Borders Added

It is hot here today. We had 91* a little while ago. I know it will cool down quickly, though, as soon as the sun goes down.  Poor Buddy is ready for me to shave him again, but I know it will be cooling down soon, so he will just have to live with it. (grin)

I finally got the borders put on my Raggedy and Friends quilt. I just went with a 3" red border. I tried to get a decent picture of it, but it wasn't easy. LOL

I had Kevin hold it up on the deck, but the wind was blowing, so it flapped around. lol

Then I decided to hang it on back of our metal door with magnetic clips.

This is the best I can do.

Then I got the borders put on Henrietta Whiskers. I still have to machine applique around the birds and stars in the border, and I also have just a bit of embroidery left to do on it. Then it is a flimsy too. ( By the way, I forget sometimes, that not everyone who reads this is a quilter. Sorry. A flimsy is just the finished top before it is sandwiched and quilted.)

Kevin tried to hold this one up too. Same results.

Now these two can join the pile to be quilted. I am almost done quilting the blocks on the Daisy Star quilt. Then I can start on the borders. I usually work on quilting while watching Biggest Loser, but I think it will be too warm tonight. So I will probably do some embroidery. I am 2 blocks behind on Birdie Stitches. Time to get those babies done. Here is a hoop of the Daisy Star.

Well, I guess that is it for me today. I want to get some things done so I can enjoy BL tonight. I also love the new show called Unforgettable. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. Have a wonderful evening.

Raggedy Annie and Friends

I spent today working on some things that I want to get done. I really want to start my Farmer's Wife blocks, but feel I have to get a few things finished first. I guess I am kind of making a deal with myself. LOL Anyway, I got the Birdie Stitches #7 ready to stitch and block #7 of Henrietta Whiskers done. Then I decided to finish putting my Raggedy Annie and Friends together. I just needed to make the sashing and cornerstones and sew it all together. What do you think?

Sorry about the quality of the picture. Kevin isn't here to hold it up for me, so it is stretched out on the bed. I will share a few closeups of some of the blocks.

 I am debating with myself on whether to call this done or to add borders. I have enough of the red fabric used for cornerstones (not sure if that is what they are called when it is in sashing). I actually have it cut. I only had enough to cut them 3 inches wide. It is 57" X74" right now. With the added borders it would be about 62"X79". What do you think? Should I call it done, or add the borders? Here is a picture with the border fabric kind of laid out around it.

I love how this quilt turned out. Thank you Kaaren for generously sharing the pattern with us. It will go in my pile of quilts to work on this winter.

Do you all have problems with ticks? I hate those critters. We are having such a hard time with them this summer. I took my walk this evening. Since I have come back into the house, I have picked 6 ticks off of myself. (Shiver here) I hate them! We have sprayed and they still are thick. Maybe we need to get some more guineas. They are known as tick controls.

We had about 2 1/2 inches of rain this morning. Not good with the horrible flooding we already  have. I think most of the rain is out of the forecast now, though. I'm just praying the levees can hold out.

Well, I need to get my grocery list ready. Tomorrow is town day. Everyone have a good one. Thank you for visiting. Please come again.


Winona

Happy Birthday Cathryn!

Today is daughter number two's birthday. I called and left a message and of course sent her a card. Not heard back yet from her, so I am assuming she and her family are doing something special. I just wanted to tell her that her dad and I are thinking about her and wish her a wonderful birthday. We love you Cath. Lots of hugs from us. Hug the grandbabies too and give Jeremy a squeeze. Here she is with her darlings, Ashton and Ava. She is such a good mama. I'm very proud of her.

 One more picture. Here she is working on her school work. She is back in school trying to get her teaching degree. She has a degree in business, but found out that just wasn't for her.

I had some good news this week. I have posted before about our lack of fabric shops in our area. All we have are Walmart, JoAnns, and Hobby Lobby. Walmart had plans to take the fabric department out, which really upset me. I found out this week, that our Walmart is going to leave the fabric department in our store. Yahoo! I guess the letters, calls, emails, and complaining to the manager worked.  I was back looking at fabric, like I do every time I go into Walmart, (grin) when Rita, the lady who cuts fabric asked me if I had heard the news. She said some of the big guys from corp. came in and talked to the ladies that run the fabric department. Asked them their opinion on closing it. Needless to say, they were told that the fabric department is staying. Sure made my day! To celebrate I  had to buy a few more pieces of fabric, but haven't taken any pictures of it yet.

