I'll start with the good stuff first. Last night Richard put up the door to the main bath. We didn't have any interior doors up and I was so excited to have a door on the bathroom. That sure beats the quilt that I had hanging over the doorway.
I tried to take a photo of it but it was hard to get the door at the right angle since it is down the hallway. I had to take the photo straight in front of it and I couldn't get the bottom panel, just the top. I also had a hard time with the flash on the doorknob. I'll try to get the whole door later. I love the antique hardware on it. Did I tell you that I have skeleton keys to fit the doors? I love the wood tones on these doors too.
I also received more pillowcases! I sure hope that I get these right because Hunter pulled them out of the packages to look at them and I'm not sure that I got which ones go with what name. So if I don't, please correct me. This first set is from, Faye in MI. She even sent a little book along. I'm sure the books will be greatly appreciated too. Thanks Faye!!
This second set is from, Carline in WA. She even sent along a piece of fabric for me. Thanks so much, Carline!! All of these pillowcases will be greatly appreciated. In a few days I will post the big stack that we have. I can't wait to deliver them in a few weeks.
Now it starts going down hill from here....
Yesterday Hunter got off of the bus and was sick. Again!! This is the second time in the past few weeks. He was running a fever and he just walked in the door and hit the couch. I gave him some Motrin and he ended up sleeping until 8pm. That is not like him because most of the time, Motrin hypes him up. So this morning he was fevered again and I took him to the doctor instead of sending him to school. He seemed to be feeling a little better tonight.
After everyone went to bed a few hours ago, I wasn't sleepy so I decided to go upstairs to my sewing room. That was a mistake. Actually it started off pretty good but quickly went down hill.
I finished up a few more blocks to my Rocky Road to Kansas. I now have 20 out of the 30 blocks needed. I was pleased with that.
Oh before I go on, I have another quilt on the frame. It's not mine but I sure wish it was. It is very pretty. It is a big one measuring in at 102" square!!! I'll just quilt on it a little at a time. I couldn't quilt on it tonight because my sewing room is directly over the master bedroom and it will wake Richard up. I know you really can't tell that much about it here but I have just started the quilting on it.
Now here is the bad part....UGH! Do you remember in my last post that I was so excited to finish up all of my Green Scrappy Bargello blocks? Well....
Due to lack of attention or brains, I really messed them up!! I didn't even notice it until a little while ago when I finished those Rocky Road to Kansas sections and decided that I would start sewing the green blocks together.
Do you see anything wrong with the photo below?
Yep! My blocks are NOT the same size! When I did these last sets of blocks over the weekend, I forgot to change out the foot on my machine and was in too big of a hurry to notice that they were NOT the right size. :( They are NOT even square! They are half an inch longer than they are wide.
At this point, I just threw my hands up and came downstairs. I have enough of the right sized blocks to make a 4x6 setting but I wanted a big quilt, not a lap quilt. The way it looks, I'm going to have 2 lap quilts. I figure that I can take the remaining rectangle looking blocks and keep them all turned the same way and make a lap quilt with those, even though that is not what I wanted. At this point, I don't think I could stomach taking all of those seems apart and redoing the blocks. I guess I'll sleep on it and deal with it tomorrow...maybe. Good night...
Kristie
Well, I survived the weekend....barely. UGH! It was crazy! Sunday evening I did get a little bit of sewing done. That felt great and I really needed that after the weekend. So I'll fill you in on it all...
I'll start with the sewing on Sunday evening and go backwards. After Hunter's busy time with his friends he decided that he needed some "mommy time" we went upstairs to my sewing room. He loves it up there. He has a tote that he calls his art box. Lots of papers, markers, glues, pencils and such. He is a creative little guy so my sewing room is OUR creative space. I love that he enjoys it so much.
As I was piecing some blocks on the table next to him, he was doing some drawing while we watched, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" Giggle...I think we had a little too much pop. I see a can of his and 3 cans of mine.
He decided that he wanted a bowl of cereal too. See the cars on my cutting mat.
Here are the blocks that I pieced! I finally finished up all 30 of the blocks needed for this quilt! It is a UFO that I had been working on. Now I just need to sew all of those blocks together. That may be a few weeks from now because I want to finish painting my sewing room before I put my design wall back up.
Oh, I found these little things at Walmart on clearance for .50 each. They are the perfect size for my fat quarters. I love that I have them right in front of me and can see them.
I snapped another photo of a few of my babies upstairs.
Now on to the rest of the weekend. An elderly friend of the family moved from her home and the water plant bought the lot for the property, not the house. The house was going to be torn down. The house is a small house but it is 100+ yrs old. So when my MIL called to tell us that the lady wanted to know if we needed some stuff, we jumped on it.
