Thanks for the wonderful comments on my SIL's quilt. :) She gave it to my brother and he loved it. :)
I worked on my applique block. I had it ironed to the background but hadn't stitched around it. I got all of the green done but not the tulips yet. After I get this first block done I will prep another.
While I was working on the applique Richard built a grape arbor for me!!! He is just so awesome!!! I love it!!!
He's still on vacation and Thursday had some nice weather so we took the motorcycle out for a little ride. It was nice but a little windy. We had a wonderful time. In the pic we had stopped by the lake. We rode about 110 miles. Can't wait for warmer weather so we can do more riding. :)
Friday we had errands to run. Richard took his bow and had some work done on it. He loves archery. Picked up a few things from Sam's. Stopped by Joann's and picked up these fabrics. Not for any particular project but just to add to the stash. :) I got 1/2 yard of each.
This came in the mail so I thumbed through it a bit after we got home. I was tired so I really didn't feel like doing much. I've been eyeing this book for a while. I love the quilt! I know that I really don't have time to start this quilt but I did do a block. :)
This is Block #1. I'm not using the fabric colors suggested in the book, I'm just going to use my scraps for it. Not in any big hurry for this quilt but I figure I could do a few blocks a week on it and eventually get it done. As the cover of the books says, the blocks are 4x5 inches.
Shew...this momma is nervous. LOL! Andrew put in an offer on an apartment building. It's a 3 unit building. He has always wanted to have rental property even as a child. He is now 26 and works 100+ hours a week. He has been working hard for this. Praying that the Lord will guide him in the right direction with this. Right now the building is full with tenants but he may end up living in the smaller unit and continue renting out the other 2 apartments. Not sure yet. Anyway he put in an offer and now we wait...
Today I hope to work on a couple Lori Holt blocks and maybe another Anthology block. Oh and maybe work on the purple tulip applique. I don't like much finishing up that block. I also have a customer t-shirt quilt that I need to work on. I am so grateful for the customer work but I'm feeling a tad burned out right now. I'm sure that will pass. All that I can think about is wanting to work on something of my own. LOL!
Roughly 6 weeks ago or so my SIL, Kellie found a panel on Ebay I believe that she fell in love with. My brother is a huge Civil War buff and she wanted to piece a quilt for their upcoming 19th anniversary.
She mostly does English Paper Piecing but is really good at piecing on the machine too but she just doesn't have enough confidence in herself. I've quilted her machine pieced quilts before and they are good and square. :) Sooooo....she told me what she had in mind for the quilt that she wanted to make for my brother. I told her that I would help her get it assembled.
I did cut and frame up the panel and attach it to the surrounding tumblers and she pieced and pieced hundreds of these tumblers. She did every bit of those tumblers at WORK! Yep! At work! She is a nurse at a peditrician's office and he is awesome about letting them quilt. There are 3 ladies that work there and all 3 of them do EPP. He says that as long as all the work is caught up and patients are taken care of that he doesn't mind at all. He actually encourages them to be productive with something. LOL!
So we decided to do a fairly loose stipple and not over quilt the panel. I also made sure that I quilted around and not over their faces because I didn't want to distort them.
She has a ton of awesome fabrics in this quilt. Their anniversary is Monday April 1st so I figure she will give it to him this weekend. I told her to video it as I can't wait to see his face.
After I got the center panel ready and back to her she sewed like a crazy lady getting all of those tumblers done and back to me. I then trimmed it up and sewed the outer borders on. Now like I said, it's not like she didn't know how to do it but she also didn't have a place to actually use the machine and get those sewn on without him seeing it.
Oh I forgot it is backed with a brown Minkie and we used Hobb's batting. I will be doing the binding on it today. She is so excited to give it to him.
In the mail yesterday I received this charm pack. I signed up for a monthly delivery at Green Fairy Quilts for a charm pack each month. It's $9.99 and FREE SHIPPING! The charm pack that I got is called Remix. Not really my style but I'll keep them and use them in something. :)
All for this post...
