I had a customer quilt on the frame and started to quilt it and my tension was completely off. So I took that quilt off and put on a baby quilt that will be donated so that I could get my tension adjusted correctly. During that time I broke my plastic quilting foot and ordered a new one. I put the customer quilt back on the frame and started to quilt it. Now my tension was adjusted and quilted fine on the baby quilt but when I started quilting this one the tension was messed up again. The tension is off, it is skipping stitches and breaking thread so I'm thinking that it is not the machine but maybe the fabric in this top.

This quilt top is an antique top that is completely hand pieced. I do love antique quilts and have a fascination with them. I have several antique quilts of my own and also several antique tops that need to be quilted. If you look in the photo below...the red and blue fabrics in the sashing are a VERY THICK fabric, something between a polyester knit and an upholstery fabric. Most of the fabrics in the blocks are cotton or a cotton blend. This is the back of the top and you will see that these blocks are pieced on a very heavy muslin so that makes it extra thick and very dense. So I'm wondering if these things that I have mentioned could be the problem.So I removed the top from the frame once again because I do not want to damage it at all. I've used every thread combination that I can think of and that doesn't help. A fellow longarmer suggested that I try a different batting with it. Right now I am using warm & natural but she suggested a thinner cotton. Any suggestions????

Late last night I worked on a few more blocks while I was racking my brain trying to figure out what to do for this antique top. These string blocks are mindless sewing and sometimes I think I need something like that. If I am thinking correctly I should have somewhere around 100 of these string blocks. This pile needs to be trimmed. My mom flew out for New Orleans this morning. :( I miss her already! Funny thing, she called around 7am this morning and Hunter answered the phone. She said "Tell your mommy that I just landed in Detroit" Hunter......."Uh....I think you went the wrong way!" LOL! But you know how that is with connecting flights.

Yesterday morning we got a call that Richard's grandmother had fallen. So to the ER she went, nothing major just a bad sprang. When we first got the call we were told that her ankle might have been broken but thankfully it wasn't. She just turned 91 last week! She is unable to get up and down by herself but her youngest daughter lives with her and helps her. She usually goes from the recliner to the wheelchair and to bed. But with her ankle injury she can't put any weight on it so she can't help herself get up and down and she is not a small lady. :) So after the ER visit, Richard helped her get settled at home. Then they called again around 5:30pm (that's what time she goes to bed every evening) they could not get her up out of the chair and into the wheelchair and on to bed. Richard drove back in to town to get her put in bed. This morning he was there at 7:30am to get her up and will be going back this evening. So just say a little prayer for her that she gets her strength built up so she can get around a little better. Richard called today about a gait belt that should help handling her.

Kristie

So busy...

2011-06-10T15:57:00.003-04:00

Just thought I would check in! Life is soooo busy right now. I would love to be quilting but farm chores take priority right now. Cutting, baling and putting up hay! It has been so hot and sticky, just miserable!

As you can see here we have been working from morning until dark. This was at the edge of dark when I took this photo. My back is killing me but it has to be done.
On Monday, Lexie was here and spent the night. Not a lot of quality time spent doing family things because of having to get the hay put up, but at least she was here with us. She and Hunter rode their bikes and played around. It was nice having her here and Hunter was very happy to spend the time with her. My little Honey-bun (pet name) getting ready to hit a ramp that he built.
Oh and lastly, another batch of soap that I made late Sunday night while I couldn't sleep! This batch is Honey/Almond. Got to get back to it! Rain is coming in and still have more to put up!

Kristie

The weekend so far...

2011-06-04T22:13:00.003-04:00

Well I broke my quilting foot!! I almost had my tension adjusted perfect and broke a needle and somehow broke my closed toe foot! The one that I had on there had a clear plastic circle and I liked it because I could see through it and it was closed and would not catch on threads. I ordered another one and it should be here in 3-4 days!!! Meanwhile, I got some tops, batting, and backings ready to quilt. I have a couple of customer quilts to do first then I have 3 of my own ready to be quilted as of right now. I have several more backings but I think they are packed up. But that should keep me busy for a while.

