Started a new one....

After finishing up 3 UFO's recently, well getting the tops completed and in the pile of tops that need quilted.  I finished up the Log Cabin, Shades of Lilac, and Spiderweb, this month.  So yesterday after doing some machine quilting I puttered around trying to decide what I wanted to work on.  


I found these 4 patch flip blocks that I had pieced from my scrap basket a while back.  I had planned on making 2 lap quilts but in the end I think I will just make one big quilt.  There are a total of 60 blocks that are pieced.  

Here are some of them on my design wall.  I haven't started sewing them together yet but I do plan on getting this finished up soon.  

After playing around with these blocks for a bit, I moved on to my Everlasting Wreaths.  I don't have very many of them done and it is a long term project.  I only did one block and put it away.  One is better than nothing, right?  

I cleaned some in my sewing room before it got too hot up there.  I gathered up so many small scraps and strings that I didn't have room to put them in the crate that I keep them in.  

As you can see the crate is full and I have at least this many more to put in there.  So how do I get them all to fit?  I started a new quilt, that's how!!!!  

I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while of a new quilt.  I sat down and figured it out in EQ.  I can't really show much of it right now but here are part of the string blocks.  The quilt will have 2 sizes of string blocks.  So in the end, I ended up making about 20 of these string blocks yesterday but I need a couple of hundred!!

I made a couple more basket blocks over the past few days.  That brings my total up to 20.  I was asked about the pattern and I could not respond because the comment was listed as "no reply"  Anyway, the pattern is called "Trick or Treat Baskets" by Blackbird  Designs.  I'm really enjoying the process of making them.  

Then yesterday afternoon, Hunter and I went out to mom's and did this.....

We had lots of fun and I was sooooo tired by the time we got back home.  It was a nice day spent playing.  My precious little nephew's, Zeph (5) and Gabe (3) we also out there but they had already gotten out of the pool and were over in the dirt playing with mom.  :)  


I don't think I will get much sewing done over the next few days.  This morning I will do more machine quilting and then spend the rest of the day cleaning the house.  Hunter is having a birthday party on Saturday and then Sunday after Church we are having a few visitors.  
Kristie

I'm on a roll

 Yesterday was a good quilting day!  I was up early and started quilting on another quilt.  The one on the frame now has lots of applique chickens so I will have to watch and quilt around those.  It also has some buttons and a few beads here and there so I will have to watch about those too.  It is really cute, I would like to keep it.  :)


After it got too hot upstairs to quilt at the frame, I moved my machine downstairs and did a little sewing on a few things of mine. I got all of my spiderweb blocks assembled and the borders sewn on it!  

I'm not real crazy about square quilts but I just couldn't bring myself to make any more blocks for this quilt.  I was just ready for it to be finished.  

If you look close you can see lots of UGLY fabrics mixed in with others.  I was trying to use up some of my uglies.  In the end I am pleased with how it turned out.  

So far this has been a good week, first I finished my Shades of Lilac and then yesterday I finished my spiderweb.  Now...what to work on today......after I quilt at the frame for a bit....
Kristie

One down and a million more to go!

 I finally got the borders sewn on my "Shades of Lilac"  It was late and the lighting was not the best, so I'll take a better photo of it once it is quilted.  I have a few others to do first and then I can do one of my own! :)  It is much brighter in person, I promise.  This quilt goes to a special little girl....my granddaughter!  

I've been trying to decide on a quilting design for it.  I think I will do something with lots of quilting since it will be washed often.  I'm just happy to have the top finished.  

Another shot of my baskets!  I'm up to 18 of them now.  

The latest blocks since the last photo are the bottom 2.  I need to prep a few more before I run out of them.  

 Here is a quilt that I delivered on Saturday.  It is called Patriots In Petticoats.  It is a beautiful quilt!  It was pretty big, I think it measured 98 x 98.  I have several other photos to post but those quilts either need to be delivered, mailed or they are gifts and can't be shown until the owners deliver them.  I'll post those as soon as I can.  

It felt so good to finally get the borders on the Shades Of Lilac.  I have so many tops that are ALMOST finished.  Some of them just need borders, some need a few blocks, nothing major....just need to be finished.  So my plans for the week are to get a couple of those things done between machine quilting.  Here is my plan....


I will work on the machine quilting upstairs until it gets too hot up there.  Richard may not like my next plan but I'm sure he will not say anything to me about it.  I am going to bring my regular sewing machine downstairs so that I can do some piecing on it after it gets too hot up there.  I'll either set it up at the dining table or our bedroom.  I don't want to make a big mess but if I just bring down one thing at a time, it shouldn't be too bad.  


