My Goodies!

I am being lazy tonight! I am drained today. I had to do a lot of driving today and that just makes me tired. I wanted to be home quilting the quilt that I have on the frame but that did not happen. :( While I was out doing my weekly grocery shopping and bill paying, I had to take Richard's sawmill blades to be sharpened and then take them to him, that took forever!!! I had to wait for the man to sharpen them, so I drove on to Paintsville to pass the time. While I was there I picked up a few goodies! I had not been buying new fabric or books but I did pick up a few things today.

My first stop was at the Shady Shack. I picked up these 3 fabrics, only 1/2 yard of each. They will fit nicely in my stash.
Then on to Walmart...I bought 3 yards of this. I will probably save it to use as a border fabric. I love the colors in these fabrics.

Stopped at the bookstore in Van Lear called Words-n-stuff. He is VERY cheap on his books. I bought these 3 books. They do have some beautiful patterns in them.
In the end, my LITTLE shopping spree cost me less than $25! Yep! A total of 4 1/2 yards of fabric and 3 quilt books, less than $25! Can't beat that with a stick!!! :)

Tomorrow is Trick-or-Treat night here for the kids. Of course, Andrew is too old to go, but Hunter is very excited! So Hunter will go get the candy and Andrew will eat it! :) They are calling for rain, I just hope that it doesn't started until after they are finished. I told Hunter that if it started raining, we would have to come back home. I don't want to take a chance on getting him sick.

One more week and mom will be home! I talked to her today, she sounded very tired. I think she is tired and also worried about my sister. Chantal has had the flu. She works at a doctor's office so I'm sure that is how she caught it. She had been really sick. There is not a lot that you can take for the flu. Now she is starting to get over that and the doctor told her she was on the verge of having pneumonia. Now she is having to take breathing treatments and steroids. Hopefully she will get over this soon.

Kristie

My Wednesday

Here are a few more things that I found in my cabinet. I finally got it all cleaned and sorted.

This is a "Jewel Box" that I started a few years ago. I was just making it out of scraps. I already have one "Jewel Box" finished, so with this one, I think that I will just add 3 more blocks to it, sew on a border and finish it as a baby quilt.
This is another scrap project. I was making this as a leader and ender project with my scraps. May work on this one from time-to-time. I always have a lot of scraps.

I also found a shoebox with 80 nine patches in it. Not sure what I was going to make with them, but they are also from scraps. I have several patterns that I can use these in.

I found this fabric in a bag. They are 30's fabrics, not sure what I was planning to use them for so they went back in my fabric stash.

I found a little tote of yo-yo's that I was working on several years ago. I have made 2 yo-yo quilts in the past and I think when I finish this, it will only be a table runner! :)
The only sewing that I did today was making 128- 3inch half square triangles. I found some that I had made a while back so I thought I would add to them a little at a time, as I get the scraps!

This morning after feeding the animals I rode the fence line to check for damage. I usually take Ole Jim, but not this morning. He is just not able to go, so I saddled up Storm and took him. Ole Jim looked a little sad when he saw me getting on Storm.

I snapped a few photos of some of the horses this morning. They were loving the crisp Fall morning. This is Bullet, our stud horse and the paint is "Jingle Bells" Can you tell that Hunter named him? :)
As you can see the rain has made most of the leaves fall off.
This is Sapheria! She is the little one that was born in March. She is now 7 months old. Here she is peaking under her mommy. Back in the Summer, her mommy kicked her in the eye and she almost lost her eye. I was all bloodshot and swollen, had a bloodclot that busted, we had a real mess. In the end, she can still see but does have some loss of vision.

Here is her bad eye! Vet said she will always have this cloudy spot on it. I'm just thankful that we did not loose her. She is a fiesty little thing!
Now I have to get Hunter's treat bags ready for his school's Halloween party. I hope I can get Andrew to help me and Hunter get them ready. But you know how those 16yr olds are, he will probably eat more than he puts in the bags! :)

Kristie

Digging Around

First off, Jim is doing some better. Still taking his shots and breathing treatments. He has lost a lot of weight and it will be hard to get the weight back on him with him being so old, but we will work on that. Thanks so much for the prayers and sweet comments, he is my baby!