Last night Hunter spent the night with my mom and sister. Hunter will be 9 yrs old the end of June and this was the very first time that he spent the night away. We missed him terribly. It just wasn't the same with him not here. I can walk through the woods and be at mom's house in a few minutes, if I drive it is less than 1/2 mile! LOL! So he was not that far away! I honestly didn't think he would stay the whole night and we all told him that he could come home at anytime but he stayed! :( I went out there this morning to get him and he didn't want to come home! :(

Today after I broke my machine, (LOL) I took a nap while Richard worked on his hay cutter. It was 90+ degrees so I stayed inside with the A/C. After it cooled down and Richard finished we went fishing! Andrew went to the river to fish with some of his friends and we headed to the Lake! We live near Yatesville Lake, which is a 2,300 acre lake with an 18 hole golf course. When on horseback we can ride through the woods and be at the lake in less than 10 minutes! And if we drive we can be at Eagle Ridge Golf Course in 10 minutes! LOL! But we don't play golf! Anyway...Hunter bought a remote control boat with his money that he had saved up. He played and played with it today. Richard with his HUGE fish! LOL! Nothing big was caught but that was not the point of the fishing trip. We just wanted to have some family time together.

So as I sat there watching my bobber, I removed all of the paper from my string blocks! As you can see I used some of Hunter's old homework papers to sew them on! :) And of course, I had my Diet Pepsi with me.
I also took some yo-yo's to work on.
Then as the evening went on it got too dark to sew so I just enjoyed the fresh air and sounds of nature. I was trying to take a photo of the lake at the edge of dark and about the time I started to snap the photo, Hunter caught a tiny fish.

We stay to well after dark and had to use the flashlight to see to get back to the truck. We were a little late with our evening farm chores. As soon as we got home we had to feed all the animals and milk the goats! If all goes well tomorrow after Church, I plan on making another batch of soap.

Kristie

35 more blocks!

2011-05-31T19:14:00.003-04:00

I got 35 of these little strip blocks finished today! They measure 5.5 inches. I worked on them since I already had them out from yesterday. Not sure how many I will make or what design I will use them with when I do get them done, I don't want to do anything too fancy just simple.

This brings me to a total of 50 of these blocks so far. It is sooooo hot here today! The thermometer read 101 degrees in the shade! Richard was out running fence again today for about 7 hours. I guess he got too hot but he would not admit it! When he came in he got something to drink, got a shower and went to bed and that is just not like him at all. I'm going to get him up in a few minutes and make him eat something.

Mom came home today! She stopped by for a few minutes before she went on home. She looks so tired! I think she needs a few days of good rest! I'm glad she is home for a few weeks.

If Richard feels like it later tonight I'm going to see if he will help me adjust the tension on my quilting machine so that I can get those quilted. I have a hard time getting it adjusted by myself and want to pull my hair out so I just leave it to him. :) I have a couple of customer quilts to do then I have a few of my own that I want to do too. We don't have the air conditioning in the new house yet so it will be getting really hot up there but I usually get up around 5:30-6am so I could quilt early and finish it up late of an evening.

Kristie

Pick a project!

2011-05-30T19:01:00.005-04:00

I really need to pick a project and stay with it!!! LOL! Maybe that is why I have so many UFO's! Actually I did finish up a couple of things! So here is the run down! I got really bored subcutting all of those strips so I sat them aside! LOL! But I will get back to them, I promise! The first thing that I did was make me a new sewing machine mat for my new sewing room (sweat shop). Nothing fancy and I didn't want a ton of pockets in it just something that I can store things without having to figure out which pocket it is in.

