Quilts and Pineapples

This is the customer quilt that I quilted yesterday!  A childhood friend of my brother, hand pieced it.  I think he injured his back years ago and quilts occasionally to stay busy.  As I mentioned, he hand pieced this one.  I also will be doing the binding, which I will work on that today.  That is pretty much all that I have on my schedule for the day.  That will take up pretty much all of my day as I need to trim, square it up, cut and sew the binding by hand. 

As soon as I got that quilted, I whipped up this pineapple table runner.  I used the Pineapple Trim Tool to make this.  It worked out really well, I just had to take my time and it was pretty easy.  I do plan on making a pineapple quilt after my holiday rush is over so this was practice.  I am thinking that when I make the quilt, I will switch the color placement as this seems like a lot of blue.  LOL

In my last post I mentioned that I forgot to take photos of two t-shirt quilts.  Well...I did find a photo of one of them.  :)  

 So today I will be hand sewing binding most of the day.  I am taking off Thanksgiving Day, then the rest of the weekend.  We have dinner at mom's on Thanksgiving and dinner with my MIL on Saturday.  So the rest of the time I will be putting up my Christmas decor.  By the time Thanksgiving comes around I will have quilted for 38 DAYS STRAIGHT!!!!  So I could really use a couple of days of not quilting.  LOL!  Then I will get back at it...

Quilts, Horses, and Kids...

 Lot's of quilty goodness!  It's been a few days since I have posted but here ya go....

First off, somehow I miss taking pics of TWO t-shirt quilts!  No clue how I did that but I did.  :(  

Here is a cute tree quilt.  It turned out nice.  I did a small stipple on it with burgundy thread. 

 Another angle...

 A close up...

 This is a panel that I quilted for a lady. 

 Another view...

  I also did this binding by hand...

 Another customer memory quilt.  This was made by the same lady as the 2 t-shirt quilts that I forgot to take pics of. 

 This past weekend Hunter got Storm out for a little ride.  He hadn't been rode for a while so he was a little hard headed.  LOL!  Hunter handled him well.  Storm is my horse and I love him so. 

 This is little Addie having a meltdown.  LOL!  I was delivering a quilt while we were in town and she wanted to go to see my SIL, Kellie that worked in the office next to where I was.  LOL!  She's rotten.

 As you can see, by the time we got to Walmart, she was fine.  LOL!  Love this little one so much. 

 That's all for now....time to load another quilt on the longarm!

3 Quilts in 2 days!!!!

 I'm on a roll!  LOL!  I've quilted 3 quilts in 2 days!  Technically 2 of them were KING size and one was a baby quilt.  :)  So here we go...

I would have loved to have kept this one!  I love how the sunflowers just pop against that background.  Lot's of stippling on this baby and that makes those sunflowers puff up.  She did an awesome job piecing it.  

 So after quilting on that one most of the day, I then loaded this baby quilt on the longarm.  It only measured 35x45 so it was quick work.  The photo is not that good as the camera picked up on so many different textures that it looks very wrinkled but it's not.  This one is made from minky and flannel so both very stretchy.  Since it stretched so much we decided to do a very large stipple on it which will also make it not as stiff if over quilted.  I also need to do the binding on it as well but she didn't sent enough so I am now waiting on that.  Since it is so small it will not take too long to do that. 

 Then yesterday after everyone cleared out of the house for the day, I loaded this big baby on and got it quilted.  This t-shirt quilt was pieced just like the other one that I did a few days ago.  The t-shirt square is just zig-zag stitched to the background square.  I have at least one more of these to do for her...maybe more...I would have to look to be sure.  LOL!

 Funny thing....you know in my last post I mentioned that I am just covered up with quilts that I am VERY grateful for but all I could think about crocheting.  LOL!  That's how my ADHD mind works.  LOL!  Anyway....while quilting these 3 quilts, I still managed to crochet 3 dish cloths.  Not perfect but I'm just washing dishes with them.  :)

 I am getting ready to head back upstairs after I have one more coffee this morning and load on another one.  

