This and That

As most of you know we have lost several animals over the past few weeks. It has been very hard on all of us, like a lot of people we are very attached to our babies and they become more like family instead of pets. One of the pets that we lost was a beagle that was Andrews. Loving rabbit hunting like he does, he asked for another beagle for Christmas. So I had told him to look around for one. So long story short, Sunday afternoon we drove to pick up his Christmas gift! A new beagle!!!! This is not a good photo of the dog, we had just got him out of the truck and he was wanting to check everything out and Andrew was trying to hold him still so that I could take the photo. Anyway, Andrew is happy!!!! I told him that Christmas morning he would have to bring the dog up on the porch so that I could tie a bow around his neck so that he would remember that the dog was his Christmas gift!!! :) Of course, I will try to get him a couple of other little things to open too, like clothes!! Do you know how many clothes that a 16yr old boy goes through? He wears them into rags!
Now for some Donkey photos! Here he is snoozing in a LITTLE shoebox that I was storing quilt pieces in. He doesn't look comfortable to me, but he sure did sleep a long time! :)

Here he is snoozing again, this time on his new quilt that I made him. :)
And here he is getting in the way while I was trying to work on this wreath. I think he was trying to get the cord to my glue gun that is hanging there.

I had made this wreath for mom about 13 years ago and it had fell apart after so many years. So we striped everything off of it and started over. This morning while we were at Hobby Lobby she picked up some new things for it, the grapevine was still in wonderful shape so it just needed redecorating. So that is what I was trying to do, when Donkey kept getting in the way.

And here is the wreath after it was finished! Don't know why is looks so bright, but it is not as bright as it looks. Maybe I should have turned my flash off. The wreath measures 30" so it is pretty big. Now it is back at mom's and hanging over her fireplace.
Now I am off to bed, and hopefully tomorrow I can get some quilting done. I picked up some batting today while at Hobby Lobby for some customer quilts that I need to get quilted. I have one on the frame now and 3 customer quilts that need quilted also.
Kristie

Sadness and Sewing

I'll be honest, I feel like poo! I have cried so much over my mule that my eyes are so swollen and my head just hurts. I was more attached to him than any other animal that I have ever had in my entire life. I know that life goes on and I guess I knew deep down that he would not make it through the Winter, but I just wasn't ready to let him go. Thank you all so much for all your kind words over his passing. I'm sorry I have not responded to your comments, but every time that I think about him, it just makes me cry. We are all just crushed. We have received so many phone calls from people in the community that has said "we just wanted to call and say that we are sorry for your loss and that he will be greatly missed" You would think he was human! :) Ole Jim was very well known in this area and people just loved him. But I do thank God that he lived to the ripe old age of 28!

Here it is 2:20am and Andrew just got home! :( I know it is very late for a 16 yr old to be out, but he went down to the Coon Club and they had a night hunt. I trust him and he is with some very responsible adults when he does this. So anyway, while I have been waiting for him, I have been sewing...

I started working on Bonnie's mystery! I have the first 2 steps finished! Now I am waiting for Step 3 to be released!
After Hunter fell asleep, I got out this yardage and sewed a simple black border around it. I hope to get it quilted before Christmas. He loves Star Wars! I think I bought this fabric at the flea market last year for nearly nothing.

Here is Donkey, he passed out early! He is all cozy in a cardboard box! Donkey and Smokey have been getting lots of extra lovings lately. We have lost so many animals here on the farm over the past few weeks! And to make it worse....Andrew lost all of his chickens in the past 3 days!!! Some kind of sickness with them, he told me what it was called but I forgot the name.

So unless I am forgetting something here is the loss count. Ida and Jasper the Yorkie, Major the beagle, Ole Jim the mule and 26 chickens!!!! :( Our little farm is dwindling away to nothing!

Oh, I almost forgot! I got Madison's big BRIGHT Peace Sign Quilt quilted! Now I just have to finish the binding!!!! You can't see the quilting in the photo but it is a simple stipple.

