Men's Shirts and UFO's...

We had a wonderful Christmas with the family.  All 4 of the grandkids were here.  We are very Blessed.

I decided to work on a few more UFO's before starting something new.  I figure I will keep doing this until I get tired of them again.  :)  The first UFO that I worked on was this...

I had some of these blocks finished.  My original plan was to make a larger quilt with these but at this point I've decided to turn it into a baby quilt.  I think I figured up that I needed 16 more blocks to do that.  

A little more digging and I found another one in red.  

I'm not sure if this one will end up as a baby quilt too but maybe a little larger since I have several blocks already cut for it.  

So while deciding completely on these I worked on another one.  :)  This one I intended for it to be a huge quilt.  Blocks are made from men's shirts and a solid white background.  Blocks measure 12" finished.  My plan is for a 7x8 setting.  I needed 19 more blocks to make a total of 56.  I got those finished!!!  YAY!  I forgot to mention that all of the blocks are red, white and blue...mostly reds.

Also in the tub with these blocks was a few bow tie blocks also made from men's shirts.  I don't remember starting those but I figure I will eventually finish it up.  

I had 12 of these 8" blocks.  Maybe it will end up being a lap quilt or something.  

I'll pop back in later in the week to show you a little more progress.



 

Rag Quilts and Dinosaurs

 I've had a pretty productive day!  YAY!  Saturday night I got all 48 blocks sewn for the Dallas Cowboy rag quilt that I am making for a customer.  

Sunday afternoon I got it all sewn together!  Now I just need to clip the seams and get it washed.  I will probably clip the seams while watching Everleigh through the day.  I can do that while sitting in the recliner.  She is such a good little girl and not hard at all to keep up with.  

I didn't get pics of them but I made 2 I guess you would call them small receiving blankets for my nephew Tucker.  He is 2 months older than Everleigh.  He likes to carry his blankets around and he steps on them and falls so I made him some very small ones from flannel that I had with Ninja Turtles on them.  He seemed to like them really well.  

I also quilted up this yard of dinosaur fabric and got the binding done on it as well for him.   

I'm going to have a busy week.  Everleigh and I will go pick up the bathroom tile in the morning.  I have to meet with another lady later in the week about piecing a quilt for her.  She has it cut out and she said it was just squares.  Also some other quilty stuff like another rag quilt and if I get time some crafty stuff for the next craft show.  Not enough hours in the day!  LOL!  I'm sure we all know how that is.  

A gift and an order for two more...

I pieced this baby quilt over the weekend.  Andrew's first cousin on his dad's side has a baby girl due any day.  I still have a good relationship with most of my former in-laws and family.  LOL!  Anyway, his cousin Chris is just a couple years younger than Andrew and he's such a nice young man.  I wanted to make a quilt for the new baby.  I think they are inducing her on Thursday the last that I heard. 

 

A dear friend of mine sent me the Wing Clipper Ruler for flying geese.  I really wanted to try it out so it was the perfect time to make the baby quilt.  So much easier than the old way and they could put pretty close to perfect.  I put my back out over the weekend so it was slow going for me.  I got it pieced and quilted it yesterday morning.  I will send it by Andrew to the new baby when she arrives.

I posted a pic of it on FB yesterday and my SIL's mom (my brother's wife) asked me to make TWO of them for her.  She needs them as gifts later this summer for a set of twins...a boy and a girl.  So it worked out well for this pattern.  :)

Sunday, Andrew turned 26!  Oh my where has time gone?  Shew.... hard to believe.  I'm so proud of the young man that he is.  He works 100 hours a week and I've tried and tried to get him to cut down some.  He works hard and saves almost every dime.  :)  He and his girlfriend, Hannah were here Sunday evening after work.  I made him a Key Lime Pie.  That is his favorite and I make it every year because that is what he wants.  I also made chocolate cake for the ones that didn't like pie.  :)  

I mentioned that I put my back out.  I've been on the couch with a heating pad for a few days now.  I did get that baby quilt quilted but then I was back on the heating pad for most of the day.  It's getting a lot better...not perfect but better every day.  So yesterday while on the couch I was on Pinterest way too much.  LOL!  I have so many customer quilts and so many quilts that I want to make and not enough time to do it all.  I'm sure we are all like that.  

