On the design wall...

I got half of the shirt blocks up on the design wall.

I'm sure I will move some around before I start sewing them together.  In the end it will be 84x96.  Do you think it needs a sashing or just like this?  I have a million men's shirts!  I really need to put them to good use.  I think I have 3 large totes full.  A little thrift store in town has all you can fit in a trash bag for $6.  I usually get all that I can find that are good quality which is around half a bag.  

I think I will take the Christmas tree down tomorrow.  I love Christmas but I'm just ready for the decor to be put away.  

A little pic of Everleigh...  she's not feeling well today.  

Back to quilting... I know that I have been working on a few UFO's lately but I think I'm ready to cut out something new!  I'm just ready for a new project.  I got a bolt of beautiful solid Poppy Red in the shop the other day.  I would really like to use it in a red and white quilt.  Nothing fancy just simple.
 

Working on some UFO's...

I've been trying to finish up some UFO tops that are almost complete.  Seems like a have several like that.  In my last post I was working on this sunflower scrap quilt, just trying to use all of those scraps up.  I got the top completed and I think it ended up being 64/72.  I also picked up a backing fabric for it.  Now it will go into the pile to be quilted.   Sorting through some stuff I swear if I didn't find more of these scraps.  I had a few leftover blocks from this so I will put them with the scraps and maybe make a baby quilt.

I listed a few of my close to finished UFO's and I have been drawing them out one by one.  

So after getting the sunflowers ready for quilting, I pulled another UFO.  This time it was this Cheddar and White 9-Patch on point. 

The lighting was not the best in this photo, but they are solids.  The solid cheddar and solid white I have in my shop.  I think this 9-patch on point makes a nice crisp design.  All that I needed to do was trim up the top and add the cheddar border.  This is another huge quilt.  I think it was 104" square.  I also cut cheddar for the binding and now it will go into the pile for quilting.  I plan on using a solid white backing.

Then I pulled another from the pile of UFO's.  This time it was this 30's Star.  I love this one!  

They all need pressing since they were just folded and in a tote.  Anyway all this one needed was also a border.  Nothing fancy just a solid white border.  I didn't measure but if memory serves me right then it's about the same size as the other one. 104" square.  

I am itching to start something new!  I'm trying not to until I get a few more UFO's ready for quilting but it's hard.  LOL!  I got this beautiful bolt of Poppy Red in the other day and I am dying to use it in a red and white quilt.  

I probably will not work on anything else until after Christmas.  So I have a few days to make a decision on what I will work on.  

I probably will not have another post out until after Christmas.  Merry Christmas!!!!!  May you all have a wonderful and Blessed Christmas! 

 

  

Using it up!

Hey it's me!!!  It's been a while.  

Since I have all of my customer work finished for the rest of the year, I decided to do some sewing for myself.  

I had these blocks cut for a long time.  It was time to get rid of this little pile of leftover sunflower and bee fabrics.  I've made several customer quilts out of this fabric and I just want to use the rest up and get rid of it.  😄

I had the 4 Patch Flip pattern cut with the remaining scraps.  A very simple pattern that goes quickly.

After a few hours of sewing this is what I had on my design wall.  All of the blocks are made but not yet assembled into a top.  I will probably move some blocks around before I sew them together.  

I haven't figured out the size yet but it will end up being a large lap.  Even after that, I still have some of this fabric left.  😩

Hopefully, I can get it assembled soon.  With Christmas just a few days away and 4 anxious granddaughters, it might be after Christmas.  

Family/Life....

We got our first snow for the season today.  Just about an inch.  

I will leave you with a precious photo of Everleigh.  She was helping me make pumpkin rolls for Thanksgiving.  Look at this smile, it's priceless!  She loves helping me in the kitchen.

I'm putting it on my schedule to post a couple of times a week.  I miss this....

So many projects....

 A few more pinwheels on the design wall.  Of course, I will not put them all up there since I need like 140+ of them.  Still many more to go.  

I'm just sewing a few at a time between other projects.  Trimming and pressing as I go.  My ironing board seems to stay full of something that needs pressed.  LOL!

