Kevin's Christmas Lap Quilt

This week has been a stressful week. It has rained almost continuously since Monday afternoon. We did have a few hours break yesterday and today so far. It rained most of the night, though. So of course it is way too wet to do anything outside.
 Last week a deer ran into the side of the car while Kevin was coming home from work. It is dented, but we will live with dents. Hopefully the crazy deer survived. I am thankful my sweetie was not hurt and no significant damage was done to the car.
This week, the driver's side front wheel bearing went out of our car. Our only other vehicle is an old, old pickup that is on its last legs and drinks gas like nobody's business. Kevin was able to take the old truck and get the car parts. When I went to bed Wednesday night, I prayed to God to just give us a couple hours of sunshine and no winds on Thursday morning, so we could get the work done on the car. It costs us at least $20  day when Kevin has to drive the pickup to work. We got up Thursday morning, to lovely sunshine and calm winds. We got the bearing thingy put on in less than 2 hours. As we were putting the tools up, we noticed that the wind was really picking up and the clouds were once again rolling in. Our God is so amazing! He gave me exactly what I asked for. (big grin)
Yesterday and today has been spent trying to figure out some of mom's paperwork. Evidently some of it got lost in the mail. (Either that or she misplaced it. Don't know which.) She was about to lose a bunch of her benefits. I am so thankful to my sister-in-law, Gina, for going and taking care of this for mom when I just couldn't right now. (Big sigh) Maybe life is going to calm down for me now. I sure hope so. I have been too stressed to even sew any. Not good.
Anyway, I figured I'd better share pictures of Kevin's Christmas Quilt that he didn't get till the end of Feb. LOL Here it is.

Please do not look too closely at the intersections. LOL I bought those 5" charms at Walmart. It was in a pack or 100 precuts. Hmm, I had Kevin help me lay them out in what he thought was a pleasing look. I never even thought to measure these squares. I just picked them up and sewed away. LOL Well, they are definitely not cut square. Once I figured that out, I almost just put the whole project away, but Kevin really liked these fabrics, so I continued on. He said he didn't care if the squares didn't all meet just right. I bought some extra fabric for borders and finished it . No way I was going to rip all those squares out, trim them, and sew them back together.  So be aware if you buy one of those $10 packs of 100 precut 5" charms from Walmart, they are not all cut true.

I had thought about trying to machine quilt it, but decided that would be more work than hand quilting it. LOL It would have helped if I had not gotten bored with it. That is why it took me so long to finish. All those similar fabrics and quilting 'X's just got boring after a while. Sorry no pictures of Kevin holding it. He would rather have a tooth pulled than get his picture taken. LOL But Callie sure gave her approval. This was within minutes of finishing it. LOL

Here is the back of it with Callie and Aeris both laying on it. I think Kevin had been laying on the bed, using it. When he got up he just threw it off himself. Didn't take our ladies long to find it. LOL

Well, that is it for today. Thank you for visiting. Please come again.

Happy Birthday Hazel!

Our snow storm has started. It is coming down pretty heavy. We are north of Kansas City, so not getting it as bad as they are.  I just hope Kevin can make it home safely. The worst part of the storm is supposed to be during rush hour. Pretty bad timing. Most schools will probably be closed tomorrow. I just hope the wind does not get up. I have all my outside work done. I have spent the day watching tv and doing some embroidery. I am working on Bunny Hill's A Tisket a Tasket  from 2 years ago. LOL I am doing it in redwork. Better late than never. I am on block #11. Only one more left to do. I thought I only had one more Raggedy block to do to be caught up. Hmmm.... I have 2 more  blocks to do, then another one is do out tomorrow. Oh well. I will eventually get caught up.

Today is Hazel's 24th birthday! Happy birthday darling. I hope you have a good one. Wish I was down there. I'd make you a cake. Your dad and I love you, honey.

