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