So while Richard and Hunter were fishing I made a new pin cushion! This was made from a pattern that Libby sent to me. I really like it! Now if I can just remember to throw my threads in there instead of the floor! LOL! And it even has a little pocket for a seam ripper!
We had company the biggest part of the day today and she wanted to look at my quilt stuff. She fell in love with my Civil War Love Letter quilt top. She said she didn't know how to paper piece! So what is a girl to do??? Get out the sewing machine, of course!!! Since she had never tried it before I didn't want to show her something too hard, so I dug out a few of my UFO's. This first one is a "Courthouse Steps" I really like these blocks and may work on it again soon. I think today I made 6 more blocks. Then I showed her how to do a simple string block. This is one that I had a few blocks done on it. I love working with these blocks they are just mindless quilting and go fairly quickly. I kept these out and plan on working on these over the next several days....or weeks....maybe months... And now I leave you with a few photos of Hunter! I thought these were so cute! I know he is dirty but they had been down at the pond fishing for several hours and he is a little country boy, if he sees dirt he has to play in it! LOL! Anyway...Hunter caught 11 fish and he was very excited so I wanted to take some photos. I told him to grab a couple of them and hold them up!

Then one started flopping and he dropped it! I think it freaked him out! Look at his face! LOL!

Then he picked it back up! :)
Now I'm off to bed! Good night!

Kristie

Strips, Strips and more Strips!

2011-05-29T12:11:00.006-04:00

I finally was able to get upstairs to quilt, well....sort of... I had a quilt pinned on the frame but because of the wet stain on my stairs I could not get up there to quilt. So the stain finally dried so I thought I would go up there and quilt the quilt before we put the polyurethane on them. Well....I guess all of my tension is all out of whack from moving my frame and machine. This happened before when I moved it and I had a hard time getting it all adjusted correctly. Long story short....I took that quilt off of the frame and loaded a baby quilt on that will be used as a donation quilt so that I could work on my tension issues. I still don't have it exactly right so I will have to wait and get Richard to help me with it.

So meanwhile I got all of my strip sets pressed! That seemed like it took forever. There were 28 strip sets, I guess that is not really that many compared to some patterns but it was a lot for me to press. LOL! So now I'm in the process of subcutting them into 560 strips. I think my biggest problem will be keeping them all organized so that I don't get them mixed up. So I dug up some baskets to sort them in. I think once I get them all subcut the piecing will go fairly quick.....or so I hope. Now for some farm photos to show I has been going on up here on "top of the world" I made another batch of soap. I know have two batches that are curing and I hope to make a few more batches this coming week. I plan on making some honey & almond and some cranberry & mandarin.I ran up on this little guy as I was out feeding the horses. Harmless but I still hate snakes!And a couple of the girls out playing yesterday evening. Cocoa knocked my birdhouse off as you can see in this photo. I tried to get a good photo of Donkey playing with them, he actually likes the goats! :)And Sweetie chomping on some grass. Love my girls! They keep us provided with milk, cheese, butter and now soap!

I think I will take a nap for a bit. Richard and Hunter are at my mom's house. My sister called and said that they had water pouring from their hot water heater! :( So he went out there to take it out and I guess replace it in the morning.

Kristie

Making Goat Milk Soap...

2011-05-25T15:22:00.002-04:00

I finally got around to making my goat's milk soap today! It actually didn't take that long to do so I will probably make a few more batches next week. I've been buying the supplies a little at a time so that I wouldn't be out a lot of money all at once. Over the past few months I bought a new crockpot, stick mixer and digital scales and these will be used only for my soap making. Here it is during the process....
I was supposed to wait at least 12 hours to release them from the molds but I went ahead and did a few after a couple of hours, I'm not a patient person! LOL! So now they are curing for while. With this batch I made "Honey Oatmeal Goat Milk Soap" It smells sooooooo good! I used several different molds the ones in this photo are made using antique jello molds.
I used a few of the crumbles from the spoon and pot to see how well they work even though they have not cured and I am in love! I've used goat milk soap before and loved it, but with this honey and oatmeal in it, it just makes your skin sooooo soft. I think I will make several more batches over the next few months so they will have time to cure really well and I plan on giving some for gifts for the holidays and maybe even selling some gift sets too.

If you have never used goat milk soap before there are so many benefits from it. You can read about it here. Benefits of goat milk soap.

