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...

Just a quick little thing...

Today was mostly spent cleaning house and running errands. Not fun at all! Well, let me take that back, right now I am enjoying cleaning my new house, but I'm sure with time that will get old too. I had to do my grocery shopping and stuff like that. This evening we had company over, my aunt and uncle stopped by for a while. We had a nice little visit, she is a quilter so that is always fun. We just mostly talked about quilting and looked through some books.

It was getting late when they left so I really didn't have time to load a customer quilt on the frame like I had planned to do this evening but I did load on this little tablerunner on that I had pieced several months ago, actually back in September, for my kitchen table. The only reason that I put this little thing of mine on the frame was because I wanted to try out a new quilting pantograph called "ground cover" I always want to practice new designs on my own things or scrap fabrics before I ever do them on customer quilts. I just would not feel right quilting a design on someone else's quilt that I wasn't sure of before hand.

So here it is........it only measures 24 x 48 so it isn't that big really but it fits my table nicely. These are 6 inch log cabin blocks.

It will probably be a while before I get to the binding but I think I will use this fabric, what do you think? This green fabric is also used in the runner. It is hard to get a photo of the quilting but this is the best that I could do. I really like the design and the quilting on it is really dense. I used a scrap pieced of cotton batting that I had so it worked out great.
This morning I stopped by the post office because I had a package there and picked this up. A small shipment of Hobb's Poly-Down batting. I ordered 4 packages of 120x120 king bags to keep on hand. My other batting that I have on rolls measures 96" wide and I also have a few bags of 110x110, but sometimes I get a quilt that is larger than that. Actually, I have one here that will be quilted in the next few days that measures something like 114x118!!!! It is huge and very beautiful and believe it or not, I was told it was her first quilt!!! How amazing is that to make your first quilt that big???? I wasn't that brave.....my first quilt wasn't much bigger than a baby quilt. :) A friend of ours just called and said that they may stop by tomorrow. I just love them too death, they are wonderful friends and love her heart, she just had a stoke a few weeks ago, so I will be happy to see them. I spoke to her on the phone the other day and she said she was doing much better. If they do stop by tomorrow, maybe I can hand sew the binding on my tablerunner while we talk. I always have to keep my hands busy. So just in case they do stop by tomorrow, I think I will run upstairs now and load that customer quilt on the frame so that I can get started on it tomorrow evening! I have lots of quilting to get done next week!!!!

I'm off to the sweat shop.........
Kristie

A few quilting projects...

Another week has gone by since my last post. Things have been really busy around here, family stuff, house stuff and some quilting stuff. LOL! I'll start with the family stuff first. Mom is home so I have been spending a little time with her. I hate when she is gone. I know she has to work but I just don't like her being that far away. She had to fly back home this time so she was pretty tired.

We had our little county fair/festival this past weekend. That is always a busy time in our little town. The main day is on Saturday. Andrew had been there all day on Friday (he doesn't have school on Fridays) and again most of the day on Saturday. He was actually doing some of his community service hours that he needs for college. So on Saturday, Hunter went in with mom about 2pm and Richard and I worked on the house for awhile before we headed in later that evening. When we did get there it was nice...most of my family was there....Mom, Hunter, Andrew, Chantal and her boyfriend, Ronnie. I missed my brother he was in there a little earlier in the day. After we got there we walked around a bit and then we took Hunter and Andrew for pizza. I was so tired afterwards, my hip and leg was killing me.

This is what Richard and I were working on before we went....the main bathroom cabinets!!! It's hard to tell much about them right now but we wanted them to be a little rustic. If you are wondering why there are parts that don't have stain on them yet....these are some of the boards that I had been staining for the upstairs ceiling. So now I have to go back over the cabinets and stain all parts and then add an extra coat. Richard also did a tongue and groove with the boards so that they would fit together perfectly. The big cabinet on the end will hold the hot water heater and then the cabinet above it will just be for storage. I don't have the sink, mirror, and light fixture installed yet but I have them and I'm hoping to get them installed soon.