I'm off to bed! Here it is 2:35am and I am tired! Andrew is back and now I can go to bed!

Kristie

Ole Jim.....is gone.

After dinner my Thankgiving just went down hill....As bad as I hate to say it, Ole Jim passed away last night at approxmately 8:40pm. We were all right by his side for several hours before he passed.

A very nice friend of ours brought his backhoe up and buried him for us this morning. He is buried in his favorite spot. Our hearts are broke from the loss of this sweet old mule. He was so tame that we didn't even have to keep him in a fence, he just ran loose on the farm.

My boys are still having a rough time, they have lost so many animals within the past few weeks. This farm will never be the same without him...he was a legend for miles around.

Kristie

Happy Thanksgiving and Sad News

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! I have so many Blessings to be thankful for today and every day.

Last night a woke to the sound of the phone ringing at 1am! Of course that always scares me when the phone rings in the middle of the night. I rushed and answered it! It was an Emergency Recording stating that there was an elderly lady that was missing in the area! She is 79 yr old and from Ohio but visiting relatives for the holiday. She has ALZHEIMER'S and had wandered off. She was last seen wearing jeans, a short sleeved blouse and one shoe. How terrible is this? To think that this poor lady is out there cold, lost and could be hurt. It just breaks my heart. Of course I could not rest after that so I got up not too long after that. I checked our local news online and they still have not found her. Here is the article. I've heard the helicopters going over several times searching for her. So just remember this dear lady and pray that she is somewhere safe and that they find her soon. I just can't imagine if this was my family.

It's COMPLETELY finished!

I finally got one of my Christmas gifts COMPLETELY finished and I LOVE how it turned out!!! :) I quilted this for my 1 yr old nephew, Gabe for Christmas. A very simple and bright quilt. I had 1 1/2 yards of the turtle fabric and I just sewed a border around it, because I didn't want to cut the turtle fabric up. I quilted it a week or two ago, finished the binding last night and.......sewed these cute little animals onto it!!!
This idea came from the DVD "Pajama Quilter Reloaded" In the dvd she gives you the idea of attaching tiny stuffed animals on quilts for kids. This is the first time that I have tried it, but I think it will be perfect for the little one to play and cuddle up with.

Makes me feel that my day is starting off good!!! Here it is 8am and I have one gift completely finished. Now I'm sure the rest of my day will not be that successful! :) I have to make trip to town in a bit. I have to run to the grocery store...again. I had everything bought and ready for baking. Then last night I was putting laundry in the dryer walked back in here and Richard and Hunter were EATING the Butterfinger candy bars that were to be crushed and sprinkled on top of a cake that I planned on making!!! I also need to pick up some extra milk and stuff too.
Kristie

Don't ask why!

Don't ask me why......but I started something else last night! I know, I'm crazy! I swear I think I have ADHD!! :) I always have a ton of things going at the same time and eventually they do get done!

I found this quilt in one of the quilt books that I bought a few weeks ago. The book is called "Spectacular String-Pieced Quilts" anyway, this is a photo of a quilt from the book. I have never worked with strings and had been saving some of them over the past couple of months. This quilt requires 124 of the blocks.

Here is my first 20 blocks! I did them last night within about an hour! I could not believe how fast they went together. Then.......I ran out of strings!!!! I thought I had more than I did. :( So in the shoebox they went and now I will go back to saving strings. I had been saving anything under 2" but not smaller than 1".
I received two customer quilts today, so I hope to get started on those within the next few days but it will be after the holiday weekend. I did quilt a little on Madison's Peace Sign quilt....very little. I quilted 3 passes with the machine, I will try to finish it up tomorrow morning before I start baking for Thanksgiving.

