Lots of Progress! (Photo Heavy)

I'm made a lot of progress over the past week.  About a month or so ago I made a baby quilt as a gift.  I posted a pic of it on my blog and facebook.  My SIL's mother wanted me to make 2 of them for her as gifts for twins of her niece.  They will be 2 yrs old this summer.  I added a border on these to make them a little bigger so they could use them for several years.  

 They ended up being 52" square.

 I quilted a simple stipple on them.

 I did the binding on them Saturday morning and she picked them up Saturday afternoon.  She seemed very pleased with them. 

 I also made a few pin cushions.  :)  I did not make the pretty one with the tiny flying geese.  That one was a gift from a dear friend several years ago.  I use it all the time.  I actually made 4 but didn't get a pic of the other one.  These were all made from leftover blocks or small orphan blocks.  I filled them with crushed walnut shells.  I like the weight that it gives to them.

 I have a huge jar of vintage buttons that I picked through and used.  I want to make several more when I get a chance.  I think I would like to use some of them and also put several in a basket to display. 

 I also started a new quilt for myself.  I feel the need to work on a few things of my own between customer quilts.  I need this!!!  LOL! 

 These colors are not my usual so it's totally out of my comfy zone!  I guess that is a good thing!  My plan as of right now is 30 blocks.  I was going to do just a bunch of random fabric colors but once I started I wanted to do blues and greens. 

 By the time that I got ready for bed last night I had 10 blocks pieced.  I'll get better pics of it when the lighting is better. 

 I signed up for the Fat Quarter Shop monthly subscription of reproduction fat quarters a few months ago.  It alternates between Civil War and 1930's.  This is what I received this time.  Love them!!!

 This is the line that they are from.  It's not the whole line but just 12 each time. 

 These purples are my favorites!  I have been on a purple kick lately.  I need to make a purple quilt! 

 Other life happenings this week...  

Andrew's cash offer on the apartment building was accepted!!!!  He is very excited and this momma is very proud of all his hard work.  I'll post more details as time goes on with it.  

I was out shopping with mom and Chantal a few days ago and found a big cactus that I bought! Actually in the cart you can see two but we actually bought three.  We each got one.  I've been looking for one of these big ones for years and finally found one.  20+ years ago I had one that was over 6 ft tall.  I had over 50 houseplants.  At that time I was married to my first husband and went back to get my plants about a week after I left only to find that he had poured bleach in every one of them.  I lost them all.  The huge cactus was my favorite.  Anyway...that was a long time ago and I now have another one.  :) 

 Today my niece, Addison turns 4.  Hard to believe that.  :)  Her birthday party was Saturday.  She had a blast of course.  She owns my heart.  :)

 Here is a pic of her cake!  She had a beautiful Barbie cake and 36 cupcakes.  :)

 Hunter has been on Spring Break this past week and goes back to school today.  I will sure miss him.  I have always loved it best when everyone is home with me.  That is my "happy time" 

Oh and I didn't get pics but Richard and I were able to take another short motorcycle ride on Thursday while he was off and the weather was nice.  I think sometime in the near future we are going to get a GoPro to attach to his helmet to video some of the beautiful rides that we go on.  

Today I have a customer quilt that I need to do some repair work on and hopefully get it quilted and the binding done as well.  Fingers crossed that I get it done.  LOL!  The top belongs to a coworker of Richard's.  Her sister had purchased it for her in PA.  It's all squares and hand pieced.  Someone has washed the quilt top and it has came apart in several places.  The seam allowance is very narrow and the stitches are pretty big.  I actually worked on some of the repair work yesterday but I hope to finish it up today.  I also need to quilt and machine bind it too.  I'll post pics of it tomorrow. 

3 More Blocks...

 Here is a pic of my design wall last night. 

 After Church we had dinner at mom's then I came home and pieced a few blocks.  I am trying to catch up on my Lori Holt's Block-Along. 

 These fabrics are so not my normal but I'm really liking how they are all looking. 

 Then I moved on to this pretty red print block...

 Another view...

 This was the last one for the night. 