I also just realized that I never did post pictures of block#2 of my Raggedy Annie and Friends BOM. I have had this done since the first week it was posted. Now Kaaren is almost ready to post block #3. LOL So here is my block #2.

I did this one different that the first block. I made the embroidery blocks bigger, did the embroidery, then trimmed them to fit. Then I put my block together. Worked much better for me. I had some of it ravel quite a bit on the first block, especially the Kona black. So I will be doing future blocks this way. Here is a closeup of the top stitchery.

This is the bottom stitchery. I really had fun doing these.

Kevin just has today and tomorrow left on his vacation. Thank goodness, he is actually going to have to shave. LOL Sorry, but I hate the whiskers on him. Two weeks growth will soon be gone. I think I have talked him into just relaxing this weekend. I think I am going to try to sandwich Ivan and Jeremy's quilts. I want to have them ready as soon as I get Bob's done. I only have about 6 blocks, then the borders left to do on Bob's, so hopefully it will be done in a week or two.

I had never heard when the next season of Biggest Loser started, so I finally went online to check it out. It starts this Tuesday! Glad I looked it up. We haven't had the tv on much in the past couple of weeks, so I haven't seen any ads for it. Looking forward to another great season.

Almost forgot to add that I will be joining Debi's Fall into Fall giveaway. Just click on the scarecrow in my sidebar to find a list of other bloggers who will be giving things away. I am still thinking it over, but will post my giveaway by Oct. 1st. The drawing will be Oct. 15th, I believe. Check it out. This is very exciting and Debi hopes to get 200 quilt bloggers to join in. You can win some great stuff. (grin)

Well, those quilts aren't going to sandwich themselves (although I wish they would LOL). So I'd better get with it. Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful weekend.

Catching Up!

I just realized that it has been about a week since I did a post, so decided I'd get one done. I have been busy. I have 15 blocks done now out of 35 on Bob's Patriotic Shoo Fly. It is not going as quickly as I thought, but that might be because I keep getting sidetracked with other projects. LOL I have the first redwork piece done on the Raggedy Annie and Friends BOM block #2. I decided to make the backgrounds bigger for the redwork, then cut them down to fit with the other pieces of the block after I get the embroidery done. I think that is going to work better for me. I had some raveling on the first block and wanted to avoid that. I also found my red pens that I bought especially for tracing redwork. If all else fails, look in the drawer where they are supposed to be. LOL

I am working on putting the blocks together for the Charm Pack Quilt Along. I still have several of these to do, but may try to get them finished up this afternoon. I like how they are turning out.

When I was tracing the designs for the Raggedy Annie block, I went ahead and traced a few more designs. I now have lots of redwork to keep me occupied. I may try doing some in these in bluework or greenwork to just kind of mix things up a mite. (grin)

I decided to see how much damage Buddy had done to my new batting. It was not as bad as I feared. I only had to cut about a foot off the end of the batt. It will still be usable for a twin size quilt, and I can use the cut off piece for small projects.  See, not too bad. The rest of the batt is fine.

I was in Walmart last weekend and found these fabrics that I just fell in love with. These just scream fall, don't they?

 I have already used them. I made a Bow Tucks bag yesterday, but I will share about that next post. I took several pictures while making the Bow Tucks bag.

I love hand quilting, but I also want to learn free motion quilting. All I have ever done with my machine is with my walking foot. Christina over at A Few Scraps is doing a free motion quilt along. I am going to attempt this. You may never see the results, though. LOL I will see how things go. I have the ugly quilt top all ready to begin. She said to just pick 3 fabrics and put this simple quilt together. It is for learning and practice, so it doesn't matter how ugly it is. Well, mine sure wins in the ugly category. LOL

I have all of my supplies ready. Now if I can just be coordinated enough to do free motion quilting. LOL

It has cooled down a lot here. We have had the highs in the 70's and lows in the lower 50's this week. I even have been able to turn the a/c off. What a welcome relief this is. It definitely feels like fall is here.