Today Mom, Chantal, and I made a trip to Paintsville. While we were up there we stopped by the bookstore. We trade our old books that we have read in for other USED books to read. Then mom decided she was going to walk over to the NEW section, (which we can't trade our used books for) :( She was looking through the quilt books when I found her. We looked at them all and I said something about I liked one of them and then I went to find Hunter. When we got back in the car she reached me the quilt book! She had bought it for me, when I went with Hunter. You know how moms are!

It does have several nice patterns in it. I just love looking through these books. They have so many ideas and I find it really relaxing to look through them even when I don't feel like quilting. That pretty much sums up my day. I hope everyone has a wonderful and Blessed Thanksgiving. I know that I have so many things to thank God for everyday.
Kristie

Another Wall Hanging

This morning Hunter and I went to my quilt guild meeting! Had a nice time, just business stuff. After that we came home, brought in firewood and cleaned up the house. On the way home, stopped by the mailbox and had an envelope from my sweet friend, Lisa. We are both planning on doing Bonnie's new mystery quilt starting Friday. After all of these mysteries, I still did not have the Easy Angle Ruler. Lisa sent me one!!! It was wrapped in some fabric and 4 little blocks! I haven't had a chance to call her to thank her, her son was having surgery today so I didn't want to bother her today. I'm not sure if the 4 blocks were leftovers from something or if she had started something, but I used them to make a small wall hanging!

Here it is! I sewed the 4 blocks together to make the center. The blue has little pumpkins on it and I had the same fabric in blue and orange. I made a small border with my orange and a 3inch outer border with my blue! So THANK YOU Lisa for this quick and easy wall hanging!!! I went ahead and cut the binding for it too, while I had the fabric out. Now it will go in the pile to be quilted. I will just quilt these little ones up when I have scrap batting leftover.
I also started pressing my strips for the mystery on Friday. I bought some gold fabric to go with these a few weeks ago and I will just be using from my stash. I have tubs of strips precut so that will help with that. I also pulled some larger pieces for the bigger pieces in the quilt.

Tomorrow, I hope to get the quilt finished that I have on the frame. I have been planning on doing it for a few days but I keep getting sidetracked! :)

Kristie

Holiday Quilting Goals

This is an older photo of a quilt that I have started. It is called "Grandmother's Choice" I know there are a million patterns with that same name and they are all different. I started this one several years ago and I really do want to finish it. I have dug it out several times to work on it and I could not find the pattern. So....late last night, I found the pattern in the magazine so I put it with the blocks that I have finished. I only have 6 blocks finished as you can see here, I already have them sewn together. Anyway, I have a ton of other things to do first, but I think that this will be one of my first projects to finish after the new year.
This morning we went to Church and after Church they had a Thanksgiving Dinner. I baked yesterday evening for it, there was tons of food. I ate too much, I was as full as a tick!! :) Came home and I had a headache, took some Motrin and took a nap. I slept for a few hours. Richard and the boys were outside working on the old 1951 truck of mine. They took the fenders and grill off today. They are going to slowly restore it for me! We have had it sitting here for a few years now and haven't had time to really do anything to it. So right now there are going to move the front fenders in the outbuilding and sand them down this Winter.

I have so many things that I have to get finished before Christmas! I just need to pace myself and I know that I can get them finished as long as I don't put them off. Now the first list here doesn't actually have to be finished until January 9th. Mom has to work Christmas so we will be celebrating Christmas with mom when she gets home. So that is planned for the 9th of January!

* Quilt Pink Bargello (Queen) and do the binding--Chantal's Christmas gift
* Binding on Gabe's quilt
* Binding on Zeph's quilt
* Quilt Madison's Peace Sign quilt and do the binding

Now these things need to be done before Christmas...

* 4 More Couch Caddies
* several potholders (this is a maybe, not sure if I will do these or not)
* Nascar quilt--this is a customer that wants me to PIECE the quilt, quilt it and bind it.
* Binding on Donkey's quilt
* Quilt Star Wars quilt for Hunter

After I broke it down into 2 different lists, it doesn't seem that bad!!!! Now I feel better looking at it like that! :) Oh and I have some customer quilts too, which is great because with the holidays coming, I can certainly use the extra money!!!!
Kristie

Fun with the little ones!