So once I get my machine downstairs this week, I want to assemble my "spiderweb" blocks.  See, this is one of those that is close to being finished.  I have all of the blocks sewn into rows, I just need to sew those rows together and then the simple borders sewn on.  After I get that one finished then I want to work on my "Raspberry Patch"  I have all of the pieces sewn together into strips.  I need to decide on placement of those strips and get them sewn together.  There are several strips so that may take me a day or two.  


And before I close, here is a shot of my chickens.  I mentioned in the last post that I was moving them to a temporary coop because we are tearing the other one down, we have plans for another barn there and then I will move them back to the barn.  Richard has been sawing lumber for the barn for a long time and we hope to get it started sometime before the summer is over.  Back to the chickens....I moved them to a little shed that is on the backside of the goat house.  It is small but it works.  Oh and the blue bubble wrap that you see in the corner, is a truck seat that is stored in there that goes in my 1951 GMC that Richard and the boys plan on restoring...later.  Anyway, I don't have another place to put it right now so it has to stay in there.  It has a zillion layers of bubble wrap so the chickens can get the seat dirty.  

 One of my girls are missing from this pic but there are 6 hens and one rooster.  Richard teases me because I name every animal that we have no matter what it is.  If you are a fan of "Gone With the Wind" you will understand the names.  The rooster is "Rhett", the white hen is "Scarlet" and I know the others look similar but they each have something different about them so that is how I tell them apart.  One is "Mammy" (Scarlet's nanny), "Melonie" (her friend), "Bonnie Blue" (their daughter), and last "Suellen" and "Carreen" (Scarlet's sisters).  Gone With the Wind is my favorite movie.  

Sewing Progress..

I've been getting a little bit of sewing done the past few days.  I've been getting Richard up at 5am so that he can get his day started before it gets so hot outside.  So as soon as he is out the door, I'm upstairs in the sweat shop until it gets too hot up there.  I've been working on some machine quilting and I am almost completely caught up!  I have a couple to mail out and one to deliver and a few more to quilt.  

I also got my Shades of Lilac ready for borders.  I'll post a better photo of it as soon as I get those on.  I'm hoping that I will get that done tomorrow.  I'm trying to decide on how to quilt it, I think I want to do lots of quilting on it since it is a baby quilt and will be washed often.  

I have several more baskets finished too.  I'm up to 16 of them now.  I think I have 4 more ready to be appliqued so I will have to prep more of them this weekend.  This is a nice little project to keep my hands busy.  I have these in a little basket on my side table by the couch so it is easy to just pick them up and sew while I am sitting there.  If you look close you will see that some of them are NOT perfect but I'm sure by the time I get 291 of them done you will never notice them...or at least I hope so.  

Yesterday afternoon I came inside and ended up taking a nap on the couch when I woke up this is what I saw above me.  This is the view above the couch.  If you look close you will see my fan up there is dirty!  That has bugged me all day!  I know they have those ceiling fan cleaning brushes but that is a 24ft ceiling!  I'll have to try to find one of those handle things that adjust to different lengths, that is the only thing that I can think of that will work to clean it.  Sooooo....I have been keeping the fan turned on because as long as it is going, you can't see the dirt.  Hehehehe!  But even doing that I keep catching myself looking up there to see if I can see the dirt.  :(  

Now to my boys...  Hunter playing with Andrew's Ipad.  He loves that thing.  I know boys are just boys but I was in the kitchen and I kept hearing horrible noises and them giggling, so I stepped in the living room to see what they were up to and the silly things had downloaded an app that makes farting sounds!!!  :(  They have drove me up the wall with it.   

Andrew had the day off so it was nice to spend some extra time with him.  Here is his this evening in the front yard.  He had his horse out so that is the lead rope that he has in his hand.  I love my boys...

I have a busy weekend ahead.  Friday, I have to move some chickens around.  I'll try to take some photos of them.  I don't have as many as I did have, but I have one rooster and 6 hens.  That is enough to keep us in eggs and I don't have to buy them.  I am putting them over in a temporary coop so that we can work on the other one.  I will be putting them in the shed that connects to the goat pen.  Richard built me a temporary door and put it on there and we put their nesting boxes in there and fixed them a little place roost for the nights. Then after that I have to go to the grocery store and then deliver some quilts.  


