A Special Quilt...

 Roughly 6 weeks ago or so my SIL, Kellie found a panel on Ebay I believe that she fell in love with.  My brother is a huge Civil War buff and she wanted to piece a quilt for their upcoming 19th anniversary. 

 She mostly does English Paper Piecing but is really good at piecing on the machine too but she just doesn't have enough confidence in herself.  I've quilted her machine pieced quilts before and they are good and square.  :)  Sooooo....she told me what she had in mind for the quilt that she wanted to make for my brother.  I told her that I would help her get it assembled. 

 I did cut and frame up the panel and attach it to the surrounding tumblers and she pieced and pieced hundreds of these tumblers.  She did every bit of those tumblers at WORK!  Yep!  At work!  She is a nurse at a peditrician's office and he is awesome about letting them quilt.  There are 3 ladies that work there and all 3 of them do EPP.  He says that as long as all the work is caught up and patients are taken care of that he doesn't mind at all.  He actually encourages them to be productive with something.  LOL!

 So we decided to do a fairly loose stipple and not over quilt the panel.  I also made sure that I quilted around and not over their faces because I didn't want to distort them. 

 She has a ton of awesome fabrics in this quilt.  Their anniversary is Monday April 1st so I figure she will give it to him this weekend.  I told her to video it as I can't wait to see his face. 

 After I got the center panel ready and back to her she sewed like a crazy lady getting all of those tumblers done and back to me.  I then trimmed it up and sewed the outer borders on.  Now like I said, it's not like she didn't know how to do it but she also didn't have a place to actually use the machine and get those sewn on without him seeing it. 

 Oh I forgot it is backed with a brown Minkie and we used Hobb's batting.  I will be doing the binding on it today.  She is so excited to give it to him. 

In the mail yesterday I received this charm pack.  I signed up for a monthly delivery at Green Fairy Quilts for a charm pack each month.  It's $9.99 and FREE SHIPPING!  The charm pack that I got is called Remix.  Not really my style but I'll keep them and use them in something.  :) 

 All for this post...

Beautifully Hand Pieced....

 Yesterday I finished up this beautiful quilt that my SIL, Kellie made.  I love this quilt!  :)

 I forgot the exact measurements but it is a queen size.  It is just lovely!  Completely hand pieced using the English Paper Piecing (EPP) technique. 

 I quilted it with the "Mint Julep" design.  I love this design.

 A close up of the quilting and the minke back.  The back is a dark brown minke and oh so soft.  I love quilting with minke.

 I tried to get her to just let me keep it for myself but she will not agree!  LOL! 

 I trimmed it up and will be doing the binding over the next few days.  

I am loading another one on the longarm so hope to have it done today.

We had a great weekend celebrating Hunter's 16th birthday!  He actually turned 16 last weekend but Richard had to work so we had a cookout/party this past Saturday.  He really enjoyed it!  I enjoyed it as well but was very tired.

Yesterday I worked on quilting things and it will be the same thing today.  

Oh, Oh, Oh....before I forget!!!!  My MIL is having to move to a smaller place and when she came over Saturday for Hunter's party, she asked me if I would like to have Richard's grandmother's sewing machine!!!!  Ummmmm...YES!!!  LOL!  I loved his grandmother dearly and so did he.  It's not "old-old" but I am so excited to have it.  I remember it in her house.  It's in a cabinet so I'll have to find a place for it.  I'm not sure yet but I may go pick it up later this week or next. 

Back to the real world...

We got home late Saturday night so I guess it's time to get things back on track.  :(  Sunday morning we were dragging and sadly we didn't go to Church.  I just couldn't seem to get things going.

I did do a little sewing while on vacation.   I know it's wrinkled but you can still see my progress.  I have several more sewn into strips and I will keep working on it during my down time.  I love EPP and handwork.  

 

 I did pick these fabrics up while on vacation.  Nothing really special.  The dark blue and the red ones are 1 yard cuts.  I thought the little fat quarters were cute and also beach themed...starfish, seashells and such.  Not sure what I will make with them but I need to find a pattern to use them with then pick up some white for background and maybe some light grey as these fabrics have a little grey in them.  A total of 10 fat quarters with 2 of each.  I'll have to find something to make that will remind me of this vacation.

