Pink Chevron...

 I made some progress yesterday!  I finished the quilting on this baby quilt.  

 

 I have the binding cut.  Now I just need to get the binding sewn on before Saturday and also finish up my puff quilt. 

 While I was working on all of this, I needed a small break so I grabbed my bow ties that were beside my machine and assembled 20 more blocks.  I'm loving this quilt and I hope to have it completely assembled real soon.  I need 120 of these blocks and that will be a total of 1080 of those little 3" bow ties! 

 We had more busted water pipes today!  :(  I'm sure that is not exactly what Richard wanted to work on when he got home late this evening.  The weather here in KY has just been crazy.  It is getting a little depressing but I keep trying to remind myself that spring will be here soon and we usually don't have weather like this in KY.  It could always be worse.  

On this day 22 years ago at 9:25pm, I gave birth to my first born son, Andrew.  I was in a bad marriage at the time but my world forever changed for the better.  He was and still is my world.  We stuck together like glue back in those days and to this day we have a bond that is so very strong.  I am so proud of him and the young man that he has become.  My boys are my world and I can't imagine life without them.  Soooo...here is a photo of Andrew at 10 months old...1st. Christmas.  Those eyes still light up my world.  

Here he is when Richard and I got married.  He walked me down the isle.  In this photo he is standing beside Richard's brother, Claude.  It was funny, they stood there the whole time talking about monster trucks as that was what Andrew as obsessed with at the time.  Richard and I were laughing the whole time because as we were saying our vows we could hear Andrew talking about those monster trucks. 

Richard has to work again today.  So Hunter and I will just try to deal with the snow and cold temps....I will do a little sewing and he will do a lot of eating!  LOL!  Wow!  He has officially hit that eating stage that boys hit when they want to eat you out of house and home!  :)  
-Kristie

Almost finished....

 Brrr.....it has been sooooo cold here in KY!!!  We got a ton of snow here last week and it is still hanging on.  It doesn't look like I will be getting off this hill until Spring!  :)  I mentioned in my last post that Richard was only able to get to the bottom of the hill and had to ride the 4 wheeler on up the hill to the house.  It is just crazy!  The forecast for Tuesday morning is -17 degrees with -35 windchill!!!  Can you believe that for KY?  Had some busted water pipes too.  :(

Anyway....working on trying to finish up things for the baby shower that is scheduled for this weekend.  Hoping that they will actually plow our road.  As long as I have lived up here, they have never plowed it when it snows but they are supposed to do it when they can get to it because my sister is 32 weeks pregnant and you just never know when and if she needs to get out and go to the hospital.  

I finally got the puff/biscuit/bubble quilt assembled.  I still need to add a backing to it and I'm thinking that I will add a RUFFLE around the edges.  Not a real big ruffle but a soft ruffle that is not real full.  Maybe....maybe not....I'll just wait and see when I get started on it.  :) 

 The puffs are stuffed really full as that is how Chantal wanted them.  :) 

 I'll post another photo of it once I add the backing and ruffle. 

 I also made 5 more hair bows!  I think this makes around 20 of them that I have made for the baby.  I will have to count to make sure but I think it is around 20. 

 I have also been working on some hexies.  :)  Just plugging along with these when I need a break from this other stuff. 

 It is 4:45am right now and Richard is up getting ready for work this morning.  The news says that the roads are solid ice so please say a little prayer that he gets to work safely.  

Hunter and Richard got out on the 4 wheeler yesterday playing around in the snow.  I think they both had a blast.  Richard was pulling him on the inner tube in the snow.  :)
-Kristie

Snow and puffs...

 Well I'm snowed in on top of this mountain!  LOL!  I'm doing a lot of sewing but not a whole lot.  I'm finding that I'm not really getting a lot accomplished other than sitting here and watching the fire burn and taking a few naps.  :)  I have worked a little bit on this puff/biscuit quilt for Addison.  The baby shower is in 9 days and I'm not even close to having it finished.  :(

I also worked on a few hexies.  This is an old pic but it never really changes.  LOL! 

