Quilts, Tornadoes, and Missing Dog...

 Another customer quilt off the frame. This is a special quilt because when I picked it up and we unfolded it, you could see how special it was in the owners eyes. They gleamed with pride as she told me the story behind it. Her precious mom hand pieced it and she said that she recognized many of the fabrics as they came from the dusters that her mom wore. I love quilts like this. Today I will sew the binding on and then deliver it tomorrow....hopefully.  :)

 This is the back...

 The weather has been crazy!  We had a tornado touch down in town.  It did a lot of damage to our Walmart and several homes and other businesses.  From what I gather there were only minor injuries...thank the Lord.  This pic is the Walmart parking lot.

 We are so sad right now...our beloved boxer, Leo is missing!  We got him several years ago from a kill shelter and he is just an amazing dog.  He was so poor when we got him, I just felt sorry for him. 

 Yesterday evening we let him out to use the bathroom and he ran off...I guess.  He's never been gone this long.  Hunter is pretty upset and worried.  A few hours before he went missing we had an old stray coonhound that showed up and killed one of my chickens so I'm wondering if he might have ran off with that dog or something.  I posted on FB that he was missing along with his photo.  As soon as they open this morning I am going to call the local Humane Society so they can also be on the lookout for him.  So I ended up losing a dog and a chicken yesterday.  :( 

Prepping Hexies!

 I've been prepping a bunch of hexies.  This is what I have been doing for the past few days while spending some time on the couch.   Most of these are thread basted but the past few days I have been glue basting them.  The glue basting goes much faster.  Sadly I have several different hexie and EPP projects going at the same time. 

 Today is Award's Day at Hunter's school so I will be going to that.  Love my boy and so proud of him.  Things like this are very important to Hunter so I try my best to be there.  

I know this is a short little post but I will leave you with a photo of Leo!  :)

Another day spent in the sewing room...

 Another great sewing day!  This snow needs to melt soon, I am going to sew myself to death.  :)  

I started a new BOM by Barbara Brackman, called Threads of Memory.  This is the first block. 

 I liked it so well that I made a second one!  :)

 The BOM consists of 12 blocks that measure 12" so I guess I will be making 2 quilts.  I don't think that will be hard as it will only be 2 blocks a month! 

 I also pieced a bunch more of my brown mountain blocks. 

 During all of this, I pieced 19 more bow ties!!!  :) 

 I'm getting closer to my 1100 goal! 

 So after all of that sewing, I pulled out another UFO!  This is one that I started several years ago.  It is called, Market Baskets.  This is all that I have pieced but I have a ton more cut.  I want to get them all sorted and start sewing on them tomorrow as Church has been canceled due to the bad weather. 

 I snapped this photo this morning of Hunter and Leo snuggling in the recliner.  I don't think Leo was too pleased with the flash going off while trying to sleep. 

 I'm spending the rest of the evening resting up as tomorrow will be another good sewing day!
Kristie

In My Sewing Room...

 I've been really busy the past few days sewing.  I got this 9 patch off the frame and it is now in the pile to have the binding sewn on. 

 I also quilted this lap WVU quilt.  The binding is already on it and the quilt is now gone.  :)

 I've been up in my sewing room for hours today.  :)  I have been piecing on this quilt.  This is an older photo but I don't have the other pieces up on the design wall yet.  I love working with browns. 

 I also took a few minutes to play around with these apple cores.  I have more cut and ready to sew.  A great use of scraps!

 Last I will leave you with a photo of Leo and Mammy!  Leo was trying to sleep and Mammy wanted to play.  Can you tell Leo was annoyed?  LOL!  These two dogs crack me up!  They love each other so much.

 Back to the sewing room! 
Kristie

Piecing Turkey Giblets...

 More sewing today!  This pattern is called Turkey Giblets.  This is what I had done earlier today.  I have a little more if it done now.  These are not sewn together but when I do all of the points should meet up.  I did a wallhanging several years ago using this same pattern but in one piece of RED.  I loved it and wished that I had made a big quilt out of it.  So I started this one in assorted blues and I'm not really happy with it so I will finish it up as a baby quilt!  At least it will not be a UFO.  I plan on making it larger than this photo here and adding a blue border on it, quilt it and call it finished.  Hehehe! 

 I still need to piece 14 of the triangles with the white in the center and then I can assemble the top.  Hopefully I can get those pieced tomorrow. 

 I also quilted a little bit on this but then my thread broke so I stopped.  LOL! 

 If you remember the other day I posted a photo of the mess in my sewing room.  Well, one corner of it.  

 BEFORE

 AFTER

 At least it looks a little better, for now anyway.  :)  

Yesterday after school Hunter had "Safe Trick-or-Treat" at school.  Here he is in his costume before we left.  He was Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty.  He loves that show. 

 And last I will leave you with a photo of Leo and Mammy.  LOL!  See Leo's ear!  I caught him in the middle of a head shake.  :)  They had just finished romping. 

 Off to do some dishes...  :(
Kristie

1935 New Home Sewing Machine

My new addition....1935 New Home!  