Saturday Richard left early to go in town to the house and started removing some things. As soon as all of those kids were picked up, Hunter and I headed to town to help him. I know that this stuff looks old and horrible, but I promise by the time we get it all redone, it will not look so bad. :)
First off, here is the hardwood flooring that we pulled up. The rooms were tiny so it took 4 rooms of hardwood just to get enough to do my living room. Here it is still piled on the trailer. See, it looks bad, doesn't it?
Then Richard grabbed a small piece and ran it through a planer to get the old stain and roughness off. It looked good at that point. Then I grabbed the can of stain and this is the end look!!!
So what do you think??? If you look close you will see that part of the board has 2 coats. I'm loving it and can't wait to get it all refinished and sealed.
We also got this claw foot tub! I've been wanting one for my master bath and finally found one. Of course, it has to be refinished too. That will come with time. I'll post photos of that once it is finished.
I know it is hard to tell anything about this photo but here are some interior doors. They need cleaned and waxed. I'm loving the old hardware on them. I also have the skeleton keys for them.
We also got the front and back doors and a set of pocket doors. I can't get to those to take a photo. So this is what we did on Saturday and then again Sunday after Church. I'm excited about all of this but lets just say, my back is feeling it.
Kristie
I think I have lost my mind! Hunter is having his little Halloween party tonight. Of course, they are 10 and think they are too old to dress up so they are just running around playing and screaming! I don't know whether to laugh or cry......I'm leaning toward crying! In the photo there are 6 of them but right now I have 8, 10yr olds for the night! :(
I did manage to make some cupcakes earlier today. They are supposed to be little mummies. I made 2 dozen and they are all gone.
I'm hoping that they will pass out soon. :) I guess it will be a late night for me and Richard. Andrew played it smart and went to a ballgame. :) Then he works 16hrs tomorrow and 17.5 hrs on Sunday. He is a good kid and I'm very proud of both my boys.
If you don't hear from me again.....you know why........ :(
Kristie
This morning mom and I went to town to take care of a few things. I delivered the maple leaf quilt and went to the grocery store. Mom asked if there was anything else that I wanted to do while we were in town. I said...."well, we could go to the thrift stores and look for machines" LOL! First we headed to Goodwill, nothing there. Then to another thrift store, they were closed on Thursdays. Then we went in the last one. In that store, everything is just piled everywhere and you really have to look! Mom found both of them!!
First we found this one. It is made in Japan and it is the prettiest shade of blue. I really don't know much about it other than it says, "PRINCESS DELUXE PRECISION" Model # 2000 Serial # 06954. If anyone can help me find out anything else, like the year and such I would love to know.
I took her apart, cleaned and oiled and she sews like a jewel! I didn't even have to adjust her. Oh and on the bottom by the serial and model numbers someone engraved their social security number on it. CRAZY! I know this because it is a KY social security number and that's where I live.
She has a little bit of pretty detail on her. I think I would really like sewing on her. Oh and her cost....$15
Next mom found this one. A Singer 404. Serial # AN300440 so that makes her born in 1960. This one is in a cabinet. I don't really have a lot of room for a bunch of cabinets and I would have bought it anyway but I think mom thought that I wasn't going to buy it. She said, "you're crazy if you don't buy that, if you don't, I will" LOL! I bought it for $15 also. In the end I will probably give it to mom if she wants it.
I took her apart, cleaned and oiled her and I didn't have to adjust the tension on this one either. She sews perfectly!
So here they are in my kitchen! One in the cabinet and the other on my table. As you can see, I was so excited to tear into those machines that I didn't even put all of my groceries away first! LOL!
Not a bad day! Two machines that sew perfectly for $30!!! YAY!
Kristie
I finally got this quilt off of the frame!!! This is the quilt that I was quilting for a friend of mine. It is an older quilt top and I love the fabrics used in it.
Lots of quilting on this one.
Here is the back! As I mentioned before, I wanted to use a "leaf" design but it's not my quilt and this is the design that she wanted. As long as she is happy that is all that matters.
I also got the binding ready to sew on for this morning. Then I will spend the rest of the day doing the handwork. She didn't need it until Christmas but I wanted to go ahead and get it finished.
Between the quilting, I also got enough of these to make 3 more blocks. I now have 18/30 of the blocks done.
Oh and I got another basket finished while making some much needed phone calls.
I received another shipment of pillowcases! Lynn from PA sent 20! I think these were made by a small group of ladies, if I remember correctly. Thanks so much Lynn! Oh and look how sweet, she sent some fabric along for me!!!! I've already used some of it. :) I can't wait to deliver these pillowcases!
