Lots of Progress! (Photo Heavy)

I'm made a lot of progress over the past week.  About a month or so ago I made a baby quilt as a gift.  I posted a pic of it on my blog and facebook.  My SIL's mother wanted me to make 2 of them for her as gifts for twins of her niece.  They will be 2 yrs old this summer.  I added a border on these to make them a little bigger so they could use them for several years.  

 They ended up being 52" square.

 I quilted a simple stipple on them.

 I did the binding on them Saturday morning and she picked them up Saturday afternoon.  She seemed very pleased with them. 

 I also made a few pin cushions.  :)  I did not make the pretty one with the tiny flying geese.  That one was a gift from a dear friend several years ago.  I use it all the time.  I actually made 4 but didn't get a pic of the other one.  These were all made from leftover blocks or small orphan blocks.  I filled them with crushed walnut shells.  I like the weight that it gives to them.

 I have a huge jar of vintage buttons that I picked through and used.  I want to make several more when I get a chance.  I think I would like to use some of them and also put several in a basket to display. 

 I also started a new quilt for myself.  I feel the need to work on a few things of my own between customer quilts.  I need this!!!  LOL! 

 These colors are not my usual so it's totally out of my comfy zone!  I guess that is a good thing!  My plan as of right now is 30 blocks.  I was going to do just a bunch of random fabric colors but once I started I wanted to do blues and greens. 

 By the time that I got ready for bed last night I had 10 blocks pieced.  I'll get better pics of it when the lighting is better. 

 I signed up for the Fat Quarter Shop monthly subscription of reproduction fat quarters a few months ago.  It alternates between Civil War and 1930's.  This is what I received this time.  Love them!!!

 This is the line that they are from.  It's not the whole line but just 12 each time. 

 These purples are my favorites!  I have been on a purple kick lately.  I need to make a purple quilt! 

 Other life happenings this week...  

Andrew's cash offer on the apartment building was accepted!!!!  He is very excited and this momma is very proud of all his hard work.  I'll post more details as time goes on with it.  

I was out shopping with mom and Chantal a few days ago and found a big cactus that I bought! Actually in the cart you can see two but we actually bought three.  We each got one.  I've been looking for one of these big ones for years and finally found one.  20+ years ago I had one that was over 6 ft tall.  I had over 50 houseplants.  At that time I was married to my first husband and went back to get my plants about a week after I left only to find that he had poured bleach in every one of them.  I lost them all.  The huge cactus was my favorite.  Anyway...that was a long time ago and I now have another one.  :) 

 Today my niece, Addison turns 4.  Hard to believe that.  :)  Her birthday party was Saturday.  She had a blast of course.  She owns my heart.  :)

 Here is a pic of her cake!  She had a beautiful Barbie cake and 36 cupcakes.  :)

 Hunter has been on Spring Break this past week and goes back to school today.  I will sure miss him.  I have always loved it best when everyone is home with me.  That is my "happy time" 

Oh and I didn't get pics but Richard and I were able to take another short motorcycle ride on Thursday while he was off and the weather was nice.  I think sometime in the near future we are going to get a GoPro to attach to his helmet to video some of the beautiful rides that we go on.  

Today I have a customer quilt that I need to do some repair work on and hopefully get it quilted and the binding done as well.  Fingers crossed that I get it done.  LOL!  The top belongs to a coworker of Richard's.  Her sister had purchased it for her in PA.  It's all squares and hand pieced.  Someone has washed the quilt top and it has came apart in several places.  The seam allowance is very narrow and the stitches are pretty big.  I actually worked on some of the repair work yesterday but I hope to finish it up today.  I also need to quilt and machine bind it too.  I'll post pics of it tomorrow. 

3 More Blocks...

 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...

Quilt Blocks and Birthdays!

 Today my precious baby boy turns 16!  Where has time gone?  He is 6ft tall and just dwarfs me.  He is such a good young man with good morals and manners.  We are so very proud of him.  Makes this momma a little sad that he is so grown up....but proud.  We are having cake and ice cream tonight when Richard gets home from work and then he will have his party next weekend.  We will have lots of family, neighbors and several of his friends over.

 Yesterday didn't go exactly as planned but it still worked out okay.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had several things to do.  We ran by McDonald's because Hunter thought he was starving.  LOL!  Then I had to run down town to pick up something.  Got Hunter's shot for school, then a quick trip in Walmart because Hunter needed some earbuds.  Stopped by and gave a couple of ladies some quilting quotes, which I will discuss in a few minutes.  Then we headed towards home but was going to stop by the lake on the way.  We were meeting mom and my sister there.  All was well...until I turned out the lake road and realized that I didn't have any other gear except drive.  No neutral, park, reverse... nothing.  So I made a big U turn and headed straight back home!!!  I got about a mile from the house and it started to overheat but I did make it on home.  I sure didn't want to breakdown and it 95 degrees either!  I felt very Blessed that we made it home safely.  I messaged Richard and told him that I figured it was the linkage on the transmission and it was.  He fixed it when he got home!  :)  Another reason why I love that man!  So in the end it all worked out.  