Not a lot of sewing going on, but I have been digging around! :) I have this cabinet thing with a door on it (thank goodness, so you can't see all the mess in it) I decided to clean it out and use 2 of the shelves for my quilting pantographs. I needed a place to store them. While I was cleaning it out here are a few things that I have found...

This is a BOM that I did a few years ago. I have all of it done except for the last step. I stopped there because each month was 2 blocks, which was easy and then the last month had somewhere around 50 little 6 inch blocks!!! So I set it aside. Now I am thinking that I could take these 24-12inch blocks, add sashings and a border, forget the 50 other blocks and call it DONE! I think that would be better than it just sitting in a box. Although I will have to buy some black fabric to finish it up.
I found these...I was working on Christmas postcards. Very simple and quick. I will probably try to finish up what I have of these for Christmas.

This is an orphan block. Don't even remember making it! :) This will go in my box of orphan blocks that someday I will go through and make several orphan block quilts out of them.

More orphan blocks here. This was a BOM that I started a few years ago and lost interest in it. They will go in the the orphan box too. Well, I should tell you that my orphan"box" is actually a "tote" hehehehe! I have a zillion orphan blocks!
Also found this quilt that I started, have several blocks cut out, but probably will not finish it. Looks a little odd, that is probably why I never finished it. I may just make a baby quilt for donation or a lap quilt.

Of course there are more that I found too. I have not looked through them all, so I will post about those as I go through them.

Oh, I also found some half square triangles that I had paper-pieced. I did actually sew a few more of those tonight. This is not something that I will finish anytime soon, just work on them as I get more scraps! Eventually I will have enough to make a quilt with them.

Kristie

More Goodies!

Jim is eating a little better today! :) I know that he is an animal, but I do love him very much and have worried myself sick over him. He is still taking his meds and breathing treatments and I do think they are helping him. He is the best thing, he just stands there and doesn't move when I give him his shots in the neck. He is eating a little better today, he has lost a lot of weight, the past few days and with his age the weight will be hard to get back on him. I got him out and we took a walk while Richard cleaned out his stall.
Got some goodies in the mail today! :) My friend, Lisa,
had a PIF (pay it forward) on her blog a while back and of course I signed up for it. Here is the gift that she made for me. Isn't it beautiful! She knows my colors well!! I do love it! Thanks so much Lisa!

Also in the package were 20 Civil War Reproduction Fat Quarters!!! Lisa called me a few days ago and asked if I wanted to do a little fabric swap. Of course I said YES! I love Civil War fabrics!!! These will work well with my others! Now, I have to send her some goodies!!

I really need to finish up my Civil War quilts! I have the Pink and Brown (Civil War Love Letters) ready to add borders and it has been in that stage for months! :) I need to pick the paper off of 121 blocks and that is why I am at a stand still on it. The other quilt is the Civil War Diary Quilt, I like it real well too. I have 70 out of 121 blocks done on it. Maybe I'll work on them more this Winter.

Again, thanks so much for the nice comments and prayers for Jim. They mean a lot to me.

Kristie

A Little Pick-Me-Up

I sure needed this little pick-me-up today! On one of the Yahoo groups that I belong to, we have Secret Sister Swaps, she sends me the cutest things. As you all know, I was feeling a little sad today because of Jim, this is what I got in the mail!!! A beautiful piece of fabric and the folder I will have to explain about it...It is the cutest thing! There is tons of quilty infomation, quotes, prayers, listing of quilt books, quilting formulas, and a whole lot more! The crayons are for the blank quilts that are in the folder to do color placement! Thank you so much for the nice gifts!
Update on Ole Jim! Jim is doing a little better but still is not out of the woods yet. The vet actually called me this morning on his way in to the office to check on him, he was actually surprised that he made it through the night. I have been giving him his shots and breathing treatments, his cough is still bad, and he is not eating well at all, but he is up and walking around. He did eat some Fruit Loops earlier!!! :) I do love him, but I do not want him to suffer. He is very old and his health is going down hill, just don't know if he has the energy to pull through it in the end. I want to thank you all for all of the nice comments and emails about Ole Jim, it means a lot to me.

