Finally Assembled!

 I've made some progress!  First off, I have been prepping some applique.  I usually work on this stuff during the late evening while sitting with the family.  It gives me something to do with my hands. I prepped a few of my Dresden Plates.  

I also prepped a few more baskets.  I haven't worked on these for a while so it is time to get back to them.  I think I only have 60 of them finished.  

Last evening I got all of my rows assembled on my string quilt.  I am pleased with it.  It is the size that I wanted.  If you remember the one that I quilted a few weeks ago I was disappointed in because it wasn't large enough.  So I donated the other one to help raise money for MPS.  I sweet little boy in Hunter's class has this and they are raising money.  So all worked out well in the end.  

Here is a close up.  

I guess this is the fabric that I will use for the border.  It is really all that I can find in my stash that looks okay with it.  I'm going to try to get the borders cut and sewn on today.  

Last but not least....Hunter!  Yesterday he won 2nd place in the district 5th grade Science Fair!!!  So proud of him!!  Now they go on to the Regional competition.  

 I'm off to do some housework and hopefully some sewing before Church tonight!!!
Kristie

Catching up

 Is anyone out there still reading my blog? :)  It has been a little while since I have posted.  Life just gets busy and I get behind.  So here is an update on the past couple of weeks...

Richard and I had been sick.  Feeling much better now.  Hunter's school closed one day last week because of sickness.  I heard yesterday that they were thinking about closing again for a few days.  Just so much flu and stuff going around.  

Hunter burned his hand.  He grabbed my curling iron and burned himself pretty good, three fingers and his thumb.  That was a trip to the doctor.  They gave him so cream stuff to put on it and some antibiotics.  He was very sore for several days after it started draining.  

A couple of days after he burned his hand, I had to take him to the dentist to have a tooth pulled.  :(  For some reason his teeth do not want to loosen up.  So he had a tooth coming in through the gum line above his old tooth.  That all went well, just a little sore.  

I have been sewing a little bit.  If you remember I was wishing that my scrap string quilt that I quilted a few weeks ago was bigger.  I wished that I had made it large enough to fit my bed, but I didn't.  So I started another one!!!!  I pieced almost 300 of these little 5.5" blocks!  They are all finished and sewn into rows.  I may try to get those rows pieced together today.  

As I was working on those string blocks, I also pieced some sections for my Butterscotch Pie quilt.  

I still have several more sections to go but I will get them done.  

I got this old girl out and pieced my string blocks on her.  She sews great!  She is very fast and I like that when piecing string blocks.  

Then on Valentine's Day, Richard brought me home a dozen of long stem roses.  I put them in a vase so that I could enjoy them for a few days.  

 Now that brings us to Andrew's birthday.  My boy turned 20.  :(  I am sad that he is grown but so proud of the man that he has become.  The Lord has Blessed me with 2 wonderful boys.  Mom wanted to take him out to eat and buy him a gift a few days before she had to leave for work.  After he got out of class on Friday we met him and she took him shopping, then we stopped and ate at the Outback.  Hunter was with us because that was the same morning that he burned his hand and I had to run him by the doctor first.  :(

 Here he is a little embarrassed because they were singing Happy Birthday to him.  LOL.  

 Here his is showing me some new stuff that he learned to play on his guitar.  

 Hunter and his friend are listening to Andrew play music.  This was Friday when they had cancelled School.  

 That is about it.  I've been walking a few miles a day when the weather permits.  Just trying to loosen my hips and back up a little.  The rain has set in this morning and we are supposed to get lots of rain and snow all week.  
Kristie

Singer 328 Style-O-Matic

Do you remember the other day when I posted about my Singer 237 that I bought and I said I bought two machines but only had room to bring one home that day?  I talked my sister into stopping by and picking up the other one for me yesterday.  She is in town everyday for work and I am not.  So I was excited when she brought it to me. 

This is a 1963 Singer 328 Style-O-Matic.  As you can see here she came in a cabinet.  I took this photo early this morning before I starting cleaning and oiling her.  It was still dark outside.  

 Another photo of her before cleaning...