Things are up and down with Buddy, Callie, and Aeris. One minute Buddy and Callie will be laying next to each other with no problems. The next moment, she is hissing and he is barking. LOL Aeris is still hiding out, but did come up to sniff Buddy and rub her chin on his. That about freaked him out. LOL Buddy has managed to lose 2 of his squeaky toys. I cannot find them anywhere. I am thinking this is his way of getting some new toys. (grin) He does very well at night now. He goes in his crate without any whining or crying and stays quiet until we get up. I realized that we have the ABC's here at our house: Aeris, Buddy, and Callie. LOL I know, I am lame. (griggle) Here is a picture of Buddy that shows his cute tail.

 Here he is smiling for the camera.

Here is Callie's 'Whatever!' attitude. Sorry about the mess behind her. What can I say? I am a messy quilter. LOL

Well, that is my update for now. I am laughing as I watch Buddy chase his own tail around and around. Callie is sitting here saying, 'Stupid dog!' LOL  I'll be back soon to share my Bow Tucks bag with you. Everyone have a great day. Thanks for visiting.

Buddy is doing better.

They say today is the last day of this heat. I so hope they are right.  Highs in the 80's are predicted for all of next week. I am counting on this, so the weather people better get it right. LOL Yesterday was a horrible day for me. I hate thunder and lightning. It stormed all afternoon and evening. I ended up just unplugging things and laying down with Buddy in front of the fan. For some reason, I feel safest in our bed during a storm. (eye roll here) I know that sounds like a child, but that is how it is with me.

Things are going much better with Buddy. I now have him leading on a leash and going to potty outside. A friend emailed me some tips to help with his barking while in his kennel. Really helped. Thanks Jill. We moved his kennel into our bedroom. I was hesitant to do this, because his barking was bad enough while he was in the living room. Kevin thought if he was closer to us, he would settle down. I will have to say, Kevin was right. Last night, we had a little whining, then he settled down for the whole night. Sure was good to get a night's sleep without all that yapping. I really wonder how so much racket can come from such a small dog. LOL

Now on to some quilty stuff. Seems like it has been a while since I posted anything about quilting. (grin) I finished block one of Raggedy and Friends BOM this week. I really am loving this quilt. I do think, though, that from now on I will wait to put the black sashing on after I get the redwork done. I am using Kona  cotton in black. It raveled quite a bit.

Look how cute Annie and Andy are.

I just realized that I need to get those 4 patches done for the Charm Pack Quilt Along. I think she will be posting the next step tomorrow, and I haven't gotten the second step done yet. I plan to work on that in a bit. I am sorry that I haven't been commenting much on posts this week. Having a new puppy has taken it out of me. LOL It is like having a small child. He is always in something. Look what he did to my new package of batting.

I almost cried when I saw this.  Hopefully I will be able to work around the bad areas, so should still get plenty of good out of it. Kevin could not keep a grin off his face when he looked over and saw me standing holding  this with my mouth dropped open. (Big Sigh) The batting is now put up where the brat can't reach it.

I really had forgotten how much work a puppy is, but he is worth it. Callie and Aeris would disagree, though. LOL They are starting to get along better. Aeris pretty much ignores Buddy and Callie has gotten back to going wherever I am. She had quit hanging around me. I think I was being punished. (grin) So things are slowly getting back to normal. I just have to remember to puppy-proof my sewing area. Callie is waiting on me to sew those 4 patches, so I'd better get with it. Don't want to get on her bad side again.

Can't you just hear her saying, 'Come on, mom, quit playing with the dog and let's get to sewing.' LOL
Look at Buddy. All tuckered out. Tearing up mom's batting is hard work. LOL

Well, I'd better get with it. Since things are starting to settle down here, I hope to be back to blogging, reading, and posting like normal next week. I have started hand quilting on Bob's Patriotic Shoo Fly. I have 7 out of 35 blocks done. I am doing a simple outline around the HST's and 'X's' in the squares. Thank you for visiting. Everyone have a good evening.