I'm on a roll...

 I'm on a roll!  I just got this baby quilted and off the frame.  Now I have to dig out the binding and work on that this week.  Glad to have another one marked off my list.  

I guess what I enjoyed the most about making this quilt is the fact that I was able to use some really ugly fabrics in it.  LOL!  

A view of the back.  I really like using that Dazzle design.  I think it is something that I will be using more often.  I just like the texture it gives.  

 I do have several more tops that have the backings ready.  It is funny how I will not use my quilting machine very often to quilt my own and then when I get in the mood I usually quilt several at a time.  I think I have 4 or 5 more that have the backings ready.  I guess next up will be a string quilt.  I'm hoping to get it loaded on tomorrow.  It will probably take me a few days because I want to do some fairly dense quilting on it and I'm slow.  LOL!  First I need to clean and oil my machine real good.  
Kristie

Spiderweb on the frame

 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'm on a roll

 Yesterday was a good quilting day!  I was up early and started quilting on another quilt.  The one on the frame now has lots of applique chickens so I will have to watch and quilt around those.  It also has some buttons and a few beads here and there so I will have to watch about those too.  It is really cute, I would like to keep it.  :)


After it got too hot upstairs to quilt at the frame, I moved my machine downstairs and did a little sewing on a few things of mine. I got all of my spiderweb blocks assembled and the borders sewn on it!  

I'm not real crazy about square quilts but I just couldn't bring myself to make any more blocks for this quilt.  I was just ready for it to be finished.  

If you look close you can see lots of UGLY fabrics mixed in with others.  I was trying to use up some of my uglies.  In the end I am pleased with how it turned out.  

So far this has been a good week, first I finished my Shades of Lilac and then yesterday I finished my spiderweb.  Now...what to work on today......after I quilt at the frame for a bit....
Kristie

Photo Heavy Post...lots to talk about...

Just to warn you, this is a photo heavy post.  Let's just say, I am feeling restless and have lots to talk about and show.  First off let me fill you in on the past few days and then I will get to all the photo stuff.  Feeling a little better each day but when I spoke to my doctor I asked her, "what happened to 2-3 days and all would be back to normal?"  Monday will be 2 weeks ago that I had my surgery and I still feel like crap.  I wasn't please with her answer but she said, "a lot of it probably has to do with your age and also I had more to do once I got in there than I initially thought"  I'm thinking, MY AGE???  Then I started feeling pretty old....  :)  I turned 40 in March and she's got me thinking I'm 80!  LOL!  Oh well...

Richard has been working some night shifts doing his practicum at the hospital so I get pretty lonesome.  It probably wouldn't be too bad if I felt more like doing something.  Hunter has had several friends over since school has been out.  None of them are very hyper, thank goodness!  ;)  Anyway this week he had a friend over on Wednesday.  He is a very good boy and a couple of years older than Hunter.  Richard and I grew up with his father and is mother is a wonderful person too.  Actually, they both are Hunter's Sunday School teachers.  So Wyatt came over and stayed Wednesday and spent the night.  I kicked back on the couch most of the evening and did NOTHING!  Then Wyatt went home on Thursday about 5:30pm.  Richard and Hunter got ready and went to our Thursday night Church service at 7pm.  I did not feel up to going so I kept the couch company.  :)  So when they came home a little after 9pm, Hunter had another friend with him!  LOL!  Another little boy from Church that we are good friends with his parents too.  Hunter and Tyler are also in the same class.  He went home today.  So after a long couple of days for Hunter, he took my couch away from me.  LOL!  He had a wonderful time but he was wore out!

This is right before Richard left for work this evening.  As soon as he left, I got Hunter up and we crawled inn my bed to snuggle and sleep!  We didn't get back up until after 8pm this evening.  I'm sure we will be up most of the night!  Oh well....Richard will get home about 8:30am so we can all sleep in, I guess.

Now on to the quilty stuff.  I ventured upstairs today and oh my goodness I wish that I hadn't!  Ewwww....not only did it feel like crap trying to get up those stairs but this is what I saw when I topped them......

If you remember I was in a big rush to get some of those quilts quilted before my surgery so there was not any time to clean or put things away.  Also since my surgery I had Hunter and Richard up there digging for stuff that I needed to sew on downstairs.  I would like to shove it all out the window and start over!  Is that possible?  This is what it looked like back in March, of course I've moved some stuff around since then but at least it was clean.

So I started here at the couch since it was the cleanest part.  :)  I did get that part cleaned up but had to get Hunter to help me get some stuff out of the floor because it didn't feel very good when I bent over.

As you can see I did make a little progress, but that is about as far as I got.