I've been working on more embroidered rope bowls.  I have a craft show coming up on October 8th but I also have orders coming in right and left.  Yesterday one lady ordered 9 bowls.  

I know it looks like just a messy pile but it's all that I can do right now.  LOL!  

I have been moving from machine to machine.  I pieced the bowls on my Janome since it has a nice zigzag stitch.  The blue painters tape marks how large that I need the bottom circle to be so that it fits in the embroidery hoop.  

Then I move it to the embroidery machine.  While the embroidery machine is running and doing it's thing I am piecing pinwheels on my Juki TL2010Q.  Then after the base finishes embroidery, I then go back to the Janome and finish sewing the sides of the bowl.  So basically I am just jumping from machine to machine.  

Oh and all the while I have this shirt memory quilt spread out on the floor waiting to be sewn together.  

Oh and I also need to finish up a Denver Bronco rag quilt as soon as I clear some space to do that.  LOL!

On Monday, Everleigh, mom and I had lunch out.  Mom has to have a little procedure on Wednesday so she had to have a Covid test beforehand.  Everleigh enjoys getting out with us.  She gets a little car sick but she can't help that.  We just try to go slow and do the best we can with it.  She is doing some better with it.  She is such a good little girl and doesn't cry and fuss.  I believe her favorite food is pinto beans.  :)  

So Hunter got a haircut today!  This was his hair a few months ago

Then he went to this, which I took this pic this morning before he got it cut.

This is the end result!  Either way he is handsome and will always be my baby boy.  

And a pic of Hunter and Richard when Richard got home from work.

Oh and I will leave you with this adorable pic of my little nephew Tucker.  Chantal brought him up to play with Everleigh today.  They play so well together.  He is just the cutest little guy.

So I guess I need to close this post and get to work sewing...

Memory Quilts and Pinwheels...

Lots of quilting in the works!  I pieced a few more pinwheels for one of the customer quilts.  He wants it by Christmas so I'm just piecing a few here and there until I get a few of these other quilt orders done.  I'm also using the pieces for leaders and enders.  

Just really running them through a few at a time and laying them on the ironing board and pressing them as I get a chance.  These are 8" blocks.  

Saturday and Sunday I worked on cutting and prepping some shirts for a memory quilt.  I have a lady that wants 2 full size quilts made from her husband's shirts.  Each quilt will have 25 blocks and then a border.  I got all of the shirts cut apart and stabilizer on half of them.  

I will embroider on one block of each quilt his name and dates.  

A few posts back, I showed a couple of little blankies and a dino quilt that I did for my nephew, Tucker.  Chantal sent me a couple of pics of him with them.  

Everleigh and I will be going to Ashland with mom and Monday.  She has to have a little procedure on Wednesday and has to have a Covid test before.  Hopefully after I get back I can start piecing on the memory quilt #1.  I have several projects due before Christmas.

 

After 6 years...

 I'm so excited!!!  I finally loaded my Courthouse Steps on the longarm!!!

 I snapped this quick pic of it as I was loading it on the longarm.  She's a big one.  I'll have to check again but I think it measures something like 92x100...maybe even larger.  LOL!  It is made with 6" blocks and each strip finishes at 3/4" wide.  There are 224 blocks in this quilt. 

 Now here's the bad news...LOL!  I am quilting it using a panto called, "Lot's of Leaves"  This panto is very dense and measures 15" wide so there is a lot of quilting in this.  So much so that I run out of bobbin before I even get to the other end of the quilt.  Anyway...I got one pass with the longarm quilted and then I broke a needle at the very end of that first row.  Now everything is all out of whack!  :(  Skipping and bad stitches.  :(  So now I will have to probably reset the timing on it.  Oh well, I will probably do that today after Church. 

 Before I loaded my Courthouse Steps on the longarm yesterday morning, I finished up this customer quilt.  The pic is a little dark but it was before daylight and the lighting was not that good.  You know me...I don't sleep a lot, just a little here and there.

 This quilt was hand pieced by a childhood friend of my brother's.  Actually he lived about a mile away from us when we were growing up.  I've quilted several of his quilts.  I don't think you can go wrong with a bow tie.  It is one of my favorite traditional blocks.

