Quilting Right Along...

I woke up sick this morning! :( I guess I have what Hunter had last week. I feel like "poo" but I have been taking some cold/flu medicine. I'm sure I will live! :) It has been a little cool here today and right now it is snowing. Richard made me stay inside all day! He is such a good hubby! I straightened up the house a little and then piddled around with my quilting stuff.

I have called mom a million times today checking on her. I'm sure I am driving her crazy but I just worry about her and worry that she may have gone back to work too soon.

I ironed all of my strip sets for my Pink Bargello that I have been making.

They I had to sew them all into "Tubes" and as you can see here, Donkey wanted to help me! :)

Then he finally tired out! :)


I now have them all sewn into "tubes" and I will spend the evening cutting them into strips again and they will be ready to be sewn into blocks. As I said before this quilt is for my sister, Chantal. She is coming out to my house tonight to spend the night! She doesn't quilt....yet but I will cut them up while she is here. She doesn't know that this quilt is for her but she'll never realize that it is until I tell her. She is so used to seeing me work on quilts that she will not think anything about it. But I am excited about spending some good "sissy time" with her too.

I have been sorting more scraps too! I think I will start making some of them into these little "primitive baskets" they are only 6 inch block so the actual basket is very small. Again this is one that I am in no big hurry finishing, just work on it as I have the scraps just like my 1/2 square triangles.

And after I get my "Pink Bargello" finished my friend Lisa and I plan on making this beautiful quilt! I have wanted to make it for a few years now. It is called "Burgoyne Surrounded" This is the photo of the antique quilt in the book. If you look real close you will see a mistake in the second block of the second row. Anyway, I have some Navy and cream poka dot fabric that I want to use for it and I guess the cream in the quilt, I will just use muslin. I have quiet a bit of muslin and that will save me from having to by any.
Well, it is about time for Chantal to come so I will leave you with another photo of Donkey....

I promise he has a head in there somewhere! :)

Kristie

A Rough Couple Of Days!

It has sure been a stressful couple of days! First off let me "Thank You" all for your thoughts and prayers about my mom. She is doing GREAT!!! So let me start you with my weekend...

Andrew turned 16 on Tuesday, so we had him a birthday party over the weekend. I planned the party for Saturday but then some of the boys came home with him on the bus Friday and the rest came Saturday morning. They stayed ALL weekend!! I had a total of 6 teenage boys plus Hunter and the rest of us! Let me tell you they sure can EAT! Seems like all I did was cook! Anyway they had a wonderful time and it is hard to believe that Andrew is 16. We had him a cake made with a fishing theme on it and then I baked him a Red Velvet Cake on Tuesday, that is his favorite.

Saturday Hunter was playing around with the boys and all of a sudden he came to me and said that he did not feel well. I checked his temp and it was 104. So he was sick the rest of the weekend. I took him to the doctor first thing Monday morning.

While I had Hunter at the doctor, which is also where my sister works, I called mom to tell her what the doctor said about Hunter. I called the house and there was no answer so I called her cell phone. I asked her where she was and that is when she told me she was at the ER! Naturally I flipped out. So long story short....after several days of testing they said she would be fine!! Thank the Lord! They did put her on some medication and said that she should not really have any long term problems. But they did also say that she needs her gallbladder taken out. Which is a very simple surgery, I had it done a few years ago and I was running around the next day. I am still worried about her but the doctor cleared her to go back to work on the boat tomorrow! I wanted her to wait a few more days but she said that she really could not afford to miss work.

Yesterday, I took mom back down to the hospital for more testing and on the way home we came up on a terrible scene. Here is the news article on it. Right at the end of my road there was a sweet elderly couple that lived there. They were actually distant kin to me but I remember them always coming to my grandparents house when I was a little girl and I often talked to them. They were very sweet people. They lived right beside the blacktop and had a gravel driveway which is about a mile away from my house. They had turned their truck over in the pond and they both died! They were in their 80's and it was a very sad thing. When we got there the police and all the officials were there, they had pulled the truck up out of the pond and had the bodies laying beside it covered up. It really upset me. I told mom that I had just talked to her on the phone a few days before and she was telling me that she could not walk at all without her walker, so I don't think that she could have gotten out. And he was not in good health either. So sad but after being married as long as they had been.....they died together. The police still are not sure exactly why they rolled backwards into the pond. I just can't seem to get it off of my mind.