Quilting.... here are a couple of pics of two different blocks that I am working on.  The first is a double nine patch with navy polka dot.  I'm really liking how this is looking when I lay all of the blocks together.  I need a total of 42 and I think I have 12 done.  I still have a ways to go on this one. 

 This is the modern one that I mentioned yesterday.  The pattern is called, In Tune by Cluck, Cluck, Sew.  Totally different from what I am used to.  :)  I have all of the blocks pieced on it now I just need to sew them together. 

 The quilting quotes that I gave yesterday worked out well.  I stopped by her house because she is in her mid-80's and doesn't get out a lot.  She is a retired teacher and knows the family well.  She had a Grandmother's Flower Garden that had been quilted by someone else years ago but still needs the binding done.  She doesn't want the edges squared up but the bias binding done around each shape.  So we worked out a price and I will be doing that for her.  She really did do a great job on hand piecing it.  

Her daughter was there because she wanted me to give her quotes on 3 tops.  I did and brought those home to be quilted as well!!!  One of those quilts is an applecore quilt that I will need to do bias binding on it as well.  Actually I will be doing the quilting and binding on all 3 of her quilts.  I was very Blessed to have came home with more quilts to quilt!  So expect pics of those as I work on them.  

That's all for now....  not sure if I will get to quilt today but that's perfectly okay.  I plan on spending lots of time with Hunter.  :)

Feeling a little emotional...

 I can't help but feel a little emotional this morning.  Today Hunter starts back to school.  It's hard to believe that my baby is a 10th grader.  I already miss him like crazy.  I'm one of those mom's that enjoys having her kids home with her all of the time.  Anyway, this isn't the best pic but it's the best that I could get.  I guess when you are 15 you really don't want mom to take your first day of school pic.  LOL! 

 No posts lately but I will get back to regular posts soon.  I've just been so busy that it's hard to take time to post.  Here is what I have been up to lately....

Baking lots of fresh breads...

 I can't eat a lot of bread because of my diabetes but with my stomach issues I find that homemade bread is easier for me to digest than the store bought bread that has a lot of preservatives 

 A yummy Blueberry Cobbler that my guys really enjoyed.

 A ton of apples!  This is just from ONE tree!!!!  There are 5 others!  Mom, Chantal and I usually split them between us all.  Richard and Hunter climbed the trees and shook them for us as they are very tall trees. 

 I'm still working with the apples and this will be a long process.  I'm just trying to get them all worked up before they ruin.  As you can see they are big apples!  They are all natural, no sprays or anything. 

 They look a little spotty on the outside but as you can see the inside is very pretty.  I have blisters in my hands from peeling them.  I do have an apple peeler but it doesn't work well on these apples so I'm just using a good sharp knife. 

 As of right now, I have 21 quarts of Apple Pie Filling and I have a lot of other things that I will be canning these apples for. 

 I've also been canning green beans!  Everything hits at once!

I'll be back in a day or two....

Busy Times and Happy Birthday to my BABY!

 Soooo....I did not get the last two quilts finished that I wanted to do before I left for vacation!  That's okay, I'm not got to sweat it.  I had one loaded on the longarm and as soon as I started on it, my machine started breaking top thread.  Not sure why and I did try to figure it out but then time got away and I realized that it just wasn't going to happen so I stopped and moved on to something else....cleaning my house.  LOL!  

I have some EPP packed and ready to take on the trip as it will be about a 12 hour or so drive by the time we have to stop several times with the kids.  As I mentioned before there are 14 of us going.  I also decided to take this quilt along and sew the binding on. 

 It's hard to tell much about the quilt in this pic but it is called, Indian Star.  I quilted it sometime LAST year and never did the binding on it.  I looked back through my blog to see when I pieced it but didn't find it right off, but I know it has been YEARS.  LOL!  

We usually take a small quilt on trips because Hunter always wants to sleep and have something to cover up with.  I also wanted to take a smallish quilt to use on the beach as they all want to lay on something and the beach towels just are not big enough.  Last year when we went to VA Beach I took a small quilt too.  This is a quilt that I plan on "using" so I don't care to use it on the beach.  LOL!  So I figure I will do the hand work while Hunter is not using it to sleep with.  :)  

Richard has picked over 8 quarts of raspberries so far and I made a cobbler a few days ago.  They loved it!  I didn't eat any as I am a diabetic but it sure smelled good. 