I figured I'd throw in a couple of pictures of Callie and Aeris, since I haven't posted many pictures of them lately. Aeris has decided she likes it behind my sewing machine. She is more of a pain than Callie. She likes to swat at things, so I have to make her get down when I want to sew. LOL

Now Callie wants to curl up next to my laptop on top of some scraps, of course. LOL

A good friend sent me this Thimbleberries calendar for Christmas. It has a gorgeous different block for each month. I love it. She knew I loved Thimbleberries. (grin)

Well, I guess that is all for me tonight. I must go look out the window and see how hard it is snowing. I just watched the weather in Kansas City. It is not a pretty sight down there. Everyone have a safe and warm evening. Thank you for visiting. Please come again.

Cats Playing with New Toys

Good afternoon,

I just had to share a few pictures of my kitties playing with the toy mice I bought them yesterday. The mice have catnip in them. I laughed all afternoon watching their antics. LOL I still smile when I think about it.
Callie has an evil gleam in her eye. That mouse is history. LOL

It is attacking my leg.

It is getting away.

Ahh got it! Now you are going to pay!

Callie played with this little toy mouse for about an hour. Aeris took off, afraid of them, but she soon came back to see what Callie was doing. Then after Callie got tired, Aeris took over.
Aeris had the evil look in her eye too. LOL

He's not going anywhere.

Where did he go?

Ahhh, I love him.

I think I will let him rest for a while.

If you look at Aeris' back right leg, you can see how crooked it is. She was dumped on us as a kitten. Her back leg was broken. We took her to the vet, but he said it had been broken for a while and was already healing. He strongly recommended against operating on it. He told us that he thought she would do just fine, although have a limp. He was right. She more than holds her own with Callie. LOL She runs, jumps up and down on things, picks fights with Callie, and keeps my rocking chair occupied. What more could you ask from a kitty? LOL

Thank you all for indulging me this afternoon. I know this might seem like a silly post to some, but my kitties are part of my family. Everyone have a good afternoon.

What Would You Do?

Good afternoon,

It is getting hot here, around 89*. We skipped the 60's and 70's and went right to the upper 80's. The humidity is also back. I can't handle lots of heat and humidity, so I am staying in today. My body needs to get used to these summer temps.

I fused this block and want to machine applique it. I have done some machine applique, but not a lot. This is a design from Sindy at Fat Cat patterns. She has awesome patterns and most are free. This one is called Cali. Hmm, after I saw that, I knew I had to make it. Here it is.

Now my question is: should I use thread that matches each section to go around them with machine applique or just use black and go around each piece? I have had this done for a while, but just can't decide what to do. I don't want to ruin it because I really love it. You think my Callie will like it? Probably not. I tried really hard to get a good picture of her today. She was in a snit and would not cooperate. This is the best I could get from the brat. I took at least 7 or 8 pictures, but no go with her. LOL

Now Aeris on the other hand, always cooperates. Isn't she cute? I may have to try to make a kitty block with her coloring. At least she would appreciate it. LOL

I have been working on some UFO's. I am almost done with all the projects that I have sandwiched, so some basting is in my future. I may actually start on a full sized quilt this time. So it won't be a quick project, which means I also need to be working on another project to prevent burn out. (grin)

I went out this morning and walked for 30 minutes. Ok, I waited too long and almost got too hot, so I now know that I need to do my walking early. I have also been very diligent about my diet. No pop or sweets for a week now. Also no wheat. I can already breathe better and have lost some weight. I really have to keep this up as my fasting blood glucose scared me last week. I have been able to control my diabetes without drugs and would like to keep it that way. So it is time to buckle down, eat right, exercise, and take some weight off. I would really appreciate any prayers for me to be able to get back in shape and get my BG down that you might feel drawn to say for me. I have until fall to get things lined out, or I need to go on some meds. I really, really don't want to do that.

Well, I guess that is enough for today. I am really hoping to be able to get my hair cut tomorrow. Wednesday is Mom's birthday, so I will spend it with her. Friday I leave to spend the weekend with Ashton and Ava. So this is a really busy week for me. Not sure how many posts I will get in. (grin) Thanks for visiting. Have a great day.