Then I thought about winding some bobbins so that I could clean off my frame and load a quilt on in a day or two.  I have a few more that need to be done!  So I sat down to do that and oh my goodness, I had planned on ordering thread right after my surgery!  Like I mentioned I worked on quilting some quilts right up to my surgery.  I even had one lady pick her quilt up at the hospital that morning.  Since my doctor said I would be down 2-3 days at the most, don't laugh but I figured I would get online and order thread that evening after my surgery and that would give me something to do.  Well......that didn't happen and I forgot all about the thread.  I am OUT of thread!!  I do have COLORS but what I need for the quilts that I have are whites/creams.  So I will order in the morning and it will take a few days to get here.  Hopefully, I can get my frame cleaned off and a quilt loaded and be ready to start as soon as it arrives.  After all of this, I got a little depressed and sat down to make a plan!!

I have so many things of my own that are almost finished but then I get sidetracked or loose interest before I get it finished.  I made a list of what I need to finish so that I can get them done one at a time.  So here we go.....Remember this?  My spiderweb is still in this state.  Well actually I do have all of the blocks sewn into rows, I just need to sew the rows together and sew the borders on.  As you can see everything is already cut.

And then there is this one, my Hugs & Kisses.  Sorry this photo is sideways but you get the idea.  You can also see it in the photo above with my spiderweb.  I love how this quilt is turning out even though I don't have much of it done.  I also need to dig out stuff to send to a few people that helped me in a swap of fabrics so that I could make this quilt.  I am soooooo far behind on everything.

Now lets move on to this one, my Log Cabin quilt.  This baby is huge!  It is all put together except for the borders.  If you remember I asked your opinions on what border to use.  I had planned on a green border when I started it but in the end I felt like the green that I had was too busy for this quilt and I just couldn't get past that.  I'll save that bolt of green for something else.

I decided on the navy fabric.  I felt that it nicely framed the quilt.  I'm not completely sure but I think I even have the borders cut.  I'll have to check on that, I did see the navy bolt up there today but I'm thinking that I already cut off of it.  Don't want to do that twice.

Here is another one that I'm anxious to get done.  Well, I say anxious but evidently not or I would have had it done by now.  On this one I need to sew the blocks for 2 more rows and sew the borders on and I know they are already cut.

Now my Farmer's Wife blocks!  I love working on these small blocks.  They are the same size as my new Civil War Anniversary Blocks that I started.

Here are those, my Civil War Anniversary blocks that I started after my surgery.  They kept my mind busy.  I think I will keep both of these close to my machine so that I can work on them a little at a time.

Do you remember the other day when I started piecing that baby quilt from scrap and felt like it looked more for a boy than a girl when it was finished?  So I started another one and I wanted it to look completely "girlish"  I'm not done but here is a little peak of it so far....

I'm making this quilt for my little granddaughter, Raelynn Grace.  Isn't she a cute?  Look at those cheeks!!  She will be 7 months old on Sunday.  She belongs to Breanna, Richard's oldest daughter.

Oh I almost forgot, I plan on using some of this bolt of purple for the borders for it, I think it will look nice and bright when it is finished.

I wanted to come up with a baby quilt that looked a little modern and that was a challenge for me since I mostly work with reproductions.  I was disappointed when I finished the other quilt and it looked so "boyish"  I looked and looked for a pattern to use my purple scraps on and I had a certain thing in my mind but couldn't find a pattern online with what I wanted and I couldn't go upstairs to dig though my books and magazines so I just sat down and played around with EQ.  This is my own design so we'll have to see how it all turns out in the end.  I most say it was pretty fun drawing out my own block.

I guess that is all for now.  It is 11:35pm and I'm wide awake from my nap.  It will be a long night.  Not sure if I want to go back upstairs tonight or not.  I may just try to do some laundry, watch some tv and surf the web....  I think I will also schedule this to post first thing in the morning since it is so late tonight.

Night...
Kristie

Weekend update...

Still waiting on my machine but the tracking number shows that it should be delivered TOMORROW!!! That is good news! Actually since I live out in the middle of nowhere, UPS usually doesn't get up here until late in the evening, but that's okay, at least it will be here.

I really haven't been in the mood to sew. I guess I was just stressed over that machine. My spiderweb quilt still looks like this... It hasn't been touched since I last posted. I will probably finish it up in the morning so that I can have it out of the way and my sewing room cleaned up for when my machine arrives.
And since I really don't have anything quilty to show you, I found this quilt that was saved on my computer that I did several years ago. :) Sorry that the photo is sideways but you still get the idea of it. I just love this simple pattern, it goes together so quick and works great with scraps too. I've made a few using this pattern. Now on to other things...Here is a photo of my boys yesterday. I think they were playing games on Andrew's IPhone. I love my kids and I am the happiest when we are all home together. BTW...you can see my log cabin is still hanging on the wall in the background. It is still unfinished. All I have to do it sew the borders on it and the worst part is....I already have them cut, but just too lazy to sew them on. :( Here is Hunter that I just snapped a few minutes ago. He is such a sweetie. After Church this morning, Hunter rode home with a friend to play for a little while and Richard and I drove in to town to visit with his mom and grandmother and make a quick stop by the grocery store. Anyway, Hunter is back home now and Richard is gone to Church for the evening service. I didn't go because I had a slight backache. I know that really isn't a good excuse but still that is why I didn't go tonight.

