3AM...

Why am I still awake at 3am??? Well this is why...my blood pressure is 128/105. It has been running high like that for a month or so. I take medication for it but usually after a while it stops working and I have to have it changed or adjusted. I went to bed but got back up because I was having some pressure in my chest, headache and felt like I was smothering while I was laying down so I got up. Feeling much better now and my BP has dropped back down to 124/90 so I will probably go back to bed soon.

So what have I been doing??? Quilting of course...and watching tv. Yesterday I got a few more spools of thread in and wanted to try it out. This is Monopoly and Bottom Line. I had not tried the Monopoly myself and wanted to see how it would sew on my machine. I have a quilt of my own that I want to quilt with it, but it may be a couple of months before I get to it. I had never tried any type of invisible thread before.
I used this little thing to practice on. I made it a while back out of fabric samples. It measures 24x30. No fancy quilting, just wanted to try this stuff out. I used Monopoly on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin and they worked perfectly. The only thing I think I will do differently when I do my bigger quilt is use a smaller needle. I didn't change the needle that I had in the machine and you can see the holes. Anyway, I am very pleased with it. Hopefully I will work on the binding tomorrow.It is now almost 3:30am, I think I will bake me a little pizza, finish this movie that is on and then head to bed. Good night...

Kristie

A Bathroom Post...

Well this post is all about a bathroom....As you all know we are still in the slow process of building our house. Anyway that 3rd bathroom is giving me fits! So here is the story...The house will have 3 bathrooms, a main bath, a master bath and an upstairs bath. Right now we are just trying to get the main bathroom and upstairs bathroom finished before we move in later this year. I have everything bought for the main bathroom except for the bronze faucet that I want.

Since the 3rd bathroom is upstairs and not seen by all, I really wasn't worried too much about putting it together. Actually, in my mind, I was thinking CHEAP AS POSSIBLE. My main bath will be done in BONE and since WHITE fixtures are generally cheaper I wanted to do #3 in white. So I bought the tub and shower unit in white and it will work fine. Oh did I tell you that this 3rd bath only measures 6ft x 9ft so it is not real big. So I bought this plain white toilet...


Got a great deal on this porcelain sink. (I borrowed this photo from another website, but it is the same sink)This faucet because of the wider spaced holes in the sink. Which ended up being 6 times as much as I paid for the sink. :(

So I was all pleased with what I had until Richard told me to come upstairs that we had a problem... The sink was too big!!! Not enough room to get the door open! My heart sank....so after trying everything in the world to get it to fit, I finally decided to just get another sink. I told Richard that we would just get a pedestal sink for there. So I left for town on a mission to find a CHEAP white pedestal sink.

I found a pedestal sink that I really liked at the surplus store! But my problem was....they had a toilet to match it!!!!! Oh and of course, the faucet that I had would NOT fit this sink!!! Can you tell where this is going?????

So today was spent returning the old SINK, TOILET and FAUCET!! And buying the new set that I wanted. It would not have been too bad if I got gotten everything at the same place but we had to run to several different stores.

If you know me you know that I am a very thrifty person. We have tried to stretch our pennies as far as they will go on this house! So this is what I got!

This toilet!! (borrowed online photo)

This pedestal sink...

And this faucet....

All 3 pieces for.............$215.00!!!!

I was soooooooo happy! I think Richard just wanted to go home! LOL! He just kept saying "whatever you want, baby"

Oh, did I mention that I returned my kitchen sink too! LOL! I got the same sink at a different place for $30 cheaper! I also picked up 2 of these hollow core doors at the surplus for $10 each. They measure 36x78. I plan on using them in my new quilting room for a sewing table.

Now we are home and soooooooooo tired! I didn't realize how stressful this could be. But anyway we will be going soon to pick up the Sheetrock and all of the drywall supplies. That is when the big mess begins! He has been working on the plumbing this week and almost has it all finished.

Kristie

Catching Up...

