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

Lots of this and that...

I have several photos to post of various things from the past few days. Just a bunch of this and that stuff. First off I want to thank those who are going to trade some calico fabrics with me. I actually thought that I had more of them in my stash than I did. I did actually cut some of the strips needed for the "Hugs and Kisses" quilt that I plan on making. I wanted to piece a block but I could find my solid white yardage. I'm not even sure if I have anymore of it, so I will probably pick it up this coming week at the quilt shop. I have to drop off some quilts so I will get it then.

Here are a couple of photos of my "clean" sewing room (sweat shop). I worked on it a little at a time during the night while I could not sleep. After a few nights it looked pretty good. I took the photos the other morning before I started quilting and making a mess in there again. :)

Here is my bookcase all clean and neat...well...sorta... I still have to do something with that stack of junk in the floor on the right side of it. Here is the rest of the room. I have been thinking about putting up a design wall but since this is like an open loft area I don't want everything seen from downstairs. I used some scrap pieces of batting and pinned them to the wall and put up a few of my Log Cabin blocks on it. See it over by the bookcase. So as of right now this is what I am thinking.....I will move the bookcase over on the other wall where I have the old ironing board sitting since that is what you see as you get to the top of the stairs and make a 8ft x 8ft design wall where the bookcase is now. You can not see that part from downstairs. Then of course I will move some things off of the bookcase so it will look a little neater than it does now. Do you think that sounds like a good idea? When I do the design wall I plan on using 2 4x8ft pieces of insulation board to give me a 8ft square board and cover it will warm & natural batting.


Speaking of design walls... this is what I have on my little temporary one right now. My Farmer's Wife blocks.
I have a total of ten of them done. Most of them are simple blocks and go together rather quickly. Right now the blocks that I am making I am using my scrap bin of Civil War fabrics. I do have a few fabrics in there that are not Civil War but they do blend in fairly well. I want to use up some scraps before I cut into my fat quarters or yardage. Here is a quick glimpse of a customer quilt that I did the other day. I kept thinking as I was quilting it that I sure would like to have that red to use in my Hugs & Kisses quilt. LOL! I do have several other customer quilts to show you but I will probably wait and do them all in one post. As I was cleaning I organized a few more scraps. Actually I see that I need to take some of those red prints out of there and put them with my red & white quilt....as soon as I find it. LOL! I still have a bunch to go through.
Oh and wait until Andrew comes home tomorrow and sees what I piled in his room. Last week when Richard was painting I moved this pile of quilts out of my sewing room and into Andrew's room which is right beside it. If you look close in one of the above photos you can barely see the pile through Andrew's doorway. I will move them in a few days and try to find something to do with them. Look at what I got in the mail today. I just love anything Judy Martin and this is her latest book. It has some very pretty patterns in it. Most of them look like they would take a while to make so it will go on the shelf for now. I have too many customer quilts to finish up and other things for myself. Now on to some odds and ends shots. Today as I was doing dishes I looked out my kitchen window and just loved the sight of this redbud. I can't wait for everything to turn green! It sure made the dishes a little easier to do. I changed the sheets on the bed today and also removed the other quilt that I had on there, it was a little heavy and it has been really warm here the past several days. I dug this one out of the pile to use. I made it several years ago and it is lightweight. I don't even remember the name of the pattern that I used. It reminded me of the nice spring weather that we have been having. I'll change it to something else soon. I will probably change them around until I get my Courthouse Steps top quilted and put on the bed. And last but not least, Hunter has a friend staying over tonight. They have been playing the PS3 and eating LOTS of pizza! Not sure if you can see it but if you look real close you can see what my little COUNTRY BOY has in his mouth!!! HAY! Yep, he walks around with a piece of hay in his mouth most of the time when he is home. He just loves farm life and I am so proud that he does. I know this was a rather long post but I had several things to catch up on. Stay tuned for more quilty stuff in the next few days and lots of customer quilts.
Kristie

My first 3 blocks...