Well I survived watching my brother's two boys yesterday. I was nervous about being able to keep up with them. So late Thursday night, I baby proofed my living room and kitchen! Hunter is 7 so I don't have to worry about things with him. Anyway all went well and we had a wonderful time!!!

This is Zeph, he is 3 and he has a mind of his own! He was the best little thing. He kept looking out the windows at the animals. From the living room windows you can see 4 of the horses and the steer. He was in love with the animals! Then at one point when he was looking out at the animals he was stretching his neck and asked "Where is the farmer?" So I had to tell him that Richard was at work! :)
This is Gabe, he just turned 1, a couple of weeks ago!! He is such a sweetie too! He has just learned to walk! So he stays on the run!

I spread a queen size quilt out in the middle of the floor and moved the coffee table in front of the fireplace, so that I would not have to worry about them getting in to it. I filled up a box with some of Hunter's toys and dumped them in the middle of the quilt! That kept them happy all day!!! As you can see here, Gabe loved the box!!!
I called John last night and asked about watching his little girl one day this week. She was in school yesterday so she didn't get to come. She and Hunter are the same age. The kids are out of school all week.

Of course, I did not get any sewing done yesterday but I did finish this up Thursday night! Don't ask what I will use if for because I do not know. I started out with the idea of making a doggie bed for smokey, but it is a little hard. I made this pillow which measures 18" square out of flannel and started filling it with my cutoffs and scrap pieces that were too small to use for anything else. So after months of stuffing it, it is finished.

Here it is before I sewed the opening together. As you can see it is full of scraps! Actually we weighed it and it weighs 20lb!!!! The boys teased that they were going to use it in pillow fights, I told them they would knock someone unconscious with it!!!
Today I will be doing my grocery shopping for the week! :( I don't like doing that, but I guess that we have to eat! I also have to bake for the Thanksgiving Dinner that will be at Church tomorrow!

Kristie

Couch Caddy

Today Hunter had Thanksgiving Dinner at school. It was real nice, they had tablecloths and placemats on all the tables. It was a real nice dinner, and it meant a lot to the kids. Of course, when I was leaving, Hunter wanted to come home with me. But I made him stay the rest of the day. They are out of school all next week for their Fall break.

After I got back, I started working on this! You can't tell a lot about it in the photo, but it is a "couch caddy" It has several little pockets that are great for storing things in. I thought I would make some of these for Christmas gifts. This one will go to my MIL.
Here is the actual photo from the pattern, you can tell more about it in this photo. It is a Lazy Girl Designs pattern. Very fast and easy, I had it done in less than an hour. Now I just need to figure out how many more of these that I need to make before Christmas.

Tomorrow, I have the honor of watching my brothers two boys! :) I don't get to spend as much time with them as I would like to, so I am excited about it. They are 1 and 3, so wish me luck!!! They are such cute little fellows, I will have to take some photos of them. They are the ones that I made the John Deere quilt and the Turtle quilt for them for Christmas.

Off to start dinner.....spaghetti and garlic toast!!!!

Kristie

Lot's Of Sewing

Thanks for all the nice comments about Andrew's big buck! He was still excited this morning. He was jabbering away before he left for school! I'm sure he will tell all of this buddies today.

Yesterday I finished up the customer quilt. Kris said that is was fine to post about it on my blog. This quilt was made by her great grandmother so it was an honor to quilt it for her. Now I just have to clip the threads and get it on it's way home. I sure hope you are pleased with it, Kris.
This is a shot that I took from underneath the frame! I used the "Chantilly Lace" design on it.