Saturday morning I have a few things that I am doing with mom.  Then later in the evening after Richard gets his things finished up we are heading to a friends house.  They are having a little "get together" and making a big thing of gumbo.  Then I will be coming home and cooking for the Church homecoming dinner that we are having after Church on Sunday.  


Our Church homecoming dinner is outside under the picnic shelter right after Church.  I'm hoping that it will not be too hot.  


That is all for tonight.....talk to you tomorrow!
Kristie

A few more baskets...

Just a quick little post to show my basket progress.  I now have 7 of them done!  They are not perfect but I am pleased with them so far, since I really don't do applique.  I think I'm going to like this project.  It will be perfect to throw in my purse while on the go or even just doing a little hand sewing late of the evenings.

I really didn't have any intentions of working on them today, but I've had lots of couch time this afternoon.  This morning right as Church was getting ready to dismiss, I went to stand up and my left knee buckled and my back and hip went out!  :(  Now I have a big bruise on my knee from where it hit the pew in front of me. The pain shot through my back and butt and it was all I could do not to cry.  I really didn't want to cause a scene, so I just went with it.  It was either try to sit back down on the pew gracefully as I could or just hit the floor.  Anyway, I had to sit there for couple of minutes and had Richard help me up and on to the truck.

I don't think anyone really noticed because my mom even called as soon as I got home and asked why we left Church in such a hurry.  LOL!  I quickly explained what had happened and that I was fine.  Actually, I'll probably be fine tomorrow.  I'm doing fine right now, just a little pain when I go to stand up or do much walking.  So I've been on the couch with ice packs and doing a little applique.  Richard and Hunter went back to Church tonight for the evening service but I just wasn't up to it.
Kristie

That Richard.....

 I have been busy the past few days working on some machine quilting.  I'll post about all of that later, but sometimes it is hard seeing these quilts coming and going because there are so many that I would love to make.  My list just keeps getting longer.  :)

As I have to take my breaks from the frame I have been unpacking more quilting totes.  I'm not sure if I will ever see the end of this mess.  I think after everything in my sewing room is unpacked I will have to weed out some stuff that I no longer use or want.  I have several old UFO's that I have ran on to that I know I will not finish so I plan on putting those fabrics back in my stash or donating the blocks.  Oh and I also found my label maker that I hadn't seen for over a year!  As you can see, I have been busy making labels for my totes and tubs.  Giggle....if you look real close you can see that Richard came upstairs to visit with me and messed around with the label maker, see the I LOVE YOU label.....Awwwww......

 I also found a ton of fans!  You can tell by the fabrics that these were made several years ago.  There are enough for 3 quilts.  I think each pile has 42 blocks in them, measuring 12 inches.  I think I made these after mom made her fan quilt and I really liked how hers turned out.

 I also trimmed up a few of my blue/white HST's.  I am leaving them on my cutting table so that I can cut a few at a time, eventually I will get all 1200+ of them cut.

Just for kicks, here is a shot from my sewing room window.  It was getting a little warm up there so I raised the window.  The birds were singing so loud, it was really nice.

If you have read my blog for a while you know that I don't do applique.  If for some odd chance I do it, it is always with the machine.  I wanted a project that I could keep downstairs to work on and not make a big mess, just in case company was to pop in.  I really don't want to drag a bunch of stuff out of my sewing room and have it scattered everywhere in the house.  So I decided to start a little LONG TERM applique project!  Here it is.....

 There are not perfect but not too bad considering that I don't even do applique.  I'm in no hurry to finish this, just something to work on during the evenings while sitting around with the family or something to grab on the go.  The actual pattern calls for 291 of these little baskets and I'm not even sure how many that I will make, but I do know that I would like to have it bed size in the end.  I figure I should get pretty good at it by the time I get all of those baskets made.  :)

I do have a couple of other ongoing hand work projects that I grab on the go, but I am truly sick of them right now.  One is a hexagon project....

 The other are my trusty yo-yo's.  This will be my 3rd large yo-yo quilt that I have made.  When finished this one will be for Hunter.  I made one for mom with 2500 yo-yo's in it and one for Andrew with 2000 yo-yo's. Now do you see why I am tired of working on yo-yo's?  :)

 Now last but not least....you all know how handy that my Richard is to have around.  I have two coffee tables and neither one are the right size to use in my living room.  See I needed a coffee table that was a certain size to use between the couch and the wood stove and both of them were too wide.  Every time that you walked through there you would bump your knee on them, so I gave one away and moved the other one back to storage.  I didn't have a table and it looked a little empty and buying one is not an option right now.  So I wrote down some dimensions, gave them to Richard and told him to go build me a coffee table!!  You gotta love him!  So he worked on it on and off for 4 days and last night I was able to bring it in the living room!!!

