Saturday evening we had Hunter a birthday party. We had planned on having a weenie roast but it started raining about an hour or so beforehand so we moved it inside. It all worked out well in the end and he had a wonderful time. His birthday is actually Monday and he will be 12 yrs old. It is hard to believe that he is that old. He loves Minecraft the video game so we went with that theme. He loved it! :)
He had 3 of this friends that spent the night and they were up ALL night! :) We had lots of family and friends that were here so he enjoyed that also.
Sadly when we got up this morning for Church, I was in some pain with my lower back and hips due to an injury from several years ago and I guess that I over did it getting ready for his party. I did not go to Church this morning and I missed not going. Richard went without me. When he came home he walked through the door carrying this....
He just sorta rolled his eyes and said, "Ruby from Church sent you a sewing machine" LOL! I haven't started cleaning her up or oiling yet but here she is. It is an Electro Grand made in Japan. The pedal is broken but I wired up one that goes to another machine just to check and see how this one would work and she sews fine. Now I need to clean her up.
Kristie
Today while working on my bow ties I was trying to figure out what my next "small block project" would be and I think I found it! CRACKERS!
This morning I was piecing some of my bow ties blocks into larger blocks like these...
As you can see I have a bunch more to sew into larger blocks and I also need to cut out 200 more blocks. :) I know that sounds like a lot but I am close to being finished. I am loving this quilt so far.
Anyway, years ago I saw an old antique quilt made from small cracker blocks. I fell in love with it and knew that someday I wanted to make one and I think now is the time. :) I'm not in a hurry and will work on it like I did my bow ties, just a little at a time.
I got my pattern from EQ and just made it to finish at 4" not as small as my 3" bow ties but still small. I think I'm going to like this one too. :) If anyone is interested in making some of these blocks too, Quilter's Cache has the pattern for a 6" block. :)
I only did the six blocks to see if I was going to like the process of making them and I do so I will get back to my bow ties and get those finished so that I can move on to the CRACKERS!!!
Kristie
This is what I have been working on...
It started a few years ago as my leader/ender project but then I ended up just working on it a little here and there. These bow ties will finish at 3"
I need a total of 1080 of them to make a 90/108 quilt. At this point I have 823 of them sewn and a few more cut out so I still need to cut 200+ more of them.
I know that sounds like I still need a lot of them but I am getting close considering in the end there will be 1080. I'm getting anxious.
I've been sewing some of the finished ones into 9 patches to make it easier to piece the rows. I will do 10, 9-patches across and 12 down.
Now on to other news....I received a FITBIT on Wednesday. So far I love it! The first day, since I only had it half a day, I got in a little over 5,000 steps. Thursday, Friday and today I have gotten in over my 10,000 steps. It also tracks your sleep and I slept for over 8 hours last night but woke up 21 times!!! Now I know why I stay tired! LOL!
My momma came home from work a few days early as she was in tears with back pain. She has arthritis, narrowing of the spine and a few other issues and she was in great pain. She refused to go to the ER but will be seeing her doctor first thing Monday morning. Please say a little prayer for her, it breaks my heart to see her hurting the way that she is.
Tomorrow is also our Homecoming Service at Church. After the Church service we all gather outside at the big shelter for some good home cooking! Lot's of people come other than the regular members, people that used to attend Church there but moved away or extended family members, it is so enjoyable.
Sadly we lost a dear friend to cancer a couple of days ago. His funeral was today and his viewing was yesterday. So sad, he dear wife, kids and grandkids were having such a hard time, just breaks my heart.
I think I'm heading to bed now....
Kristie
Richard, Hunter and I worked on putting 108 year old wood flooring down
in the master bedroom today. Only got about 1/3 of it done, my master
bedroom is 20x20ft. Right now it is 2 different colors but Richard had
started out running the boards through the wood planer and the planer
stopped working so we are just going to put the rest of it down and then
sand and redo it all at once. We removed this flooring from an old
house a couple of years ago. So today, Hunter reached it to me, I cut
the old ends off and cut to size and Richard put it down on the floor. I
can't wait to get the rest of it down and refinished. It has been a
long day...