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. Just been busy and haven't had the extra time. Anyway, I will not go in to all of the boring details of the past week or so but been measuring, looking and ordering a few things for the new house. I did not realize what a chore it was to pick out toilets, sinks, faucets, lights and all of that! Anyway........


I ordered some thread last week. I was getting rather low on quilting thread so I got a few more spools and cones. These first two are 5000 yard cones of Madeira thread. I really love how this thread quilts.Here are 5 spools, 1200 yards each, of Connecting Threads Essential thread. I have used this a lot before and it works great with my machine. The colors are Turkey Red and Caramel.

These are the 5000 yard cones of Connecting Threads Essential thread in colors of, white, black, Natural, and Taupe. As you can see, I have already opened the white because I needed to wind a few bobbins for a customer quilt that I will be picking up today while I am in town.
I have a few more spools on the way, should be here in today's mail.

I know we will not be moving in the new house until later in the summer but I have started packing up a few things.....like some of my quilting stuff. They are loaded in large totes and Richard has taken them out to the new house and placed them in the corner of my quilting room. I boxed up a few things that I knew that I would not be needing anytime soon.

This first box has a ton of fabric samples. Some of them are upholstery samples. I hate to throw them out but I'm not sure what to use them for.

This big tote has a bunch of plaids and about 9 or 10 yards of that funky looking fabric in it. Not sure what I will do with that either.
This tote is full of solid scraps! I have a bunch of those, so I need to make a scrap quilt out of solid fabrics. Actually there are enough of them in there to make a few quilts.
This wood crate is full of small scraps and strings. I have not sent it out to the new house yet because I am still finding small scraps that I have tucked everywhere.
It may not look like it but this tote has 84 yards of fabric in it. This is some of my large yardage pieces. I have more but could not fit anymore in the tote. Oh and this one has a bunch of UFO's in it. Trust me, I have more UFO's than this, I just haven't gotten to them yet.

As you can see, Donkey is doing better. He is almost back to his old self again. He still walks slow and funny but hopefully that will get better over time.

I will post more tomorrow, I have to run into town now....

Kristie

Sewing right along...

I got Mom's shawl quilted and I already gave it to her. She loved it! I will get a photo of the completed shawl in a day or two. When I took it to her, she had company so I didn't take a photo of her with it then. Anyway...A blogger friend, Texan, had sent me some thread that I had never used before. It was Madeira thread. I absolutely LOVE this stuff! I used it on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin, they worked perfectly together! So I will be ordering some madeira for my own quilts, I just really love how it quilted.

This is an older photo but I worked on some more baskets! I think I have enough right now to do the top...give or take a few. I may need a few more once I get ready to sew them together. Not sure what size that I want it to be yet. I think right now I have around 65 blocks ready for the applique. I am doing machine applique on these baskets. I wanted to get all of the baskets cut and pressed on to the background and then I could sort them into piles of the same thread color that is needed. That way, I don't have to keep changing my thread and bobbin as much. I also made a welders cap for Richard for Valentine's Day. I know it is not until Monday but I gave it to him last night. It is red and white polka dot! He is wearing it now and it outside working, so I will get a photo of it when I can. I hate making those things for some reason they drive me batty!

I'm getting a customer quilt ready to pin on the frame. I need to do a little prep work on it and it will be ready to go. I want to get it completely finished this week. It will probably take me a week because I will be taking Mom back and forth to several appointments this week too. Anyway I can't show this quilt until later because it is a gift for someone else.

Lexie is here this weekend. She and Hunter have had a good time together. Nice to have her here. It is supposed to be in the mid 50's today so I think they are planning on spending a lot of time outside before she has to go back home later this evening.

Mom goes back to the surgeon first thing in the morning. She is really dreading this appointment. It still really upsets me that this has to be redone. It's been 3 months since her last surgery and she still can't move her arm by herself at all...now we know why! Anyway, please remember her in your prayers she really needs them right now.