This being Saturday and the fact that we didn't have alot planned we slept in this morning! I just hate when we do that, I always end up with a headache. We actually slept until 7:30am!! :) We are always up somewhere between 5:30am to 6am everyday. Anyway, Richard and I got up and I let Hunter sleep in until breakfast was finished. We ate and Hunter and I headed to town. I had a few errands to do, grocery shopping and had to pick up a load of horse feed.

After we got back and got everything put away, I had to take a break because my back and side were hurting. I have an appointment with a GI specialist soon so I'm hoping they can figure this out. After my little rest I cleaned the house up a little bit and went upstairs to my sweat shop.

I worked on a customer quilt for a couple of hours but I just kept looking at the mess that was everywhere up there. So much stuff was piled in the middle of the floor because Richard needed to paint that main wall up there yesterday. I had moved that pile of 100+ quilts into Andrews room and piled them in the corner. He will kill me when he sees that. LOL! I will get there out of there in a day or so, I just needed to move them quickly so he could paint. Today I also moved the loveseat that was in my sewing room to Andrew's room. He had mentioned that he wanted it in there and I wanted it out of my sewing room. Moving it out of there gave me so much more space.

This is the wall space where I had the loveseat and the 100+ quilts piled. I moved the old ironing board and my featherweight over there. I will probably move the thread rack but I just needed to put is somewhere until I cleaned and sorted more stuff. Actually I am thinking that I will end up building me a big design wall and putting it there and moving the ironing board in a few weeks. I want my design wall to have hinges so that I can fold it and put it away when it's not in use or I have company coming over.

I also cleaned off my sewing table. I'm not sure how long it will look like this but right now it looks all clean and neat. I was watching season 1 of the Games Of Thrones as I was cleaning and quilting.

After I cleaning up this side of the room I decided to work on a couple of the Farmer's Wife blocks. This being the weekend I didn't want to work on customer quilts ALL weekend. As of right now with the Sow-A-Long they have a total of 9 blocks done so I would like to get caught up with everyone else.

This block is Block 21 in the book and is called Contrary Wife. A very simple block to do.
This is the second block that I did today. It is Block 6 in the book and is called Big Dipper. I will probably redo this one because I'm not happy with my center. It was an easy block but I'm not sure why my center is off so bad. Here are my first 3 blocks of the Farmer's Wife quilt. These take care of week #1 of the Sow-A-long. After that I went back to cleaning and sorting. I saw this on a blog the other day and I thought this would be a great way for me to sort my scraps. I saw it here! She has a ton of fabrics and scraps, I'm amazed on how she organized it all. I picked up a couple of these little containers this morning at Walmart and got started with a few of my scraps. Right now they are piled in baskets and big totes on the floor and it is hard to find anything. These are pieces that are smaller than a fat quarter, leftover border pieces and stuff like that, but things that are too big that I don't want to cut up as strips or small squares and sort them in other tubs. I have other totes that hold strips of 2.5", 2", and a few other strip sizes and also precut squares that I like to use for scrap quilts. I already had a bunch of comic book boards that I had bought and wrapped some of my fabrics that are in my drawers. I cut those up into 2.5" strips so that I could wrap the scraps around them and they would fit in my containers. As I get more of them wrapped I will sort more by color and add more containers. I'm thinking that I may store these containers on the back side of my sewing table. My table is 36" wide so I could put them on the back side of the table against the wall and they would be in view from my machine and easy to get to them when I needed to.
While I was doing my thing today Richard worked more on our stair post. He even did more on it after I took this photo but it is almost ready for stain. You can see that he sanded more on it today while he worked because it is all over the stairs again. :( I'm really pleased with his work and he has made every piece of it....the trim and all, even the small dental mold on it.
After he worked on the post and did some farm work outside he had some "special time" with Hunter. Hunter wanted Richard to play the PS3 with him. Please don't look at the messy room. Trust me it doesn't always look like this. :)

Mom and Chantal came back out this evening because Chantal wanted Richard to help her trim up her dog's hair. Giggle....she has a FAT poodle that was hot because she had too much hair and needed it cut. They did that while mom and I watched them and talked. After they left I warmed up leftover lasagna for supper and that was it. Tomorrow will be a busy day....Church in the morning then going to visit Richard's 91 year old grandmother, then Church again at 7pm. Then Monday morning will be back to work on customer quilts for me!!!!!!

