I'm sewing!

I'm sewing!!! Not quilting on my frame like I would like to because I can't go upstairs yet! But I am working on a UFO! So see that is a good thing! That will be one less UFO or PIG whatever you want to call it! I had this one started and had about 80 of these 6 inch 9-patches sewn together. I am just sewing them in rows and setting them on point. My setting triangles are blue. You can see one of the blue triangles in the bottom right corner of the photo. I got all of the 80 9-patches sewn together so now I am working on piecing more 9 patches from my 2 1/2 inch scrap squares. I have a tote full of them so this will be a good way to use some of them up. It feels almost like a FREE quilt top when I don't have to cut into my stash. Anyway, I'm planning for this top to be a full/queen size in the end. This is the reason that still can't go upstairs to use my frame....we started staining the stairs! The weather has turned off cool and rainy so we stopped because the stain just will not dry the same. We didn't even get the first coat on all of the stairs but at least we got a few of them done. This is what it looks like after the first coat. Now only 2 more coats and 2 coats of poly! :(

I stepped out this morning while it was still sprinkling...before the heavy rain started and took this photo of my flowers. They just started blooming this morning! Don't look too close because the weeds are taller than my flowers! LOL! I didn't even touch my flower beds last summer because of my hip and leg injury and this spring, I just haven't got to them yet!
And my sweet Donkey hiding in the weeds! LOL! He has been going outside a lot since the weather has turned warmer and he has lost a lot of weight, but he seems to love it outside. That's all for now...I have to strain the goats milk and get it put up then back to sewing!!!
Kristie

Weekly update...

It was last Monday, the last time that I posted so I thought I would update you all on our MESS! Not much sewing going on here, but I did finish the binding on this huge flannel quilt. If If remember correctly this quilt measures 96x104 or something close to that. I quilted it back in November and I am just now getting around to finishing the binding on it. This is the last binding that needed to be done. If you remember in my last post I talked about the fact that I could not get up to my quilting room for a while because of the stairs. They still are not completely finished but here are some photos. Just look over the mess. Richard finally got the stairs up! :) We still have do 2-3 coats of stain and a couple of coats of poly on them. Each coat will take at least a day to dry in between and most of that depends on the weather too. Richard is very proud of his stairs and so am I, he worked so very hard on them. They went from standing Oak trees on our farm to stairs. He cut them down, sawed them on the sawmill, dried them out, planed them down, cut them to size, installed them and then sanded the crap out of them. They are as smooth as a baby's bottom! Which may be a little too smooth because I will be the one to bust my butt on them. We still have to do the banisters, newel post, and all of the wood work that goes around the sides and the wall area. Here is a closeup of one of the treads. After he got the treads on I took a quick trip upstairs and snapped a few photos. Nothing much has changed up there since the other photos. Here is the girls room, as you can see it is being used for storage right now and es, that is a toilet sitting there. It goes in the upstairs bath but we need to get the tile down first. Andrew's room, still need to to more mudding and sanding in there too. Can't wait so I can get that bed out of the middle of the room. A couple of quick photos of my quilting room. Here is the sewing table that Richard made for me it measures 36x79. If you look close you can see where I stopped painting at the beam by the window. I still need to finish painting and do the trim too. That big 12ft tall wall behind my table is 40 ft long so it will take a while to paint! Here is a photo of the other side of the room, I moved that bookshelf in a couple of weeks ago. And I still need to get the doors for my storage areas behind the frame. Here are a couple more photos taken downstairs. Hunter is having a blast on his scooter in my kitchen. See all of the spots, that is the dust from the drywall and sawing flying around in there. All of the downstairs needs to be taped, mudded and sanded. In this one, Richard is putting up the last piece of drywall in the hallway. The big french door goes in my bedroom and will lead out to the side deck which isn't built yet. :)Here is part of the main bathroom downstairs. The tub is installed but the toilet and sink are sitting in my closet. Waiting to get the tile put down before we install the toilet and sink. Oh and he has to build the cabinet for the sink too. Hunter was confused on why I was doing the bathrooms in dark green and I had to explain to him that it is mold resistant drywall, he just looked at me like I had lost my mind. :)So that is it for now....I guess we will start staining the stairway this afternoon. Richard has finals this week so that has to come first!
Kristie

Patience...

