Weekend Sewing!

Yesterday I got a few more Love Letter blocks done!!!! I am now up to 66!!! I am really liking this quilt!!!! I would love to have this one done by the end of the year...at least the blocks. I still need 55 more blocks! By the time that I get these all finished I will probably hate pink and brown!






Richard worked on the house a little more and finished the rafters over my sewing room. My sewing room is the front half of the upstairs with the rafters. Now we need to put up the beams over the living room and then the rafters over it. The living room will be open the 2 stories but will have oak beams running across where the ceiling should be.


Here is a photo of Donkey that I took yesterday. He was sleeping in a basket of quilt scraps that was too small for him to fit in. Don't have a clue how he managed to get comfortable enough to sleep.


I hope to get a few more blocks done today and work a little bit on Bonnie's Mystery quilt. Also I will be helping Richard work with the beams. Have to call someone to come help us. 20ft oak beams are just too heavy for us to handle alone.
Kristie

I'm on a mission!

I have officially hit the halfway mark!!!!! I now have 62 of my Love Letter blocks!!!! So it is all down hill from here!!!!! ONLY 59 more to go!!!! I was showing mom this star block and told her it took me a while to do it. She didn't understand why. So I had to tell her to put her glasses on, that it was pieced and not pink and cream striped fabric! hehehehe!!!! Anyway it feels good to have this many done, now I am on a mission to do 59 more!!!!!!!!!!!

A GREAT MAIL DAY!!!!!

Here is another block for my Civil War Love Letter quilt! This one makes 60! I need a total of 121 so this is pretty much the halfway mark!!!!! It sure feels good to have that many done!!! I just won't tell anyone that I sewed the block together wrong! hehehehe!



Last night I made another hat for a friend of Richard's! Now how bright is this baby??? My eyes actually started hurting while working on it!!!!


We have made a little more progress on the house. The photos are a little dark but it was raining when I took the photos. We are putting the rafters up over my sewing room. In one photo you can actually see the pitch of the roof, which will be a barnstyle roof. I am standing in the edge of the woods taking the photo. The opening on the bottom floor is for the french doors that will be in the master bedroom. The upstairs section on the left is my sewing room! Hopefully we can get more done over the holiday weekend.



And last but NOT least!!!! I recieved my Booty Swap quilt in the mail this morning!!! It is BEAUTIFUL! I just can't tell you how pretty this quilt is! She does amazing work! This will be perfect in my new house!!!!! This was made by Lisa, she is a wonderful person and we have became good friends. We find that we have alot in common. Amazing how quilting can bring people together! The quilt measures 16 inches square so you can imagine how small the pieces are. THANK YOU so very much, Lisa, I love it!!! Oh, and don't worry, I'm not going to leave the big pins sticking in it, I was just trying to get a good photo of it, she made a nice little sleeve on the back! hehehe!


I hope to get some sewing done tonight, after everyone goes to bed. Probably won't get much sewing done tomorrow. Tomorrow is my weekly shopping day and then tomorrow evening we have to drive back into town. Hunter wants to joing Cub Scouts!!! So they are having sign ups at 5:30pm, we are going out to dinner and then stopping by Richard's grandmothers for a visit!!!!!!
Kristie

6 More Blocks For My Dear Jane

Well, I survived my wild morning!! Things settled down and I got to sew a little. Richard fixed the water problem when he got home. I just love having a handy little hubby!!!

This is what I got done today!!!! 6 Dear Jane blocks! I really needed a break from so much pink and brown on my Civil War Love Letters quilt! I will get back to it in a few days. I did some really simple Dear Jane blocks and they are all paper pieced. These make me a total of 15 Dear Jane blocks! A far cry from finishing it anytime soon. But I am in no rush at all on this one, I don't care if it takes me 5 or 6 years to finish it.








I am feeling a little restless now after doing these blocks today. I don't want to work on my Love Letter blocks and I don't want to do anymore of the Dear Jane blocks tonight! Maybe I will settle in and start a book or something.

I have a dentist appointment in the morning!!! :( Nothing major but I hate going anyway!!! So that will mess up my whole day.
Kristie

A Busy Morning!

Here it is only 9am and I am already tired. Got the boys up and off to school, as I was getting them out the door I saw that Autumn (one of the horses)was out. So I go get the fencing tools and find where the fence is down and fix it. Barbed wire is hard to work with when you are alone. Finally got her caught and put back up. Then...you know how we just let Ole Jim, the mule run loose around here. He just walks around the farm and picks all day. So I was starting to do the morning feeding and Jim is following me around, he steps on the end of the waterhose. It busts and we are both covered in water!!! I run to turn the water off to the hose and the things strips! So I had to kick the breaker and turn all of the water off until hubby comes home to fix it. So now I came in the house, got me a Diet Pepsi and set down at the computer!!!!!

My back is still a little quicky but alot better than it was. I missed my guild meeting yesterday, because of my back. It was really hard to get comfortable and I have to keep getting up and down and walk around some so I just decided not to go. They worked on a 4 patch stack-n-whack. Maybe I can catch up with them or at least get started at the next meeting.