So now on to more cheery things.... Here are a couple of photos of the animals, Hunter and Richard.

Here is a link to a blog of a really nice lady and quilter! If you have time take a look she just started her blog this year! Very talented and friendly lady! jackyosews.wordpress.com

Kristie

Prayers Needed...

Just a quick little post! If you have read my blog for a while you will know how close I am to my mother. She is not feeling very well. She ended up at the ER today with chest pains. Tests show that she had a mild heartattack! She has tests scheduled for the next couple of days...more bloodwork, another EKG, Stress tests, and a Heart Catheterization. After they get the test results they will know more what needs to be done. Right now she seems alright but still having alot of chest pains. Please keep her in your prayers! I will post when I know more!
Kristie

Quilts, Kids, and Animals!

Today I finally opened my roll of quilt batting! The past few weeks, I have been matching quilt tops with some backings, so today I started cutting my batting for them. I cut 10 battings for full and queen size tops! And still have a lot of batting left. I will cut more as I need it. I plan on purchasing a frame and machine to quilt my own and my frame will have a pole for batting storage but I will not be storing it on there for awhile. See, I will be setting my frame up in the new house and don't really want to leave the roll of batting out there so that it will get all dusty with the sawing, cutting and building going on in the house. So as of right now, I have 10 ready to go! That is 10 out of 74!!! Still a long way to go, but at least it is a start!

Now on to other news! Hunter came home today with a little award from school. He is 6 and in the 1st grade. It was for reading, they test them all every few months and the national average for his age is to read 23 words per minute. That may not seem like alot but that is what the paper said. He read 57!!! I am always proud of my boys no matter what, but he was a very happy little boy today!

Here is Andrew with his Beagle, Scary!!! This is the dog that has one blue eye and one brown eye!!! He is a wonderful little dog and only about 6 months old.

Here he is with one of his stags, a young rooster. It is a million dollar blue, that is the breed, but of course it did not cost a million! He loves his animals and enjoys spending time with them all.

This is Beauma!!! She doesn't really look that big in the photo but she is due to foal around the first of April! I just can't wait! Of course, we want a stud so it will probably be a filly. No matter what it is, we will love it just the same! I know I showed this photo of Smokey before but he is just so cute! Anyway Monday I had a lady to call and asked to breed to him. She has a toy poodle too and has been trying to find one as small has hers to breed to. So he had a little girlfriend to come over yesterday! :) Know what I mean! So after them doing the deed several times hopefully there will be puppies around April 21, close to that. We get pick of the litter! Not sure what I will do with another puppy, but if I can get it away from the boys without them having a fit on me, I may sell it. It will be very tiny, she is only 3 lbs and he is 3 1/2 lbs. So we will be counting the days down....
After I got off the phone with the lady Monday evening, Chantal came out and trimmed his hair up around his face. As you can see in the photo it is bushy so she cut it close and he looks so cute.
Kristie

This And That!

It has been a really good weekend. I asked Richard to watch "Gone With The Wind" with me for Valentine's Day, and he DID! He hates that movie but it is my favorite. Let's just say he did NOT enjoy it but he did it for me. So it was a really good night. While we watched it, I worked on some hand quilting. I am still working on the same quilt. I am slow when I do hand work but I really enjoy it and it gives me something to do while watching tv. Here is a photo of my hand quilting project...

Today, Richard worked on the house. I didn't get a photo of it because it was getting dark when he stopped. He got half of the front porch rafters up. The porch will be 40 ft long so there are a lot of rafters to be put up. I will try to get a photo of it tomorrow.