I started out on my latest quilt kit really good! I got all of the strip sets sewn together that first day and I planned on pressing them the next day.....well....they are still laying in the same place and have not been touched since! I just couldn't concentrate on them today I was just too excited to be playing with my soap! Maybe tomorrow....

Oh and a quick update on Hoss, Andrew's uncle. He is in ICU and he did not have a stroke I guess that somehow the wires got crossed on that part. He was vomiting up a lot of blood and passing out. They got him to the ER and had to give him 4 things of blood and rushed him in for emergency surgery. He had an ulcer that had eroded through the stomach and into the gastric artery or something like that and I guess he was just bleeding to death. They did get it stopped for now but like I said he is in ICU in an induced coma and if his vitals are where they should be by tomorrow they will be doing another surgery on him.

All for now.....Hunter wants me to watch a movie with him.
Kristie

Starting another kit!

2011-05-24T05:05:00.004-04:00

Well.....I was up again at 4:30am! This makes the second morning in a row that the phone rang about this time! But this time it was a call about Andrew's uncle. I guess he has had a stroke because at that time they were loading him in the ambulance. A few years ago he had a bad stroke and has to walk with a walker or cane now. Andrew's aunt picked him up to go to the hospital, I feel bad for not being there with Andrew because they are very close. This is my ex-husband's brother, they call him HOSS. Anyway, he and his wife are very good people and I do pray that he pulls through this okay. Andrew assured me that I didn't need to go with him but he also knows that all he needs to do is call and I will be there for him. Anyway, I'm fully awake and I will call Andrew's cell in a little while to check on him and Hoss.

Since I finished that other quilt top Sunday night I decided to start working on another kit. My choices are limited right now because most of them are boxed up and up in my new sewing room. My stairs are still too tacky to walk on them, I guess because of all of this rain they don't seem to be drying quickly and I put very thin coats of stain on them. Enough about the stairs.... This is a kit that I've had for a couple of years it is called "Carpet of Flowers" and measures 83x100. I spent most of the day yesterday sewing........and napping! :) The entire quilt is made from strip sets so I got them ALL sewn together!!! Now I will probably spend today pressing them. I detest pressing but it has to be done. But I think what I really dread is subcutting all of the strip sets. As you can see this quilt is very "Girly" and very "Spring" looking. BTW, I already had this kit cut out, not sure when I had done all of the cutting but it was nice to just be able to up it up and start sewing on it.

Every morning I always get up before everyone else and I always go through the house checking on everyone else that is asleep to make sure they are okay...I guess it's just a "mommy thing" I know it is probably cruel to take photos of people that early and while they are asleep but I couldn't help it. Hunter was talking about Army men in his sleep. :) He just looked so precious to me, I just wanted to squeeze him but I let him sleep. He always sleeps with his eyes not completely closed.Oh and of course all of this camera flashing woke Jazz up! He sleeps every night with Hunter. For some reason he sleeps down at the foot of the bed not up where he can snuggle with Hunter. Jazz sleeps with Hunter and Smokey sleeps in my room. He sleeps on my side of the bed in the floor straight across from my head. He doesn't like to sleep in the bed because it is too hard for him to get in and out of it so he just sleeps in the floor. Smokey is my baby, he makes very step that I do. When I sit down he is at my feet in the floor, if I go to the bathroom he is right there too. Oh and Smokey does not like the storms that we have been having. He whines and shakes the whole time so you have to hold and pet him to calm him down.Well it is now 5:40am so I had better start breakfast and call Andrew. If all goes well today I hope to get all of the pressing of the strip sets finished and maybe tomorrow I can subcut them.
Kristie

Top Completed!

2011-05-23T05:29:00.002-04:00

The top is finished!!!! And it feels great to have actually completed a quilt top without getting sidetracked! I really like how it turned out, but mom and I both agree that it is a shame that it is not a little bigger, at least bed size. I guess I could add another small border on it if I wanted to, I may do that later but right now I'm just happy that it is completed as far as the kit directions go.