I need to get the binding sewn on this bow tie quilt and also the purple I-spy quilt that I did the other day.  Don't know if I mentioned it or not but the purple one is sold as soon as I get the binding done.  

Coming up this week...Hunter has an orthodontist appointment on Monday.  Thursday is payday so I will run errands and grocery shop that day.  Also I need to get my Courthouse Steps off the longarm and load on some customer quilts.  I have two more that will be dropped off sometime this week but I also have several here that I need to do as well.  I have 5 king size tops from one lady that need quilted.  I also have 2 t-shirt quilts that need pieced and quilted for customers.  I need to make 2 Cross Memory quilts for a couple of people.  Of course, all of that is not going to get done this week but at least over the next few months.  Oh and my SIL has 4 or 5 quilt tops that need quilted.  Not sure when she will be ready for me to quilt them but I already have them on the list to do.  Hmmm...it seems like I am forgetting a few.  LOL!

So much progress!!!

 Guys!  I am on a ROLL!!!! 

 Two more of my quilts are quilted and off the list!!!  My goal for 2018 is to quilt 15 of my own tops.  I have now quilted 6!!!!!  So I'm off to a good start.  

This is the purple strippy quilt that I pieced not too long ago.  After I quilted it, I posted a pic of it on my FB page and it SOLD!!!  I had a friend ask if it was for sale, I priced it and she wants it!!!  YAY!  Now I just need to get the binding sewn on over the next few days.  It measures 54x74.

 Next I quilted this Scrappy Snowball top of mine.  I pieced this top 18-20 years ago.  It felt great to finally get it quilted.  I was going to quilt a panto on it but honestly it wasn't pieced the best in the world and I wasn't sure if I would have some issues when quilting it.  I ended up just quilting it with a stipple. 

 I'm thinking that a lot of these older tops of mine will end up being quilted with a stipple just to get them done quickly.  This one measures 72x72. 

 I love this scrappy pattern so I think that I will piece another one of them soon.  

So today after Church I will probably work on some binding.  Maybe do the binding on the purple one.  I would also love to load another one of mine on before Monday comes as I need to get started on a customer quilt.  I'm pretty pleased with my progress on my own quilts so far.  I hope to get my goal of 15 done before Fall because around that time I will start getting my Christmas rush of customer quilts and then I will not have time to do my own.  

Around the farm....we don't have city water here, we have a drilled well.  We also live near a fault line and that messes with our well.  A few years ago we had to have it redrilled because it caved in.  That was redone and cased all the way down.  As things shift we sometimes have less water than usual.   So Richard has been working this weekend on a cistern type thing for a back up water source.  He fixed a set up that has water from our gutters going into a water tank that has a pump and we can switch over and use if when needed.  Of course, this water is treated and filtered so it's good water.  Actually, I used it a lot last night.  I think this is going to work out well for us.  Right now we just have it going into a 325 gallon water tank but we hope to be able to do a more permanent tank when we can.  We are hoping to get a 1000-1500 gallon tank.  I'm so grateful that Richard is so handy. 

Piecing right along...

 Well, I really didn't mean to work on this but I have been. :) 

 I've been busy the past few days doing other things and the few minutes that I am getting in the sewing room I have been sewing these 2" squares together. 

 I now have 9 of these blocks.  Each block has 64 squares in it.  So far that is 576 of these 2" squares.  I sure hope that I don't run out of scraps before I get all of these scrap quilts finished.  LOL!  

 I've just been busy doing farm things and things in the house...you know....just being a housewife.  :)  Yesterday I also canned 7 quarts of chili for Andrew.  He likes to take them to work and splits a quart for lunch and finishes it up for dinner.  He works long hours.  

Richard is off today so we are heading out this morning to buy him another pair of work shoes.  He is a nurse and on his feet 12 hours a day, 6 days a week so his shoes breakdown pretty fast.  So off we go to do that in a few minutes.  Actually, we are having our coffee and I still need to finish getting ready.  He is off today but works the rest of the weekend.  

Sadly we lost our dear friend and eldest deacon of our church.  We live in such a small rural area that everyone knows everyone and has for generations back.  Uncle June as everyone called him had a stroke on his 96th birthday.  :(  The man still drove his car almost everyday and lived on his own.  He was also a WWII vet, mason and a whole list of things.  He was such a wonderful man.  His visitation is Saturday evening and the funeral is on Sunday.  