My sister took mom yesterday for a MRI that the doctor scheduled for her shoulder.  She has a follow-up appointment Thursday with the orthopedic and will get her results then.  

I guess that is all for now...heading upstairs to the sweatshop to get some more quilting done!!!!

18 and counting....

 Yesterday I get the binding on that king size quilt finished.  It was hand sewn binding so it took me a while to finish.  So now this quilt is ready to be picked up today.  Shew....

 I got this loaded on the frame and the quilting started.   I will finish it up today.  I don't have to do the binding on this one, just the quilting.  She requested a stipple which is fine with me as I can do that faster than doing a pantograph.  :)  It is being quilting in burgundy thread to match the backing.  This one is a king too!  :)  I have it loaded sideways because it fit the backing better that way.  Just wanted to make sure I had plenty once I rolled the quilt to the end. 

 I am soooooo booked up and I have been turning them away because as it is I am going to be cutting it close.  I do this every time that I get stressed and have a ton of quilts.  I worked as hard and as fast as I can and then I just give out.  LOL!  Today I was hand sewing as fast as I could and all the time I was thinking, "I want to crochet something"  LOL!  That's how my mind works.  Part of me wanted to just stop and start crocheting, but I didn't.  I'm sure that once things slow down after the new year I will not be in the mood to crochet.  LOL!  

Just for the record....I keep telling you how covered up that I am...well....  I have 18 more tops to quilt and 3 of them I have to completely piece myself and also 9 memory pillows!  Some of these I have to do binding on and some I don't.  The 3 that I have to make from start to finish are the Cross memory quilts that I have made in the past from shirts. 

Busy Times...

 Another customer quilt finished!  :)  This was the king size quilt that I had to piece the 10 yards of flannel backing for.  I love the fabrics used in this one. 

 A pic showing the quilting...

 Last night I did get the binding cut and sewn on by machine and today after Church I will jump in and get the hand sewing done so it can be picked up on Monday.  I haven't been having to do many bindings lately. 

 Friday evening when I went to pick Richard up from work, I stopped by Walmart and picked up a new cutting mat.  It was time.  LOL!  Mine had cuts that went all of the way through.  I have 3 quilts that I need to cut out and piece before Christmas so it was time to get a new one.  :)

 Here are a couple of photos that I took Friday evening on my way out of the holler to pick Richard up from work.  It was just starting to get dark so the photos are not that good.  Most of the leaves have fallen so I should have done this a couple of weeks ago. 

 This one is a little blurry...

I worked most of the day yesterday on customer quilt related stuff and I talked Hunter into helping me clean a little when I finished.  :)  That sure helped me a lot.  We got everything on the 1st floor except for the kitchen.  Maybe I will get to that today when I have to take breaks from the hand sewing.  :)  Upstairs...well...the gym is pretty clean, the bathroom is clean, Andrew's room is not too bad but my sewing room is horrid!!!!  I've just been too busy to deal with it and honestly it probably will not get cleaned until after Christmas.  My schedule is just crazy!!!!

I'm thinking that I will TRY to work in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt this year.  I'm not sure how well I can stay up with the steps with all of the customer quilts that I have to work on but I may try...then again...I may not.  LOL!  I really want to but I just don't know if it is feasible.  

Longarm Quilting and Life Updates

 Here are the latest customer quilts and then I will give you a life update.  :)  These first two quilts were pieced by the same lady.  The first one is a t-shirt quilt and she wanted a large stipple of both of them.  I've never had a t-shirt quilt pieced like this one.  No stabilizer instead she cut the t-shirt section out and did a zig-zag stitch to the background square. 

 This is the other quilt of hers.  This one was a bit of a bugger to quilt as it was hand pieced from flannel pajama pants so it was really stretchy. 

 After quilting those, I pieced the flannel backing that I was talking about in my previous post.  It was hard to wrestle with 10 yards of flannel.  I ended up clearing off my dining table and piecing it there so the table could hold the weight of the flannel.  I eventually got it loaded and got the quilting started on it.  See pic below...