Working on Fall Projects

Hello,

It looks like I will be doing good to make one blog post a week. It has been a long week. We have had some really windy days. Today it has rained pretty much off and on all day. It is supposed to be cold, windy, and rainy this weekend. We even have chances of snow on Sunday! I am so not ready for winter, but I guess my opinion doesn't count. LOL I love fall, but as soon as it turns cold, I am ready for spring. 

I guess I will share a few pictures of some of my projects in the past month. This is called Autumn Splendor. It is, of course, a Thimbleberries pattern. I have wanted to make this table runner ever since I saw it in Lynette Jensen's book 'Quilting for Harvest.' So one day, I decided I was just going to do it. I made the nine patches, fused the applique pieces on, then machine blanket stitched around them and sewed the whole thing together. I really can measure, but I was really surprised at how large this is. It is a table runner, but is 28 X 52 inches.

You can see how large it is in this picture with Aeris beside it. She just had to test it out. LOL
I have this all marked and sandwiched, ready to hand quilt. It has to wait in line. (grin)

Please excuse any weirdness in this blog post. I am still trying to learn about Firefox and I have updated something on blogger. Pictures aren't going exactly where I wanted, but at least I don't have to edit HTML. That was a pain. 

This is a wall quilt called Pumpkin Patch. You guessed it. It is another Lynette Jensen pattern from 'Quilting for Harvest'. I really love this book. This quilt was supposed to have another 5 inch border all around it, but I decided to leave it off. I just couldn't find anything in my stash that I liked with this black border fabric. I think it is big enough anyway. It also is marked and sandwiched, waiting to be quilted. 

 

 I also wanted to share what my sweet husband made for me. He knows how much I enjoy redwork, but I have to struggle to get the designs traced on to my fabric. I have been using a bin turned over a desk lamp, but it is awkward and gets hot. So he decided to make me a light box. He asked how big I wanted it. I think it ended up about 14 inches square. He bought a small florescent under cabinet light. Then he took some scrap lumber and built a box. He fastened the light to the bottom of the box and drilled a hole for the cord. He sent me to town to buy a 14 inch square piece of plexi-glass. I love it. It works great and doesn't get hot. If you don't count the cost for the scrap lumber, it cost him about $14 to make this for me. What a guy! He said we can take the top off , turn the light around and add another light if needed, but this puts out plenty of light. I may paint it some day, but for now it is just fine for me.

 

 I will share the last two blocks for A Quilter's Garden, then I am off to bed. This is block number 11 called Starburst. 

 

Block # 12 is called Tulips. I have all twelve flower blocks done now, but probably won't get the top together till after Christmas. I guess it depends on how I get along with my Christmas sewing and quilting. LOL

 

Well, I hope this all worked, because I need to get to bed. I think I am going to JoAnn's in the morning. Their Columbus Day sale starts tomorrow or rather later this morning. LOL I have really gone through my fusibles the past couple of weeks. I have fused a trout, eagle, 3 chickens, and a calico cat. They are all waiting to be machine blanket stitched. I also made 2 purses this week and finished another redwork mini-quilt. I have the pieced borders all waiting for my Birds and Blooms quilt and just about have all the needle turned applique done on it. I have found that I really get a lot done when I don't spend so much time on the computer. Bren, if you are reading this, I tried to comment on your blog post earlier, but there must have been a glitch. It wouldn't let me. I'll try again tomorrow. I forgot, our internet service was down for 2 days this week too. I really miss it when I don't have it. Everyone have a great day. Thank you for visiting.  

Beautiful day in Missouri

Good morning everyone,

It is such a gorgeous day here. I did my laundry and hung it outside. I hung out the second load and brought the first load back to the house with me. Perfect drying weather, although the wind is blowing pretty hard. Doesn't seem so bad, though, when it is in the 80's. (grin) The sheets were kind of a pain to hang out, but I got them securely on the line (at least I hope they are secure LOL).