Kristie

A little Progress...

Today has been a busy day but I really didn't accomplish anything. Ever have one of those days? Richard was home today and decided to paint everything is a big mess around here. I'll show paint photos later in this post but right now I will talk about quilting...

First off, I've decided that I am not going to post about customer quilts in every post that I do. Trust me, I am working on customer quilts somewhere around 4-5 days a week, sometimes 6 days a week. Anyway, I figure I will post about them every couple of weeks or so and show a bunch of photos of them in one post. I do enjoy machine quilting and showing the quilts that I do for others but this blog was started years ago because I wanted to share my stuff, my family and our farm life, I miss talking about that stuff. As it is right now, I do the machine quilting through the day and take breaks every little bit to let my legs rest and instead of going downstairs I will work on a block or two of my own stuff. Also if you have read my blog for a few years you will know that every once in a while I take a spell of not being able to sleep at night and do alot of sewing then. The past several nights I've had trouble sleeping again and since my sewing room is directly above the master bedroom I can't use my quilting machine during the night because I don't want to wake Richard up. My regular sewing machine is not as loud as my quilting machine so I am able to do a little sewing then. So here it goes...

Here are my log cabin blocks! I counted and I have a total of 140 of them finished and I need 28 more of them to piece the design that I want. I'm getting anxious to get them finished.

And as bad as I hate to say it.....I broke over and bought the Farmer's Wife book!!! I know I really shouldn't have but I did it any way. I am going to try to catch up on Randy's Sow-A-Long. I think they have 9 blocks of it finished right now and tonight I pieced one of them.

Here is my first block. It is Basket Weave. I must say that I love the look of the finished quilt in the book but I absolutely don't like how the book is setup. It shows the blocks, then you have to flip on back through the book to see how it is pieced and then there is a cd with the templates that you can print but there are no cutting sizes in it. The blocks all seem to be common blocks and would be very easy to figure up the sizes for the pieces but just aggravating that you would have to do that and it not in the book with the blocks. Oh well....just my opinion. I'm almost embarrassed to show this but look what I found today all wrinkled up....my Civil War Love Letter quilt top. It will take me hours on end to press this thing. :( All 121 blocks are pieced and sashed, I just need to sew the outer border on it and quilt it. The sad thing is, it has been at this point for a few years now and all it needs is the outer border on it and it is even a solid border. I even have the fabric for it. This will be something that I plan on getting done soon. Here is an upclose shot of one of the blocks. They are all pieced in pinks and browns. I love this quilt.
Now on to Richard's painting....this is the stairway wall. He worked a little more on the stairway post today too. See all of the dust on the stairs? He was sanding on the post and I hadn't swept it up yet. Anyway, he has more of the post done now and hopefully it will be done in a few days and we can start on the railing.
This is upstairs. This wall is a 40 ft wall that goes down the center of the upstairs. You can see it is still dusty up there. The door on the end will open to an upstairs balcony out there....someday. :) If you look close you can see all of the mess that I have stored in the guest room up there too. We still have tons of trim to do but I am pleased with the painting so far. This is the same color that will go in my sewing room too. He has part of it painted but I'll show it after it is finished.
Mom and my sister, Chantal came out for supper this evening. I made a big lasagna! Mom has been sick for a week or so but is starting to get a little better. She has bronchitis. I guess that is all for tonight......
Kristie