 The lady wanted a Fleur De Lis design and I did not have that.  She asked me to order one for her and she would pay for the design.  So here it is...

 Now on to life updates...  so if you remember a few weeks ago I mentioned that the Jeep motor blew up, well...since then Richard had been driving my Envoy to work until we could fix the Jeep.  Yesterday the water pump and some kind of fan thing went out on the Envoy.  :(  Not at all what we need!  :(  Richard had traded some lumber a while back for a full-size Chevy Blazer nothing wrong with it except for the transmission is out.  He planned on eventually rebuilding the transmission and selling it.  With everything else, he hasn't had a chance.  So here we sit with 3 vehicles and NONE of them are running!!!!!  :(  I swear, I can't even make this stuff up!  I don't know if I need to laugh or cry.  LOL!  I do know that the Lord will not put more on you than you can stand but it is very stressful.  So in a few minutes we will be using mom's car.  Here is how that will play out.  She needs to be in town this morning so...  I will get up at my usual 4am, get Richard up first, then Hunter, and then Andrew.  Hunter will head to school and Andrew will head to work but before that, I will be riding to work with Richard in mom's car and then driving it back.  We will leave home around 5:40.  I will come back home which is about 75 miles round trip.  Then pick up mom around 9:30am and head to town, do what we have to do in town and then back home.  I will then try to get some much needed quilting done and then head back to get Richard as he gets off work at 7pm.  That will be another 75 miles round trip.  I will be trying to pick up the part for the Envoy while in town with mom and he will change the part out once he gets home.  He will be up late and will not get in bed when he needs to.  It's just going to be a L-O-N-G day.  Then again...it could always be worse. 

Quilts, Gifts, and Veggies

 Yesterday I quilted this KING size quilt.  Sorry it's blurry but it had lots of fun fabrics and a solid purple backing.  I enjoyed quilting it.  I quilted it with a beautiful purple Glide thread. 

I finished up the baby quilt that I had been working on and gifted it on Saturday.  I didn't end up going to the baby shower but I took it and dropped it off at Amy's house early that morning.  This is for her grandbaby.  She took it on to the shower for me.  I'm not going to post pics of them opening it as they were very emotional and just loved it.  I feel that it's kind of a private thing.  My brother and SIL, videoed and sent it to me and then others sent some pics.  :)  I'm glad it was well received. 

 The precious baby boy is due in January...or maybe it's February.  LOL!  I think I mentioned in a previous post that it was made with a few scraps of our Assistant Pastor's shirts and he passed away almost 2 years ago.  This would be his first great grandchild.  We are very close to this family and we grew up together. 

 First thing this morning, I need to do something with all of these peppers and green tomatoes...and a few apples.  LOL!  This is the last of everything!  This pic was taken AFTER my sister filled up a bag and took home.  LOL! 

 After I get all of this taken care of, I will be piecing a backing for another KING size quilt.  I do charge extra for that but I'll be honest...I don't like doing it at all.  Almost to the point of it making my nauseous.  LOL!  That's probably a little dramatic but I don't like doing it at all.  I think I am going to just tell people that I no longer do that and they need to piece it beforehand.  Like this one, it's 10 yards of FLANNEL!!!!  That I have to piece in 3 sections.  I just don't like doing it.  LOL!  Oh well....  I will also be using a new panto design for this quilt.  The customer bought it but I'm not sure how well that I will like quilt it.  LOL!  I'll let you know on that one too.

I also think I will be going to town with mom today.  She is still sick but feeling a little better.  I think she is getting stir-crazy and needs to get out of the house.  So honestly, if I go with her to town, take care of all of those veggies, and then piece that huge backing, load it on the longarm...that is probably all that I will get done besides my usual household chores.

Practicing some machine applique

 Yesterday didn't go as planned at all.  LOL!  I am running a tad behind on customer quilts and I could not make myself work on them at all yesterday.  I did play around with some applique!  LOL!