Here is the view from my sewing room window that I took yesterday. It was such a beautiful day.
This morning after cutting up the deer tenderloin and grinding up a bunch of it for burger and sausage....I quickly sewed this together for my 7 yr old niece. She loves Peace Signs so I thought this fabric would be perfect for her.

It is very bright! :) I had the purple fabric in my stash and had plenty of it so I did the borders, cut the backing and the binding. Here it is all ready to be put on the frame. I promise the purple thread matches, it looks so dark in the photo.

After that I sewed together this cute little wallhanging!
It was actually a block in the magazine that I bought the other day
I thought the block was so cute so I added another border to it to make a small wallhanging. It measures 18 1/2" Now I just need to applique around the frog, quilt it, bind it and it will be done!

Now I am tired!!! :) Off to finish supper!!!

Kristie

Andrew's 10 point buck!

Look how proud my son is!!! Today as soon as he got home from school he went hunting. Then he called me about 20 minutes later, at first it scared me because he sounded like he was about to cry, but then he told me "Mommy, I just killed the biggest 10 point you have ever seen! You have got to come here" So I grabbed the camera and trammed my big butt through the woods!
I was so proud of him! It makes me happy to see my kids that excited about something. He was a big deer! Then after all was said and done, he asked me "Mom, did you put that photo of me and my deer on your quilt blog?" So yes, Andrew I did! :)
Kristie

Stacked Coins

First off, thanks so much for the emails about my machine quilting.

Now here it is 5:20am and I have been up since 3am. Got hubby up for work and it is just hard for me to fall back to sleep after I am up for a bit. So after being on the internet for a while and looking at Michelle's Stacked Coins quilt that she made for her sweet hubby, I decided to finish mine up too. This is the second one that I have made and just love how quick and easy that they go together. I started this one after Michelle made her other Stacked Coins quilt. I've had most of it done for a few weeks, just needed to finish sewing on the background strips. In the photo below, it is still in two pieces, but now it is finished and has the borders on the top and bottom.
I think it looks like "Spring" I bought these fabric samples at the thrift store of $2. I cut them up and made this quilt. I kept saving them until I found the right project for them, but after seeing Michelle's quilt, I knew that was what I wanted to use them for.

So now this top will go in the pile of the others that I need to quilt. This should take me back up to 57 quilt tops to be quilted! I know I'm going the wrong way, my stack should be getting smaller! :)
I was talking to mom last night and we were trying to figure out what we were going to fix for Thanksgiving. Mom will be home for Thanksgiving but will be working Christmas! :( We will have Christmas with her in January after she gets back home. Anyway, we will be sharing the cooking for Thanksgiving, well my sister will be cooking too. Chantal lives with mom so they will be doing theirs together.

Also we are having a Thanksgiving Dinner after Church on Sunday. We were trying to decide on what to take for that. The church is supplying the meats and everyone else is pitching in for the rest of it. As of right now, I plan on making a Mississippi Mud Cake and a Huckleberry Cobbler! Richard loves Mississippi Mud cake so I may have to make 2 of those! :) And some good friends of ours gave us 9 GALLONS of Huckleberries!!! I have them in the freezer right now, thought I would thaw some out to make some jelly too. Use the rest of them for pies and cobblers.

Kristie

Machine Quilting Prices

I did a little machine quilting today on the Black and White star quilt for a customer. We had so friends come by so I had to entertain them. Knocked me out of some quilting! :( Just kidding! We had a nice little visit.

Here is a photo of Donkey snoozing right in the middle of my quilting mess!
I finally posted my Machine Quilting price list. Here is the link for the prices and designs available, if anyone is interested. I will post the link on my sidebar too.

Hope everyone has a wonderful evening.
Kristie

A Little Machine Quilting

Today was the first day of deer season (rifle) We decided it best for Andrew not to go because of his shoulder. Didn't want the kick from the gun to make his shoulder worse. So it was just Richard and Hunter. Here is Hunny Bun at 5am this morning! All big eyed and ready to go!!! They are still gone so I guess they haven't gotten a deer yet!
Here is a photo that I took this morning out my front door. This was around 6am, so pretty isn't it?