Oh I started a new applique quilt.  I'm just going to work on it between customer quilts.  It is a purple tulip design.   The blocks are 22" so they are big.  I have one pressed on the background with heat-n-bond but haven't stitched it down yet.  I'll post a pic of that tomorrow.  

Before I close I want to thank everyone for the wonderful comments about my published quilting.  A few of you were "noreply" so I couldn't respond.  It was a fun experience that I really enjoyed.  

Feeling Accomplished!

 I feel like I got a lot accomplished yesterday!!!  YAY!  I am exhausted but I was well satisfied when the day was over!  Then I got in bed and a million things went through my mind that I needed to do.  LOL!  

First off, I watched my 2 nephews and my niece for about 9 hours...ages 11, 8, and 2.  They were really good and I always enjoy spending time with them even though they exhaust me.  :)  So while watching the 3 kids, I pieced this very simple baby quilt.  I know it is hard to see the cream background fabric against the design wall. 

 You can it a little better here.  Nothing at all fancy but I'm hoping it has great meaning to them.  The plaids are from shirts that belonged to the great grandfather.  I made a Cross memory quilt last year and I had a few leftover pieces.  The baby's father, Ryan was very close to his grandfather and really took it hard when he passed. 

 The baby shower is October 28th so I still have a little time left to quilt it.  I hope to throw it on the frame between customer quilts.  I'll probably just do a simple stipple or something like that.  I think I will use this blue minkee for the backing only because I already have it.  :)

 I took photos of all three of the kids but the others turned out a bit blurry.  This is Addie (messy hair as she just woke up from her nap) She was so proud of working her puzzle.  Love that precious little smile.  Love all 3 of those kids! 

 If you look folded on the back of the couch is one of my quilts that needs the binding sewn down on it.  I thought I would sew on that while I watched the kids but I never touched it!  LOL!  This is the same quilt that I took to the beach in July and planned on doing the binding then....but never touched it then either!  LOL!

Also while the kids were here, I peeled and canned 14 pints of pears!  Someone gave my MIL some pears and she sent them on to me.  I already canned pear butter a few months ago so I just canned these in a light syrup. 

 For giggles....here is a little more of my canning.  Pears, jellies, jams, apple butters, peach butters, pear butters, candied apple sauce and who knows what else in there.  :)  Bottom shelf has pints of pickles, green tomatoes, green beans w/mushrooms, carrots, carrots & potatoes. 

 More pints...carrots & potatoes, beets, chicken vegetable soup, salsa, sweet potatoes, banana peppers, and fried apples.  Under the towels on the bottom is some of my kraut!  This does NOT even show my QUARTS of goodies that I also have canned.  I'll get a pic of those later. 

 So in the end it was a good day.  I was very tired but happy.  

Today...cook, clean, quilt....story of my life.  LOL!  Actually, I have to take Hunter for a haircut and then he wants to take his girlfriend out for lunch.  Since he is 15 and can't drive, I will be taking them.  :) 

Two Memory Quilts

 A dear friend of mine contacted me several months back asking if I could make a Cross quilt out of her father's shirts that had passed away.  I've made several of these memory quilts and she had saw one and wanted one as well.  

I pressed, cut the shirts and pieced this memory top of her.  Then I quilted it on the longarm.  I forgot the name of this quilting panto that I used but I love the texture that it gave the quilt.

 A close up view...

 She was very pleased with the final result and asked me if I had enough leftover shirt fabric to make a baby quilt for her grandson that is on the way.  She sent me a pic of what she had in mind so this is the end result.  Btw...his name starts with a "H"

 She loved it and so did her daughter.  I quilted this one with a star design.  The backing is a minke and it quilted up nicely. 