It is now 8pm and we are getting ready to take Hunter to the 4-H Forest Of Fear! They have a little haunted forest setup down by the lake. Andrew is not here this weekend he is up in WV at a Beagle Trial, he loves his dogs! But that is fine, he is a good boy and calls me every hour or so.
Kristie

A Long Stressful Day...

It has been a very hard day...if you all have read my blog for a while, you know how attached I am to my mule, Jim. He is like part of the family. Some may call us rednecks, but he is just a big pet. We do NOT have him in a fence, he just walks around loose in the yard and all over the farm. He follows you like a puppy, if you stop walking he runs into your back, he follows so close. I ride him when we go riding, we have used him to pull out logs for our house and he just feels like part of the family. Ole Jim is known here for miles around!!! Jim is 28 yrs old, which is pretty old. This morning, when I went out to feed, Jim didn't come running to me like he always does, I had to go look for him. When I found him, he was VERY sick! Coughing, breathing really hard and had a lot of mucus drainage. I got him up, put him in a stall, got him plenty of food and water and gave him a shot of penicillin. Called the vet....and let's just say it is not good news...Ole Jim has pneumonia! In all honesty he probably will not pull through it. I have given him breathing treatments on and off all day. I have cried so much that I have a major headache. I almost dread going to sleep tonight, because I am afraid he will not be alive in the morning.

While Jim was napping, I worked on my quilt that I had on the frame. I got it finished, it is a lap size, so it didn't take too long. This is called "Friendship Basket" I really like the pattern.
The quilting pantograph that I used is called "Flower Power" I really like how it looks.

I got most of my strips sewed together early this morning while I was waiting for daylight to come. :) Hubby gets up at 4am for work and I just stay up.

I guess that is all for now, I am going back out to check on Ole Jim...

Kristie

More Progress

I got a lot done yesterday! A lot of cleaning!!!!! And some sewing too.

Over the weekend, when we went on our little day trip to VA, I bought a thimble! This is my first collectors thimble. I have an old antique typeset drawer that I think I will put these in. I do plan on collecting them, but I will have to wait until I get a few more before I get the old typeset drawer out. Somehow I think it would look a little odd with only one thimble in it! :)

This is a photo of a quilt that I did a while back. I already posted about it on here, but I snapped this photo of it yesterday while it was hanging on the clothesline. This is right at the edge of dark, that is why the colors do not show up real well. I forgot the name of the block at the moment but it is one of my favorite scrap quilts.

During my breaks of cleaning smoke crud, I got my red and white quilt cut out! Here are the red strips. A total of 46--1 1/2 in WOF strips! Last night after supper I got all of the white cut out and started sewing my strips together this morning. The pressing is what I hate!

I quilted a few rows on the quilt that I have on the frame too! This is just a lap size quilt, I would have had it done yesterday if I hadn't been cleaning so much. I tried to take a photo of the quilting but you can't really tell much about it here. Oh and in the photo there looks like there is a spot on the white fabric, that is just the light from my machine. :)
I hope to have this one finished sometime today and maybe load another one on the frame.

Well I had better go and get back to sewing some strips together...
Kristie

Quilting Plans

I am now in the mess of cleaning up the smoke damage! :( But everything is cleaning up fairly well, just a lot of scrubbing.

I have been thinking of my quilting plans for the next week or so and here is what I have come up with....

First off, I need to do 3 more Tic-Tac-Toe blocks. They are simple blocks but you really get burned out on them quick. So I'm thinking 3 more blocks, sew them together, add a border and call it a lap! A lap size is a lot better than a UFO! Right?

I've pulled these fabrics out for a Mini Christmas Gift. I am making something for a good friend, can't really say a lot more about it because she reads my blog. But I do love the fabrics and I think she will too...

I have also been thinking about my next big project and I think I have decided on this pattern. It is called "Writer's Block" It is in the June 2007 issue of McCall's Quilting magazine. I really like the pattern. I already have the red fabric in my stash and I stopped yesterday and bought 10 yards of white fabric.