Last Saturday our Church had a Benefit Horse Ride out by the lake to help raise money for a new Church. Our building is over 100 years old and is in bad condition underneath. I didn't get any photos of the horses and we didn't take ours. We just sat around and talked. They had a wonderful dinner too. Chuck had his tractor there and spent most of the day taking the kids for wagon rides around the lake. I got a few photos of that.
In this first one, you can see "part" of my nephew, Gabe. He is the little guy in the black hat. See the lake?
My "older" brother, John! LOL! He always tells everyone that I am the oldest. He'll love me for this photo. That is his wife beside him, sorry that I only got the back of her head but I couldn't get everyone to turn around at the same time.
My niece and other nephew were there too. I have a million photos but I haven't had a chance to sort through them all.
Here is Hunter and a few of his friends having a good time. What is nice is that Richard and I grew up with the parents of everyone of these boys!
We took a pitstop by the playground and let the kids off to play for a few minutes.
We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed spending the day with the Church!
Today will be spent working on binding!
Kristie
I'm still plugging along on my Rocky Road to Kansas blocks. Here is where I am at this point. I know it looks like that blue really pops out but I think it is just the camera flash. It doesn't look that bright just looking at it. This is all of those blue scraps that I have and this is only half of the blocks so it will be spread out more evenly in the whole quilt.
I'm loving this quilt so far. As I mentioned I am now halfway through with 15 blocks. I am shooting for 30 so that I can do a 5x6 setting. I need to see what kind of yardage that I have for the border.
Not sure how much sewing that I will get done on it today. I have to get that quilt finished that I have on the frame. :(
We've had a very busy weekend, I'll catch you up on that maybe tomorrow. Right now I need to clean the house up real quick before I head up to the sweat shop and finish the machine quilting.
I'll leave you with a photo of Donkey. He found a nice small box up in my sewing room and decided to cuddle up in it.
To see what others are working on, check out Judy's blog.
Kristie
I've been sewing away on my little baby girl, (1933 Featherweight). She is doing a wonderful job. I've had her for a while and only messed around with her just sewing this and that, but so far I have pieced all of these Rocky Road to Kansas blocks on her and she is doing a wonderful job.
Here are my blocks as of this morning. I have almost another row pieced and they should be finished this evening. After I finish the blocks for the 3rd row, I will be halfway through the quilt as I am planning on 6 rows. So far I am really pleased with it.
My mom was here yesterday and we were up in my sewing room and I was showing her what I had been working on. She asked me if I still had a kit that she bought a few years ago. My mom quilted and sewed my clothing when I was a kid but the past several years she has got away from it. I dug out the kit and she said she might cut it out and piece it on her next trip in. As I've mentioned before she works 28 days on and 28 days off. Knowing that mom has arthritis in her hands, I told her that I would cut it out for her. I started cutting late last night but didn't get that far. I'm really excited about the possibility of my mom quilting again.
Other than working on my Rocky Road to Kansas blocks I have also been working on my friend's quilt that I have loaded on the frame. I have just been working on it a few minutes at a time and I'm about 3/4 of the way through it. I hope to get it off the frame today and get the binding cut ready to sew on. I know it is not my quilt but I really wish that she had let me quilt the leaves on it and not the flowers, but oh well.
As I mentioned the other day, Hunter loves playing around on the treadle. He is really good and has NOT broke the thread once! So I walked by the treadle last night and noticed his big piece of fabric that he had been sewing on. Look at it! He just keeps sewing back and forth. LOL! If he keeps this up, I'm going to give him one of my UFO's. LOL!
Last but not least, I received 5 more pillowcases from my good friend, Deb. Thanks so much Deb!
If anyone else plans on donating pillowcases to "For Jamie's Sake" please let me know so that I can get a tally and know how many more that I need to make to get our 100 pillowcases. Thanks so much to everyone that has donated. Don't forget that the deadline is October 31st.
Kristie
Here is what I have on my design wall (floor) I started a new quilt the other day called, Rocky Road to Kansas. So far I am really loving it. I have 3 more blocks that are almost finished. I am shooting for a total of 30 blocks so that I can do a 5x6 setting and add a border on it.
I should have had more blocks done but this kept me busy over the weekend! It is my first treadle. A singer 1906, model 27 treadle. I made a little trade with a good friend of mine, she gave me the treadle and I am quilting a quilt for her. I posted all about it in my post yesterday.
Oh and I did manage to get one more pillowcase finished.
To see what others are working on, check out Judy's blog.
Kristie