I mentioned that I stopped by the grocery store while in town, I needed a few HOT peppers. I woke up this morning wanting some Mexican cornbread so bad that I could almost taste it. I had everything except for the hot peppers. It is made and I am just waiting for it to cool just a little so that I can get started eating it. :) That's all for tonight. I'm off to eat some Mexican cornbread....Oh and I will leave you will a photo of the little spoiled girl that I have been babysitting 5 days a week for that past couple of weeks......My sister's dog, Zoey! She is so spoiled. Anyway, she has seizures really bad and they had switched her meds and my sister is afraid to leave her alone while she is gone to work. My doggies love to play with her.
Kristie

Another sleepless night...

Well here it is 4:20am and I have been awake for hours! I think it is really starting to get to me, being without my quilting machine. I did get a little good news yesterday afternoon. My machine was shipped out and should arrive in 5 to 7 days!!! I never imagined that I would be as stressed as I am over that machine, but then again this is my income right now. I haven't even been in my sewing room for 2 days. I do think that today I will go up and clean it so it will be all neat and ready for when my machine does get here.

Did I tell you all that Richard graduates next month??? I am sooooo excited. It has been a long haul for us but well worth it in the end. For those that haven't been with me for that long, hubby lost his job December of 2009. You talk about stress! He lost his job December 2009 and started Nursing school 3 weeks later! I am so proud of him for going back to college at the age of 40, I know that was hard for him, but he did it. He graduates May 12 and that is also our 11th anniversary! So it will be a very special day for us. Even though his graduation date is the 12th of May he will not be finished for another month or so. He has something like 160 hours of clinicals, which he has been having clinicals all along and then lots of testing and boards, stuff like that. So by the middle of summer he should be finished.....I guess.

Now on to the sewing or lack there of...I started piecing together my spiderweb. I'm telling you this is not even a hard pattern but I am having to MAKE myself finish this thing! I think I am just so tired of having it lay around. Anyone else ever feel like that with some of them? I'm really not crazy about square quilts but I just couldn't stand the thought of making 5 more of these blocks. :( So in the end it will be square and measure somewhere around 72 inches. I had the blocks and border strips up on the wall to see how it was going to look and I just wasn't pleased with it. I felt it needed a small inner border to break the red up.

So now I'm thinking that I may add this 2 inch inner blue border in it. I'm not crazy about it but it is what I had in my stash. Oh do you see my Hugs & Kisses blocks at the top? I pieced a few of them to see how it was going to look. So I think after I get this spiderweb top finished I will work on it like I did my log cabin blocks. I did those as I was taking breaks from my quilting machine.

Since these photos I now have all of the blocks sewn into rows. Now I just need to MAKE myself finish it up. It's not like it would take that long to do.

Mom comes home from work on Thursday! Well, maybe I should say Friday since it will be extremely late on Thursday. I think she said the boat would be in St. Louis when she got off of it and that is something like a 8 or 9 hour drive for them to be back here. I'm anxious to see here, I miss her so much when she is gone. I can't wait for her to retire so that we can spend more time together. She is only 58 so she still has a few years before she will be doing that.

I guess I will close for now and maybe do another load of laundry before everyone gets up.
Kristie

What is your opinion?

It has been a long couple of days, my quilting machine is down. :( It has drove me crazy and near tears. I have a customer quilt on the frame that I need to get finished and delivered and I don't like much having it done. My machine just locked up and will not move at all. Anyway, I should have a loaner/demo machine delivered today as mine is being fixed. They assured me that it was fixable. Anyway......other than that this is what has been going on here...

Here is my much needed basket of chocolate! Let's just say that after trying to mess with my machine and being stressed over it, the basket is not this full now. LOL!
As I was upstairs waiting for the repair guy to call 50 times, I wondered around in my sewing room. I did sew a couple of strips together to try out my Hugs & Kisses pattern. Of course, the fabrics will be mixed up a little better, I was just trying to see how it would look. I can't find my white fabric so I will pick that up as I go out in a few days. I really can't do more of this quilt.