Shew....we ended up with over 12" of snow!!!  :(  Richard had to work yesterday and we have a Jeep Wrangler that is 4WD but a 4WD still doesn't mean that it will go everywhere!  LOL!  I've mentioned several times that we live at a place called, "top of the world" and that is pretty much it!  We live on top of a big ridge with lots of hills and curves on a tiny backroad.  Richard had a little trouble getting off the hill yesterday morning but he did get off.  Getting home this evening was a different story.  There are 2 ways to come in to our place from the blacktop road.  The shortest way is about a mile away from the house and that is the way that he went out this morning.  He couldn't even get up the first hill so he turned and tried coming in the other way which is about a 3 mile drive from the blacktop to our house.  So he got to my sister's house which is at the bottom of the big hill and couldn't get on up in the Jeep.  He parked at her house and brought the 4 wheeler (ATV) on up to the house.  

He has to work again this morning so he will ride the 4 wheeler back down the hill to my sister's house and take the Jeep on to work.  Sadly we are supposed to be having record temps in the next few days.  This morning it is supposed to be -10 and the windchill -22!!!!  It is close to that now.   :(  That will sure make for a cold ride down the hill to Chantal's which is a mile away.  He is getting ready to leave in a few minutes.  

Hunter will not have school until Spring!  LOL!  Meanwhile, Hunter and I will spend the day keeping the fire going and waiting for Richard to get back home. 
 -Kristie

Thankful...

 First off, I want to thank you all for the prayers for Richard.  His appointment went well the other day.  Right now they think that the spot on his retina is okay.  He has to have it rechecked in 9 months and it will always have to be monitored.  They also said that the spot was in the best place possible.  It is on the front and if it was on the side then lots of times if it changes it is too late by the time that they find it.  Also with the location of his spot he should be able to notice any change in it before their tests would pick it up.  They said if there is any change then he would be able to see a yellow tinge.  Very thankful for this news!!!  Thank you Lord!!!  There is also a good possibility that it will NEVER change so that is what we are praying for!

I made a few more hair bows for the new baby.  BTW....the new baby has a name!!!!!  Chantal and Ronnie have decided to name her.....Addison!  I think they are going to use it as a middle name and call her by that name.  They haven't decided on a first name yet.  Mom and I also painted 2 of the walls in the nursery.  Hopefully we can finish it up in a few days. 

A pic of the snow a few days ago.  Sadly today we are supposed to get 8-14 inches!!!!  :(  I will not be able to get off this hill until summer!!!!  :(  This much snow will shut our whole area down.  Temps are supposed to be well below ZERO and the windchill -10 to -20 below.  This worries me too death as Andrew is out working in this.  They brought his boat in locally to dry dock for some work and took him off while it is on dry dock and put him on the harbor boats for 2 weeks.  While he is doing that he will be working 12 hour shifts and is supposed to travel home and back each day.  Sadly he can't get here.  :(  I guess tonight he will have to either stay on the harbor boat or get a hotel close by.  It's just too cold to be working out in this weather.  Please say a prayer for my boy and all of the people that have to be out in this. 

With this much snow coming later today we expect to lose power.  I dread that but thankful that we heat with our wood stove.  I'm gathering up some hexies and stuff to work on if the weather gets as bad as they think it will.
-Kristie

Another baby quilt and some hexies!

 Making lots of progress!!!  I got this second baby quilt quilted and the binding is finished!  :)  You can't really tell in this photo but all of these fabrics that were used in this quilt are polka dots.  Now 2 more to quilt and the puff/biscuit quilt needs to be finished and I'm not even close to having it done. 

 Here is the other baby quilt that I showed in the last post.  The binding is also finished on it. 

 I also worked on a few more of my hexies.  I'm not in any hurry to finish this project, it is just something that I work on while watching tv and such. 

 I did get curious to see how many that I actually had finished.  I put them all up on my design wall.  I guess that I will need twice this many in the end.  I roughly measured what I have on the wall and it was somewhere around 66" wide and 53" long.  I would like to have this at least large enough to fit on my bed.  I need a wider range of fabrics too.  I need to work on that.  I also need to decide on how that I want to finish the edges.  Any ideas on that?

 A closer view....

 I have some of them sewn into sets of 2 and some are still singles.  I have a total of 124 of them finished so far. 