 It is made of Cherry except for the Oak insert in the top.  This is wood that was cut on our farm that he sawed up on the sawmill.  He had the boards drying out for a long time, planed them down until they are baby butt smooth and made this!!  See why I keep him around?  :)

 I'm very pleased with how it turned out!  I told him that now I need an end table and a console table to put by the stairway wall to match!  He wasn't real happy about that.  :)

Mom flew in from Atlanta late last night, she surprised me when she and my sister knocked on the door around 10pm.  I was so happy to see her.  She is gone for 28 days at a time and I do talk with her a couple of times a day, but I still miss her.  She visited for a few minutes and gave me a couple of new recipes that he had tried and then went on home.  I'm sure she was very tired.

I have a busy day ahead.  Richard is sawing this morning and I have already been up in the sewing room working on some machine quilting.  I am going back up there to work before it gets too hot.
Kristie

Any Ideas?

I've been working on machine quilting for the past several days and I have photos but I will probably show all of those in one post after some of these are delivered and such.  They are really pretty quilts.  I'm having to quilt early of the mornings and late of the evenings because it is hot upstairs and I don't have A/C up there yet.  I can't go up there and quilt right now because my sister is upstairs sleeping.  She is spending the night with me and she has work tomorrow morning.  Also, the quilting machine wakes Richard up since it is directly over the master bedroom.  As I was taking my breaks from standing at the frame I sat down and sorted through some totes that I had not unpacked in my quilting room yet.  I found lots of stuff but one thing that I'm not sure what to do with are these...

I found 1000+  2" (finished size) half square triangles in assorted blues and white.  I'm not even sure what I was making them for, it has been so long.  They are all paper pieced on triangle paper and most of them still need to be trimmed and cut apart.  

So now I need some ideas on what to make with them.  Whatever I do, I would like to be able to use them all in it.  Also in the basket I found a bunch more that had not been sewn yet, so I may finish those up too.  Any ideas????

 Now to recap on the past week....It is 1am right now and I just can't sleep.  I know this may be silly but Hunter rode home from Church with a friend, he is spending the night with him.  This is his first night staying anywhere except for my mom's which is right down the road.  I'm sure he will be fine but I sure am missing him.

Earlier in the week, we had to deal with this mess....  A dead oak fell across our driveway and crushed one of the gates where some of the horses are and took the fence out.   I'm just glad the horses were not standing there at the time.  This took us a while to get it cleaned up.  Richard cut it up and then we all worked on moving it.  Part of it was cut up for firewood for this winter and Richard cut 2 logs out of the rest of it to saw up on the sawmill.  We'll end up using the lumber around here somewhere.

 On the way back down to the house, I snapped this photo.  The house looks so small in this photo but I thought the sky and trees behind it looks so pretty and relaxing.

 Here is Andrew's horse, Rev.  He turned a year old in May and he is a spunky little thing!  I had him out of the stall letting him stretch his legs and getting him used to the lead rope.  He really does fine with the lead but he is still a little jumpy.  I think Andrew said he will be headed to the trainer sometime in November, I'm sure going to miss him, but he is his horse, not mine and he is paying for it.  This little guy has some great potential in the show ring.

 As most of you all know we've only been in the house for about 5 months now and we have some big plans to rework some of the property.  We have a big front yard right now but we want to extend the backyard a lot.  It still looks rather unkept but we moved the fence line back to extend it.  If you look real close you can see the white flags tied on the fence way back there, those are to help the horses remember that the fence has moved so they don't run through it.  There are a ton of rocks back there too, it will take forever to remove them.  Richard said as he gets time, he will take the tractor and blade to loosen the put so we can move them.  I will probably either use them on flowerbeds or make a rock fence back there.

 Also if you look close in the same photo (above) you can see a few dark red dots, they are these....  Hunter bought them for me for Mother's Day and I planted them back there for now.  I just needed to get them in the ground but I may move them later as I redo all of my flowerbeds too.  I didn't even put mulch around them because this is only temporary.

 Here is a closeup of one of them.  I love them.  I have the taller lilies up closer to the house.  I think I posted a photo of one of the pink ones the other day.  This morning, I noticed I had a bright orange one that had bloomed.

 And last but not least, Richard's grandmother had her 92nd birthday party on Saturday!  We spent the day with her and the family.  It was a nice time for all.

