I'm Back!

It seems like it has been forever since I posted on my blog. Well, it has been a while, about 6 weeks, I think. December was just crazy. Then Kevin and I both came down with a virus the day after Christmas. We are just now getting back on our feet. So this will probably be a long post. Just warning you. (grin) I have lots and lots of pictures to share, but I will stretch them out over the next few weeks. I kind of use my blog to keep track of things too, so I will be posting lots of pictures of my family. The grandkids are all getting so big!  Now where to start? I know....

I DID IT! I finished all three of the SIL's quilts! I was so relieved to get them finished. I really became kind of overwhelmed in the last few weeks before Christmas. I finished hand quilting Ivan's quilt at 7 p.m. on Dec. 22nd. I sewed the binding on all of them by machine. Jeremy's I turned over and hand finished. It took me so long, that Kevin insisted I finish the other two with my machine. I am glad I did. It cut off hours of work for me. I have a favor to ask you all. If I ever come up with another harebrained idea, like completely making and hand quilting 3 twin size quilts again in a  5 month period, please come thump me up side the head! LOL  It wouldn't have been so bad, but I couldn't seem to start on one and stick with it. I like to have several projects at a time going. Keeps me from getting bored. I finished Bob's quilt at the end of October. I really love the way this one turned out. I think it is my favorite.

I am sorry, I guess I didn't get any closeups of the quilting and none of the backs. I told you I was overwhelmed. LOL I am going to jump around with my pictures a little bit. Sure won't be posted in the order taken, but that is ok. Here is Bob holding it up on Christmas morning. He really loved it.

Next we have Jeremy's quilt. I started hand quilting it on Nov. 1st and finished it on the 30th. I did mostly simple, straight line quilting on it. I think it is Callie's favorite, since it is the only one she got on while I was trying to take pictures of them. (grin)

I was so bummed. I was sitting watching tv with Kevin while I quilted on the last border. I snipped my thread and cut a little hole in the red fabric. I gasped and almost cried. Kevin calmed me down as usual and said , "You'll think of something." I did. I matched the red up to some embroidery floss perfectly. I did a satin stitch over the hole and batting. It is very hard to see. I showed it to Jeremy and we had a hard time finding it. I finally did by feel. He just laughed and said that made it more special. (grin) Here he is holding it up on Christmas morning. I was the most concerned about his quilt, but he loved it too.

I started hand quilting Ivan's quilt on Dec. 1st and finished it on Dec. 22nd. Wow, I really worked hard on that one. It does not have as much quilting in it as the other two, but I knew I would never get it finished in time if I did lots of  quilting. I basically just quilted X's in each of the block sections, then used simple stencils in the outer borders. I was so tickled on the night I finished it, that I was practically jumping up and down. Here it is, before it was washed.

Ivan sure looked happy on Christmas morning while he held it up for me to take a picture.

While quilting on these I also: made 2 nightgowns and 2 pairs of pj's, made several Bow Tucks bags, made a few table runners, made several small wall quilts, finished up several things as gifts, crocheted a few dish rags, took mom shopping, helped her with her celebration, did our Christmas shopping, did lots of baking, and had my husband home on vacation the last 2 weeks before Christmas. Oh goodness, I never want to wait till the last minute to finish things up again. I love Kevin, but it was really hard to get things done with him home. I told him next year to take the two weeks after Christmas if he wants a vacation at this time of the year. LOL

So there you have the condensed version of the past 6 weeks. Tomorrow I will start sharing pictures and updating a little more. As I said, I have been pretty sick. I have coughed so much, that my stomach is sore, and my nose hates the sight of the Kleenex box. LOL  I stayed in bed last Saturday with a fever of 102.2. I still get low grade fevers every night, but I'm getting better. Thank you so much to those who have checked on me. I really hope to get back to normal and start commenting on your blogs again. I also forgot, my Callie was also sick for a week during that time. We got her some meds and she is doing fine now. Well, I need to get off here for now. Everyone have a great evening. Thank you for visiting. 

Ivan's quilt is a flimsy!

I finished putting the borders on Ivan's quilt last night. I think he will like it. Here it is spread out on the bed.

Here is a shot of one of the corners.

One more shot.

Now before I start on Jeremy's quilt, I think I will work on the Raggedy and Friends BOM and the Charm Pack Quilt Along. I really want to keep up with these two projects.

I won another giveaway a little while ago. I received this in the mail today from Cyndi.

