A Couple Of Dear Jane Blocks!

Today is New Year's Eve! Hard to believe another year has come and gone... Anyway, we don't have any plans for tonight. We always just stay home with the kids and enjoy the extra family time and that makes us very happy!!

Not alot of major sewing yesterday but I did finish these two Dear Jane blocks. At 5 inches the pieces are very small. Don't look too close at them, I am trying to learn how to do turn needle applique! :) Of course, I'm not that good at it, but I guess the only way that I will get good at it, is to just keep doing it. My points look terrible but at least they are done. I may redo these later after I get a little better at it.



Here is a photo I took of my oldest son, Andrew. He was goofing around last night in Richard's hard hat. Seems like I don't post alot of photos of him on my blog, but being 15 he hates having his photo taken. Hunter on the other hand, loves being in front of the camera!

Andrew is a very good boy, I love both of my boys with all of my heart and I hope that they always know that. He has always been a straight "A" student and I think he will really go far in life. I am very proud of him. But as you can see in the photo he is still a typical teenage boy....see the stain on his shirt!!!! :) Why is it that they can never hit their mouth? :)

My plan for today is to spend some time with mom. She has to leave for work Friday morning. So you all will have to listen to me whine for another month until she comes home again. :( As you all know I am very close to my mother and just love her so much. I could not ask for a better mother than what she has been to us. She has had a hard life but always tried so hard for us kids. Always tired to make sure we had nice things, taught us right from wrong, raised us in church. She is very special.

Anyway.....back to my plans....spend time with mom, clean house!!!!! I would love to get the house all cleaned so that I can sew most of the day tomorrow, but it never happens that way does it? Of course I will probably spend half of the day trying to get the boys to clean their rooms....they go back to school on Monday so I would like for them to be clean before they start back.

Richard got to work yesterday and today but will be off tomorrow and I'm not sure about Friday yet. Then hopefully things will pick back up after the first of the year!!!!

Well, I had better get started cleaning and plan on thawing out some ribs for supper tonight!!!!
Kristie

This And That!

My baby just lost his first tooth!!!! He is sooooo proud! He is 6yrs old and now wants them all to fall out so he can get $$$ from the tooth fairy! He is saving up money for a new Nintendo DS game! We are trying to teach him the value of money, he now has $5 and the game cost $20 that he wants!


Here is a top that I made several months ago and today I added the border on it! Now it is ready to quilt! Or should I say "put in my pile to quilt"
I finally got my blocks sewn together for my Stepping Stones! These are really big blocks! Now I just need to add the border to this one! Hopefully I can get that finished within the next day or so.

Here is a cute little photo of Smokey! Doesn't he looks so cute? He is finally making himself at home!

He and Donkey are starting to get a little closer. I think this is the closest that they have ever been. They both sleep all day long!

I'm hoping to get more major sewing done within the next few days or at least that is my plan. But nothing ever goes as planned does it?

Richard is home again today! I know that times are hard and money is tight for alot of people right now. One of the mines shut down that Richard hauls to and he has only worked 1 1/2 days out of the past 10!!!! That hurts!! But they just called to say that they had another mine opening up so he goes back to work tomorrow! Not sure how the rest of the week will go. Right now I'm just trying not to think about it very much. It just makes me worry! :( Hopefully things will pick up again soon.

Kristie

Finally, another post!

I sure hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I had a GREAT Christmas!! So much fun with all of the kids and family! I did get really tired but it was worth it! I was so thankful that we were able to spend another Christmas together and everyone seemed so happy. Of course my house is still a mess but that is okay, I guess. I will get that cleaned up eventually. :) The kids had a wonderful time, but I think I had more trouble out of Andrew than I did any of them and he is the oldest! He was constantly wanting to open his gifts early! :) Oh and my stepdaughter was home and that made it really nice to have all 3 kids together.

Christmas Eve we spent time with Richards family, lots of food, fun, and of course, gifts! We came home early and Richard went to pick up his daughter, so when they got back everyone was excited to see her so we sat up late! Then I got everyone back up at 6am to open gifts!!!! Yes, I am a big kid too! Then we went to mom's!

Had a wonderful time there also. My brother and his family was there so it was nice for us all to be togehter. Mom was very happy to have all of her kids and grandkids there with her. She said that was the most important gift that she could have.

My mom got a new sewing machine for Christmas! She is soooo happy! We went today and she bought some fabric but she wants to finish a few quilts that she started years ago. It is nice to see her getting back into quilting. She used to enjoy it so much.

While we were gone, Richard up the window up in my sewing room in the house. It doesn't look very big in the photo but it is 4x8 feet! It looks really huge in person. I videoed it with my new camcorder but I can't figure out how to get it on my blog yet! :( Still trying to figure that thing out. Anyway, I just love the new window. I told Richard that I wanted a window seat under it.



