Yesterday didn't go as planned, but that's how it goes. My plan was to get Richard out the door to work and Hunter to school then head upstairs and load a quilt on the longarm. Before I even got upstairs mom called and said that my sister, Chantal was sick and she was taking her to the ER. I watched my little niece, Addison while mom took her. Long story short...Chantal has been having issues for over a year with her gallbladder and kept putting off having surgery but I guess we all tend to do that. They wanted to do surgery this morning but ended up doing emergency surgery yesterday evening and she came home last night. To add to the story, she messaged me at 2am to tell me that Addison was vomiting all night. :( Not good at all! She didn't show any signs of being sick yesterday. I hope Chantal doesn't catch the virus because I'm sure it will not feel good to be vomiting right after having surgery.
So this morning Richard is already out the door and Hunter is getting ready and I am upstairs working on a new quilt block! YAY! I'll post a pic of it tomorrow.
Since I don't have many pics to post this morning I will leave you with a pic of a quilt top that I pieced early this month. This is a huge quilt top measuring 100x100!
The lighting was not good when I took these pics but I will try to get better ones when I quilt it....who know when that will be. LOL!
That's all folks! Gotta get to quilting!!!!
Everyday I struggle with Adult ADD this affects everything from my housework to my quilting. The past several days have been a big struggle to keep on track with everything. In my housework I am constantly making lists and I also do that in my quilting but this time you can really tell that I have bounced from project to project. I think all of this snowy weather has had something to do with my change in mood.
First off, I worked on these blocks. I cut them out from my scrap basket a few months ago. I have 19 blocks finished and need a total of 30 for the quilt that I have planned. The rest of the blocks are cut out, I just need to sew them together.
I finished appliqueing another Dresden. I think this is block 9 or 10. I have all of the blocks pieced they just need to be appliqued to the background. I need to do a total of 20 of them, so this should make me halfway.
I played around for a new quilt for Andrew's bed. I am working on my Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt for Hunter and wanted to do something for Andrew too. I love this block but it measures less than 8" so I would need a million of them for his queen size bed. I love the block but I hate making them so I moved on to something else. I do think I will piece about 4 of them to make a little table topper for his nightstand.
Still playing around with the same blues, I pieced this block. I enjoy piecing them, they are quick and easy.
I have more cut and ready do sew!
While working on all of the above projects, I pieced more bow ties for my leader/ender project. I have 378 of them and for the quilt that I want to make I need around 1100.
I also pieced a few apple cores.
While pressing my bow ties I found that I had mixed up a couple backgrounds. I started to rip them out but just left them. I don't figure that in a quilt of 1100, 3 inch bow ties that you would even notice them.
When I came down stairs from sewing this evening this is what I saw....Richard snuggled on the couch with one of my quilts. :) I love this quilt....and I love him. :)
The weather here has been horrible. Hunter has only had 5 days of school since before Christmas break!!! I figured that they would have school Monday but I just looked out and it is pouring snow....again. :(
Kristie
Yesterday I made a list of my UFO's and shamefully I have 24! I had 25 but I marked one off as I finished the 4 Patch Flip the other day. No this doesn't count my "long term projects" like my Yo-Yo's, Dear Jane, CW Diary, Bow ties, and several others.
I'm not going to sit here and say that I am going to finish every one of them this year or ever, but I wanted to at least see what I had. I went through some a while back and donated a few and a few others I just put back in my stash and put the blocks in a pile of orphan blocks.
One UFO that I pulled out the other day is my, Market Baskets. I love those blocks and don't know why I have never finished it. I really like it. I sorted out what I had cut and I have a few that are ready to sew and others I still need to cut the background fabric for. I did piece one more block for it lat night.
Tonight I am working on another Dresden block. I am working on this as I am keeping the fire blazing in the wood stove. :) Richard is working tonight and it is going to be another night well below zero. This weather is depressing and I'm ready for SPRING! It is soooooo cold and more snow than we usually get here in KY. The kids have only been to school 5 days since before Christmas! No school again tomorrow. Our road is nothing but a sheet of ice. It is even hard to stand up in my yard.
In other news...my SIL, Kellie (my brother John's wife) has started quilting!!! I can't tell you how excited that I am over this! I talked to her today and she finished the binding on her first quilt which is a queen size blue jean quilt!!! I'll have to get a photo of it soon and post a photo of it. I am very proud of her and she did a great job. She sent me a photo of the finished top and it looked great!
Kristie
I've been a little stressed out lately so most of what I had been working on was my Dresden Plates. Today I have sewn most of the day! :) It really felt great! I finished up this quilt, 4 Patch Flip. It is a full size bed quilt.
This is actually some of the fabrics used in it. The lighting in here today was so bad, I couldn't get a good photo of it.
More of the center....
A border shot... The border is actually a bedskirt that I cut up. :)
I also got several more bow ties finished. I think I am up to 326 of them.
I appliqued another Dresden. This makes me 8/20 that are completed.
I also played around with a few apple cores.
Now I'm tired and ready for bed!