 They are all actually big blocks.

 Of course the purple tulips don't go in this quilt but the rest of the blocks do.  I'm anxious to see how they will all fit in the quilt.  I'm hoping that in the end my colors are spread out pretty evenly. 

 So the rest of my weekend was spent running here and there.  I was exhausted by the time it was over.  Here is a pic of Hunter and his girlfriend, Paige.  This was her Freshmore Dance (Freshman/Sophomore).  She is a freshman and he is a junior.  It was semi-casual that's why he has jeans on.  LOL!  Most of the guys did.  They looked so pretty.  She is a sweetheart and of course he's my baby boy so I'm kind of extra proud of him....long hair and all.  LOL! 

 Last but not least...a pic of my brother John and my little niece, Addie.  I took this pic right before Church started.  :)  John is the oldest of us 3 siblings.  He is 4 years older than I am.  We have always been extremely close.  Addison is my sister's daughter.  She was being silly with her little glasses. 

 I guess that's all for this post...

Lot's of quilt pics!!!! Getting caught up!

 WARNING:  Lot's of quilt pics!  :)

It's been a few days since my last post so I will get you caught up on everything.  I'm finally over the stomach virus and so is Richard.  Thank goodness that Hunter did not catch it.  Soooo...my last post left off showing this customer quilt that I was quilting.  Here it is finished and on it's way back to Texas today.  This scrap beauty belongs to the awesome queen of scrap quilts...Julie from JulieKQuilts!!!!  She is awesome! 

 This is a horrible pic because of the bright sunlight coming through my window but this is a secret quilt project.  My SIL is making a quilt for my brother and wants to give it to him on their anniversary April 1st.  So here is her plan...my brother is a big Civil War buff and loves to metal detect battle sites.  So she found this battle scene panel and wants to have it in the center of a bunch of Civil War fabric tumblers that she is sewing together using the EPP process.  So while she is working her fingers to the bone doing a bunch of tumblers, I tried to square up the panel, add a small borer to frame it and get the tumblers started around it for her.  I'm sure she could do this herself because she is awesome but she just doesn't have enough confidence in herself.  So expect more pics on this quilt in the next few weeks. 

 This was what we woke up to Friday morning.  You can see the time there 4:15am.  I had just woke up and was being lazy, so I just grabbed my phone and hit the security cam to check for snow that they were forecasting.  LOL!  We got a few more inches than this but it all melted later in the afternoon.  Needless to say that Hunter did not have school but Richard did work.  He just drove very slow.  His Jeep goes really good.   I am soooo ready for Spring!!!

 Back to quilts... this was a customer quilt.  This little elderly lady is one that I have quilted for before and is a friend of the family.  She is a retired teacher and loves to quilt.  It is an older top with a few stains and some fullness in the sashing areas but in the end it quilted up pretty good only a few issues.  It is a cross stitch quilt.  She just wanted a simple stippling done.

 Next up was this beauty!  She requested stippling also and wanted it quilted with WHITE thread and over the applique.  Sooo...here it is!  :) 

 The backing that she sent was this coral fabric.  The flowers in the backing fabric are a lot like the Dogwood flowers in the applique. 

 Here is a better pic of the backing fabric. 

 A pic of it finished!  I got both of those quilts quilted Sunday!  Shew...I was tired but I am a little behind after my back issues and then the stomach virus.  I so need to get caught up. 

 Sooooo....Saturday was my birthday.  Not a big deal but I feel very Blessed to have another year in the books.  :)  I got several gifts over the past few weeks.  A dear friend sent me some quilty gifts a couple of weeks ago.  I file cabinet that I had been wanting for my sewing room to get a little more organized.  I also got a super nice makeup case and a few other things but mom got me a mini fridge for my sewing room!  I may never leave that room now!  LOL!  

I know it is full of Diet Pepsi but don't judge!  :)  Oh and the Reese's Eggs are not mine, Hunter put those in there.  LOL!