Kristie

Prayers for Mom...

Please remember my Mom in your prayers. Chantal and I took her back to the doctor this morning for her x-ray results and it showed that one of the screws has backed out. The doctor said this is due to "AGGRESSIVE PHYSICAL THERAPY" So now she has to have the surgery done again.

I just hate to see her in that much pain, not sure how she will handle having it done again. I'm just so mad and upset right now that it is hard to think of anything else. Let's just say....I went off at the physical therapist office today! She stopped in there to nicely let them know what the doctor had said and that she would not be there tomorrow and one of them got a very rude attitude about it all and I went off on him!!! I'm still jerking mad!
Kristie

Shawl for Mom

Hunter has been sick for a few days. I hate to see the little guy feel so bad. Took him to the doctor yesterday and he will be out of school for a few days. So hopefully he will start feeling better real soon. Today I took mom for her physical therapy appointment and also for her x-ray. She should have the results from the x-ray by Friday. Hopefully all is well with that.


So after I got back home today I started sewing her shawl together. I cut it out the other night but just hadn't had a chance to sew it together. I have a customer quilt that I need to load on the frame but with Hunter being sick he is keeping me busy. So I needed something mindless to work on. LOL! Anyway, I plan on loading that quilt on Friday and getting it done.


I didn't actually use the pattern in the book because I needed something that would go together a little faster so I did a simple churn dash block. This is one of my favorite blocks. As you can see it is not quilted yet and since it measures only 24x72 it will not take but a few minutes to quilt it. After the quilting is done then I will sew the pockets on the ends, do the binding and it will be ready for her to use.

I've had these fabrics in my stash for a long time so I didn't have to go out and buy anything for it. I plan on using the green for the backing too. I'm really anxious to get it done and to give it to her. I think it will be great for her to use because sometimes it is hard for her to slip things over her arm and shoulder. Perfect to use when laying around the house.


Well, I'm tired. I think I will give Hunter is medicine and go to bed...
Kristie

The Quilting is Finished

I got the other customer quilt off the frame on Saturday! The customer requested it be quilted with music notes and honestly, I think that is the only design that would look right on this quilt. She did a wonderful job on the piecing of this quilt, it was very flat and even. I believe she said this was a gift for a choir teacher. I finished the binding on her other quilt, the one with the birds, last night. I will work on this binding today and hopefully they will be ready for pickup tomorrow! I have one more customer quilt that needs quilted but I need to do some prep work to it before I get it loaded on the frame.

Another photo of Hunter. As you can see by the look on his face, he was tired of me snapping photos of him. LOL! Poor kid, he was praying for snow last night! And they have not had a full week of school since way before Christmas!!!Mom has two appointments today. So I will be gone most of the day. I do enjoy spending the time with mom, I just hate it is spent taking her to appointments. I guess I could take the musical quilt with me to work on the binding, but I don't think I want to have lug it around all day, it would be too much bulk for me. I figure I will take a book or yo-yo's to work on instead.

Richard and I have been talking about work on the new house. I figure that as soon as the weather starts to break and warm up a little, my quilting will slow down a lot. Of course, there are a lot of things that I can't do on the house but so much that I CAN! Over the past several weeks, since we have been talking about trying to get moved in sometime this summer, my mind has been in a whirlwind. Thinking so much about paint colors, wood stains, light placements, furniture placements and all of that stuff. It is all a little overwhelming for me. I can do a lot of the painting but not climbing real high on the step ladder. Since my living room has an open ceiling to the second story, Richard will be painting that up there.

I'm off to get my day started...

Kristie

Why O' Why??

Why do I keep finding things that I want to make??? After yesterday's post I had made a list of what I wanted to try to get done this week and this month! I have lists laying all over the place. A few years ago, the doctor told me that I had adult ADD. So I will use that as an excuse as to why that I have a hard time concentrating on projects and getting them finished before I jump to something else. :) Actually, I think most quilters have "quiltiers ADD", don't you? I have a few customer quilts so they take top priority. I HAVE TO GET THOSE FINISHED!!!