Here is a pic of my design wall last night.
After Church we had dinner at mom's then I came home and pieced a few blocks. I am trying to catch up on my Lori Holt's Block-Along.
These fabrics are so not my normal but I'm really liking how they are all looking.
Then I moved on to this pretty red print block...
Another view...
This was the last one for the night.
They are all actually big blocks.
Of course the purple tulips don't go in this quilt but the rest of the blocks do. I'm anxious to see how they will all fit in the quilt. I'm hoping that in the end my colors are spread out pretty evenly.
So the rest of my weekend was spent running here and there. I was exhausted by the time it was over. Here is a pic of Hunter and his girlfriend, Paige. This was her Freshmore Dance (Freshman/Sophomore). She is a freshman and he is a junior. It was semi-casual that's why he has jeans on. LOL! Most of the guys did. They looked so pretty. She is a sweetheart and of course he's my baby boy so I'm kind of extra proud of him....long hair and all. LOL!
Last but not least...a pic of my brother John and my little niece, Addie. I took this pic right before Church started. :) John is the oldest of us 3 siblings. He is 4 years older than I am. We have always been extremely close. Addison is my sister's daughter. She was being silly with her little glasses.
I guess that's all for this post...
I didn't get everything done that I had planned. LOL! I knew that wasn't going to happen. :) I did get the binding sewn by hand on the cardinal quilt. I also got this queen size quilt loaded and about 2/3 of it quilted.
I'll have to say that I'm anxious to post a pic of the whole quilt once I get it finished. This is a customer quilt that is pieced from 10" squares. The most awesome thing about it is that none of the fabrics go together normally but once pieced together they look awesome! Does that make sense? :) The more that I look at it the more that I love it. The lady's mom is the one that sent it to me and she said that they were planning on making a duvet cover with it. She just wanted a simple stipple quilted on it.
I also made 20 Breakfast Bombs for the freezer before 6:30am yesterday! LOL! Freezer meals changed my life many years ago and I use them a lot. These are for breakfast and consist of hash browns, sausage, scrambled eggs, mushrooms and cheese. I just lay one out the night before to thaw and pop it in the oven while Richard is in the shower and they are done by the time he gets out. Sometimes he puts a little salsa on them and eats. A good filling breakfast that saves me time. I don't eat them because I'm diabetic but Richard and the boys love them.
I mentioned in my last post that Richard was on vacation starting yesterday. He is so bad to just pop it on me and not tell me. He thinks it's funny because I'm a person that has to plan and schedule everything and something like that rocks my world. LOL! So yesterday he tells me that he is actually off for 2 WEEKS!!!! Oh my! That really throws me off. :) I love having him home but it just really throws my routine off. Does this make sense? :) We really don't have any plans, he's just going to catch up on a few things outside.
So this morning I am going to finish quilting this quilt. Then I plan on trimming and adding borders (hopefully) to my SIL Kellie's quilt. Oh I can't wait to show it to you. It is awesome!!!
Yesterday I quilted this beautiful customer quilt. I just love it! She did an awesome job piecing it too. As I was quilting it I kept thinking that I needed one of those Cardinal panels. I may end up buying one but then again who knows when I would have time to sew it up. :) Anyway...I enjoyed quilting this beauty.
We decided to use this quilting design because she didn't want the quilting to compete with the cardinals. That's also another reason that I love Glide thread. It's so fine that it doesn't take away from the quilt.
She also requested that I do the binding for her. She wants it done by hand. I got it all sewn on by machine last night so I will work on the hand sewing today.
Oh I almost forgot... I've used Hobb's 80/20 batting for years and never had any issues but look at this mess that I found today. :( I had to cut around the area because there was no way that I was going to try to quilt through that. It was very hard so I would probably have broken a needle not to mention it would have felt horrible in the quilt. From now on I will double check all of the batting. I buy it on the big rolls and as I said this was the first time seeing this. Thank goodness that I caught it.