I talked to Andrew earlier and he is doing fine, just tired.  I miss him but he does call me after every shift, IF he has cell signal.  He works 12-6am and 12-6pm everyday.  So every 6 hours he is working and the 6 hours that he has off, he is eating and sleeping and does this for 28 days straight.  Needless to say that when he comes home he is exhausted!  Speaking of exhausted, Richard was exhausted when he got home from work last night.  I felt sorry for him.  I thought he would fall asleep before he finished his dinner.  

Also please say a prayer for Richard.  He has a very important eye doctor appointment with the retina surgeons on Wednesday.  When he had his eye exam she saw a spot on his retina.  She said that if it was smooth then she wouldn't be so concerned but this one was not smooth so she was concerned enough to send him to a retina surgeon to make sure that it is not cancer or anything to be concerned about.  
-Kristie 

Baby Quilt #1....quilted

 First of all, I would like to thank you all for the encouraging comments and emails on my last post.  It is hard to completely change your eating habits and exercise but as I mentioned due to health reasons I really have to stick with it.  Shew...trust me, it is NOT easy but I'm doing it.  :)  

I actually got some sewing done!  :)  I quilted this baby quilt that will be a gift for my sister at her baby shower on the 28th of this month. 

 I think she will really like it.  :)  I did get the binding finished after taking this photos.  I did the binding in the darker pink. 

 I did a simple stipple/meander on it.  Nothing fancy but I just needed it quilted so that I could move on to another one. 

 I quilted another one Saturday, I will post about it next time.  That's 2 down and 2 more to quilt and that is not counting the puff/biscuit quilt that I am still working on.  I also need to paint the nursery for her.  I think mom is going to help me.  Then my sister decides that she wants one wall painted with chevrons!  :(  I told her that she was killing me!  LOL!  My sister ordered the bedding for the crib and has all of the wall decor bought too.  Mom and I are going to paint the nursery and I am going to paint the chevron wall and mom is going to sew the valances for the two windows.  A ton of things to do but it is sooooooo worth it!  

My sister is doing well so far with her pregnancy.  She is 30 yrs old and this is her first child.  We are all very excited.  Chantal has a slight heart condition so the doctors are watching her closely.  So far everything is great, she is just extremely tired.  Of course, it is normal to be exhausted during a pregnancy but the doctor said that her medication and heart condition just drains her energy.  She is still working 40 hours a week.  She goes today for another echocardiogram.  We are praying that the results come back good.  Her due date is April 20th.   
Kristie

Catching up....

I haven't posted in a few weeks so I will get you all caught up on what I have been doing.  :)  I have done very little sewing and it has been my hexies.  This is an old pic but nothing much has changed with it. 

 I need to get to work on the baby quilts as we are having her baby shower the end of February and I don't have anything finished.  :(  I am soooo behind so she might end up getting the quilts after the baby shower.  :)

I have a one track mind....I have a hard time balancing more than one thing at a time.  This is not a good thing because I can't even concentrate on that "one thing" that I am supposed to be doing.  Anyway....I will get to that in a minute.  Do you remember a few weeks ago when I posted about my BP running so high, like this?

 So after a couple of doctor appointments and tons of meds hopefully all will be well soon.  I won't bother you with all of the details but after lots of blood work and tests, I am now on 9 pills a day!!!!  UGH!  So not what I wanted at 42, but that is what I have to do right now.  The doctor said that it is very possible after some diet and exercise that I could be taken off these meds so that is what I am shooting for!!!  I am currently on BP meds, cholesterol meds, and diabetes meds.  :(  So as hubby nicely put it, maybe this is God's way of giving me a chance to make things better in my life.  Soooo.....as a start I have lost 6.6 pounds this week!!!  Tons of walking, a little bit of cardio, and a change in eating habits.  My wonderful hubby and kids are behind me all the way!  Not much sewing is getting done because my mind has been on this stuff.  :)

Been having some snowy weather here in KY.  I took this pic one day last week.  That is Bullet, our stud horse.  He loves the snow!

 Here is a pic of Hunter that I snapped!  He was snoozing on the couch.  He was laying there with his eyes closed because he had something in his eye and fell asleep.  You can see the red spot from rubbing it. 

 Andrew leaves back out for work on Wednesday.  :(  I will sure miss my boy.  Another 28 days without seeing him, that is sure hard on this momma.  He turns 22 later this month so that will be hard not to see him on his birthday too.  

That's all for now, hopefully I will have some quilty stuff to post in a day or two!
Kristie