 I've spent most of the day on the couch again dealing with blood pressure issues.  Sadly I didn't even go to Church today, I just wasn't up to it.  Anyway, I have planned all day to work on some EPP while I have some downtime but I honestly just didn't have the energy to even do that.  I will say that my BP is still running crazy high but I am feeling a tad better tonight.  

So I guess that is all for this post.  I have so many quilts (past and present) to share with you.  

I finished the gifts just in time....

 Chantal's baby shower was Saturday and it when very well!  She was tired but very happy and excited with all of the friends and gifts.  Here is the cake that was made by Chantal's grade school teacher for her shower. 

I finished up my sewing at around midnight Friday night!  LOL!  Nothing like waiting until the last minute to finish things.  Here are the gifts that I made for baby Addison.  

First up...the puff/bubble quilt...

 I made 25 hair bows!  I bought this hair bow holder at Hobby Lobby 50% off and it cost me $8.  It worked out well to clip the hair bows on. 

 Modern 4-patch flip backed with minkee. 

 Colorful Scraps quilt made with pindot fabrics.

 Pink polka dot Chevron quilt....

 10 Flannel burp cloths... 

55 suckers!!!!  These were party favors.  :)

 It was a great day!  We had lots of fun with friends and family.  She got a ton of wonderful gifts!  She has 7 more weeks to go!!!!   In the end, Chantal, mom and I were all exhausted!  LOL!  Now that I have all of this baby stuff finished up I can get back to working on something that is NOT PINK!  LOL!  I would like to finish assembling my bow tie top but, today I will try to finish painting the nursery!  :)  

Pink Chevron...

 I made some progress yesterday!  I finished the quilting on this baby quilt.  

 

 I have the binding cut.  Now I just need to get the binding sewn on before Saturday and also finish up my puff quilt. 

 While I was working on all of this, I needed a small break so I grabbed my bow ties that were beside my machine and assembled 20 more blocks.  I'm loving this quilt and I hope to have it completely assembled real soon.  I need 120 of these blocks and that will be a total of 1080 of those little 3" bow ties! 

 We had more busted water pipes today!  :(  I'm sure that is not exactly what Richard wanted to work on when he got home late this evening.  The weather here in KY has just been crazy.  It is getting a little depressing but I keep trying to remind myself that spring will be here soon and we usually don't have weather like this in KY.  It could always be worse.  

On this day 22 years ago at 9:25pm, I gave birth to my first born son, Andrew.  I was in a bad marriage at the time but my world forever changed for the better.  He was and still is my world.  We stuck together like glue back in those days and to this day we have a bond that is so very strong.  I am so proud of him and the young man that he has become.  My boys are my world and I can't imagine life without them.  Soooo...here is a photo of Andrew at 10 months old...1st. Christmas.  Those eyes still light up my world.  

Here he is when Richard and I got married.  He walked me down the isle.  In this photo he is standing beside Richard's brother, Claude.  It was funny, they stood there the whole time talking about monster trucks as that was what Andrew as obsessed with at the time.  Richard and I were laughing the whole time because as we were saying our vows we could hear Andrew talking about those monster trucks. 

Richard has to work again today.  So Hunter and I will just try to deal with the snow and cold temps....I will do a little sewing and he will do a lot of eating!  LOL!  Wow!  He has officially hit that eating stage that boys hit when they want to eat you out of house and home!  :)  
-Kristie

Almost finished....

 Brrr.....it has been sooooo cold here in KY!!!  We got a ton of snow here last week and it is still hanging on.  It doesn't look like I will be getting off this hill until Spring!  :)  I mentioned in my last post that Richard was only able to get to the bottom of the hill and had to ride the 4 wheeler on up the hill to the house.  It is just crazy!  The forecast for Tuesday morning is -17 degrees with -35 windchill!!!  Can you believe that for KY?  Had some busted water pipes too.  :(

Anyway....working on trying to finish up things for the baby shower that is scheduled for this weekend.  Hoping that they will actually plow our road.  As long as I have lived up here, they have never plowed it when it snows but they are supposed to do it when they can get to it because my sister is 32 weeks pregnant and you just never know when and if she needs to get out and go to the hospital.  