Kristie
I've had this on my design wall for a few days now and I am slowly getting the blocks appliqued. I almost have the 8th block finished. This quilt will have 20 blocks, a 4x5 setting and will measure something like 90/110 so it will be a big one. It will be bordered with the same dark brown print that is in the sashings. Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.
I should have block 8 finished sometime today or at least I hope too.
I need to straighten up my sewing room and put several things away. It is horrible. I was up there last night prepping a block and I could barely find the ironing board. :)
Kristie
You know me....jumping from project to project. I've had a lot on my mind the past few days so I have just been doing a little mindless applique.
I've had 20 of the Dresden's done for a couple of years but I don't have them appliqued to the background squares. So out of 20 of them, I have 6 completely finished and I am working on number 7. This will be a big quilt. Once it is finished it will measure 90/110.
Sunday after Church we had dinner at my mom's. My brother got there before we did and this is what I saw when I walked in the kitchen. My silly brother, John always gives me a hard time. He knows that I LOVE mom's bread. We had a great time with lots of fun and laughs.
That's all for tonight, I am going to work on block #7 while watching some tv. Richard has thrown his back out so he has been in the recliner most of the day. He worked last night with it like that and wasn't even able to stand up straight.
Kristie
Yesterday I had to take Hunter to see his podiatrist because he has been having a lot of pain in his left foot. He has special made inserts that he has to wear all of the time and I had just bought him a new pair of Nike's last week so I figured it was because of the new shoes. She said he was having the pain because of a growth plate in the heal area that was strained, irritated, and inflamed. So he is now on crutches for 10-14 days. She told him that it would not get better unless he stayed off of it. This is only day 2 and he is about to go crazy! :( He is very active so it is hard on him not to be outside running through the woods. He went back to school today and he hated it. To make him feel a little better last night I put some camo duct tape on his crutches and made him a little pouch that attaches to one of them so that he can carry his little cars and such around. :) Today he said that his friends thought his "camo crutches" were cool. Things we do to make our kids feel better....
I'm still plugging along on my quilts...here is my Hugs & Kisses. I only have a little over half of the blocks made. In the end, I'm hoping for a king size quilt.
A few more of the blocks...
I'm still working on the hand applique on my Dresden's during the evening while sitting with the family.
A few of my Butterscotch Pie blocks. Only one of these are actually sewn together. The others are just on the design wall so that I could lay them out and spread my colors around.
A close up of the ONE that is completely sewn together.
That's all for tonight, I have to run downstairs to get ice for Hunter's foot. A mother's job is never done...
Kristie
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
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
I know that I have a hard time staying on track but that's just ME! :) Yesterday I had planned on doing my dresden centers but then I got an email from my good friend, Janet offering me some deep mustard fabric to try for the centers, so I believe that I will see how that looks before I start with the brown.
Since I decided to put my Dresden's on hold for a few days I loaded a quilt on the frame. It is my Spiderweb quilt that I finished back in July of 2012. I started it in June of 2011, LOL so it had taken me a few years to get to this point. Oh well, at least it will be finished soon.
I had several red bobbins ready to go but they where a tiny bit darker than the red in the quilt. Not that it mattered really but I wasn't sure if I wanted that DARK red thread going all though my spiderweb blocks. I thought since they had so much movement going on that I might just use something that blended with the blocks a little better so I went with a beige/gold color. It does show up in the borders but that is fine, I just didn't want the blocks to look so busy. I got a few passes quilted and I think I will stop for the night and finish it up tomorrow. The quilt measures 74x74 so it will not take too long to quilt. I'm using a design called Dazzle.
Here is the view that I had from behind my quilting machine. LOL! The boys having fun with their quilt. :) Leo kept laying on his cars. :)
I think Leo finally got tired and moved to his own quilt....boys. LOL!
Hopefully tomorrow I can post a photo of my Spiderweb quilt completely quilted. I have the binding ready....somewhere, I just have to find it.
Blessings...
Kristie
I haven't done any sewing today but I have been planning... I mentioned the other day that I wanted to get my Dresden Plate finished. I was able to order the background fabric and the border/sashing fabric for it. I put it up on my design wall to get a better idea of how it would look. How do you think it would look if I used that dark brown for the centers too?
I will probably cut one circle out of the dark brown to see how it does look. I'm getting excited about working on it.
Here is Hunter with his little road quilt/playmat. He loves it and that makes me happy. :)
Speaking of Hunter, he loves to draw. I think he does a great job for a 10 year old. Here is one that he did the other day, a Boxer. I'll probably post a few of his drawing on here from time to time. I am so proud of both my boys. :)
Here is Leo, being nosey. The flash of the camera flips him out. LOL! The silly thing even chases his shadow. :)
I guess that is all for now. Hunter is wanting to use the computer. Hopefully tomorrow I will start on my Dresden centers.
Kristie
Since I don't have many pics to post this morning I will leave you with a pic of a quilt top that I pieced early this month. This is a huge quilt top measuring 100x100! 
The lighting was not good when I took these pics but I will try to get better ones when I quilt it....who know when that will be. LOL!
That's all folks! Gotta get to quilting!!!!
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