 So this week things should get back to normal and hopefully I can get back to sewing.  I have big plans!  LOL!  We'll see how that goes.  

Richard went back to work this morning.  Mom and Andrew had to go back to work yesterday (Sunday).  :(  They were really tired.  We all had the best time!  14 people in the same house for a week and we all survived.  

A few more vacation pics...  This was as we were leaving early Saturday morning. 

Here we are just goofing off...

Us on the beach....

My world...

That's all for now and back to quilty posts.

The American Flag Quilt...

 Last night I got this awesome American Flag quilt loaded on the frame.  I got the quilting started but it was very hot up there so I stopped. 

 This belongs to a friend of mine.  It's not real big so it shouldn't take me just a few minutes to quilt it.  I'll finish it up this morning before it gets too hot up there and then I will remove it and do the binding today as well.

 I am quilting this with my Becker's Stars or Becker's Shooting Stars panto.  I don't exactly remember the name without going up there to look.  I am also quilting it with Navy Glide thread.

 I also got the binding all hand sewn down on Kellie's hexie quilt and she picked it up after Church yesterday.  She was very pleased with it and my brother was very proud of her. 

 Now for some awesome news!!!!  As most of you all know, I always have issues with my blood pressure and blood sugar.  I've been having a lot of issues for the past month or so.  Anyway, I have been trying really hard to get them both down.  Of course, I do take a ton of medication but they were both still high with the meds.  Yesterday morning when I got up my BP was great and my blood sugar was 109.  I haven't seen that number in I don't know how long.  Then when I checked it again mid-day I knew it was a lot lower because I was feeling shakey and it was 77!!!

 Pay no attention to the date and time as I never set that.  LOL!  Anyway, it was 77 which was A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!  So much better than 500+.  I guess I was feeling shakey because my body is NOT used to it being normal.  LOL!  

Richard is off today and probably needs it.  He had a long day yesterday and worked his 12 hour shift and never even had lunch so he was starved by the time he got home.  I'm sure all nurses know that this happens a lot.  We are supposed to have storms most of the day today so he will be stuck in the house.  

So my plan for today is to quilt and bind the American Flag quilt and maybe even piece a few more of my Fancy Fox blocks.  Oh and I also pieced a few of my EPP casket shapes yesterday but forgot to get a pic of them. 

Trimming up...

 Yesterday I trimmed up my SIL's hexie quilt so that I could start on the binding.  I really didn't have to trim that much off.  I was planning on doing a scalloped edge on it but the hexies just didn't fall right and it would not come out even.  So I will be doing a straight edge.

 Trimming the other side...

 This is how the edges turned out before binding.  This morning I will sew the binding strips together and get them sewn on and then do the handwork. 

 Another pic of this beautiful quilt that she worked so hard on.  The binding is the same as the brown backing.

 Another pic of the back...

 I'm thinking that I am going to have to breakdown and buy a new cutting mat.  LOL!  I've had this one for several years.  This is one of the larger ones and most of the time I just use my rotating mat.

 I also cut a few scraps that will be used for my EPP.  I have a bunch already prepped but I will eventually need these as well.

 Yesterday was a long day!  I woke up at 3:30am wide awake after going to bed at 11:30pm.  No nap at all so by evening I was running low.  I did work on the above quilt, canned the kraut, and did a little cleaning.  

I ended up with 18 more quarts this morning so that makes a total of 64 quarts of kraut!  My house is already smelling like fermenting cabbage.  LOL!  

Today my plans are to mostly work on the binding of the hexie quilt.  I also have to run to town after Hunter gets up so that we can pick something up for Richard for Father's Day.  I also need to load a little Flag quilt on the frame.  I wanted to do that yesterday but it just didn't happen. 