Probably the most precious gift that I got was from my 3 yr old niece, Addie.  In my last post I mentioned that she is obsessed with little pieces of fabric and pretends to make quilts, this is what she made for me.  She glued all of those on construction paper for me.  She was so proud and I just loved it. 

 That's all for now...need to catch up on some housework and then get back to quilting. 

Sauerkraut and a precious little one...

 Yesterday was a long busy day.  Mom came out and help me put up this kraut.  We ended up with 46 quarts total and we are not finished yet.  38 quarts of regular kraut...

 ...and 8 quarts of hot kraut.  We had to stop there because I ran out of canning salt.  We will finish the rest of it today after one of goes to town to pick up more salt.  LOL!

 I was given 100 lbs of cabbage!  I am so grateful for it and we will eat it.  We love sauerkraut!  I also have cabbage in the garden that is not ready yet so I will probably be making even more later. 

No sewing for me at all yesterday.  I was just too tired as I was on my feet most of the day.  My ankles are sore.  Anyway, today mom and I will finish up the kraut and I'm thinking that we will have 60+ quarts when finished.  Then after that...I have to finish up that quilt that I have on the longarm as it needs to go back to it's owner this weekend in NC.

I will leave you with this beautiful pic...  How gorgeous is this precious little girl.  This is my little 2 yr old niece, Addison.  I love her more than words.  I took this pic at mom's yesterday morning as Addison was getting ready to go to the doctor for a check-up.  She was proud of her little dress as she kept showing it to me.  I keep trying to get my sister to just give her to me but for some reason she will not do it.  LOL!  We all just love her to death. 

 Richard is off today.  Not sure what he has planned but he better stay out of my hair....I have things to do today.  LOL!

Hexies and Stitcheries

 I worked on a couple hexagon blocks yesterday.  I only finished 2 of them but that is still progress. 

 I added them to the pile.  I need to prep more hexagons because I will soon run out of the sets that I have prepped now. 

 I dug out my Halloween stitchery and worked on it a little bit.  Hopefully I will have it done by this Halloween.  LOL! 

 Most importantly, I got so babysit this angel for a few hours yesterday.  :)  She is so precious and very rotten...love her so much.

 Hunter has a friend spending the night tonight so I need to do a little bit of cleaning before I start sewing today.

Binding and Wild Animals

It's been several days since I posted but I've just been busy.  Hunter turned 14 on June 30th but we had his party last Saturday, June 25th since Richard was off work.  Hunter had a great time and it just breaks my heart that my baby is growing up.  

I finished up a few bindings.  Finished my Tumbler binding. 

 This is the backside of that Tumbler quilt.  I absolutely love this panto that I used.

 Here are 2 different customer quilts that I ONLY did the binding on.  When the lady contacted me she said that someone else quilted them for her several years ago and was also supposed to do the binding on them.  Her husband picked them up but didn't look in the bag and the binding had not been done.  So someone else did the quilting but I did the binding on both twin quilts for her. 

 Last night I finished the binding on my Sweet Annie quilt. 

 I think I still have 2 quilts that need the binding done that I quilted a few years ago.  Not sure how I missed the binding on those.  I also have one of the frame that I almost have the quilting done on it and then it will go in the pile for binding.  

We have a pretty good size wild raspberry and blackberry patches here on the farm.  Richard picked some a few days ago and I made a cobbler.  It was absolutely delicious!!!!  Topped with vanilla ice cream.  YUM!

 Last Sunday we had our homecoming service at Church and that is always followed with a big dinner.  Look at this precious pic that was taken of Addison my precious niece. 

 Now I will leave you with the creepy visitor that I had a few nights ago.  He chased me around the house and back in the front door.  In the pic you can see he is coming up on my front porch.  He was even trying to attack my bloodhound, Mammy.

Shew...the things that you see when living out in the woods.  LOL!  Mom and my sister saw a bobcat crossing just a couple hundred feet from my house.  Gotta keep a close eye on my chickens.  Several years ago we had a baby bobcat get in the coop and kill some chickens and then it couldn't get back out so it just curled up in one of the nests and went to sleep.  We found it that next morning sleeping in the nest.