This morning while in town, I picked up the March/April 2011 issue of McCall's Quilting. After thumbing through it, I found something that I really want to make!!! I think this would be the perfect thing for my mom! Since she had her surgery, she chills a lot and of course can't move her arm very well to get a jacket or sweater on, so this would be perfect for her. I just wished that I had found this pattern sooner, so that she could have had it when she first had her shoulder surgery done.

It is a QUILTED SHAWL! How neat is that?
Here is what it looks like laying flat. It also has big pockets on each end.

I'm thinking that I will work on one of these as soon as I get these customer quilts quilted. This only being about 24 inches wide it wouldn't take but just a few minutes to quilt up. Mmmmmm....I'm also thinking Christmas gifts for this year. Maybe for Richard's grandmother...

I was craving chocolate earlier so I made some of these, chocolate drizzled pretzels! Yum! They are soooooooo good. Not sure how many I will get since Richard and Hunter were picking and eating them before the chocolate hardened. :)

Back to quilting....

Kristie

Civil War Quilts and Fabrics

As most of you may know that my favorite fabric is Civil War Reproduction fabric! I LOVE it! I just can't get enough of it! It is a good thing that money is so tight right now because I think if I could I would have a piece of every one of them that I could find!

A few years ago, when I first saw the Civil War Love Letters and Civil War Diary patterns, I fell in love with it then. Of course, we as a family love anything to do with the Civil War anyway. A few years ago, I bought both of these books and the Cd's to print the blocks. As of right now I have ALL of the Love Letter blocks pieced and sewn together. Now I just need to peel all the paper from the back, which I should have done before I sewed them together. You can see a few of my blocks here.

So this morning, I was looking at my quilt top and started thinking....I know, that really gets me in trouble!! LOL! Anyway, first let's talk more about my Love Letter quilt. All 121 blocks are done in pink and brown Civil War fabrics. After I peel the paper off, I will be ready for the borders. I've had this border fabric for a couple of years now. I can't wait to get it all finished.

I also started the Civil War Diary quilt too. Actually, I think I started it first, but then I fell in love with the pink and browns so I completed the other blocks first. On the CWDQ I have 81 of the 121 blocks finished on it. Here they are! Only 40 more to go!
So while I had this out I was thinking that I would like to finish these blocks sometime this year. I looked for my CD to print off the rest of the blocks and remembered that I had loaned it to a dear friend. She seems to think that she returned them and I'm not saying that she didn't but I don't remember it and I can't find them. Oh well....so that means that I will soon have to order another CD.

I am a member of the Civil War Diary Yahoo Group that is run by Rosemary Youngs, the author and wonderful quilter. So I got on there to see how much it was to order another CD. Long story short....I still haven't ordered the CD because I got sidetracked! Yep, that is easy for me to do! LOL! Anyway, I found out that she has a website/blog now and is posting some free blocks on there too. One BOM is pieced blocks and two of the BOM's are applique! You should really check them out! But the best news is..............SHE IS COMING OUT WITH ANOTHER BOOK/PATTERN IN MAY OF 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, I have been hoping that she would, I just LOVE her patterns and the stories are amazing. The books are worth buying for the stories, even if you don't plan on making the quilts!

So now one of my goals are to get the other 40 blocks done and the top pieced before the next book comes out in 2012.

Of course, I have sooooooooo many other things that I need to get caught up on and get finished before then too. Like.....

These blocks. A fellow blogger, Mary, designed this pattern and I fell in love with it when she posted it on her blog. She has the pattern for free too! Anyway, I had to change some of the fabric placements around because of the amount of fabrics that I had on hand. This is done in Civil War fabrics too. She calls hers, "churn dash and stars", but I think I will call mine, "Civil War Wreaths" Like I said it is the same pattern that she has and all of the credit goes to her, but I had to change some fabric placements on mine. I really want to work on this one too!