A few days ago Richard fixed my old Brother embroidery machine.  The automatic thread cutter was stuck and we could not get it to go back over no matter what we tried.  Out of 30+ machines this is my only computerized machine.  So as it stood, the machine was not working at all and was just useless so I told him to just break that thing out of there and if it worked...great and if it didn't, oh well.  He broke it out of there and the machine works perfectly except now I have to cut my own thread.  

Anyway...I was given this GO! Die so I wanted to play around and figure out the applique stitch that I liked best. 

 I cut out a few of them to just play around with to get my stitching adjusted correctly.  These are just from scraps and will not be used for anything. 

 This is the first one that I did.  I used white thread just so I could see it better.  I had to do some adjusting as the stitches were not even so I did a few more...

 By the time I did this red and blue one I was fairly pleased with the stitches and just stopped there with it. 

 I have several applique patterns that I plan on working on sometime in the future.  At this point, it will probably be after the holidays.  I don't have a huge selection of thread colors either right now so that is something that I will need to get.  

Mom had a doctor's appointment today with the orthopedic but she is sick and canceled it.  She is still off work due to her fall but now she has a bad cold/allergies.  It seems like very time that she gets sick like that she quickly ends up with bronchitis.  I am going to try to get her to go to her regular doctor later today if she will.  

Our original plan was for us to go together today in her car since we are still down to one vehicle and Richard is working today.  We were going to go to her orthopedic appointment which is about a hour away and then stop in town on the way back and do the grocery shopping.  If she doesn't want to go to the doctor for her cold then I will probably borrow her car and go do the shopping for the both of us.  At this point, I am just waiting for her to get up, call me so I can see how she is feeling and plan my day.  I can't wait for her to retire next Fall, I worry so much about her. 

After getting the groceries and stuff put away, I will have to MAKE MYSELF go upstairs and get some quilting done.  I need to do a little quilting marathon to get caught up again.  That probably will not happen this weekend.  :)  Richard is off work this weekend and I never seem to get anything done while he is home.  Also Sunday after Church we are having a little family dinner here at the house.  Nothing at all fancy, just hotdogs with homemade sauce and such.  There will be 12 here counting us.  Andrew will not be here because he will be taking one of his clients to a football game in Cincinnati and that is several hours away.  That worries this momma to death.  A mother never stops worrying about her kids and all I can do is pray for a safe trip. 

I'm on a roll...

 Another customer quilt off the longarm!  YAY!  Now on to another...

I enjoyed quilting this one.  She pieced it really well so it was easy to quilt.  The bottom border did have a little fullness but I tried to ease it in as best I could. 

She wanted a simple stipple so that goes rather quickly.  

Today I will am going to try to load another one on the longarm and pick out all of that baby quilt that I botched the other day.  :(  I need it for a gift on Saturday so I don't have much time.  I also need to clean the sweatshop (aka quilt studio)  It is a horrible mess!  Barely a path through it because I have been so busy. 

The weather is cooling down a lot here.  It rained all day yesterday and was windy.  Fall is certainly here!  We have a few more things to tie up here on the farm before winter hits.  It is had to get things done when I am so busy with quilts right now, Richard and Andrew work so much, and Hunter is in school all day.  We will get it done...sooner or later.  

Another one down...

My latest customer quilt is finished!  I'll admit this one was trying.  The fabrics were very stretchy.  The customer and I decided that an overall large stipple was best for it.  So many different fabric textures that it was just very stretchy to quilt.  In the end, I think it turned out pretty good.  Sorry the pics are blurry.

Last night I loaded another one on the frame so it is ready to go this morning!  It is a very pretty patchwork.  I'll post pics of it tomorrow.  

Have you ever been in a big hurry and messed something up so in the end it is just going to take you longer?  Shew....  A few days ago I got in a big hurry quilting a baby quilt and ruined it.  Yep, I either have to pick it all out or just make another one.  LOL!  I have quilted with Minkee a million times but I got in a big hurry and stretched it so bad that when I removed it from the frame it is just a big wrinkled mess.  That's what I get for trying to rush.  LOL!