Here is the blog post when we tore down that old house. We got the doors, flooring, and the claw foot bathtub. We have used the doors and I love them, they are solid wood, beautiful doors. The old tub still needs to be refinished and it will go in my master bath...someday.
All of this work....and did it with a toothache!!! I feel like I should change my name to SUPERWOMAN! LOL!
Yesterday I cut out more bow ties and they are now ready for piecing. I cut a total of 123 of them. I need 220 more, other than these to get my total needed of 1080. I can't wait to get this quilt top finished, I love the tiny 3.5" bow ties!
My friend that is bringing me the Singer Red Eye that I mentioned in the previous post sent me a photo of the serial number. I checked the Singer website and it dates it from 1919. I'm very excited. I haven't decided if I am going to convert her over to a hand crank machine or put her in a treadle cabinet that I have. I've been using the treadle cabinet as an entry table but it doesn't have a machine in it.
Richard is working tonight and is off the weekend. Saturday we are having a cookout. All of the guys have been catching some catfish and frogs so we will be fixing bunches of catfish and fried frog legs. Of course we will have a few hot dogs and burgers too. :) Andrew and his buddy is going to try to catch a big turtle tonight and we will fix it too. Plan on playing some horseshoes also. Lots of back yard fun with friends and neighbors that isn't going to cost anything...that's the best kind. I'll take plenty of photos! :)
Still nursing my abscessed tooth, it's getting a little better. I have to get rid of the infection before they can pull it. I needed to have this wisdom tooth out 20+ years ago.
I hope to do a little hand piecing tonight. Hunter and I are planning on watching a movie. Have you ever watched Secondhand Lions? I like that movie, well I like anything with Robert Duvall in it. My favorite movie of his is Lonesome Dove.
Kristie
I'm soooooo excited! I received a message a few days ago that read...
My mother in law is getting rid of the sewing
machine...free to good home...are you interested? I can bring it down
next time I come down if you are.
Ummm....YEP! I want it!!! This message was from a friend of ours, Mike. He lives in Northern Ohio and his parents live here. His mother was actually my high school Biology teacher and we are all just good friends...dealing with horses, hay and all of that good stuff. Actually his mom is a quilter! I don't think she is into old machines.
Anyway, I am very excited about getting her. It is a Singer Red Eye, not sure of the age at this point but I will find all of that out when she actually gets here. I don't know at this point when he is coming back down for a visit but I can't wait. From the photo it looks like she needs a bobbin cover/needle plate and those are just a few dollars on Etsy or Ebay.
Kristie
It's almost 3am and I am up with a toothache! :( Oh I just want to cry!!! There is nothing worse than a toothache. :( Oh well...on to some quilting news.
I finished my Prayer Cross Quilt top! Well, I will probably add a small border on it. I am very pleased with how it turned out and I am pleased that I actually completed a quilt top! I get sidetracked very easy, I don't mean to but I do.
Here is a little funny...I was so excited to have it completed and I was taking a million photos of it on my design wall so I yelled for Richard to come upstairs and look at it. He says, "it looks very nice but you messed up the bottom corner" WHAT???? Grrrrr....I did! You can see the extra colored square that should have been cream. :( It is now fixed and I am glad that it was caught before it was quilted.
I'll post another photo of it when I find a border fabric for it.
Kristie
More progress on my Prayer Cross Quilt. I have the first 5 rows completely sewn together. The other pieces are just on the wall to check for color placement. I plan on working on this again tonight. I should have it finished soon.
I also got a few bow tie sections pieced for my leader/ender project. I am getting closer to the end on this one.
I got this bread machine and yesterday I tried it out. I fixed spaghetti for supper and in the book I found a recipe for spaghetti bread. The ingredients....bread flour, yeast, sugar, onion salt, Italian Seasoning, Parmesan cheese, and water...I think that was all. Anyway, it was delicious!!! Hunter loves bread so this morning I have another loaf in. I'm making traditional white bread. I think I will be using this often as we love fresh bread.