I got Milah's attention yesterday when I mentioned chickens. So I figured I'd better post some pictures of my new babies. I bought them at Orscheln's last Saturday. I bought 8 bantams, (I have no clue what breeds. The sign just said bantams.)2 red sex link pullets, and 2 black sex link pullets. I have had the sex links chickens before, so I know they are good layers. I made sure that I had 2 of each kind that I picked. I know it is crazy, but I wanted them to have a buddy. LOL Only 2 of the banties don't have feathers on their feet. You can see one of them above. It is the little brown chick with a stripe down's it back. These are so cute.

I took several pictures the day after I brought them home. I gave them a whole day to settle in before bothering them. Since the banties were bought straight run, I have no clue how many are girls and how many are boys. At least I hope I have some of each. (grin)

No matter how many pictures I took, I never could seem to get all 12 in the same shot. They are quick little guys. LOL I just have one more picture. I hope to move them out of the house next week some time if the warm weather holds. I grew up with banties always around us, but have never raised them myself. They seem to scratch and dig more that the regular sized chicks I have raised did. They have their water filthy all the time. I have to change it about 4 times a day, but they are a joy to watch. Milah, did you get your chicken fix? LOL I will have to take another picture of them. We have had them a week tomorrow and they have grown so much.

A few weeks ago, I won an Amazon gift card from Cheryl. Now I love books almost as much as fabric. LOL I had so much fun trying to decide what to get. I finally decided what I wanted and added some money with it. I got 3 great books. I have wanted this one for a while. I was pleasantly surprised to see how big it is. This will be a lot of reading, so much good info on eating.Then I got this one. I love Bob on the Biggest Loser, so I just had to have his book. I am about half way through it. It is another good book. Now this book, I love, love, love. I have Pint Size Traditions II, so I knew this would be a great book. I have looked through this so many times. I just want to make all of the projects. Now that it is getter hot, I want to have some little projects to work on in the evenings. This has plenty.
So Cheryl, as you can see, I did good! Thank you again, so much for the gift card. I think of you each time I look at my new books. (grin)

Remember last post when I showed you a picture of Callie laying in a box. Ohoh, look what I caught in Callie's box. Aeris looks pretty smug, doesn't she? LOL So I fixed the problem. I put another box on the bed. Now all is right with the world again. LOL Callie and Aeris each have their own box to lay in.
Well, that is it for me today. My dh has the computer set up to automatically run some sort of scan at noon every Friday. It slows everything way down while it is running. Since it is close to noon. I am getting off here. LOL I'll share my JoAnn's trip and the purse I made next time. Everyone have a good weekend. Thanks for visiting and please come again.

It has been a week!

Good afternoon,

Sorry that I just disappeared like that. Spring has arrived and I have been busy. (grin) Not sure what happened last week to prevent me from posting. Fridays through Mondays are my busiest days around here. I spend Fridays getting ready for the weekend. The weekends are spent with my dh. Mondays are spent cleaning up all the messes we made on the weekend. LOL We both got our eyes checked last Saturday and will both be getting new glasses. Wow! That was expensive. Since I am diabetic, I had to have my eyes dialated. I hate that, but it is necessary. I was so relieved when she told me I had no problems. I will be getting transition lenses since I have dry eye and the sun kills me. After our eye exams, we had to get groceries for my MIL. Dh was driving. I had to wear these lovely things.

Aren't they stylish? LOL They also hurt my ears, but I had to wear them for a couple of hours because the sun was so bright and it was giving me a headache. Believe me, I tried just wearing sunglasses, but these wrapped around so the sun didn't get in the sides. So I had to wear this fashion statement through Sam's, Aldis, and Wal Mart. I did take them off inside the stores, but did lots of squinting until I just gave up and put them back on. I am glad that chore is done for another year. Now I look forward to getting my new glasses. Kevin wanted to take a picture of me wearing these, but I wouldn't let him. (grin) Anyway, we dropped the groceries by my MIL's and I put things away for her. Kevin spent the rest of the day watching movies and I worked on my Peter Rabbit challenge by Milah. I now have my top all done, but you will have to wait till Easter to see it. LOL I might even have it quilted by then.