I would love to get my sewing machine back up tomorrow and do a little bit of sewing. Maybe I can do that after Church. There is so much that I want to work on. It is a shame that my body can't keep up with my mind!!!!
Kristie

WHAT A DAY!!!!!

I am sooooo tired and it is only 4pm! This morning I got ready to go to our quilt guild Christmas Party which started at 10am. I had to argue with Hunter because he did not want to go, being only 6 he had no choice but to go with me. Andrew had a friend stay over last night and with him being older he was going to stay home. So after arguing with Hunter for 30 minutes we jump in the car and what happens????? I BREAK MY KEY IN THE INGINITION!!!! Now how crazy is that???? Honestly I had never even thought of a key breaking! So back in the house we go, I called Richard on my cell phone becaue the house phone was not working (I'll tell that story in a minute) and by this time I am in tears! Of course, Richard being the sweet husband that he is did not yell or anything, just told me to calm down and he would try to get it out when he got home, he told me to call the dealer about another key! See my car key has some kind of sensor on it and you have to order the keys from a dealer. I called and they said around $65!!!!!! So I cried again! :( Anyway, I guess I am over it now, not alot that I can do about it! But I did miss quilt guild and I had the yo-yo's that we were going to make ornaments with!

Now on to the phone.....if you remember not too long ago, my phone and internet both went out. Had alot of trouble trying to get it fixed and they had to replace the line that went from the road all the way to my house! Anyway, Friday evening Richard was on the phone talking with some guy that he worked with and he said that the phone started making a terrible noise and went dead! So I have been since Friday night without a house phone! Called the phone company first thing this morning (from my cell) and they were not too friendly! I guess they are tired of me calling them with phone problems, anyway they said that it would probably be Friday before they could get anyone out here to look at it because they were backed up. :( So needless to say this has been a very stressful day!

So now on to better news! I finished both bindings on my quilts. The first one was the Carpenter's Star that I showed in the last post. And I finished the binding on the Green Yellow Brick Road. This photo was taken before the quilting was done, but now I have two tops completely finished into quilts!


If you look on my sidebar you will see that I got really brave and listed ALL of my tops that need quilted! Yep! It is a long list! 74 to be exact!!!! I figured that if I had to look at the list all of the time it might help me to get them done. Here is a photo that I took several months ago of SOME of my quilt tops that I threw on the bed as I was sorting...

Those are all tops and this does not even count the UFO's that I have that are not even completed tops YET! But I hope to shorten this list this new year by quilting alot of them and some of the crib quilts will be given to charity. I do have several tops that are crib size but most of them are bedsize!

It has been so cold here the past few days but we have still been working on the house! We have actually gotten quiet a bit done. We finally got all of the plywood and roofing paper on the roof and we will wait until Spring to put the metal on the roof. Also I HAVE A WINDOW!!! Actually we have two windows in but the other one is in the back of the house and it was too cold and I didn't want to walk around there to get a photo! The window in the back is the window that will be over my kitchen sink. The window here in the front is in my living room. We still need to box in around it at the curved part on top.




Oh and those things that you see in the photo on my roof are called "roof jacks" We had to put those on there so that Richard could stand on the to do the steep part of the roof. Funny how the house doesn't look that big in the photo. It is not real large but plenty large enough for us. It is 3200sq ft, which when I step in and look, it looks big but I know when I get moved in and have all of the furniture there is will shrink alot!!!!

Richard is still not home yet, Andrew and his friend were picked up by another friend and they are all at a dog training place, that trains Beagles. They have them in a rabbit lot training them to hunt. So it is just me and Hunter. I think I will try to get him to take a nap with me, after the day that I've had I sure need one....
Kristie

Working on some binding!

Yesterday, mom and I went Christmas shopping! I was sooooooo tired! I only had a few more gifts for the kids to buy, but Bless her heart, I think mom had to go in every store!! I am really out of shape! Funny how I am 36 and she is 55 and I can not keep up with her!!! Anyway, we had a really great day and enjoyed the time together!

I got home just in time yesterday to go to Hunter's school for his Christmas party! He had a wonderful time! By the time we got home from school, Richard and Andrew were home! We had a nice family night at home!

Got up early this morning and had to follow Richard to drop his coal truck off to have some work done on it. He had to have his trailer brakes welded, so now we are waiting for them to call so we can pick it back up. While we were out this morning we stopped by his Grandmothers house. She is 88 yrs old and not in the best of health. Richard and her are very close, she is the one that raised him so they certainly have a special bond.