But here is what I have been working on the past few days. Here is another block for my Love Letter quilt. This makes me 59 so that is almost the halfway mark.



Here is a Dear Jane block that I made last night and I hope to do a few more today. I just needed a day or two break from the Love Letter quilt.


This is another hat that I made for a friend of Richard's. I hate making those things. The band drives me crazy!


And here is top baby top that I made for my new nephew that is coming in November!!! I know that it doesn't really look like baby fabric but these are colors that my brother and SIL like. They are not much on bright colors. I think I will bind it with the dark green.


You can also see a close up of the fabrics.

Well, I'm off....I need to get some house work done and hopefully sew a couple of blocks before Richard gets home.
Kristie

I am DOWN!

Yes, I am DOWN!!! I have thrown my back out!!!! I really wasn't doing anything, I was at mom's and I went to get up off of the couch, the pain hit and my knees buckled! I thought I would die! I had hurt my back several years ago in a car accident and every once in a while it will go out on me! I finally made it back home and have just been miserable. At least right now I am getting lots of attention from hubby! He has been taking care of me. I sneezed earlier and I thought I would die from pain! I really don't want to do that again. When I do this it usually only lasts a day or two. I actually tried to sew when I got back home, I couldn't really sit down so I tried to sew standing up. Luckily I am short so my machine was the perfect height! Hubby even moved my ironing board for me so I wouldn't have to move around too much. I only managed to get one block sewn while standing. It was a little slow trying to do it that way so I just quit. But here is what I got done today!






I really wanted to hit the halfway mark tonight on this Love Letter quilt but it just didn't happen. I now have 58 blocks and I need 121! Maybe tomorrow I can do it!!!!!

Andrew's friend is still here and I guess will be staying the whole weekend. Not a big deal, they are both good kids. Actually right now he and Andrew are out Coon hunting with another friend of theirs. His Grandfather is with them and they didn't take guns this time. Actually, they are at a Coon Lot, which is where they train the dogs. They probably won't be back home until 2am or 3am. I know all of the people that they are with and this place in only about 2 miles away.

Richard and the boys worked a little more on the house today, I didn't get any photos of it yet. Hopefully, I can get out there tomorrow and take a few. They are working on the rafters over my sewing room, so that is very exciting to me. I have arranged my sewing room in my mind a million times! Childish maybe, but anything would beat sewing at my kitchen table were I do now.
Kristie

Happy Birthday!!!!

Today is my precious Mom's birthday!!! She turned 55 today! We had her a little party, it was only us kids and grandkids. She was sooooo sick! She has been sick for several days, I guess it's this old nasty bug but she still managed to smile with her little birthday headband that Chantal got for her!!! I snapped this photo about the time she was eating her cake! Isn't she so pretty, even being sick??? Most of you know how close that I am to her, I could not ask for a better mother than what she has been.



I haven't had a chance to sew any today as of yet, but hopefully I can get a block or two done before bed. I did these two yesterday, so I am getting closer!!!!



Yesterday after Richard got home from work we worked on the house for a little while. I was so hot, 94 degrees so he made me go inside until he got the wall nailed together. Then I went out and helped him stand it. It is hard to tell much about it in the photo but this wall is in 4ft from the edge. We will have a barnstyle roof so the outer part will have a slant to it. We came in 4 ft to make storage for me. This is the 20 ft wall in my sewing room and the two large openings that you see will be shelving for fabric and supplies. Richard has to work tonight but hopefully after he gets home and takes a nap we can get a little more done.


Andrew has a friend staying the weekend, so I'm sure I will be up late every night! You know how teenage boys are......very LOUD! Maybe I can sew and my machine will ground out the noise!!!!!
Kristie

I'm Back...

I know it has been a couple of days since my last post, so here I am finally. Not a whole lot of quilting going on here. I have been doing my chores around the house during the day, then heading to mom's during the evening to put up apples! We picked a few bushels the other day and right now we are freezing them, I think we have somewhere around 32 quarts in the freezer. We plan to freeze a little more and then do some jelly, applebutter, and maybe some canned apple pie filling. There is no shortage of apples here so we are trying to put up as many as we can.

Hubby was home today so you know how that goes...just can't get alot of sewing done when he is home through the day. He will go back to work tomorrow so hopefully I can get a few more blocks finished. I did manage to get one block done a few minutes ago. Here it is....this makes me 52 blocks on the Love Letters and I have 55 blocks on the Diary quilt. Just think, if I had stayed working on only one of them I would be almost finished. Each quilt has 121 blocks in it.



My SIL had another ultrasound on Monday and found out that it is a BOY! The baby is due in November so I still have a little while to get a quilt done. We were all convinced that it was a girl but we were wrong. They did one of those 4-D Ultrasounds and it looks like you are looking right at the baby, they could see his hair and everything. We are all excited about it. This is my brother and his wife, they have 2 children already....Madison 6 and Zeph will be 2 tomorrow!!!!! I have a pattern in mind, I just have to dig it out and get started.