Also in this tub, are my Midget Blocks, that I am behind on! The goal is one block a week and I think I only have 2 blocks done! I know, it is sad.... :( Oh and my BB Civil War Quilt blocks are in here too! I think I am two blocks behind on that and there are only 5 of them posted so far!

I have a couple more customer quilts to quilt and I would like to try to start working on some of these things! It is so hard to catch up once you get behind on a BOM or a BOW.

I did finish the customer quilt that I had on the frame yesterday, the one with the birds on it. I am currently sewing the binding down on it. I have two quilts to quilt for this customer and she wants the binding done also. I do enjoy working on the bindings. Anyway I have her second quilt loaded now and ready to start quilting on it in the morning. Here it is before I loaded it on.I think she said it was made as a gift for a choir teacher at one of the local schools. She requested that I quilt it with a "musical" pantograph.

Oh and I also prepared 8 more of my basket blocks too! That takes me up to 30 of them. Not sure how many I will make. The blocks for this are 8 inches.

I know this is a long post but I got really excited this morning about the new book coming out next year! It really makes me want to get some of this other stuff finished so that I don't feel so bad starting something else. I just hope this excitement lasts until I get them done. LOL! But even if I don't get these others done, I will start on it anyway!!!!!!!!

Kristie

Quilting Right Along...

First off, I am very happy to have been selected as one of the 50 Best Quilting Blogs ! How exciting!!! You really should check out this website, there are lots of wonderful bloggers listed from all over the world.

Yesterday I took mom back to the doctor. He said she was doing fine but still can't lift over 1 lb!! He said lifting a gallon of milk could tear the whole thing loose. It has been 10+ weeks since her surgery and she has really had a hard time with it all. Today I have to take her in for physical therapy. She dreads it everyday and it is so hard when she comes out and I see her crying because the therapy has hurt so bad. Just breaks my heart but I know she has to do this to get it stronger. A few times she has had to stop them because the doctor said that they are pushing her too far and could end up hurting her shoulder again.

So yesterday while we were out, I picked up two fabrics for my stash. The one on the left is a Peter Pan fabric that was marked down to $1 per yard. I got what was left on the bolt which was 1 3/4 yards. Don't have a clue what I will use it for unless I just cut it up small and use it in some of my scrap quilts as background fabric. The writing is actually blue but looks purple next to that purple fabric. The purple...well, I just liked it so I got it to put in my stash!
I know I am slow with machine quilting but between taking mom to the doctor and therapy, not being able to stand too long because of my hip, and just family things, it does take me a little longer than usual. But I am almost finished with it now. I think about another 45 minutes of quilting and it will be finished. This is a customer quilt and I also need to do the binding. It will be done by hand so it will take a little longer. I also have one more for this lady to do. They are both very well pieced, that sure make it easier when quilting.
I've also been working on these little applique baskets. As of right now I have 22 blocks ready to do the machine applique. I want to get all of the blocks ready and then I will do all of the machine applique on them. That way I can sort them into colors and I will not have to change my thread as often in my machine. I still have several more to go before they are all finished. This is something that I can work on and not make a big mess right now while I am doing these customer quilts. Here is a cute photo of my little Hunter this morning before school. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He is such a little sweetie.I am soooooo ready for Spring!!! I was thinking about it last night, I missed doing so much last year because of my fall. As soon as this weather breaks I want to start walking again to loosen up my hip and strengthen my leg. I would love to ride Storm too! I didn't get to ride at all last year, after my fall, horseback riding was not possible. I miss it so much! I want to get out and enjoy my animals and farm. And also as soon as this weather breaks we are going to bust our butts working on the house!!!! We really want to get moved in it sometime this year! So lots of work there! Anyway my mind is just in a whirlwind right now!

Better get back to quilting this quilt before I have to take mom for therapy!
Kristie