Sorry this post isn't that interesting but it's just my life.  LOL!  I do have lots of sewing goodness coming up.  I have a couple of my quilts coming up that will be on the longarm, more customer quilts being quilted and also some custom customer quilts that I need to make.  

I Absolutely LOVE Scraps!!!!

 I love scraps!  I enjoy working with scraps more than a controlled set of fabrics.  I'm always afraid that I am going to mess up and not have enough of what I need.  I don't think I could ever get enough scraps!  For the couple of you that have sent me scraps, please know that I enjoy them more than anything.  I get so excited when digging through them. 

 I did get a little bit of sewing done yesterday.  Not a whole lot but a little.  :)  First, I straightened up my sewing room and then I hated to get a bunch of stuff out and make a mess so I just worked on what I had nearby. 

 I actually got 3 of these pieced.  I had a couple of them on my design wall for a long time.  These are made with 2" squares.  If you notice most of my quilts are made with scraps!  I just love them!

I now have 5 of these 12" blocks.  To make a quilt that is 96x96, I will need 64 of them.  It is very doable, it will just take me a little while.  I have a basket of 2" squares sitting beside my machine so they are easy to grab.  

 I also pieced a few of these Windmills.  These are fast and fun!  It takes longer to cut them out than it does to sew them together.  LOL!  Again....more scraps!  I just love them!

 After pressing, I counted and added them to my pile.  I now have exactly 300 of them!!!!  I need 528 to make the size quilt that I want.  Sooo...that's 228 more to go!  I do think that this will be my constant leader and ender project until it is finished.  I will need to cut more of them soon.  These also stay in a little basket beside my machine. 

 Most of my quilts are made from scraps and I just love them.  I began sewing with my mom's scraps and just fell in love with them.  Then when I started buying my own fabrics I would buy something like a 1/4 yard to give me more of a selection because at the time I was a single mother and didn't have a lot of extra money to spend.  

Anyway....enough about scraps, I guess.  I still haven't left the house and Hunter has been out of school all week.  Richard is the only one that is getting in and out of this holler.  I'm just not brave enough to drive off the hill.  Richard is off work this weekend so he is taking me to the grocery store this morning and running errands with me.  :)  I'm sure he is going to love that but he doesn't want me driving either.  It is supposed to warm up this weekend so I'm hoping all of this will melt.  

I got so much done!!!!

 Yesterday was the most productive day that I've had in a very long time!  I got oodles done!!!   Do you remember the string strips that I pieced a few weeks ago?  Well...they are now a completed quilt top. 

 I cut all of the purple and sewed it all together.  This quilt measures 54x74 so it's not a bad size. 

 The binding is cut and ready to go on after quilting.  I also found the perfect purple Glide thread to quilt her with.  :)

 This is actually the first quilt that I worked on for the day.  I loaded this jean quilt top on the longarm at around 5:45am.  :)  This quilt is pieced with jean shirt fabric.  Years ago I found some jean shirt sleeves at a thrift store that were from a shirt factory.  I bought them, cut them up and sewed them together.  I bet this quilt top has been laying around waiting to be quilted for 15 years.   It measures 64x64.

 I backed it with this blue plaid flannel that I've had for a very long time too.  I quilted it with a blue Glide thread. 

 Last but not least...I got the borders sewn on to my Churn Dash. 

 Now that the borders are on this one, it measures 70x82. 

 So in the end....I got one quilted and two ready to be quilted!!!!

I am very pleased with all that I got done yesterday!!!  It felt really good but in the back of my mind I kept thinking of the HUGE t-shirt quilt that I needed to load on the longarm.  :(  That did not get done.  :(  

I don't drive in the snow let alone ice and since Richard had to work and couldn't drive me, Hunter and I didn't go to Church yesterday.  :(  I so enjoy going but I decided to just hibernate.  Our water froze so I didn't have water until late last night after Richard got home.  

Richard is off today so I probably will not get as much done today.  LOL!  I love him to death but it seems like I don't accomplish anything when he is home.  :)