I thought I would drop by for an update! Nothing major going on here just busy doing little things. First off....Mom went back to work! If you remember a while back I mentioned that one of the anchors had backed out of her shoulder about halfway. Well, the surgeon said that there was nothing else that he could do with her shoulder and that there wasn't anything in there for him to work with so redoing the surgery would only make her worse. So after a lot more physical therapy she is still only able to raise her arm about halfway! She can't raise it above her head without assistance from someone else or by using her other arm to raise it up. So she is nowhere near back to where she should be but they did let her go back to work to try it after she asked them to release her. Broke my heart for her to leave after having her home since the middle of November 2010! One thing is that is miss her so much and then I am also worried about how she will do out there and hopefully not do any further damage to her shoulder. She flew out to Jackson, Mississippi last Thursday. All I know right now is that she is floating somewhere on the Mississippi river between Memphis, TN and New Orleans, LA. I talked to her once because her cell signal is not the best down there, but she said that the guys on the boat were doing everything that they could to help her.


Now on to other things....PATIENCE!...Patience is something that I do not have!!! I can remember as a child that my grandmother would always tell me "Be Patient" and I would say "You know that I can't!" LOL! As you know I had to move my frame out to the new house to make room in here for my new couch and chair. Using it out there would not be a problem but first there was the drywall. All of the sanding and dust from that just makes too big of a mess for me to quilt up there until that is finished. I have a few quilts that I really need to get done! Trust me I know how important it is to get all of that stuff done so that we can move on to something else in the house but that just really messed my plans up! So then, the other day...I walked out to the house to take some boxes and I swear if Richard didn't have the stairs taken apart!!! See we only had temporary stair treads up there until we were ready to put the "real" ones down. Well, he didn't tell me that he was going to do that NOW! LOL! Imagine my shock when I walked out there and there was not a way for me to get upstairs!! So until he gets the staircase completely finished, I can only stand in the living room and stare up at my lonely quilt frame and a lot of my quilting supplies! :( Last night I asked him how long it would be and he said "maybe another 2 weeks!" EEKK! Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that he is working on the staircase and he has worked so hard making each and every piece of them himself, but I WANT TO QUILT!


So meanwhile, I have been working on bindings that need to be done. I finished the binding on the sailboat quilt. And during the evenings I am working on the binding of a huge flannel quilt. I don't work on it very long at a time because it is so hot with that thing on my lap.
I am still in the process of cleaning, sorting, packing and throwing away a bunch of stuff! I didn't realize that we had so much stuff. I have a bunch of stuff boxed up and sitting next to the front door that needs to go upstairs in the new house (but I can't take those out until I have stairs!) LOL! There are things like trophies, books and odds and ends that the boys can do without until we move in the house later in the summer (hopefully). I also have a bunch more of my quilting things boxed up and ready to go out there like, batting scraps, kits, and more UFO's.


So while I was in my bedroom cleaning out my closet I took a photo of my bed. I know that is probably silly but I just love the quilt that is on there. It is faded and well used but it is so comfy. It has been washed a million times and has that "crinkly" I love them when they crinkle up. I also took this photo of the stack of quilts that is in my bedroom too! I try to keep them stacked neatly but that is near impossible. I really need to go through and refold them all to keep out permanent wrinkles, maybe I will get to that in a day or too.

I washed and dried this one that I finished the binding on a few days ago. I is nice and crinkly too. I am pleased with how it washed up.

Back to cleaning and packing...I am in the process of sorting through my romance novels. Some I am boxing up and they will go to the new house and some I am getting rid of. So it takes a while to pick and choose. I have a huge pile that I will take to the bookstore and trade in for "store credit"

Kristie