After we got back home we started working on the house! Trying to get more of the roof finished before the rain comes tonight! I have been cutting the 2x4's and the plywood to size, Andrew reaches it up to Richard and he nails it down on the roof! Andrew wants to use the saw but I am just not comfortable with him doing that yet! Actually, I had cut several pieces so Richard is still out there nailing and I am taking a break.

Now on to quilty news.....I really wanted to get that top sewed together that I was working on the other day, but just been too busy with the Holidays! It is a simple pattern, with 25 large blocks. All of the blocks are finished they just need to be sewn together. But that will have to wait until after Christmas, I have put my sewing machine away until next week!

I have 2 quilts that need the binding finished on them. Here is one of them, this photo was taken before the quilting.



This one is called Carpenter's Star and measures 66x66. Not real big but I like it anyway. I had both binding ready to be sewn on so I did that last night before I put my machine up. Now this will give me something to work on during the evenings while sitting around with the family. I am slow at hand sewing the binding down on the backside but it is something that I enjoy doing. So getting this one finished before Christmas should not be any problem to do, but if not, it is not a big deal because it is just a quilt that I plan on putting in my pile of quilts!

I have another one that I hope to get the binding sewn on within the next few weeks too. It is a green "Yellow Brick Road" It is larger than this one. I am trying to get caught up on some of my UFO's and almost finished projects. I am trying to use and work on what I have without having to spend anymore money on fabric and quilting things for a while.

Well, they just called and his truck is ready so we have to go pick it up!!!!
Kristie

Working on another UFO!

The boys are home again today! We got some ice last night so school was cancelled! They usually have several snow days that is why the school starts so early too! Anyway I really enjoy having the extra time with them. We have had a lazy day. They have played around, watched some tv, and cleaned their rooms. Well, they didn't clean very much! :(

I got some extra time to sew! I have been working on another UFO! This one is called "Stepping Stones" I had a couple of blocks done but now I am close to having them all finished. It has a total of 25 blocks and they measure 14 inches, so they are rather big. It has two different blocks, 13 of one and 12 of the other! I have all of the pieced blocks finished and 4 out of 12 of the snowball blocks. I hope to have them all done tonight so that tomorrow I can piece the top together and add the borders!



We are getting more sleet and ice right now, so the boys may not have school again tomorrow! Right now we are all spending a cozy night in front of the fireplace!
Kristie

Quilts and Family

Not a whole lot going on here! The snow and ice finally melted and I did my weekly shopping today. That really messed me up! I have my routine and I hate when things get mixed up. I usually do all of that on Fridays, but I could not get the car out of my driveway!!! Oh well, enough of that!

This evening I cleaned up around my sewing machine and sat down and sewed a few more pieces to my Giblets quilt. Here is a photo of the pieces, I don't have them all sewn together but you can get an idea of how it is going to look. This is the quilt that my friend, Lisa and I are making together. She is doing hers in blues and tans and her blocks look great. Even though she lives in another state it is fun knowing that we are doing the same quilt. I'm not sure how large I will make this quilt, I guess until I either run out of the red or I get tired of making the blocks.


Richard worked a little more on the house today, while I was in town. Tomorrow afternoon we will be working on it a little more. I will be sawing while he is on the roof nailing! I tired to tell him before that I couldn't saw to get out of it, but he told me to pretend it was my rotary cutter and fabric!!! He is so silly, actually I don't mind using the saw, after all it is my house too! And it will mean more to know that we built it together.

Now on to an update on Smokey. He is adjusting well. Donkey wants so bad to play with him but I think he is scared of Donkey. They started out with one sleeping on the couch and one on the chair but over that past couple of days they have only gotten this close....


I'm sure in a few more days they will be best friends! At least Andrew is happy and that is all that matters to me!

Anyway, I am finished sewing for the night and we are having some special family time like we do every weekend. We have been watching some movies and playing CHECKERS! We are taking turns playing....Richard and Andrew are playing against each other and Hunter and I are playing each other. Hunter is keeping me very busy too, while the others are playing I have been reading him stories from his Children's Bible. He loves it, actually is was my Bible that my mom gave me for Christmas 30 yrs ago. So it is very precious to me and my kids. Both of them have been read the stories from it. So it has been a wonderful family night!
Kristie

Why is it so hard to say NO to your kids?

Well, I find it very hard to say NO to my kids when I know that it is something that means alot to them! So this post is about my oldest son, Andrew that is 15. Some weekends, Andrew goes to his Dad's house. Now I will not get on the subject of his dad because it is hard for me to say nice things there! :) But for Andrew's sake I always keep my mouth shut! Anyway, Andrew had a dog over at his dad's house and his dad called yesterday and said that Andrew would have to get rid of the dog because HE wanted to get one for HIMSELF! Now Andrew usually doesn't ask for alot but he got really upset about having to get rid of the dog because he is attached to it. So................Seeing him so upset, I told him he could bring the little dog home! So late last night his Dad brought out the dog.