While he was working on that I did some sewing. He thought it was too cold for me to be out there helping him. I worked on the quilt for my sister, the PINK Bargello. Here is one of the blocks of it. I think I need a total of 36 blocks and I only have 6 completely finished. But all the strips are sewn into strips of 6, most of them still need ironing and recut again, then sewn into blocks like this. So I guess I am slow working on it, but I'll get it finished eventually!

I also worked on more of the 1/2 square triangles for my scrap quilt. I still have not decided on a pattern for them yet, but there are a million possibilities for it. I really like doing them with the paper piecing. It is a lot faster for me and more accurate.

That is all of the sewing that I got done today. I didn't get in a big hurry, just took my time and enjoyed sewing. I looked through some of my quilt tops and sorted the ones that I had backings for. I didn't count how many that I have ready for quilting but here is a photo of them. I really need to find another place to store the ones that I have ready. This does not show that million others that I don't have backing for yet! :)

Last but not least here are a couple more photos of Donkey! I was using this shoebox to store my pink strips in and as you can see Donkey took it for himself...

And there are no words needed for this photo....
Not sure yet what my plans are for tomorrow....probably help mom with more painting!
Kristie

After The Storm!

I finally got my power back on!! The high winds from the tornadoes in Oklahoma were terrible! I lost power with the first gust of wind! So I have been without power for a few days! It came back on about 3pm today!

I guess no major damage, lots of trees on the fences, the roofing felt paper was ripped from the back side of our new house. But that can be fixed! Lost all of the food in the fridge, but the food in the deep freeze is fine! Mom lost her swimming pool! I was on the phone with her when it blew away! Her pool was a 18ft round above ground pool so now it is scattered everywhere! We still have to clean that up! The kids missed school yesterday because of so many trees down.

Here is a video that I took when the storm first started. If you look REALLY close, you can see a double rainbow! Of course, you could see it alot better in person!

No sewing for me that past few days. I started to do some hand sewing but just didn't have time. Giggle, I stayed very busy....I scrubbed some laundry out by hand and cooked on the fireplace! :) I really didn't have to, I could have went to the laundromat or picked up take out, but I didn't! I enjoyed doing it that way, as long as the power was not off too long! :)

Tomorrow being Valentine's Day, Richard bought me 2 pairs of PJ's! Chocolates, Roses, and he promised to watch "Gone With The Wind" with me! I love that movie and of course, he hates it! But he promised to watch it with me since it is Valentine's Day! The funny part is.....he is working late! I told him he was just trying to get out of watching it! :) But we will probably watch part of it tonight and the rest of it tomorrow! It is a loooooooong movie!

Kristie

Yap! Yap! Yap! :)

Well here it is 5:45am, Richard just left for work and I will be getting the boys up for school in about 45 minutes, so right now I am having a little bit of "me time" Just watched the news and they are giving high winds 50-60 mph winds for today. So living up here on this ridge line, I will probably lose power. I am thawing out some chicken breasts for dinner, I will fix those a little bit early in case the power does go out.

Anyway, after the boys leave for school, I will be heading to mom's to help her today. She and Chantal got the wallpaper done in her kitchen and it looks beautiful! I will have to take a photo and post it. I'm sure I could probably find a before photo too, to show you the difference. So today we will start painting in her living room. In there she will have 2 different shades of taupe, lighter one on the top part of the walls and darker on the bottom. And then she has some big white columns that sort of separate the living and dining room and the kitchen and family room, they will be a lighter shade of taupe. She in all there are 3 shades of taupe. I think today we are going to concentrate on the living room. It will take forever to move her stuff out. She has a curio cabinet that has a ton of figurines in it. She will be moving those because they are very delicate and I'm afraid I will break them. And then there is the problem of moving the piano! Not sure how we will move that thing, it is HEAVY! In the end, it will look very nice when it is finished.

On to quilty things...I am still pressing my strips for my PINK bargello. Still only have the one block finished but have several of them pressed and ready to recut and sew into blocks. I'm not a big PINK person, but this one is starting to grow on me. :) I think Chantal will be surprised when she finds out that it is hers.

On one of the Yahoo groups that I belong to, we are having a Secret Sister swap. We will be swapping 6 times a year. Here is what I received from my Secret Sister!