I was thinking last night that after vacation I want to work on one of my UFO's.  I'm thinking I will finish up my Garlic Knots.  I don't even remember how many blocks that I have done.  I know that I have them all sewn together into a quilt top but if I remember correctly it just wasn't as large as I wanted it to be.  So I would like to finish it up soon.  I don't remember if I had decided to sew a border on it or not.  If I do, it will just be a straight border, nothing pieced.  I'll just have to wait and see once I dig it out.  I really liked how it was looking so I would like to finish it.  I would also like to schedule in a couple of my own quilt tops to be quilted.  I have my huge bowtie quilt that has thousands of little bowties in it and it still isn't quilted.  I would love to quilt it as soon as I can.  I will have to purchase a backing for it as I don't think I have one for it.  

It will still be a while before I can quilt one of mine as I believe that I have about 11 customer quilts waiting to be quilted and 3 of them are custom quilts that I have to piece and then quilt.  

I guess this is enough rambling... Richard just left for work and I need to get my Saturday started.  My silly rooster has been crowing since a little before 4am! 

 

Another one finished...

 Another customer quilt finished!  I don't have to do the binding on this one so it is ready to head back to it's owner in NC.  I loved this quilt.  I guess the colors were just soft and reminded me of spring.  I kept thinking that the whole time that I was quilting it. 

 I quilted it with the Mint Julep panto.  It is one of my favorites. This was a large quilt something like 98x98. 

I didn't get my kraut finished yesterday but I will today.  :(  I was busy quilting, mom went to visit her uncle and her dad, and my sister went to town late in the evening and picked up my canning salt while she was there.  So the kraut will be finished today!!!  Then I hope to load another quilt on the frame which is a very small one or I may just concentrate on cutting and sewing the binding on my SIL's hexie quilt.  I'm sure she would love to have it back.  LOL!  

Here is a pic of my EPP casket progress.  I have just been sewing them into sets of 4 and then I will connect those side-by-side.  I also need to make some half caskets to fill in the edges so that I don't have to just cut them off. 

 Between the storms yesterday Richard and Hunter worked on the back deck.  They made pretty good progress considering the storms.  Richard is back to work today so it will be Monday before he gets a chance to work on it anymore.  

Time is ticking away...I still have several quilts that I need to finish and my house to clean before vacation.  That is only 2 weeks away!  A little about our vacation....back in the Fall, mom had a heart attack and she has always wanted to go to the Outer Banks.  She has been to the beach several times but never there.  She also always mentioned that she wanted to be in the area where the wild horses roam the beaches.  So we sat down and looked to see what we could find.  At that point mom decided that the WHOLE family should go with her.  So there will be 14 of us staying in the beach house that my mom rented...my mom, my sister, husband, and Addie, my brother, wife and 4 kids, and my family of 4.  The house is huge with plenty of room for us all.  She wanted oceanfront too.  Sooooo....we are going to the Carova area which is only accessible with a 4x4. We all have them so that's not a problem.  So I guess this is kind of like a bucket list thing for her.    

While we are gone, my MIL is house sitting for us and a dear friend of ours is coming up everyday to feed our animals.  Mike lives about 2 miles away.  We take care of his stuff when they are away so we just kind of help each other out when needed.  

I have a ton to do in the next two weeks!  I will sure need this vacation by the time that I get it all done.  LOL!

This is going to be a busy day!

 Yesterday was a good productive day!  I got about half of this beautiful king size quilt top quilted!

 I am using a panto called, Mint Julep.  I love this panto and it is a big one...somewhere around 15" or so.  I don't remember exactly without looking at it. 

 I hope to get it finished today and off the frame.  I don't have to do the binding on this one.  I usually end up doing the binding on 90% of the quilts that I quilt and I do it by hand.  So that keeps me busy too.  I love doing binding.

 I also still need to square up and do the binding on that Hexie quilt from a couple of days ago.  Then I think I have a Flag quilt up next.  I will have to look at my planner to be sure on that.  The Flag quilt is small so I will do the quilting and binding in one day.  

My sister and I also stained mom's front porch and banisters yesterday before the storms hit in the afternoon.  Let me tell you, it was HUMID!  I came straight home, took some Motrin for my back and got in the shower.  LOL!  Now we have to wait for it to dry up so that we can do her HUGE back deck.  If I can remember I will take a pic because it's big.  I dread it.  LOL!  