I layed out a piece of our tile to see how it will look with the cabinets and the tub. We bought them a couple of weeks ago. We got a great deal on them because of an overstock. I think they will look great once we finally get the walls painted a lighter color. That dark green sheet rock in there looks horrible. And here is a photo that I snapped of Richard mixing the bucket of drywall mud to get started on Hunter's room. The first coat is on and dry, now just waiting to get time for him to add the finish coat. It is hard with him going to school 5 days a week. When we do move in, the house will NOT be finished but we would like to have Hunter's room completely finished. He is so excited about moving in.
On to a little quilt stuff....I made this little hot pad/trivet out of cotton clothesline and some strips. Got it finished and threw it in a box and plan on saving it to use in the new house.
I also got in 2 rolls of batting!!!! I'm hoping those will do me for a while. I have a ton of tops that need to be quilted and also I get a few customer quilts along.

Finished up the binding on this customer quilt. I will be delivering it tomorrow. With downtown being so busy with the fair I have several things to do tomorrow. I need to deliver this quilt, mail out 2 more, grocery shop and get new tags on 2 vehicles! Shhhh....don't tell anyone but I am the world's worst at remembering to update our tags every year! LOL! Richard noticed yesterday that the tags had expired......in JULY!!!! :)
Anyway, still having a little trouble sleeping! :( I would say that 95% of my quilting stuff is already moved out in the new house. All that I have in here is one sewing machine, iron and board, and a few scraps. Soooooo.....one sleepless night I got the big idea that I would make a HUGE tablerunner for my kitchen table in the new house. When we move in, mom is giving me an antique table that she has. I plan on extending it out to the max size so it will measure 54x78 or something close to that. Giggle....I called and woke my sister up late one night and had her to measure it! :) So here it is...I don't have the blocks sewn together in this photo but you get the idea. I still have to quilt it. But I ended up making 40 of these 6 inch blocks but only used 32 of them in this runner. I will use the other 8 to make a smaller one. This runner ended up being 24x48. I made it from leftover scraps from my Courthouse Steps. BTW...I am still trying to get all 224 of those blocks pieced into a quilt top!!! :(

Kristie

Got a few little things done...

Hunter had a friend over to spend the night last night. They have had such a great time and I must say he is a very well behaved little boy too. They spent the evening playing outside and then came in and played video games really late. I went to bed a little after 11pm and they were still going strong.


Anyway....I did accomplish a little bit of sewing last night. I got the binding sewn on this. Not sure what I will do with it but at least it is completely finished.

I also got the applique pieces stitched down on this runner. Now I just need to get it quilted and the binding on it. This was a fun little kit from Connecting Threads that I got on clearance.
Also got this book in the mail yesterday. I know it is an older book but I still like it. There is a website called Paperbackswap.com and you trade books and it costs nothing but the postage or you can buy book credits to purchase books if you don't want to trade which is really cheap, something like $3.50 a book. If you are not a member you should really check it out.Today I hope to get the other 5 blocks cut out and pieced for my Signs of Spring quilt so that I can get that top finished and move on to something else.


Richard is out in the house hanging more drywall. It is a slow process when it is just one person doing it. But he is a trooper and will get it all done sooner or later.
Kristie

A Small Finish...sorta

Richard has been putting up the drywall!!! Love his heart, he started in my quilting room because he thought that would make me happy! LOL! See why I love him so much? This is my quilting room here that he is working on. He is 6'2" so as you can see my window in there is pretty large. I love window, it measures 4x8', it lets so much light in. Still have to do the ceiling but it will be all wood and beams. This room measures 20x24 but my frame will take up a lot of that room. Mom bought me this mirror and a bunch of other things for my birthday. My birthday isn't until Wednesday but she already gave them to me. This is for my main bathroom! She also got me the bronze trash can, toothbrush holder, soap dish, soap dispenser, and shower hooks. I didn't get a photo of that stuff because I boxed it up and took it out to the new house. I'm afraid this mirror will get broke if I take it out there now.