I needed the white fabric of this quilt and also to strip my Stacked Coins quilt. I took mom down to work yesterday, so I stopped on the way back and got the fabric.

I also put a small quilt on the frame yesterday evening. I haven't started quilting it yet, but hopefully I can work on that between my breaks today of cleaning up the smoke mess. Should have the cleaning done today, or at least I hope so. I will still need to paint my ceilings and clean the carpets.

Kristie

Such A Mess!

Where do I start?...When cooler weather hits we use our fireplace constantly. I just love using the fireplace. But every Fall I burn one of those log things in the fireplace that is supposed to clean out your chimney and Richard cleans the vent in the top of the chimney. Anyway, this is the first time that we have ever had a problem with it. On the package of that chimney cleaner log it says that it basically loosens the crud in the chimney and then when you start burning fires in it, that it comes out a little at a time......hmmmm....not the case here!!! It all came loose at ONCE. Had a fire going all day today, the boys and Richard went to bed at 9pm, then I noticed that I could see and smell smoke coming out of the fireplace. I closed the glass doors on it and turn the blower off, still smoking, actually it got worse....

I got Richard up, and by that time the smoke alarm was going off! The kids were scared, they opened their bedroom door and all they could see was smoke! I sent them out of the house, told Andrew to take Hunter to the car, start it up and turn the heater on! Richard and I were trying to control the smoke. Opened doors and windows, couldn't breathe at all. We were having to run outside, catch our breath, and run back in. Finally, threw water on it, put the fire out in the fireplace, but of course, it was still smoking.

Richard we went outside, Richard got the ladder, climbed up on the roof.......and the screen in the chimney was stopped up!!! He had cleaned it a few days ago when we started using it, but I guess, when I burned that chimney cleaning log that it broke all of that crud loose at once and stopped it up! So the smoke had nowhere to go but out in the house!!

I do thank the Lord, that it was not worse and there was no fire!

Anyway, all is back to normal now, sorta! Richard and the kids are safely in the bed, but now we are left with a major mess! Everything is smoked! The house stinks, everything in the living room, kitchen and hallway is smoked! The bedrooms and bathroom doors were closed so they are fine. Even my dishes in the cabinets are covered.


Here is the wild boar that Andrew killed a few years ago, see all of the crud on it...
This is my fireplace surround...

This is my coffee table....giggle...it is actually wood.

So now you know what I will be doing for the next several days....scrubbing!!! I am just thankful that it was just smoke and no one was hurt, the Lord was really looking out for us. The boys are fine and Richard and I just have raw throats and dry eyes.

Now on to happier things...the rest of the day was fine. Got up fixed breakfast, got ready went to church. After church, I put on supper (Cornish hens) and took a nap!

Now I will leave you with some cute photos of Jazz...

Here is his favorite place to sleep....right on Richard's neck!
By the way, during this whole smoke mess tonight, Donkey, Smokey, and Jazz were in the car with the boys!

Breaks Interstate Park

If you have read my blog for a while you will know how much I enjoy spending time with my family! Last month we took a day trip to the Civil War Reenactment, today we took a day trip to Breaks Interstate Park. A very lovely place on the Kentucky/Virginia border. It is very pretty this time of the year because of the leaves turning colors. For some reason they did not show up that well in the photos but they were beautiful.

This was a little over 2 hours away from here, so not a bad trip! We all had a wonderful time and enjoyed spending time together.

This first photo was taken at "The Grave Of The Unknown Soldier"
A cabin in the woods...

Beautiful views...

The white in the photo below is a river, we were at about 2000ft elevation.
See the river in the photo below....
This is what we saw when we zoomed in with the camera! So that should tell you how high up that we were!

This is the little road that we were driving on...

At the end of the day we had a wonderful time. Since we were already in VA we drove on over to Grundy and ate at the Huddle House. Not a bad little trip, we spent under $100 and that included gas, food and souvenirs

Now we are home and I have to get back to the grind....doing laundry and cleaning house! :(

Have a wonderful day!!

Kristie