 This will be another busy week.  I have more quilting to do and a couple of doctor appointments later in the week.
Kristie

Log Cabin top....COMPLETE!!!!

Hunter had a dentist appointment first thing this morning, all went well, I suppose.  No cavities at all, but his problem is his baby teeth will not loosen up so that his permanent teeth can come through.  So they are having to pull them one by one.  So he is finished for now and has to go back in November for a cleaning.

My thread order finally came this evening.  I was beginning to think they were not delivering it today but it finally showed up around 5:30pm.  I already had the quilt top loaded on the frame and have just been waiting for the thread.  I went ahead and got all of my bobbins ready and such.  So now I am ready to start first thing in the morning.  I hope to get a lot of it done tomorrow.

Richard still isn't home yet.  It is 9:20pm and he is still working in the hay field.  I know he will be exhausted and hungry.  Hunter is at Church for VBS again tonight.  He had a wonderful time last night and that was all he talked about.

So while I was waiting for my thread to arrive this afternoon I decided to finally get my borders sewn on my big log cabin quilt!  I don't know what it is about borders but seem like a have several tops that just need borders on them.  If you remember back in April, I pieced the center of the top and was trying to decide on borders.  I decided to go with the blue in the end.  Here it is on Andrew's bed!  Andrew's room is right beside my sewing room so I use it sometimes to lay my quilts out while he is at work.  :)  BTW...you can see Andrew's deer mount and wild boar that is still on his couch.  I'm trying to wait until I get his walls painted before I hang them up in there.

I know this is an odd angle but you can see the quilt is pretty big.  His bed is a queen.

Still not the best photo but here is it hanging up on the wall.  It isn't really straight on there but it is so heavy I was afraid to do much with it on the wall, I didn't want to stretch it.  In total, it has over 2900 pieces in it.  The finished size is 96 x 112.  I can't wait to get it quilted but I have several that belong to others that I need to quilt first.  I looked back on my blog and the last quilt that I quilted of my own was back on the 4th of January!!!  WOW!!  I didn't realize it had been that long.  Actually I had even started quilting it before Christmas and just got it done in January, the move in the house, slowed the quilting down on it.

I am so pleased to have this top finished.  I know it still needs quilted but it will be a while before I can do that.  Right now I'm just happy the top is finished!!!  

It is 9:47pm and Richard just walked in the door and went straight to the shower!  Got to go warm up his supper!!!!

Kristie

Doing some thinking...

 This morning while sitting in Church, I was doing some thinking.  I know my last two posts may have seemed like I was complaining about everything that has happened lately and I know that everyone has their ups and downs, but I do have so much to be thankful for.  There are just too many things to make a list but I am thankful for so much.  Times can get hard from time to time but I know the Lord will not put any more on us than we can stand.  I know at times it may seem like we are at our limits but he knows what he is doing and everything happens for a reason.  We may not understand or know why things happen but he sure does.

I did a little sewing last night but not really enough to show.  I also worked on cleaning up the sewing room some.  The bad thing is, you can't even tell that I touched it.  This should be a busy week for me.  My thread order should be here tomorrow and after I get that, I need to get some of these done.  I have one loaded on the frame now, ready and waiting for the thread!  I'll post a few photos as I quilt them.

Hunter has a dentist appointment first thing in the morning.  Nothing major just a follow up.  Speaking of Hunter, look at this photo that I snapped the other night.  He asked if he could stay up late and then sleep in the living room.  I let him but look at him the next morning....He and Jazz look as if they had a late night snack!  LOL!  Jazz is guarding his pizza crust!  BOYS!!!  You gotta love them!  And yes, Hunter sleeps with his eyes half open.

A week or so ago, I won a giveaway on Janet's blog (Rogue Quilter), and I received it in the mail!  The photo does not do it justice.  The little pin cushion and ornament are pieced perfectly!  Even hubby commented on how well they were made!  A beautiful set of note cards that will be so hard to send and not keep for myself. :)  And last but not least and really nice stiletto.  I did not have one of those so I'm sure it will come in handy.  If you don't know Janet, you must go check out her blog!  She is a wonderfully nice person and a great quilter.  She has been so sweet to me since I have known her and I feel very Blessed to have found her blog.

I know this is a short post but we have Vacation Bible School going on all week, Richard and I didn't go tonight, just had too much to do.  I know that is not really an excuse but that is what happened.  He is working on the Gravely tractor trying to get it fixed and I was helping him.  Andrew is working but I did take Hunter up to Church for VBS and my brother is bringing him back home on his way.

Have a wonderful and Blessed evening.
Kristie