She really must have paid lots of attention to what I like! :) A beautiful Brown scarf! It matches my coat perfect. Brown is my favorite color too! Since my blog name is Quilting Cowgirl and you all know how much that I love my horses, she sent 3 fat quarters. They have cowGIRLS on them. Now how perfect is that??? And some yummy hot chocolate, which is already gone! :) I don't have a clue who my Secret Sister is but THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! I really love my gifts! They are just perfect for me!

Now on to farm happenings.....I sat yesterday and planned my vegetable garden for this year! Lots of fun! We plan on raising a larger garden this year. I want to "can" a lot of vegetables and freeze a bunch too. Can't be too prepared! Oh and we will be getting 4 more pigs in a couple of weeks. Of course, we will fatten them up and butcher them ourselves. The boys really enjoy it when we do it ourselves and I think it is good for them to learn things like that too. And I know that lard is not exactly the healthiest thing, but I plan on making lard from the fat too. I usually freeze about half of the fat and make more lard when I run out of the first batch.

Oh and last but not least....we are getting ready for a colt to be born around the end of March to the first of April! One of our mares will be giving birth then. Can't wait for that to happen! So we will be removing her shoes and putting her up in the stall soon, getting her ready!!!! I just hope she gives birth during the day, because I just love being there with them when they give birth. I can't really explain it but just like us, they are so proud!
Kristie

Started a couple more!

I have been sewing the past few days! First off, Amelia, got me started on some half square triangles. :) She is working on a quilt using them and we were discussing them. Anyway, I have been wanting to make a quilt just using all half square triangles. So I started making some, and I just plan on adding to my stack as I get the scraps, this will be a long-term project for me. So here is what I have so far...

As I was going through my fabric, I noticed I had a ton of pinks! So I decided that I would make a Pink Bargello for my sister! She loves pink, so that would be the perfect quilt to use all of these up on! First I cut 240 pink strips!!! And them I sewed them into sets of 6! This took a while, but here is a photo of Smokey that I took! I went and got the clothes out of the dryer, came back in here and this is what I found...

Isn't he the cutest! I did finish one block so that I could see how all of these pinks were going to look together! Now it will take me a while to finish the others because I have to do alot of ironing on them. The funny thing is, my sister came over while I had all of these strips out and the block laying on the table and she picked it up and said that she really liked it because of all the pinks! So at least I know that she will like it! :)

Oh and I got another good photo of Donkey! He is soooo silly! I don't understand how he sleeps in some of these positions!

And Richard and I worked on the house a little this weekend too! We are working on getting the porch framed! We want to have it ready for the roofing within the next few weeks. I'm telling you those beams across the top were sooooo heavy! There are 2, 20 foot oak beams up there and it was all that we could do to get them up there! But it will be worth it in the end! I love a big front porch! The front porch will measure 8 ft wide and 40 for long! I can't wait to sit me some rocking chairs out there on it.....yes, I'm dreaming!! :) Oh, and we put in the 2 windows in the master bedroom ( the 2 tall windows in the front) they crank out, so that will be nice for a breeze.

Anyway, tomorrow I have lots of running to do! Need to pick up horse feed and pay some bills. :( Then probably the rest of the week I will be helping mom during the day. She is wallpapering her kitchen and painting here living room, dining room, and here family room! Oh, and she is also putting up a wallpaper border in the living room. I will have to take photos of it too!

Kristie

The Borders Are On!

First off, I would like to say a big "Thank You" for all of your thoughts and Prayers for Richard having to walk to work this morning. He made it just fine! I was so worried and he says that I worry too much but I can't help it. He walked a mile before daylight to get to the blacktop road to catch a ride on to work. I looked as he left this morning and it was 3 degrees! But like I said he did fine and called me as soon as he made it. We finally got the county to come out and scrap the road so it is driveable now, but now the problem is that I still can't get my car out of the driveway! :) Richard's truck will go so he will be driving it to work.