 I think I mentioned it on here a few months ago but a dear friend of mine offered me 2 sewing machines if I would just pick them up.  This was all before my sister's wedding and I was really busy but she held them for me.  Today while in town we drove on over and picked ONE of them up since that was all that we could fit in the Jeep.  I'm getting the other one tomorrow!  :)

 A photo of the decals...before cleaning!  I called Janome with the serial number and they gave me a year of 1935. 

 The manual and all of the attachments that were listed in the manual were there too!  I cleaned, oiled, greased, and adjusted and she sews wonderful!!!!

 I also canned some apple pie filling and Mt. Dew Jelly!  Andrew asked for the Mt. Dew Jelly, this was my first time making it.  I know it isn't really healthy for you but a little treat every now and then will not hurt...right?  LOL!

 Last but not least....Leo and Mammy!  Leo had her toy and she was trying to sniff it out!  LOL!  She is growing soooo fast!  When I got her she weighed 8.8lbs at 5.5wks.  She is 10wks old today and weighs 21.8 pounds!!! 

 I'll post photos of the other machine tomorrow!!!
Kristie

My day...

As I type this, I am sitting on the front porch watching it rain...it feels so nice out here with just a tiny breeze.   Giggle...here I am in all my glory!  LOL!  This is me most days...hair in a ponytail and no makeup.  :)

I spent the early part of the day painting trim for the upstairs bathroom.  I can't wait to get that thing finished. 

No sewing for me today.  I had planned on it but things just didn't work out.  I cleaned and just piddled around.  My SIL called and said that they would be stopping by sometime today so I decided to clean instead of sew.  :)

I'm still hoping to get the last 5 blocks pieced by the end of the weekend.  I'm not sure what fabric I will use for the borders or if I will even add a border.  I'll just have to wait until I get the center pieced to decide. 

Richard finished up at the church today!!!  The building was 106 years old and in really bad condition so they made the decision to tear it down and rebuild it. 

 

 So here she is....  Our first church service in it is planned for July 21.  I can't wait. 

 The inside...  The carpet layers will be there on Monday to install it. 

 This photo might be a little hard to see but Hunter, Leo, and if you look real close you will see Jazz, the yorkie all trying to squeeze in the recliner.  :)  Silly boys!!!

 Even though I haven't done any sewing today I have been pondering on what I will work on after I get my Star Gazing quilt finished.  Tumblers?  UFO's?  New Project?  I know I really need to work on some UFO's but sometimes they just are not any fun are they?  Do you plan your projects ahead while working on another or just do whatever hits you at the time?
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

What do you think?

 I haven't done any sewing today but I have been planning...  I mentioned the other day that I wanted to get my Dresden Plate finished.  I was able to order the background fabric and the border/sashing fabric for it.  I put it up on my design wall to get a better idea of how it would look.  How do you think it would look if I used that dark brown for the centers too?  

I will probably cut one circle out of the dark brown to see how it does look.  I'm getting excited about working on it.  

Here is Hunter with his little road quilt/playmat.  He loves it and that makes me happy.  :)

Speaking of Hunter, he loves to draw.  I think he does a great job for a 10 year old.  Here is one that he did the other day, a Boxer.  I'll probably post a few of his drawing on here from time to time.  I am so proud of both my boys.  :)

 Here is Leo, being nosey.  The flash of the camera flips him out.  LOL!  The silly thing even chases his shadow.  :)

 I guess that is all for now.  Hunter is wanting to use the computer.  Hopefully tomorrow I will start on my Dresden centers.
Kristie

Cathedral Windows

 In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to "relax" and "laugh more"  Well......I guess that I have been.  I've been trying not to stress too much over the silly things.  

The past few days have been very busy.  Andrew goes back to college on Monday.  I'm so proud of him, but I also miss seeing him as much.  This semester he will be going 5 days a week, so I told him that he will have to cut back on his hours at work.  There is just no way that he can go to school 5 days a week, work 50 hours a week, and keep his grades up.  

This month has been a little slow for me as far as quilting.  I feel like I've had a slow start.  :(  This is the horrible sight of my cutting table....such a mess.  

I also want you to look what I found on my cutting table...food coloring and a lego?????  Makes me wonder what is in the mind of my 10 yr old, then again I might not want to know.  LOL!  

I've done a little bit of mindless piecing the past couple of days but not really enough to mention.  I have this pail of crumbs sitting by my treadle that I have been piecing on.  I think that I will just leave it by my treadle so that I can work on it from time to time.  

Oh and Leo likes to come upstairs and visit with me while I am sewing or cleaning.  He mostly likes to snooze.  I had an old quilt in the floor up here for him to lay on but I think he got hot and just moved off of it.  He is doing well and gaining weight, thank goodness, I was worried at first because he was so sick.  That is the problem with shelter dogs, you just never know what they have been through.  I'm glad that we got him and he seems to love his new home.  

 Yesterday I was moving some stuff around and ran on to part of my Cathedral Windows quilt that I had started back in 2008.  I was excited to find it.  It isn't something that I plan on working on right now but it was nice to find it again.  The colored squares are 2 inches so I may throw a few of those in the basket from time to time for it.  

 I always thought that the Cathedral Window pattern looked so hard but I found this really great tutorial here She has the link to it on her sidebar.  I think she has a couple different ones but it is the first one.  

I guess that is all for now.  I need to straighten up a few things and then press my clothes for Church in the morning.  :)  
Kristie