While cooling down, I took a few minutes to prep more of these coffin shapes.  I'm loving these!  I have a few sewn together but not many.  Not really enough to show yet.  

 I better close this post as I have a lot to do today!  I have to run to town, finish that quilt and can some kraut!  Busy, busy, busy!

Blocks and Jam

 After a wonderful Church service yesterday I came home and worked on some blocks.  I ended up with 6 more blocks finished.  This makes 11 blocks and I need 25.  I'm loving these little blocks they go together so fast and easy.

 I was winding a bobbin and look what happened.  I've never had one to break before.  It was an old bobbin, original to the vintage machine so it was probably just worn out. 

 Then last night I settled in to work on more of my EPP.  I enjoy working on these. 

 Here is my stack that I already have in sets of two.  They add up pretty fast.

 Now let me catch you up on the rest of my day other than the above sewing...

We had a wonderful Church service yesterday.  By the time we got out of Church it was already in the mid-90's.  I thought I was going to have a heatstroke in Church it was so hot.  They never keep it cool in there because we have so many elderly members and they freeze.  LOL!  

After Church, I worked on the Fox blocks.  I got a couple of them done and ended up with a horrible headache.  You know one of those that you just have to lay down for a bit.  So I did that and after a bit it eased off.  Then I worked on a few more blocks and made some jam!  Yep!  Peach Cobbler Jam!  It tastes just like Peach Cobbler.  I ended up with 2 batches.

 While I was doing all of this, Richard and Hunter were working on building part of the back deck.  One of the benefits of owning a sawmill is endless lumber but just not enough time to use it.  LOL!  If you've read my blog for years you know that is how we built our house.  Anyway, the back deck was never put on.  It will go the full length of the house 40ft, just like the front porch does.  Right now they are only doing 20ft of it and then will do the rest of it soon.  So they almost got it floored yesterday, just need to finish that up and treat it.  Of course, that doesn't mean there are banisters or steps yet.  LOL!  It will come...

It was just too hot to be upstairs at the longarm so I worked on my fox blocks.  I'm hoping that today I can get up there and get that hexagon quilt finished.  I've had it on the frame way too long.  Now I will really have to rush extra hard to get things done before vacation.  Speaking of vacation...I will have to fill you all in on that soon. 

Binding and EPP Coffins

I spent most of the day working on binding!  I ended up cutting the binding 3" because the quilt was so thick after using cotton batting and fleece backing.  3" ended up being a perfect size.  Almost every customer quilt that I do, I end up doing the binding as well.  I don't mind because I enjoy binding and I also get a extra pay for it. 

 I also prepped some coffin shapes for the EPP project that I am working on.  This is the one that I plan on taking on vacation.  Of course, I will only be getting started on it and a long way to go. 

 I love these shapes!  They are 4" long and I don't really remember the width, but I like them....not too big, not too small.

 As you can see, I have a couple of hundred prepped and ready.  Most of these are Civil War scraps or at least something that blends in with them.  I'm finding that I don't have much blue or green.  I do have some showing in the pic above but that is the only ones that I have and only a few of those.  It seems like I mostly have reds and browns.  So I need more blues and greens to break it up.

 I'm almost finished with hand sewing the binding so I will piece the backing to the next customer quilt.  It's the one made by my awesome SIL, Kellie.  By the way...she is taking her EPP to work on during our vacation too.  Currently she is working on a Lucy Boston quilt.  It is beautiful.

Hexies and Quilts

 Here is my current progress on my Kindred Hexies.  I have a bunch of them prepped and I am sewing some of them together.  Sorry the pic is dark but it was late when I took this pic. 

 I enjoy the handwork during the evenings. 

 I should make more progress tomorrow (Wednesday). Hunter and I will be babysitting my little 2yr old niece, Addison.  She is so sweet and not a problem at all to watch.  I love babysitting her.  This will only be for a few hours.  

Here are a couple of Antique customer quilts that I quilted a few months ago.  Just trying to get you all caught up on the quilts.  

 I have several more customer quilts that need quilting as soon as I get my bp back on track.  I had a lady call me last night that is driving up from NC this weekend for a family reunion and is bringing me 7 quilt tops for me to quilt.  I also have a few more besides those.