Richard had been off work for the past few days and yesterday was his first day back.  He is getting ready for work today as I type this.  The boys are still asleep but Andrew will be getting up shortly for work as well.

I forgot to post about my Acorn Flour!  The first batch, I used about 1-1/2 gallons of acorns and in the end I have a little over half a quart of flour.  I used some in waffles, mixed it 50/50 with self-rising flour so that it would rise and it worked perfectly.  The taste is hard to explain but the closest thing that I can think of is "wheaty".  It has kind of a wheat taste.  Anyway, it is good and a fun little treat.  

I think I mentioned about a month ago that my momma fell and was off work.  She had another appointment on Thursday and the doctor put her off for 6 more weeks.  She is doing better but just not back 100%.  Her biggest issue that she is having right now is her shoulder and with her job being a cook she certainly has to use both arms and do a lot of lifting.  

Fairs, Festivals and Quilting

 I finally got my aunt's quilt finished.  Not sure what the name of the pattern is but it's pretty. 

 I still need to clip some threads and bury some knots but I'll do that this morning.  I figure she will pick it up later today.  I used the panto called, "Slick" on it. 

 This past weekend I helped my brother John and SIL, Kellie at a local fair.  He sets up at fairs and festivals in his spare time.  He has a train that he takes kids for rides, a gem mine, cotton candy booth and now and lemonade booth.  He didn't set the gem mine up at this one but did the other three.  This was the first fair/festival for the lemonade stand and that is what I worked.  He drove the train, my SIL and sister, Chantal worked the cotton candy booth and I did the lemonade.  We had no clue how well or bad that it would do so this was a trial run.  Let me tell you....I was covered up!!!!  It was crazy!  They were very pleased that it did so well.  Some how I didn't get a pic of his train but here are the other booths....

 He plans on buying a yellow tent like the pink one for the lemonade, like I said this was a trial run with it.  I had a ton of fresh lemons that I run through the lemon dicer, then to the smasher, etc.  It was fun but very busy.  I had a great time!  There were a bunch of other things there I just didn't have time to take a pic.  LOL!  These pics were actually taken before it all started. 

 I have a ton of quilting stuff coming up so expect lots of posts and pics!  

Oh...and I almost forgot...on Richard's way home from work Thursday night the Jeep motor blew up!  :(  Not at all what we needed.  :(  It's always something it seems...

What"s Next? Garlic Knots? Windmills? or Now or Later?

 Soooo....what quilt of mine am I going to work on and try to finish up next?  I've been trying to decide and first I dug out my "Garlic Knots" and after spreading it out on my bed I've decided that I still need about 48 more blocks to make it the size that I want.  I know that if I don't make it a little larger than it is right now then I will never be happy with it.  I love this quilt so far and I have 120 of the blocks sewn together here in a 10x12 setting.  I think I want to add 2 more rows to the side and 2 more rows on the bottom...then add a simple border. 

 As I was looking at this quilt top I noticed that I have one of the blocks turned wrong.  See the blue block below.  This is on the edge and I will take that out and fix it as it will bug me. 

 I had a few more of these blocks cut out so I decided to sew a few of them up...

 Then I sewed a few more...

 Then I found my windmills!  I love these!  I have several hundred of these sewn into blocks of 16. 

 I sewed a few of these that I already had cut out...

 Then a few more...

 And more...

 Then I ran out of what I had cut and could not find my acrylic template to cut more.  So this will go on the back burner until I find my template.  

Then finally I dug out my "Now and Later" or "Now or Later"  LOL!  I don't remember the name exactly.  :)  This one being a very simple pattern will not take too long to finish up.  It looks like I have all of the lighter squares cut and some of the colored rectangles cut.  I would like to make it a row wider and as you can see it needs to be longer.  I will probably add a simple border on it as well. 

 So I guess that is the plan...to work on this between customer quilts.  Speaking of customer quilts...I need to get back working on them as I haven't for a few days.  It is hard to concentrate on them while dealing with this toothache stuff.  I have started an antibiotic and will probably going to the dentist in a few days.