Hunter had another award's day on Thursday. He received 2 more awards. So very proud of him.
Friday was his last day of 6th grade. He has grown so much this year. He is 11 yrs old and is taller than I am. :( That's not saying much since I am only 5ft. LOL!
Friday evening after dark we had him a little "weenie roast" to celebrate his last day of school. Just something simple with me, Richard, Andrew, Hunter, my sister and BIL. My sister Chantal and hubby Ronnie brought stuff for S'mores. You can see here that he was having a good time because he kept goofing off every time that I would take his photo.
Starting tonight he has Vacation Bible School (VBS) all week.
Richard worked last night but Andrew and my BIL, Ronnie went fishing at the Lake way up in the night. Not even sure what time that Andrew got home. Good thing that we live less than a mile from the Lake. :) Anyway, next weekend we are planning a big fish fry cookout! Should be lots of fun. So far we have 9 catfish and some frog legs! They went gigging the other night and got some frogs. I'm a country girl through and through and I love to fish but I can't stand the taste of fish or any type of seafood. :( So it will be burgers for me. LOL! Since they are "catching" all of the food, it will be pretty much a "cost free" cookout...except for my burgers! LOL!
Andrew will be exhausted today as I said he fished late into the night. Then he got up at 7am this morning and left out on a long drive to Columbus, Ohio for a guitar show. He wasn't driving so that is a good thing, maybe he can rest. If you don't mind, say a little prayer that he has a safe trip. :)
I got a surprise visit last night! My MOMMY! She works away on a tug boat and they just happened to dock about an hour away. They let her off for the evening so imaging my surprise when she knocked on my door when I wasn't expecting her for another 3 weeks!
Kristie
This little gal came from a yard sale for just a couple of dollars. She is a Dressmaker S-2400. She is a zig-zag machine, of course she sews a straight stitch but she also has 29/30 decorative stitch cams. She also came with a manual.
She weighs a ton! A lot heavier than some of my other machines. It also came in a case. The case alone is worth more than she cost.
This machine makes me 20 or 21 machines, 21...I think. I need to do a count. I also have them all documented for future reference.
The photo was taken before I cleaned her but she is now clean and sews wonderfully.
I had no intentions of starting anything new but I have a dear friend that has been diagnosed with cancer so I thought this quilt along with some prayers might give him some comfort during treatments.
I'm pulling scraps out of my scrap basket and cutting them in 4 inch squares. I thought I had more in my scrap basket but I may have to start cutting into my fat quarters and yardage. The background is just a simple muslin. I think I will make more of these for comfort/donation quilts in the future. I found the pattern here. I found tons of different colorways on Pinterest of this quilt. I think I am going to call it, Prayer Cross Quilt.
Yesterday I made some apple jelly from some apple peelings that I had stored in the freezer from this past Fall. No waste doing it that way. :)
I've also been playing around with several hand sewing projects, like these hexies and my Lucy Boston Crosses. Oh yes, that is my morning coffee. :)
Fresh green onions from the garden. I fixed a pot of pinto beans with cornbread the other day and the fresh onions were soooo good.
My peace lily is looking well. :) I'm looking at it right now and it has 6 big blooms on it. :)
I guess that is all for tonight. I'm going to start posting more regularly. I'm easily sidetracked. :) I have a busy week ahead. Hunter will be out of school on Friday. He has another award's day on Thursday. Then all next week he has Vacation Bible School. :)
Kristie
Linking up with Esther's Blog for WIP Wednesday's.
He had 3 of this friends that spent the night and they were up ALL night! :) We had lots of family and friends that were here so he enjoyed that also. 
He just sorta rolled his eyes and said, "Ruby from Church sent you a sewing machine" LOL! I haven't started cleaning her up or oiling yet but here she is. It is an Electro Grand made in Japan. The pedal is broken but I wired up one that goes to another machine just to check and see how this one would work and she sews fine. Now I need to clean her up. 
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