Sunday was spent doing some laundry and maintenance on the vehicles. Our daughter, Carolyn and her husband Bob came by for a visit. We always love seeing any of the kids. I forgot to get my camera out. I need to get used to carrying the camera so I can become a good blogger. LOL Anyway, here is a picture of Carolyn from last summer. Here is Bob, also last summer. We hadn't seen them since Christmas, so it was good to see them.

I think I promised about a week ago to show you some change purses I have made. I found a tutorial for making them here. These are the first 3 I made. I called them change purses, then a friend told me she uses hers for a verse keeper. She cuts 3X5 cards down to fit in them and writes Bible verses that she is memorizing on them. She can then carry the verses around in her 'keeper'. I thought that was a neat idea. Here is the inside of the chicken change purses/verse keepers. The inside of the pumpkin purse/keeper. I made these one day last week.
I opened them up so you could see the lining.
Guess what I did yesterday? Give up? LOL It was such a gorgeous day with a nice wind. I stripped the bed and washed everything, even the comforter. I hung all this outside. They smell so good when you can hang them on the line. Yesterday afternoon when I made the bed up, I decided it is getting too warm to keep the comforter on the bed. So I folded it up and put my Thimbleberries Village quilt on the bed. So for the first time ever, we slept under a quilt that I had made. Ahhh, it felt good. I told Kevin there was no point in making quilts and just saving them. What am I saving them for? LOL This is the first big quilt that I made. I have made lap and twin size before, but this one was huge compared to them. Of course, the cats approve. They are both laying on it right now. Aeris was on it when I took the picture. Callie soon joined her. Doesn't it look good on the bed? Something very satisfying, sleeping under a quilt that you made and hand quilted yourself. (grin)

We get groceries every other Saturday. This Saturday is the week to get them. I am making my list. I have an idea. My husband loves ketchup. We cannot find any around here that does not contain high fructose corn syrup. In my opinion, that stuff is slowly killing us. It is so hard to buy groceries any more. I have to constantly read labels. I just put it back on the shelf if it has that nasty stuff in it. We are trying to eat more natural. Anyway, I can buy a gallon of tomato sauce at Sam's without any of the nasty stuff in it. Do you think it would work to use the sauce and add the spices and honey to make some ketchup for us? I don't eat much of it, but Kevin really likes it. If I just make up a gallon at a time, I should be able to keep it in the fridge. I am sure K can eat that much before it would go bad. LOL Actually I wouldn't even mind adding sugar to it instead of honey if the honey makes it taste too strong. We do like barbeque sauce made with honey, so I figured the ketchup wouldn't be bad with it. It would definitely cost more than buying it already made, but we would avoid the nasty stuff. I hope to have a good garden this year, so I can make and can my own ketchup, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, salsa, and even pizza sauce. As you can see, we love tomato products. LOL I would love to have your opinions on this. I will probably try it. If so, I'll let you know how it turns out. We are trying to cut out 3 nasties from our diets. They are high fructose corn syrup, of course, monosodium glutamate, and partially hydrogenated oils. (Not real sure about all the spellings here, but I am sure you all know what I mean.) These 3 things are just not necessary in our diets.

Tonight is Biggest Loser, so you know where I will be. Planted in my rocker, watching tv, with a quilt on my lap. LOL I may not get a chance to post tomorrow. My MIL has asked me to come up and help her some tomorrow. She is in a power chair and finding it harder and harder to get things done, so I offered to come help her. I was surprised when she called me last night and told me she wanted to take me up on my offer. She has always helped everyone else out, but it is hard for her to sit back and let us help her now. I told her it was her season to take it easy and let us help. Anyway, not sure how long I will be there. Now I need to go make some laundry soap for MIL. I made some up a while ago and took it to her. She loved it and had me get the stuff to make her some, but she just isn't strong enough anymore to grate the soap. So I will do that in a bit so I can take it with me. I also offered to do her washing. As I said, she always was there to help me each and every time I had a baby. It is my turn to repay her for all of her help. She also taught me how to sew, crochet, cook, and can. She just lives 3 miles up the road from us, so I can help her alot if she will let me. She will be 80 on her birthday and is now very feeble. I am glad to help her.

Everyone have a great day. Thanks for visiting and please come again.