A few nights ago I was up late and on Pinterest. Pinterest always gets me in trouble. LOL! I cut and pieced this block just to see how I liked it. It's an 8" block. Right now it's just a block up on my design wall for me to ponder over for a while. It will NOT be a project for the near future as I have too many other things going on right now, but it was fun to make. Maybe someday...
Last night before bed I worked on this UFO. I just pieced a few strip sets. I hope to press and subcut them today. These go into a two color quilt. I absolutely love two color quilts! I have several that I would eventually like to make. :)
So my quilting plans for today are to press and subcut these strips sets. I also would like to get most of the hand sewing done on this customer quilt. I also hope to get another block pieced of the Lori Holt Block Along. We will see how it all goes because Richard is on vacation starting today so who knows.... LOL!
I spent part of Saturday trying to catch up on some blocks. These are from the Lori Holt free Vintage Block Along. Here is my design wall when I stopped for the day. The applique blocks on the far left are not the same project. :)
I did this block and if I remember correctly it was 20"
I also pieced these 4 and they are 5" blocks.
Also this one....
Then I was finished for the day. Actually my mind still wanted to quilt but my body said "stop" LOL! In the end I am pleased with what I got finished.
Richard and I took a short motorcycle ride. It was in the mid-50's so still a little cool to go far. It was nice and I'm anxious for the warm weather so we can get out a little more on it.
I also did a few customer quilts that I can't post yet. I will try to remember to post them later. :) Several quilty things coming up this week, so today I took time for some "me sewing" :)
Now it's time to fix breakfast and get ready for Church. Have a wonderful and Blessed Sunday.
My design wall is getting full! YAY! I added more blocks yesterday! So here is what I have going on....
First off yesterday morning before daylight I wanted to piece a few blocks for myself before loading a customer quilt on the longarm. Well....I guess it was too early or I was still half asleep. LOL! First off I cut the squares the wrong size and things were not coming out correctly. I finally saw my mistake and had to pick them all out.
Then I sewed this section backwards. :( Had to pick that out and redo it.
This is the blocks that I did yesterday for a new BOM. It is called, Cheddarback. Gay of Sentimental Stitches is hosting it. This just started the first of March. The month of March has 5 blocks but I only got 4 done. The fifth one is not too hard but it is one that I will probably hand piece just because of the way it goes together.
Here is a close up of a few of them. This one is 5"
Another 5" block and the one on the top center is one that I may redo because I'm not overly happy with my fabric choices. I'm piecing these solely from scraps.
Then I moved on to my Vintage Block Along by Lori Holt. I'm still behind on it but I'm trying to slowly catch up. I pieced the top star in this pic.
Also the top star in this pic.
So here they all are on the design wall...my purple tulip applique, Kim Diehl applique, Cheddarback BOM, and the Vintage Block Along.
I also have a customer tshirt quilt loaded on the longarm. It's not one that I pieced but pieced by a customer. Some of the jersey/uniform tops are soooo thick. I'll snap a pic of it sometime today.
I have a full day of quilting planned and then later in the evening I will be attending a visitation for my SIL's aunt that passed away. Richard has training today at work so he will probably be home early.
WARNING: Lot's of quilt pics! :)
It's been a few days since my last post so I will get you caught up on everything. I'm finally over the stomach virus and so is Richard. Thank goodness that Hunter did not catch it. Soooo...my last post left off showing this customer quilt that I was quilting. Here it is finished and on it's way back to Texas today. This scrap beauty belongs to the awesome queen of scrap quilts...Julie from JulieKQuilts!!!! She is awesome!