So here is "Smokey" our latest addition to the family. He is really sweet and loveable. It is funny, he is 2 yrs old, and weighs 2lbs and 2oz. Very tiny little poodle.




Right now he is a little nervous since it is a different place but he will be fine in a few days. Donkey wants to play with him but I think he is afraid of Donkey. Here he only weighs a little over 2lbs and Donkey weighs 14lbs! But it makes me happy to see my son so HAPPY!!!
Kristie

Summer Pond

Well....I have been snowed in for a few days now! I'm not complaining about it because I love this time with the family. We only have 1 inch of snow but, I live on Top Of The World, so I can't even get out of my driveway!!!!

Since we had all of this time together Richard has been spending alot of "Daddy Time" with the boys! Here is a photo of Richard (with Hunter's Armey helmet on), Hunter and Donkey the cat!!! They fell asleep in the recliner after playing ARMY!!! Of course, Andrew is 15, but he still needs his "Daddy Time" too! So they did their thing outside working on the chicken coop!


We also put up our Christmas Tree! It was a great time! Richard and I usually set it up, add the lights and let the boys decorate it! So in the photo you will see that there are ornaments hung in bunches! Hunter is a wonderful at decorating the tree! :) I usually spread them out a little at a time so that he doesn't notice!

This is the first Christmas with the cat! I was worried about how he would do with the tree! Last year we had a dog in the house and she tore the tree down a few times! So she had to go outside, QUICK! Anyway, the first night, Donkey, the cat didn't pay any attention to the tree, so I thought we would be fine! But last night he climbed in it!!! So Richard, wired the back of the tree to the wall! All is fine now but he still likes the lights!


I also finished my Summer Pond quilt top! This is my first completed applique top! It was lots of fun and went really quick! I did do the border different from the pattern, but by the time I got to it, I just wanted it done! I also cut the binding and have it ready! I hope to have it quilted soon!!!


Not real sure what I will work on next! I really need to get my sashins and borders done on my Civil War Love Letters! But I also have a million others to finish!
Kristie

Hehehehehe!!!!!

hehehehehe!!! What is this big yellow thing you ask!!!! My Christmas present from my mom!!! Yep! The UPS messed up and delivered it to my house instead of mom's! It is a 30yard roll of quilt batting!!!! I am soooooooooo excited, 90 feet of quilt batting!!!!!!!! Does she love me or what?????? Just think of all of the quilt tops I can quilt now!!!!!! I can see my pile of 70 quilt tops going down!!!!


Here is another applique block that I did for the Summer Pond quilt. I am really liking this quilt. I have most of the other blocks done with the applique on them. It seems to be going fairly quick. I am out of Wonder Under and I have a few more blocks to cut out so I will try to pick that up in a few days.


Also, my friend, Lisa and I are going to do a two-colored quilt! I made block for mine the other day. I decided to do red and white. I have several red and white quilts and when we get moved in the house, I would love to display them together. This pattern is called "Gibblets", it is a version of the Chicken and Gizzards pattern. I really like this one and it goes together very quick.


I have been working on my applique blocks today and I hope to have all of the ones that I have ready appliqued by the time I get to pick up more Wonder Under, that way, I will just have a few more to complete. I had a dentist appointment today so that sort of messed my day up but tomorrow, I will be home all day. Hopefully, I can get some sewing in.
Kristie

Lots Of Quilty Photos!

I have lots of quilty photos to show you tonight!! I have been working on my Summer Pond quilt. I have 9 more blocks cut out, ironed on and ready to applique! Somehow I only ended up with photos of 7 of them. But anyway, I already appliqued two of them tonight. I figure I will work on this quilt until I get tired of doing the applique and then I will move on to something else. Anyway, I really like how this quilt it turning out.








Speaking of quilts!!! I finished my quilt top! It was supposed to be a diagonal nine patch but if you remember in my last post I was telling you that I messed up cutting my stripe fabric so I ended up with this.....


While I had the fabric out for this quilt, I went ahead and cut the binding for it too. Even though it didn't turn out the way it was supposed to I like it and I used around 375 3 1/2 inch squares that I had precut from my scraps! It felt nice to just sit down at the machine with a box of scraps in sew!

Yesterday, Richard did not get to work! The mine didn't have enough coal blasted out from him to haul so they told him that they didn't need him. :( But he used the day off to work on the house. He was putting up the plywood on the front half of the roof as you can see here. Hopefully he can get the rest of it done this weekend.


And last but not least....I will leave you with another weird photo of our cat, Donkey!


Hopefully tomorrow, I will have more quilty photos to show!
Kristie