I finally got the puff/biscuit/bubble quilt assembled.  I still need to add a backing to it and I'm thinking that I will add a RUFFLE around the edges.  Not a real big ruffle but a soft ruffle that is not real full.  Maybe....maybe not....I'll just wait and see when I get started on it.  :) 

 The puffs are stuffed really full as that is how Chantal wanted them.  :) 

 I'll post another photo of it once I add the backing and ruffle. 

 I also made 5 more hair bows!  I think this makes around 20 of them that I have made for the baby.  I will have to count to make sure but I think it is around 20. 

 I have also been working on some hexies.  :)  Just plugging along with these when I need a break from this other stuff. 

 It is 4:45am right now and Richard is up getting ready for work this morning.  The news says that the roads are solid ice so please say a little prayer that he gets to work safely.  

Hunter and Richard got out on the 4 wheeler yesterday playing around in the snow.  I think they both had a blast.  Richard was pulling him on the inner tube in the snow.  :)
-Kristie

Snow and puffs...

 Well I'm snowed in on top of this mountain!  LOL!  I'm doing a lot of sewing but not a whole lot.  I'm finding that I'm not really getting a lot accomplished other than sitting here and watching the fire burn and taking a few naps.  :)  I have worked a little bit on this puff/biscuit quilt for Addison.  The baby shower is in 9 days and I'm not even close to having it finished.  :(

I also worked on a few hexies.  This is an old pic but it never really changes.  LOL! 

Shew....we ended up with over 12" of snow!!!  :(  Richard had to work yesterday and we have a Jeep Wrangler that is 4WD but a 4WD still doesn't mean that it will go everywhere!  LOL!  I've mentioned several times that we live at a place called, "top of the world" and that is pretty much it!  We live on top of a big ridge with lots of hills and curves on a tiny backroad.  Richard had a little trouble getting off the hill yesterday morning but he did get off.  Getting home this evening was a different story.  There are 2 ways to come in to our place from the blacktop road.  The shortest way is about a mile away from the house and that is the way that he went out this morning.  He couldn't even get up the first hill so he turned and tried coming in the other way which is about a 3 mile drive from the blacktop to our house.  So he got to my sister's house which is at the bottom of the big hill and couldn't get on up in the Jeep.  He parked at her house and brought the 4 wheeler (ATV) on up to the house.  

He has to work again this morning so he will ride the 4 wheeler back down the hill to my sister's house and take the Jeep on to work.  Sadly we are supposed to be having record temps in the next few days.  This morning it is supposed to be -10 and the windchill -22!!!!  It is close to that now.   :(  That will sure make for a cold ride down the hill to Chantal's which is a mile away.  He is getting ready to leave in a few minutes.  

Hunter will not have school until Spring!  LOL!  Meanwhile, Hunter and I will spend the day keeping the fire going and waiting for Richard to get back home. 
 -Kristie

Another baby quilt and some hexies!

 Making lots of progress!!!  I got this second baby quilt quilted and the binding is finished!  :)  You can't really tell in this photo but all of these fabrics that were used in this quilt are polka dots.  Now 2 more to quilt and the puff/biscuit quilt needs to be finished and I'm not even close to having it done. 

 Here is the other baby quilt that I showed in the last post.  The binding is also finished on it. 

 I also worked on a few more of my hexies.  I'm not in any hurry to finish this project, it is just something that I work on while watching tv and such. 