This is a horrible pic because of the bright sunlight coming through my window but this is a secret quilt project. My SIL is making a quilt for my brother and wants to give it to him on their anniversary April 1st. So here is her plan...my brother is a big Civil War buff and loves to metal detect battle sites. So she found this battle scene panel and wants to have it in the center of a bunch of Civil War fabric tumblers that she is sewing together using the EPP process. So while she is working her fingers to the bone doing a bunch of tumblers, I tried to square up the panel, add a small borer to frame it and get the tumblers started around it for her. I'm sure she could do this herself because she is awesome but she just doesn't have enough confidence in herself. So expect more pics on this quilt in the next few weeks.
This was what we woke up to Friday morning. You can see the time there 4:15am. I had just woke up and was being lazy, so I just grabbed my phone and hit the security cam to check for snow that they were forecasting. LOL! We got a few more inches than this but it all melted later in the afternoon. Needless to say that Hunter did not have school but Richard did work. He just drove very slow. His Jeep goes really good. I am soooo ready for Spring!!!
Back to quilts... this was a customer quilt. This little elderly lady is one that I have quilted for before and is a friend of the family. She is a retired teacher and loves to quilt. It is an older top with a few stains and some fullness in the sashing areas but in the end it quilted up pretty good only a few issues. It is a cross stitch quilt. She just wanted a simple stippling done.
Next up was this beauty! She requested stippling also and wanted it quilted with WHITE thread and over the applique. Sooo...here it is! :)
The backing that she sent was this coral fabric. The flowers in the backing fabric are a lot like the Dogwood flowers in the applique.
Here is a better pic of the backing fabric.
A pic of it finished! I got both of those quilts quilted Sunday! Shew...I was tired but I am a little behind after my back issues and then the stomach virus. I so need to get caught up.
Sooooo....Saturday was my birthday. Not a big deal but I feel very Blessed to have another year in the books. :) I got several gifts over the past few weeks. A dear friend sent me some quilty gifts a couple of weeks ago. I file cabinet that I had been wanting for my sewing room to get a little more organized. I also got a super nice makeup case and a few other things but mom got me a mini fridge for my sewing room! I may never leave that room now! LOL!
I know it is full of Diet Pepsi but don't judge! :) Oh and the Reese's Eggs are not mine, Hunter put those in there. LOL!
Probably the most precious gift that I got was from my 3 yr old niece, Addie. In my last post I mentioned that she is obsessed with little pieces of fabric and pretends to make quilts, this is what she made for me. She glued all of those on construction paper for me. She was so proud and I just loved it.
That's all for now...need to catch up on some housework and then get back to quilting.
While I was working on the applique Richard built a grape arbor for me!!! He is just so awesome!!! I love it!!! 
He's still on vacation and Thursday had some nice weather so we took the motorcycle out for a little ride. It was nice but a little windy. We had a wonderful time. In the pic we had stopped by the lake. We rode about 110 miles. Can't wait for warmer weather so we can do more riding. :) 
Friday we had errands to run. Richard took his bow and had some work done on it. He loves archery. Picked up a few things from Sam's. Stopped by Joann's and picked up these fabrics. Not for any particular project but just to add to the stash. :) I got 1/2 yard of each.
This came in the mail so I thumbed through it a bit after we got home. I was tired so I really didn't feel like doing much. I've been eyeing this book for a while. I love the quilt! I know that I really don't have time to start this quilt but I did do a block. :)
This is Block #1. I'm not using the fabric colors suggested in the book, I'm just going to use my scraps for it. Not in any big hurry for this quilt but I figure I could do a few blocks a week on it and eventually get it done. As the cover of the books says, the blocks are 4x5 inches. 
Shew...this momma is nervous. LOL! Andrew put in an offer on an apartment building. It's a 3 unit building. He has always wanted to have rental property even as a child. He is now 26 and works 100+ hours a week. He has been working hard for this. Praying that the Lord will guide him in the right direction with this. Right now the building is full with tenants but he may end up living in the smaller unit and continue renting out the other 2 apartments. Not sure yet. Anyway he put in an offer and now we wait...