Seems like I haven't been getting a lot done as far as quilting. Just seems like nothing holds my interest right now long enough for me to finish it. So I decided to work on something small. I ordered a few kits from Connecting Threads a few weeks ago and this table runner was one of them. I still need to do the machine applique around those pieces. I think this is called "Around the Bend" I really like how it has turned out so far. I have never done binding on anything like this but I'm sure I can figure it out once I get to that part. LOL!
Hopefully, I can get it quilted soon. Right now I have this customer quilt on the frame.

I did another one a few weeks ago for the same lady that was almost exactly the same. I am quilting it with music notes. She did a great job on the piecing, it lays nice and flat.

It does feel good to get something done as far as quilting. I think one of my problems right now is lack of concentration. I have a lot on my mind right now with the house and all. I have also started packing up some of my quilting stuff, mostly things that I know that I will not need for a few months and now everything is a big mess.

Kristie

Bouncing Around

After sorting through a few things yesterday I decided late last night to work on something quick! I know I had several other things that I should have finished up first but you know me, I just bounce back and forth. So I dug those purple scraps back out and made this little thing. It measures roughly 24x24 and since the scraps were all different sizes I just strip pieced it and then just threw the leftover pieces in the big crate with my other strings and strips. Not sure what I will do with it but maybe I will think of something. I also cut the binding for it and will probably quilt it soon, I should be able to find a small piece of scrap batting to use for it.

Mom, Hunter and I left early this morning around 8:30 for her doctor's appointment. All went well, he said she was doing fine now. We had a few hours to kill before her physical therapy appointment later in the afternoon. So first we stopped by McDonald's because Hunter thinks that is the only place that he can eat. :( I don't like McDonald's at all but we stopped anyway. After lunch we stopped by two furniture stores. I will be needing a new couch when we move in the new house so I just wanted to look around to get some ideas. I found one that I really liked, nothing fancy but felt like it might hold up for a while with Hunter bouncing on and off of it. You know how kids are...you tell them to be easy and sit down and that just makes them rougher. Anyway...if it is still there when I go to buy that is the one that I want.

By the time we got home from her physical therapy it was going on 4pm. I am sooooooo tired and I know she is too. So I didn't really feel like dragging out anything major to work on this evening so I decided to start something new.... :( LOL! I am making a tablerunner out of wrapped cotton clothesline. I was doing fine until Richard walked by and said "Oh! Are you making a rug?" Hmmmm....it does sorta look like a rug doesn't it? Anyway it is still rather small right now as you can see it by my machine. So I will work on it over the next couple of days. Who knows what it will end up being, a rug or a tablerunner. I will just sew on it until I get tired of it and just call it done then. One thing that I don't like about it is that I changed colors on the side instead of the end. I think if I had done it on the end it wouldn't have been so noticeable, but after it is all finished it may not be that noticeable.

I think I'm going to go take a HOT soaking bath. My right hip and leg is throbbing from so much walking and sitting today.

Kristie

My new Tablerunner

Well I had a long morning at the doctor's office. I just hate sitting there waiting. I took a book to read while I waited. I finally got back home around noon. Then I quickly cleaned the house and started my tablerunner. I got it sewn together pretty quickly and then basted it. Took a short break and started quilting it.
I finally got that done right as the boys were getting off the school bus. I have the binding cut, I just need to sew it on. Maybe I will get that done tomorrow. This photo is not a good one, I made it too small, but it turned out okay. I'm just not sure where I will use it, maybe I'll give it as a gift.

Not really sure what I will work on next. But before I start any major project, I need to sew my borders on to my cowboy quilt. I've been looking through my patterns and books but nothing really pops out at me. I'll find something.
Kristie