 And here is one AFTER cleaning and oiling.  She is all shined up and ready to sew!  The plastic spool holders are broken but I have some so I will replace them.

 She sews really good and smooth.  She came with ALL of the attachments and the manual.  The manual says it came with 9 cams and all of those are there plus all of the attachments listed.  

 Here is a drawer in the cabinet.  I sorted through it, threw away the threads and the original screwdrivers and such are in there.  

 Also included were these...a Singer Student's Manual of Straight Stitch Machine Sewing and A complete guide to home sewing that is priced .35 cents.  The Student manual actually shows the Singer 404, which I have and love.  

 Before I go....just one last photo of her!  :)  

 I hope to do some sewing tonight so hopefully I will have some stuff to show you tomorrow.  
Blessings...
Kristie

Another loss...

 Here is my design wall.  I have several things going on right now.  I am still cutting and piecing on my Butterscotch Pie blocks, that is the star in the center of the wall.  I am mostly cutting for it right now.  

 If you remember a few weeks ago I quilted my scrap string quilt and I said that I wished I had made it larger, well.....I dug out my strings and I guess they will be my leader/ender project for a while. You can see I have some of those blocks up at the top of my design wall.  Right now there is a lot of yellow showing up but I will spread that out in the quilt.  I'm planning on a queen size so I have lots of blocks to make.  

I finally bit the bullet and started sewing down my dresdens.  I was very excited but also very nervous.  This is my first dresden quilt and I was afraid that I could not get them sewn down straight or without them being "puffy"  So far I am pleased with them.  They are taking me forever because I am so slow and I'm trying to hide my stitches.  

 Now on to some sad news...This has been a long week, the pump decided to die this past weekend and as if that wasn't stressful enough....Smokey, my precious poodle passed away.  Just broke my heart.  He was my constant companion and made very step that I did.  He had gotten to the point that he could not go up and down the stairs so I would have to carry him up and down so that he wouldn't cry when I was in my sewing room.  

I got up Sunday morning and Church was canceled due to the slick roads and snow.  First thing that I noticed, Smokey couldn't walk.  He was trying to pull himself around with his front legs and his backend was completely not working.  Within something like 10 minutes he was gone.  Not at all something that I was expecting to happen.  Broke my heart and things are just not the same without him.  I keep catching myself looking for him.  I will miss him so much.  Hunter is having a hard time with losing him too.  If you remember we lost Donkey, the cat just over a month ago.  :( 
Kristie

Singer 237

 This has NOT been a good day.  Ever have one of those days that you just wish that you had stayed in bed?  Well, this is one of those.  More on that later in the post.  First I want to show you my new baby...

Yesterday I bought 2 sewing machines!  I was only able to bring one of them home because I didn't have room to haul the other one.  I'll pick it up sometime this coming week.  I paid for it and they will hold it until I get back to town.  So here is the first one...

A Singer Fashion Mate 237, here she is AFTER I got her cleaned up.

After some deep cleaning, oiling and adjusting she sews wonderfully.  She was born somewhere between 1968-1972 and has all metal gears.  I love that.  

When I brought her home yesterday she was soooooo "funky"  LOL!  She was really gunky and dirty.  This is when I was getting ready to start cleaning her up.  

A closeup...

 Another closeup...

 And after...  She cleaned up really nice and sews great!  

 I got a really good deal on both machines!  Let's just say that Hunter and I could have eaten at McDonald's twice for what a paid for both of these machines!  BTW...the other one is a Singer too.  

Now on to my bad day!  :(  Here we sit in another snow storm and what happens???  My water goes out!  At first we think it is just frozen, but nope, it's not.  The well pump has stopped working.  Living out in the country we don't have city water but we have a drilled water well and the pump is dead.  Yep!  $400+ for another one.  So here we sit with no water and with the weather so bad we can't even get out to get another one!!!  :(  

I was just so disgusted this morning that I just sat down and cried, but I guess it could always be worse, right?  Maybe I should have saved my $10 that I paid for the machine and put it towards a new well pump.  LOL!  Oh well life goes on...
Kristie