 I did get curious to see how many that I actually had finished.  I put them all up on my design wall.  I guess that I will need twice this many in the end.  I roughly measured what I have on the wall and it was somewhere around 66" wide and 53" long.  I would like to have this at least large enough to fit on my bed.  I need a wider range of fabrics too.  I need to work on that.  I also need to decide on how that I want to finish the edges.  Any ideas on that?

 A closer view....

 I have some of them sewn into sets of 2 and some are still singles.  I have a total of 124 of them finished so far. 

I talked to Andrew earlier and he is doing fine, just tired.  I miss him but he does call me after every shift, IF he has cell signal.  He works 12-6am and 12-6pm everyday.  So every 6 hours he is working and the 6 hours that he has off, he is eating and sleeping and does this for 28 days straight.  Needless to say that when he comes home he is exhausted!  Speaking of exhausted, Richard was exhausted when he got home from work last night.  I felt sorry for him.  I thought he would fall asleep before he finished his dinner.  

Also please say a prayer for Richard.  He has a very important eye doctor appointment with the retina surgeons on Wednesday.  When he had his eye exam she saw a spot on his retina.  She said that if it was smooth then she wouldn't be so concerned but this one was not smooth so she was concerned enough to send him to a retina surgeon to make sure that it is not cancer or anything to be concerned about.  
-Kristie 

Baby Quilt #1....quilted

 First of all, I would like to thank you all for the encouraging comments and emails on my last post.  It is hard to completely change your eating habits and exercise but as I mentioned due to health reasons I really have to stick with it.  Shew...trust me, it is NOT easy but I'm doing it.  :)  

I actually got some sewing done!  :)  I quilted this baby quilt that will be a gift for my sister at her baby shower on the 28th of this month. 

 I think she will really like it.  :)  I did get the binding finished after taking this photos.  I did the binding in the darker pink. 

 I did a simple stipple/meander on it.  Nothing fancy but I just needed it quilted so that I could move on to another one. 

 I quilted another one Saturday, I will post about it next time.  That's 2 down and 2 more to quilt and that is not counting the puff/biscuit quilt that I am still working on.  I also need to paint the nursery for her.  I think mom is going to help me.  Then my sister decides that she wants one wall painted with chevrons!  :(  I told her that she was killing me!  LOL!  My sister ordered the bedding for the crib and has all of the wall decor bought too.  Mom and I are going to paint the nursery and I am going to paint the chevron wall and mom is going to sew the valances for the two windows.  A ton of things to do but it is sooooooo worth it!  

My sister is doing well so far with her pregnancy.  She is 30 yrs old and this is her first child.  We are all very excited.  Chantal has a slight heart condition so the doctors are watching her closely.  So far everything is great, she is just extremely tired.  Of course, it is normal to be exhausted during a pregnancy but the doctor said that her medication and heart condition just drains her energy.  She is still working 40 hours a week.  She goes today for another echocardiogram.  We are praying that the results come back good.  Her due date is April 20th.   
Kristie

Pink Chevron...

 I have been prepping more hexies to work on while watching tv.  I have several that are cut and pinned but now they have been tacked and ready to sew together.  If you are wondering why I have a thermometer on the tray...Richard has been sick.  He had a couple rough nights but is feeling much better now, just weak and still no appetite.  Anyway, this tray works really well when working on my hexies and it just keeps everything together. 

 I have not posted for a few days and I have been doing very little sewing.  I am having issues with my BP again.  :(  I have an appointment on Friday.  This was my BP the other morning and I take 2 BP pills a day. 

 This was the next day....when my BP runs high like this it just makes me feel like poo. 

 Today I did sew a few more blocks for the Chevron quilt.  I just put the border pieces up on the design wall to see how it was going to look. 

 I have a few more blocks to make and then I will get it all sewn together. 

 Here is an up close shot of the fabric. 

 That is all that I have accomplished the past few days.  :(  Andrew was supposed to be home Monday but he called and said there was a change in plans and he will be home Tuesday.  I sure miss him!  Then he informed me that he is going to Nashville this coming weekend to a concert!  :(  
Kristie