Speaking of kit directions....they were WRONG! Don't you just hate that? The directions called for 64- 2x3.5" rectangles for the border when I actually needed 84! Thank goodness there was enough extra fabric to cut the rest of what I needed. I have the binding cut for it so it is ready and will be put in line to be quilted...as soon as I can get to it.
I've been up since 4am this morning! :( A buddy of Richard's called at 4am! He was heading to work but needed to see about using something of Richard's and needed to pick it up before he left! Anyway....I just can't go back to sleep after being woke up like that. When the phone rings in the middle of the night it always scares me too death. I'm always afraid it is bad news.

After I get my chores done this morning I may try to start on another kit. Most of my kits are boxed up and upstairs in the house but I found one that I had not packed yet. I'm not crazy about it, at least not yet, but I think I got it on sale. :) But then again who knows if I will get to work on it or not. The weather man just said that another severe thunderstorm and heavy rain will be here about 8am so if it rains Richard will not be able to work on the barbed wire fence today. So we may work on the house today. We still need to get the drywall up in the master closet and the master bath. The bad part of that is, I have a bunch of boxes stored in both and they will have to be moved. :( But they have to be done!

I guess I'm off to fix breakfast....maybe not real healthy but a good old country breakfast....gravy, biscuits, bacon, eggs, and fried apples!......yum!

Kristie

All of the blocks are completed!

2011-05-21T19:33:00.003-04:00

I got all 12 center blocks finished today! This is not the final layout, I don't think. I just put them on the bed to see how they were going to look. I also have the 4 small corner star blocks finished and I have been piecing the piano key border too. It has a small beige strip that goes in the border before and after the piano keys. I have it cut and ready to sew on as soon as I get the center sewn together. I'm tired now so all of this may have to wait until tomorrow after Church. I must say it feels great to have gotten this far on it. I guess I just really needed something with some different fabrics than I had in my stash and in my scrap bins. So glad that I started this kit! I'm going to wait until I get this one finished before I work on anything else but I have several more kits so I may think about working on another one. Better get off the computer...mom just called and she and my sister are on their way out here. She hasn't seen my stairs and a few other things that we did while she was gone to work for 28 days. I checked on the stairs a few hours ago and they are still a little bit "tacky" I wanted to get a coat of polyurethane on them today but no such luck!

Have a great evening!!
Kristie

Hunter's work day and a little bit of sewing...

2011-05-20T22:14:00.004-04:00

Hunter worked a whole 5.5 hours yesterday! I guess that is not bad for an 8 yr old. Richard said he really did work hard. They did end up coming up to the house for lunch and then Hunter decided that Richard was on his own after lunch! LOL! So here is a photo of my hard working, dirty little boy...If you look real close in his hand you can see that he brought home a little friend! LOL! Love his dirty little hands! I promise he had a good scrubbing before bed! :) They had a great day working together and he did get paid for it too. I didn't get a lot of sewing done today, I've been spending some "mommy time" with mom. She got in from St Louis last night. I saw her for a few minutes last night but I didn't stay too long, she was so tired. Then I spent several hours with her today. Hunter and I went out for a visit and she is coming out here tomorrow to see what all we got done on the house while she was gone.

I'm still working on my star blocks. I did a little sewing this evening. Now I need to do a lot of pressing so that I can finish my stars and then start on my pieced borders. The borders are just simple piano key borders. So far I am liking it, I guess I really did need something completely new to get me back in the mood to sew. A guy that mom works with said his wife wanted to know if I would want a small bag of quilting stuff. Of course she said "YES"!!!! She said that she had taken a class several years ago to make a small quilt and I guess she put it away because you can pretty well date the fabrics in it. She said that her hands had just gotten too bad to finish it. So here is what she sent! It measures about 50x50. Also in the bag was a bag of batting to fit it, 3 extra blocks and about 1.5 yards of blue that would be plenty enough for the binding. I do love it and I so appreciate that she thought to give it to me, but here is what I am thinking.... As a quilter myself it would break my heart not to be able to quilt anymore and to think that she put hard work into it only to not be able to finish it. Since she had everything for it except for the backing, I think I will find a backing for it, quilt it up, bind it and give it back to her. Of course this will have to wait until my stairs dry and after I get the other 3 customer quilts finished! LOL! I believe that I have a backing that I can use for it. It's late and I always get up early, well around 6am. It is hard to sleep in when you live on a farm. The animals start to let you know that they need their breakfast! But I'm not complaining I love all of my farm babies!