Andrew is gone. Last night he went to the last high school football game of the season. They have won every one of the games this season!!! Today he went to a Marshall University football game in WV. Should be back home very late tonight.

I loaded a customer quilt on the frame and quilted two passes on it and will work on it again tomorrow. I probably will not show more of this quilt until it is sent back to it's owner, she has a blog and I'm sure she would want to post it. Anyway, the quilt is really beautiful!! It was made by her great grandmother. It is all black and white stars appliqued down on the blocks. Very pretty. I love old quilts like this. I always wonder about the fabrics, the people making them and I also wonder what was going on in their lives while they were sewing it.

I plan on working on some bindings tonight while watching a movie. I bought the dvd, "Comanche Moon". It is the prequel to "Lonesome Dove" and I just love that movie. Richard teases me because we have watched it a million times and I cry every time that Gus dies! :)

Kristie

I hit the Bookstore....again!

I finished quilting the "Turtle" quilt for my nephew, but haven't taken a photo of it yet. Actually I forgot about the photos until I started doing this post. :( I will try to do that tomorrow.

Today I stopped by the bookstore found a few more goodies! I bought these 3 quilt books for $11, at least I will have plenty of books to look at this Winter. They told me that they would be getting another shipment of quilt books in sometime within the next couple of weeks.
Also I picked up this magazine today at the grocery store! It is WONDERFUL! I love it! It has 100 blocks in it and they are very nice blocks too.

I haven't had much time to sew other than quilt the "turtle" quilt today. Seems like it took me forever to put the groceries away. :( Oh!!!!!!! And I stopped by the "junk store" today and bought a DOOR! It is brand new! Never been hung! I called Lowe's to see how much they cost, he told me $253, I bought mine for $15. I was soooooooooo happy! It will be used upstairs for the door that opens to the deck up there, in the new house.

Andrew is at his uncle's tonight and will be home tomorrow. Hunter is at mom's visiting for a bit. Chantal came out for a few minutes and he wanted to go home with her. Of course, he will not be spending the night, she will bring him home in an hour or so. So right now it is just me and Richard! Tomorrow is the opening day of deer season. (rifle season) Richard, Hunter, Andrew and his uncle Hoss are all going! Hopefully, by the end of the day we will have some fresh deer meat!!!!! Me.....I will be quilting! I have a customer quilt to put on the frame!
Kristie

Lot's Of Sewing!

It has been a busy day here. First off, Richard is feeling better, not sure what it was but he went to work today anyway. At least he looks a lot better.

This morning after getting Richard off to work and the boys off to school, I did my morning feeding and cleaned the house. Then I started sewing....I did 3 more Turkey Track blocks, that makes me a total of 6 of them finished. I'm loving these blocks.

I also pinned this top on the frame and quilted three passes on it. I think I will try to finish it tomorrow if I can. This one if for my 1yr old nephew for Christmas. Just trying to get them all finished so I'm not rushed. I have some customer quilts coming up so I need to get these out of the way. It is hard to tell much about the quilting in the photo but I am using a panto called "cotton" I will show a photo of the design when I get the quilt finished.
Oh and I started sewing the sashing strips on my Stacked Coin quilt too! I didn't take a photo of it yet, but hopefully I will have that top finished tonight or tomorrow!!! I like how it is looking, it reminds me of Spring!!! :)

Hopefully I will get more sewing done tonight. I will be up really late! Andrew had a school field trip today to Louisville Ky. They left the school at 8:30am and should be back around 2AM!!! Yep! 2AM!! I will pick him up then. And he has school tomorrow, he will be sooooo tired! But they sent a note home stating that they had to go to school tomorrow or they would not be allowed to go on anymore field trips! :)

Kristie