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone for their nice comments about our dog passing away. I think the worst part of it for me was seeing my boys so upset. If you are a mother you know what I mean, it hurts so bad to see your kids upset when there is nothing that you can do about it. They seem to be doing better now as long as Fred is not mentioned. I guess it is still too fresh in their minds.

I will leave you with a cute photo of Donkey!!!

**UPDATE**

In my last post I mentioned that our precious dog had been missing for 3 days...well...we found him....under the house...DEAD! We were outside and I happend to walk by that end of the house and smelled something...we looked and there he was. It was soooooooooo sad! He didn't look like he had been hurt in anyway, he looked like he had died in his sleep. Not sure what was wrong with him but at least we know now where he was. He is buried down next to Eb, one of our horses. Here is a larger photo of him and a fawn a couple of years ago. The deer would come almost everyday to play with him. How cute is that??



Today, Richard has left his door open to his tool building and look what I found....Jim, going in the building!!!! I told you all he just walks around the farm and we don't have him fenced in. He is the KING of the place!!!


I got 4 more Civil War Love Letter blocks finished today!! This now brings me to a total of 51! So ONLY 70 more to go!!!! hehehehe! I can't wait to hit the halfway mark, then it will be down hill from there.





I will probably spend the week bouncing back and forth on the Love Letter quilt and my hexagon quilt. It is very hard for me to stay on one thing when they are big projects!

Tomorrow, my SIL has another ultrasound! The baby is due in November and so far they don't know what it is yet. I don't think my brother wants to know but she does. I don't blame her, I would want to know too. They already have one boy and one girl so it doesn't really matter as long as it is healthy! But...I think it is a GIRL! So I will let you all know if I am right or not!!!!!! This means I will have to make another quilt!!!! :)
Kristie

On The Layne Farm...

Sometimes I get in a hurry and don't blog about things that are very important to me. Well, I'm not sure if I get in a hurry or not but if they bother or upset me sometimes I just can't talk about it right then. So let me catch you all up on some Layne Farm Happenings lately.

You all know that my Ole Jim is my big baby! He is my 1300lb mule and if I could fit him in my house I would probably bring him in. I don't know why exactly but I have bonded so much with him. I think it is just a number of things. When my mom and dad divorced about 8 years ago, he listened to everything I had to say and rubbed against me while I cried my eyes out day after day. I would go out and brush him and tell him all of my secrets and sorrows. He even eats fruit loops as a snack!!! We don't have him in a fence, he just walks around the farm all day being nosey! Anyway, he is hitting about 20 years old and is starting to show his age. but I found out this past week that he has lost his vision on one eye. He is completely blind in one eye. I kept checking and he can't see any movement at all in that eye! So I cry almost everytime that I pet him. Hubby says he is far from being dead, he is just blind in one eye. I know it is not like his life is over, I just feel sorry for him. I was putting the saddle on Storm this morning and Ole Jim come up and started nudging me. He was wanting me to ride him!!!!! So I did put the saddle on him and rode him around for a few minutes. He loved it!!! He didn't have any trouble at all!!!! When I stopped to get off, he started nudging me again. I think I will try to ride him again this evening. Here are a few precious photos of Ole Jim...


In other farm news....Fred our Bassett is missing! We have had him since he was 6wks old and his is now around 7. His name on his papers is..."Fred R Dogg" how cute is that?? He has been gone for about 3 days now, he never goes anywhere unless we are on the horses and he follows. So we are missing him really bad. A few years ago we had a little fawn that would come in the yard to play with him.

A Little More Progress!

Here are my latest two blocks that I made last night! Makes me a total of 48! I wanted to have 50 by the time mom came home but it just didn't happen. But I am still very pleased with my progress.



This will be a very short post, I am sooooooooooooooo tired! I did alot of driving today, actually over 6 hours of driving!!!! That is alot considering, I very seldom leave the house! Not only did I do my weekly shopping and bill paying but ended up having to go to Paintsville and then going to pick up mom in Ashland! Hopefully, tomorrow I will do a better post!
Kristie

Thursday's Blubbering...

Another 4 blocks! I'm getting a little closer! These bring me to a total of 45 blocks!!! I wanted to have at least 50 of them done before I showed them to mom this weekend. I pick her up tomorrow but I probably won't show them to her until Saturday! Need to give her a little time to unpack! So I should be able to do 5 more blocks!





Got a few things to do today, nothing major just cleaning house, clean out some horse stalls :(, switch some horses around, and I really need to work on Storm's mane! Beauma and Storm bite on each other all of the time, just playing but she has chewed out a big spot of his mane! I was so mad!!! So now one section is alot shorter than the other and wants to stick straight up. So I plan on braiding it and leaving it in for a few days. I did that last time and it layed down pretty good after that. He looks funny when I do that because he has about 50 little braids, sorta like dreads!!! Oh and I have a bushel of corn that I need to put in the freezer!!!

I snapped these photos of Donkey last night and this morning. He likes to lay beside me when I sew and I am messy and didn't realize that he was laying right beside the chair until I started to get up. He didn't seem to mind the snippets and threads!!! And the other photo is how he was sleeping this morning!!!



Anyway, I'm off to get everything started and done so I can rest!!!!
Kristie