Weekly update...

It's been almost a week since my last post, just been a little busy. So here we go....my sister came and spent the night one night this past week! I really enjoyed her being here even though she lives on the property that connects to mine. LOL! It was nice to have her here and just sit down and talk. She will kill me for posting this but here she is when she feel asleep on my couch! LOL! I am almost finished with the antique quilt that I was quilting. I should have been done with it a long time ago, but had some problems with the quilting and I am still have to go extra slow because of thread breaks but it is much better after I changed battings. You can see a little of the quilting in the photo below. I always wonder about the people that piece these quilts, what were they like? What was going on in their lives? Did the fabrics have special meanings to them? Stuff like that. I still have not cut out the last two rows of my Civil War Wreaths quilt that I showed in my last post. I just needed a break from it for a few days. So meanwhile, I have been cutting up the fabrics in my scrap basket. I started cutting fabrics for a "Road To Jericho" and a "Windmill" I've make them both before but they make great scrap quilts and with what was left over I cut 2.5" squares to put in my bin. Not sure when I will start piecing these quilts but they go together quick and are nice when you need a top to quilt as a gift or something. Now on to a house update. We have been doing a lot of cleaning and sweeping. Everything gets piled up and messy when you are building. Tomorrow we will be buying the electric wire that goes from the electric pole and runs to the fuse box in the house, that wire alone will cost us $400. And this week we have plans to start installing our wood ceiling over the living room and my quilting room. That will be a total of about 1000 sq ft of wood ceiling to put up. My job will be staining the wood and Richard will be installing it. He makes me nervous when he is up high, but he says that is only because I am afraid of heights! The ceiling over the living room is 22 ft high. But I am excited about getting it done.

I am a person that has to actually see something, I'm not that good at imagining how it will look so that has cause Richard some extra work in the kitchen. See, he is building my kitchen cabinets and I know what I want but I also need to see it just to make sure. LOL! Anyway, he set my bottom cabinets up TEMPORARILY. They are just tacked together, now that I know that I like them, he will actually build them. The front framing is what he will use but has to build the backing, sides and shelving....and then the doors. Upper cabinets and my island will come next too. But at least you can get an idea of them in this photo.

Let me explain them. Just so you know that microwave will not actually be sitting there! LOL! But on the end beside that microwave I will have a floor to ceiling cabinet there but he just didn't frame it up when he did the rest of them. My sink goes under the window and on the left of the photo my stove will go in that section where I have the boxes with my lights in them. And then there will be one cabinet (as seen in photo) between my stove and refrigerator. And of course, upper cabinets over top of them and my island will go there where that beam is and it will be a pretty good size too.This is the view of the kitchen by the big window where my table will be. You also see my back door and the doorway behind it is my laundry room. See that cabinet there along that side wall? Richard built it for me too!

Speaking of Richard building stuff... I had mentioned that I wanted a desk in my quilting room for a computer and papers and stuff. He built me one the other day!!!! See, just another reason that I love him so much! LOL! As you can see, Donkey likes it too! It is actually 5 ft long and has a small drawer in the center, it will work perfectly. Since I'm showing photos of my sewing room, I hung a wall hanging up the other day. It is not exactly centered but I will take it down and reposition it, it is only pinned up with stick pins. I made it several years ago but never used it. It fits perfectly between the two closets up there. And the closets still need doors and trim but all that will come with time....and money! :) Anyway, my frame sits right in front of this, you can see part of my machine there.

That is all for now...hopefully in a few days I will have more quilting and house photos!!!!

Kristie

My Oldest UFO...

I finished up the binding on my purple wall hanging or table topper, whatever you want to call it. With it being on the wall or table you will not see that back, thank goodness! I had some major problems with the bobbin. Actually I think most of it was the thread that I used, so I ended up tossing it.

I was looking through my quilt tops and decided to quilt this one. It is my oldest quilt top, probably 10-12 years old. You can tell that some of the fabrics are older ones. As I looked at this top, I really wondered about some of the placement of the blocks. I think I just sewed them together and didn't lay it out and look at it from all angles. I try to pay more attention to that stuff now, but then again, I think that you can really over think it sometimes. This quilt is called "Scrappy Windmills", nothing fancy.

I got it loaded on the frame and got one pass quilted. I was having some tension problems but that was because I messed with it when I had that purple wall hanging on there. I am trying a new panto too, I think I will really like that design once it is all finished. It measures 92x96 so it is another large one. I have several big ones that need quilted so I hope to get those done this year.

Speaking of quilt tops....I have them listed at the top of my blog under "flimisies" As of right now I have 30 tops to quilt. Well...actually, I have a few more but they are small crib quilts and wall hangings so I will not count them. But 30 sounds great to me, considering I did have 75 that needed quilted!!!! You can see a photo of those 75 piled on my bed on my sidebar.

I hope to work more on this top tomorrow afternoon. Mom has physical therapy in the morning and Donkey has to go back to the vet, that will take up my morning.