Late last night after my post, I decided to go ahead and add my border on my "Boxy Stars" top. Nothing fancy, just a plain border as you can see in the photo here. Now it is all neatly folded and awaiting quilting. I have the binding ready for it too and it is with the quilt top! Feels good!!
No sewing here today! Not sure what I will work on next! I have several things that I would love to finish but just can't bring myself to work on them. I may do some handquilting on my other quilt for a few days until the urge hits me to finish something else!!
Kristie

I guess that I got a little lazy!

Okay I know that this is not the setting in the pattern but I guess I got a little bit lazy and just didn't want to sew a bunch of sashings! :( So I sewed all of the blocks together and now I have to sew on the borders. I already have the borders cut and the binding too, but I will probably wait until tomorrow to sew them on. But in the end I am very satisfied with this quilt top! At least I used up a bunch of my 2 1/2 inch strips!!!
Richard did not have work today because we got 8 1/2 inches of snow overnight! So we are stranded up here on the hill again. I think Richard's work will be working tomorrow and he PLANS on getting up at 4:30am getting ready and walking the 1 mile down to the blacktop road and catching a ride with a friend of his. I will worry myself sick over him walking. It is supposed to be down close to ZERO tonight and he is determined to get to work tomorrow. So, if you don't care please say a little prayer for him.....or for me! I will be so nervous worrying about him.

Anyway, I guess enough of all of that! We have had another wonderful day as a family stuck up here! The boys have been out playing a lot today and Richard and I got all bundled up too and played with them! :) It was GREAT! We have a whole yard of Snow Angels! :)
Kristie

Stuck Again!

Well, we are stranded again! :) Gotta love this country living! All of the ice is not melted from last week and my car still will not move out of my driveway! So this evening we are getting another snow storm!

I took this video earlier and as you can see it is really coming down!


I know it looks dark in the video but it was taken during the day, it was just snowing so hard it looks very dark. If you look close you can see a couple of the horses standing out in it. Now, I promise that these horses do have shelter that they can come and go as they please, but they just love the snow. I grabbed the video camera because they were running, kicking, rolling and rearing up on their hind legs. And wouldn't you know, as soon as I got out there to video they stopped! :) Anyway, I just looked out and they are back in their shelter for the night. Oh, and that little thing that you see going across the top of the video, it is my flag on my front porch! Giggle, I looked at it and it is still my "Halloween" flag!!!! Do you think I need to change it or just leave it until October! :) Good thing, that I live in the country and no one can see it except for us!

Mom and I SLID off of the hill this morning going to the grocery store! We couldn't get back the sameway so we had to take the back way in. Our road kind of makes a horseshoe from the main road. There are two ways in but one is several miles more. Richard leaves for work before daylight and of course he slid off the hill backwards this morning and hit the main road backwards, thank God no one was coming or he would have gotten hit. So tomorrow I'm not sure how Richard will get off the hill with all of this new snow. He said that he would walk out to the main road and have a guy that he works with pick him up but that is over a mile! Crazy husband! We do have a 4x4 but it still will not go in this mess!

Anyway, I did get my other quilt block finished! Now I just need to get the sashings cut and it all sewn together! Hopefully, I will start on this tomorrow!

Don't you just hate it when....

Don't you just hate when this happens?? Last night, I had all of my pieces cut and I was trying my best to finish all 20 blocks! It was late when I did finish and I was soooooo excited! Then I started laying them out and I only had 19!!! Can you believe that 19? I was soooooooo mad! I had already put everything away and just wanted to finish my blocks! I was on such a roll with this quilt to and today I have just been so argivated that I haven't even picked it up! Maybe I will finish my last block tomorrow!

here is a photo of Andrew's other Beagle. I know he looks a little bit odd but Andrew wanted him because he was the only one in the litter that really stuck out! As you can see, he has one Blue eye and one Brown eye! He named him Scary Perry! :)

His other little Beagle got ran over the other day! :( My baby was sooooo sad! Richard was trying to move his truck to see if he could get it out with all of this ice and Pickles, the beagle ran right under his back tire! Andrew was so upset and it broke my heart to see him like that.

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

Kristie