Hunter has a friend coming over sometime tomorrow to stay a day or two. We live in a very small community here and everyone pretty much knows everyone. Richard and I both went to school with his parents and his grandpa was our bus driver and his grandma was the Avon lady!
Kristie

Block One ~ Completed...

2011-05-19T11:41:00.003-04:00

I just got my first block completely finished for this quilt. The pattern calls for 12 of these double star blocks and 4 of the small center stars for the corners and a few borders. Anyway....I wanted to get one of them done to see how they were going to look. This afternoon I hope to have a few more pieced. I have all of the larger flying geese finished that goes in these blocks I just need to do the corner half squares in the corners and piece the blocks. Anyway, I like how they look even if my points are NOT perfect! Late last night Hunter came up to Richard and told him that he was in "desperate need" for some money! Now he is only 8 so I'm not sure why he is in "desperate need" for it. The best thing was he didn't at all ASK if he could have some money he asked Richard if he had any work for him to do so he could earn some money! So proud of that! Richard has been running fence for a couple of weeks. Working with barbed wire is hard work because it is sharp and you have to stretch it so tight but it needs to be done anyway. Richard told him that the only thing that he had going on right now was the fencing so Hunter asked if he could go to work for him. The last day of school was yesterday and he had planned on sleeping in very late today but instead he got up at 6am to go to work! LOL! I promise Richard will not work him hard but I think it teaches them to work for their money and that everything can't be handed to them. So here he is after a big breakfast this morning ready to go to work! *Note his hammer and nail belt! LOL! He is so cute! I packed them a big lunch to eat because they will not come back up to the house to eat they will just take a lunch break down by the fence. Gee....I wonder if Hunter will be so willing to go back to work tomorrow! LOL! Oh and another funny about it...Hunter also has some army men packed in his pockets to play with! Hehehehe!

This morning I ran on to a box that I had put away sometime ago. See...when I was pregnant with Hunter I was having some trouble with the pregnancy and I ended up having 4 ultrasounds. Now at that time this new 3D and 4D ultrasounds were not available at my doctor's office so I just had the old-fashioned ones. Each time he told me that Hunter was a GIRL!!! Yep! I had tons of pink and purple and bunches of dresses. Imagine our surprise when he came out a BOY! Mom and my sister had to run out and exchange some things for me until I was able to return everything else a few days later. Anyway.....I decided that I was going to make HER a yo-yo coverlet thing for the crib. I found the prettiest ginghams to use. At one point I was on bed rest for a while so I cut out all of the little circles for it. Then others things happened and I didn't get them done. My SIL was here and saw the circles and asked if I minded if she finished it for the baby. Here is the finished yo-yo coverlet...My grandmother made this little quilt for the baby too. All hand stitched and quilted. It is hard to see in this photo but it is set up in pink gingham. So I had put them away and maybe someday (a long time from now!) Hunter will get married and maybe he and his wife will have a baby girl and I will give them to her.

Yesterday I got my 3 and final coat of stain on my stairs. I'm sure you all are getting tired of seeing them. Now I will let them dry real good. I'm hoping they will be completely dry by Friday so that I can start with the polyurethane. I dread that part but I am wanting to put at least 2 coats of polyurethane on them and call them DONE! Then we will work on all the railing and trim for them later. At this point, I just need to get upstairs!!! Some good news! My momma is on her way home from St Louis today! I've really missed her this time. I had her home for 5 months due to her surgery so it was hard to see her have to go back to work. I may be 39 years old but I still need my "mommy time" Hunter has missed her too. He told her on the phone yesterday that he planned on them staying in the pool the whole time that she was home! :)
Kristie