Kristie

FNSI and Don King?

I'm sure most of you are thinking...Don King??? Well what do you think? Do you see a resemblance? LOL! This is my little Smokey and he needs a haircut in the worst way! We thought he looked like Don King, a troll or maybe one of those old pencil toppers that had the hair. What do you think? Do we have a celebrity lookalike??? LOL!

Last night was Friday Night Sew-In and I got a couple of things accomplished. I did get the binding finished on this HUGE quilt for mom. She was very happy to get it and it was finally finished. It has the softest muslin on the back and is so soft.

I also got this little wall hanging loaded on the frame. I thought I would get it quilted last night because it was so small but I was wrong. First I tried to use invisible thread and that was a mess. I couldn't see to thread my machine and then I needed to adjust my tension for that and I really didn't want to mess with that last night, so I just changed the thread!!! Now the purple thread looks great but it is a different weight than I usually use and the bobbin is not perfect. So today I will adjust it a little and hopefully get it done!!!

And not to leave out Jazz and Donkey....Jazz all clean and brushed after his bath.
And my precious Donkey....as you can see he can't get comfortable. He has a tube on both sides so it makes it hard for him to lay. He is still fevered but not as bad as he was. He is eating good so that makes me happy. He goes back to the vet on Monday to have it flushed out again.
Have to go to the grocery store. :( Richard will be taking me since our road is soooooo slick and it makes me too nervous to drive when it is like this. But I also don't like him going to the store with me. When he does we end up getting very little on my list, more junk food and he is always in a hurry! Anyone else have a husband like this????

Kristie

Bouncing Around

After sorting through a few things yesterday I decided late last night to work on something quick! I know I had several other things that I should have finished up first but you know me, I just bounce back and forth. So I dug those purple scraps back out and made this little thing. It measures roughly 24x24 and since the scraps were all different sizes I just strip pieced it and then just threw the leftover pieces in the big crate with my other strings and strips. Not sure what I will do with it but maybe I will think of something. I also cut the binding for it and will probably quilt it soon, I should be able to find a small piece of scrap batting to use for it.

Mom, Hunter and I left early this morning around 8:30 for her doctor's appointment. All went well, he said she was doing fine now. We had a few hours to kill before her physical therapy appointment later in the afternoon. So first we stopped by McDonald's because Hunter thinks that is the only place that he can eat. :( I don't like McDonald's at all but we stopped anyway. After lunch we stopped by two furniture stores. I will be needing a new couch when we move in the new house so I just wanted to look around to get some ideas. I found one that I really liked, nothing fancy but felt like it might hold up for a while with Hunter bouncing on and off of it. You know how kids are...you tell them to be easy and sit down and that just makes them rougher. Anyway...if it is still there when I go to buy that is the one that I want.

By the time we got home from her physical therapy it was going on 4pm. I am sooooooo tired and I know she is too. So I didn't really feel like dragging out anything major to work on this evening so I decided to start something new.... :( LOL! I am making a tablerunner out of wrapped cotton clothesline. I was doing fine until Richard walked by and said "Oh! Are you making a rug?" Hmmmm....it does sorta look like a rug doesn't it? Anyway it is still rather small right now as you can see it by my machine. So I will work on it over the next couple of days. Who knows what it will end up being, a rug or a tablerunner. I will just sew on it until I get tired of it and just call it done then. One thing that I don't like about it is that I changed colors on the side instead of the end. I think if I had done it on the end it wouldn't have been so noticeable, but after it is all finished it may not be that noticeable.

I think I'm going to go take a HOT soaking bath. My right hip and leg is throbbing from so much walking and sitting today.

Kristie

Lot's Of Sewing

Thanks for all the nice comments about Andrew's big buck! He was still excited this morning. He was jabbering away before he left for school! I'm sure he will tell all of this buddies today.

Yesterday I finished up the customer quilt. Kris said that is was fine to post about it on my blog. This quilt was made by her great grandmother so it was an honor to quilt it for her. Now I just have to clip the threads and get it on it's way home. I sure hope you are pleased with it, Kris.
This is a shot that I took from underneath the frame! I used the "Chantilly Lace" design on it.

Here is the view from my sewing room window that I took yesterday. It was such a beautiful day.
This morning after cutting up the deer tenderloin and grinding up a bunch of it for burger and sausage....I quickly sewed this together for my 7 yr old niece. She loves Peace Signs so I thought this fabric would be perfect for her.

It is very bright! :) I had the purple fabric in my stash and had plenty of it so I did the borders, cut the backing and the binding. Here it is all ready to be put on the frame. I promise the purple thread matches, it looks so dark in the photo.

After that I sewed together this cute little wallhanging!
It was actually a block in the magazine that I bought the other day
I thought the block was so cute so I added another border to it to make a small wallhanging. It measures 18 1/2" Now I just need to applique around the frog, quilt it, bind it and it will be done!

Now I am tired!!! :) Off to finish supper!!!

Kristie