 I also had a bunch of zucchini that I needed to do something with before we left.  I shredded it up and put 2 cups in each freezer bag.  That will be enough to make 8 of these Chocolate Zucchini Breads.  Richard's grandmother used to make this for him and she gave me the recipe a few years before she passed away. It is good and to me it tastes a lot like German Chocolate Cake. 

 Today is Hunter's 15th birthday!  Where does time go?  Shew...I miss my boys being little.  I took this pic of Andrew and Hunter a few months ago at mom's.  They are such close brothers even though there is a 9 yr age difference.  My boys are my world! 

 Richard has to work today and will not be home until 8pm so we will just have a small celebration as we will be leaving on vacation around 2:30am so just a few hours after Richard gets home.  I told Hunter that sometime after we get back that he could have a few friends over.  

Speaking of friends...last night one of Hunter's best friends had an ATV accident and had to be flown out to the hospital.  I sat up until after midnight waiting to hear something as Hunter was very upset and Richard and I also grew up with his dad.  They flew him to a hospital over an hour away.  We finally heard that he had several broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a fractured neck.  That is all that we heard last night but they were still running tests so I will check again this morning.  Shew....things can change in a blink of an eye.  

So we will be leaving very late tonight and I have a million things to finish up today.  As I mentioned before my MIL is house sitting for us and I need to do a quick once over on my house before she comes late this afternoon.  We also have a good friend/neighbor that is going to come up and feed all of the animals as my MIL is not able to feed the horses, chickens and such.  I also have a few errands to take care of then come home and bake a birthday cake for Hunter.  

I will probably overload my blog with vacation pics!  LOL!  I'm also on Instagram if you want to pop on over there and follow me.  I'm on there under "The Quilted Mule"  :)  

That's all for now....gotta get my long day started!  Please keep us all in your prayers as we travel.

Busy Day...

I worked hard yesterday getting everything ready to load this beautiful quilt top on the longarm.  This is the beautiful hexie quilt made by my SIL, Kellie.  I didn't have it loaded on in this pic so I will post a full pic of it soon.  All fabrics in this quilt are from the Paisley Park line.

 I carefully cut, pinned and pieced the backing for it.  I'm always nervous that I will cut it wrong. 

 This is the yardage that she got for the backing.  It is from the same Paisley Park line and also used in the quilt top.  The binding will also be out of this. 

 Took a little break and prepped some coffin pieces.  I really need to think of a different name for this quilt because "coffin" just sounds weird.  LOL!

 I also played around and pieced this hexie flower from 1/2" hexie papers.  I have it with a 1" hexie...big difference. 

 I had this fabric laying on my cutting table and it had already been squared up and the border fabric cut so I pinned the borders and sewed them on.  Nothing fancy, but I like to have something like this if I might need it for a last minute gift or something.  I also occasionally get a call from someone looking for a last minute gift as well. 

 Here's a closeup of the fabric.  I think it's cute for a little boy. 

 Looking at my planner and this is going to be a busy month!  All of the blue post-its are days that I need to quilt!  The little gold stars are days that Richard works.  :)  I have a few doctor appointments thrown in there too but they are behind the post-its.  :) 

 I snapped this pic yesterday evening while sitting on the front porch swing.  This makes this momma happy!  Andrew actually got off work early for once and the boys were out shooting their bows.  This was some much needed "brother time" 

I guess I had better wrap this post up.  Just having my morning coffee and need to start getting ready for Church soon.

Family Vacation to Virginia Beach

 We spent a few days at Virginia Beach!  It was very nice and we all had a blast.  It's amazing what a few days away can do for a person. 

 It was so nice to have the boys with us.  We left in the middle of the night on Thursday and got back home late Sunday evening. 

 King Neptune...

 They boys enjoying some pizza!  BTW...I have no clue what that reflection is on Andrew's head.  LOL!

 Cape Henry Lighthouse....

 Swannanoa Palace...

 We toured this on the way back home.

Just a short overview of our trip.  It had been 20 years since I had been to the ocean and Hunter had never been at all.  We had a wonderful time but I am still a little tired.  Funny thing...I forgot and took one of my lasix before we started home.  LOL!  Let's just say we had to stop a lot.  Never take a fluid pill when you are on a long trip.  :)

I'll post more tomorrow.  I also found a quilt shop at Virginia Beach and I stopped by and snapped a few pics.  I'll post all about that tomorrow.