Two new blocks...Lori Holt's Block Along

 Since my last post a few days ago this is what I have made.  :)  These are the first two blocks of Lori Holt's Block-Along.  These fabrics are a little different from what I usually go with but it's fun sometimes to step out of the norm.  This star block is 12"

 This is block #2!  This one is 15" and went together pretty quick. 

 Here they are together on my design wall. 

 Here is a quick pic of the blocks that I have on my design wall.  The purple tulip block is my newest applique quilt.  That is the first block of it.  The other applique block is my sample block of a Kim Diehl pattern that will be my next applique quilt after the tulip one.

 I have this beautiful customer quilt on the longarm.  :)  It is a beauty!  It's been on there for a few days as I haven't been upstairs quilting for a few days now. 

 I'll post a pic of the whole quilt once it is finished.  So many awesome fabrics in this baby. 

 Now to tell you why that I haven't been upstairs to finish quilting that quilt... I woke up at 4am on Friday morning with a horrible stomach virus.  I've lost 5lbs since Friday.  :(  Need to lose weight but not like that.  LOL!  My sister had emergency gallbladder surgery last week and I had my niece here while all of that was going on.  She was just fine and didn't show the first sign of being sick until she got home that night, then it hit her.  :(  So since then it has gone through Addie (my niece), BIL, Chantal, mom and me...  :(  I feel better now than I have for several days so that is a good thing.  YAY!  Last week I put my back out and then this.... shew....  LOL!

My goal for the day...to get that customer quilt finished and ready to mail. 

Quilts and Pineapples

This is the customer quilt that I quilted yesterday!  A childhood friend of my brother, hand pieced it.  I think he injured his back years ago and quilts occasionally to stay busy.  As I mentioned, he hand pieced this one.  I also will be doing the binding, which I will work on that today.  That is pretty much all that I have on my schedule for the day.  That will take up pretty much all of my day as I need to trim, square it up, cut and sew the binding by hand. 

As soon as I got that quilted, I whipped up this pineapple table runner.  I used the Pineapple Trim Tool to make this.  It worked out really well, I just had to take my time and it was pretty easy.  I do plan on making a pineapple quilt after my holiday rush is over so this was practice.  I am thinking that when I make the quilt, I will switch the color placement as this seems like a lot of blue.  LOL

In my last post I mentioned that I forgot to take photos of two t-shirt quilts.  Well...I did find a photo of one of them.  :)  

 So today I will be hand sewing binding most of the day.  I am taking off Thanksgiving Day, then the rest of the weekend.  We have dinner at mom's on Thanksgiving and dinner with my MIL on Saturday.  So the rest of the time I will be putting up my Christmas decor.  By the time Thanksgiving comes around I will have quilted for 38 DAYS STRAIGHT!!!!  So I could really use a couple of days of not quilting.  LOL!  Then I will get back at it...

Practicing some machine applique

 Yesterday didn't go as planned at all.  LOL!  I am running a tad behind on customer quilts and I could not make myself work on them at all yesterday.  I did play around with some applique!  LOL!

A few days ago Richard fixed my old Brother embroidery machine.  The automatic thread cutter was stuck and we could not get it to go back over no matter what we tried.  Out of 30+ machines this is my only computerized machine.  So as it stood, the machine was not working at all and was just useless so I told him to just break that thing out of there and if it worked...great and if it didn't, oh well.  He broke it out of there and the machine works perfectly except now I have to cut my own thread.  

Anyway...I was given this GO! Die so I wanted to play around and figure out the applique stitch that I liked best. 

 I cut out a few of them to just play around with to get my stitching adjusted correctly.  These are just from scraps and will not be used for anything. 

 This is the first one that I did.  I used white thread just so I could see it better.  I had to do some adjusting as the stitches were not even so I did a few more...

 By the time I did this red and blue one I was fairly pleased with the stitches and just stopped there with it. 

 I have several applique patterns that I plan on working on sometime in the future.  At this point, it will probably be after the holidays.  I don't have a huge selection of thread colors either right now so that is something that I will need to get.  

Mom had a doctor's appointment today with the orthopedic but she is sick and canceled it.  She is still off work due to her fall but now she has a bad cold/allergies.  It seems like very time that she gets sick like that she quickly ends up with bronchitis.  I am going to try to get her to go to her regular doctor later today if she will.  

Our original plan was for us to go together today in her car since we are still down to one vehicle and Richard is working today.  We were going to go to her orthopedic appointment which is about a hour away and then stop in town on the way back and do the grocery shopping.  If she doesn't want to go to the doctor for her cold then I will probably borrow her car and go do the shopping for the both of us.  At this point, I am just waiting for her to get up, call me so I can see how she is feeling and plan my day.  I can't wait for her to retire next Fall, I worry so much about her. 

After getting the groceries and stuff put away, I will have to MAKE MYSELF go upstairs and get some quilting done.  I need to do a little quilting marathon to get caught up again.  That probably will not happen this weekend.  :)  Richard is off work this weekend and I never seem to get anything done while he is home.  Also Sunday after Church we are having a little family dinner here at the house.  Nothing at all fancy, just hotdogs with homemade sauce and such.  There will be 12 here counting us.  Andrew will not be here because he will be taking one of his clients to a football game in Cincinnati and that is several hours away.  That worries this momma to death.  A mother never stops worrying about her kids and all I can do is pray for a safe trip. 

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. 

Remember...

 I decided to try out a new block from another Edyta Sitar pattern.  Right now she is my favorite designer.  I have a few of her patterns but each of them so far take some work.  :)  This is a 20 inch block. 

 The pattern is called, Remember.  It's not real big so maybe I can get it done.  LOL!  I am also doing it by machine applique. 

 The machine that I usually sew on downstairs is a straight stitch machine and I have several vintage machines that have zig-zag but I decided to open this machine up.  It was given to me still in the box.  I changed out the needle to a 70/10 and I am using smoke nylon thread on top and cotton thread to match the background in the bobbin.  It is working out nicely.  I will say that it seem odd not sewing on an old machine.  I can really tell a difference in them. 

 Meanwhile, I am still cutting diamonds out of my strips for my Trail Mix quilt which is also designed by Edyta Sitar. 

 I have several cut but I need a total of 176 diamonds and I get sidetracked.  :)

 I also baked more homemade buttermilk biscuits for the freezer.

 I ended up putting 3 1/2 dozen in the freezer and that does not last a week.  Shew...they are vultures!!!

 I'm hoping that I can get most of my diamonds cut today and maybe assemble another applique block and have it ready for the machine.  I also have lots of laundry and housework to do after Church so we will see what all that I can get done.