I also dug through a few of my UFO's and I have so many that really don't need that much done to them. This one is a spiderweb pieced with scraps. I read the post that I did last year where I had dug it out and worked on it a little bit that I mostly used the ugliest scraps that I had for this quilt. I actually saw a few pieces in there that I wished that I had saved for my Hugs and Kisses quilt. I had 19 blocks pieced and enough paper pieces printed off for another 6 blocks. That would make a setting of 5x5. I would rather have a 5x6 setting but I'm not sure if I want to make the extra blocks or just finish that last 6 and call it DONE. Here is where I placed a few blocks up on my temporary design wall. I still have to sew on my corner pieces for each block but what color do you think I should use? This photo would show you sorta what it would look like with white corners.Here it is with cheddar corners.
Here it is with red corners. The red is not this bright, I think it is just where the light is shinning on it.
So what it your opinion on the corner pieces, white, cheddar, or red? I would like to get this one finished and marked off of my list of UFO's. I actually pieced a few more of the triangle pieces yesterday so it really wouldn't take me but a few days to finish it all.

While I was upstairs most of the day yesterday my babies were up there with me. Most of the time it is just Smokey but yesterday there were all up there. I keep calling them my three stooges. Smokey always sleeps on this quilt, he wants to be wherever that I am at all times.

And last, I snapped this quick little photo of Rev. I realized that I had not posted a photo of him on my blog. This is Andrew's little stud colt that he drove to Tennessee to pick up. He is a Tennessee Walking Horse and has a wonderful championship bloodline. His papered name is "The Revenge of JFK" He is such a sweet little thing. In a few months he will be headed off to the trainer so that he can get ready for the show ring. I'll try to get a better photo of him soon. We now have 6 horses here on the farm. I love them all.
I'm off, I have to get my day started. Richard is getting ready to leave and Hunter is in the shower getting ready for school. I need to clean my sewing room back up so that it will be ready for my loaner machine this afternoon.

Kristie

Lots of sewing going on...

I'm feeling really good about the past couple of days of sewing! I got all of my string blocks pieced and the top sewn together! I'm satisfied with the size of it now, it will fit my bed. I promise that the borders are not that wavy. LOL! Monday afternoon Hunter started asking a million questions about when we could move in the new house. Well we still have a little way to go before we can do that but we made him happy by "camping" in the house. We packed up blankets, pillows, drinks, snacks and a portable DVD player for Hunter and stayed in the house. It was fun! The only room that doesn't have a bunch of tools and saws in it is my sewing room! So we spent the night in my sewing room! Hunter slept on the love seat and Richard and I shared a rollaway bed. Here is Hunter snoozing away...Actually we stayed up there last night too! Maybe that is why I am getting a lot of sewing done! LOL! Here is Festus while I was working on my string quilt, he was wanting some attention.If you look close you can see a place on his nose, I guess he has been fighting again. Last night while we were staying out there I got out my Civil War Wreaths UFO. This was started with a free pattern by Mary. I had to change my color placement a little from the original because of the yardage that I had. I was sorting through the box and I could have sworn that I had more of it cut out and pieced. I put it away because I didn't want to recut what I knew I already had...somewhere.

Next I got out another UFO. My spiderweb blocks. I had several of these done but needed to pieced more of them to get the 30 blocks that I wanted. I want to do a 5x6 setting, that will make a nice bedsize quilt. When I started this quilt I picked the ugliest scraps that I had so that I could get rid of them and use them up. Here I have a few of the blocks out so you can get an idea of how it will look. I still need to purchase fabric for the pieces between the blocks, which are just triangles sewn on 4 corners and a border. Not sure what I want yet but I'm thinking maybe a red. I'll know when I see it. So this one will be set aside until I get the fabric to set it up with and I still have to peel the paper from the backs of them. I'll do that a little bit at a time as I'm watching tv during the evening. That gives me something to do with my hands.

This morning after breakfast we all set in and got the animals fed. Here is Cocoa munching on some leaves. She is so funny! She is my favorite goat! She is so playful, she runs and jumps constantly. Hunter gets her out and plays with her almost everyday. I'm thinking....she may have a baby somewhere along September. We'll have to wait and see...

After breakfast and feeding the animals, I was on a mission to find those missing pieces to my Civil War Wreaths.....I found them!!! As you can see there are a ton of 1/2 square triangles that need to be pressed and the papers peeled from the backs. I do love sewing my triangles on paper they come out wonderfully. So this is what I will be working on. This quilt will be a huge one I think the blocks that I have planned will make it just shy of 100 inches square.
I'm loving that I can actually see what I have to work on instead of having to dig through every tub and tote that I own and destroy the closets in the process. Now I have some major house cleaning to do before I can get back to quilting. :( My sister is picking up a different type of cotton batting for me this evening after work so that I can try it with that antique quilt that I mentioned the other day. I'm hoping this will help, wish me luck! I'm hoping to get it quilted this weekend!!

Kristie