The package was full of goodies. I love everything. I won the Bar Harbor charm pack and the Darcy Schnibbles pattern, but Cyndi also included a pen, some notecards/envelopes, some sticky tabs, and a gorgeous handmade key fob. Cyndi knows how much I love kitties. Isn't this just the cutest?

Cyndi also included a cute as can be card with owls on it, but I forgot to get it in the picture. Thank you, again Cyndi. I love everything and will put it all to good use.

The heat and humidity is back. We got a couple days break, but had a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon. That brought the humidity back. Not looking forward to getting groceries tomorrow in this heat. I'll take my cold bags and get home as quickly as possible. I guess that is it for me today. Thanks for visiting. Please come back. Everyone have a wonderful day.

I Got Sidetracked

You know what they say....the best laid plans, etc. Well I got Jeremy's quilt all cut out. Made my decision on which way to do the 9 patch blocks. By the way, thank you everyone for your opinions. I decided to go with the brown blocks in the centers. That is the way I was leaning towards anyway, but just wanted some other opinions. (grin) Here is Jeremy's quilt, all cut out and ready to sew. I think I still need some border strips. I usually cut those after the center is done. 

After getting Jeremy's cut out, I decided I might as well get Ivan's cut out too. Hmmm, I wasn't really pleased with the borders, so I went back to EQ7. I like these borders much better.

 So I got Ivan's quilt all cut out.

Even with EQ7, I still have to do lots of figuring. I probably wouldn't have to, but it is just like me not trusting a calculator. I have to figure it myself. LOL You can see all of my doodles to the left.  I am using up that big 'W' and using my favorite pen. It writes in purple. (big grin)
Then I decided I really should put together one block to see if I liked it. I now have 15 out of 20 blocks put together. I just have 5 more to make. I also have the cornerstones done and the pieced borders done.
So I might as well get Ivan's quilt done first. LOL Here is what the block will look like. Not too bad, even with all that yellow in there.

I won a giveaway a couple of weeks ago. Joanne from splittingstitches, was comparing cutting charms with her new Go cutter and an ordinary rotary cutter. She sent me all of the test results, plus some charms from a charm pack and a note pad. I believe she sent over 100 charms. I will have lots of fun with these. Thanks so much Joanne.

About two months ago, Fons and Porter sent me an offer for a trial subscription to their magazine, Love of Quilting. They would send me a copy. I could look at it and decide whether I wanted it or not. I received the bill within the first 2 weeks, but no magazine. I was just about to write cancel on the bill and send it back when I finally got the magazine. Then a couple of days later I got another issue. I have decided to go ahead and send them the money since I do like it. I love this quilt in their July/August issue. So simple, but so pretty. I may do this one after I get all the other projects out of the way. I may even attempt to follow Crispy's hand piecing tutorial with it. I would probably cut it down some, though. Isn't it pretty? It is made with scraps and a 60* triangle template (both small and large).  It is called 'Nothing but Triangles'.

My dh has been putting in lots of overtime at work this month, so he was really looking forward to today. He had lots of projects he wanted to get done. We went to bed with no rain in sight, but woke up to rain. So it has been another 'in the house' day for us. Can't do what he wanted to while it is so wet outside. It seems to rain every weekend. This is unusual for us for July. We have received way more rain than normal. In fact, we have had so much rain, that the garden isn't even liking it. No ripe tomatoes yet. A few tiny green beans setting on. One eggplant and lots of zucchini blooms when the garden was checked this morning. Of course the storm we had blew over my tomatoes, cages and all. I hope they recover.

Well, I think I will get back to my sewing. Kevin keeps reminding me to take breaks. So I figured I might as well get a blog post in. LOL He takes good care of me. Thanks for visiting. Have a great evening.

Choices Made for SILs' Quilts

I have been busy today. It seems like Sunday, but I know it is Monday. LOL We are still having rain off and on and the humidity is up. The heat will probably come back this week too. Not looking forward to that, but not much I can do about it.

I decided this morning that my little sewing corner is in dire need of some cleaning. I am so bad about just piling things up till I can't find a thing. So I decided I'd do a little putting away and organizing before I start on Jeremy's or Ivan's quilts. This may take longer than I thought. (sigh) While putting things away I came across the quilt that has been a thorn in my side for a long time. It is Double Delight. It was a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt a year or so ago. I love the quilt. The design is beautiful, but it has so many pieces and so much trimming. If I counted right, the center has 2,472 pieces. I would work on it for a while, then put it away. I have done this about 10 times now. LOL  Anyway, I found that I had half of the center put together. So of course, I decided to get the rest of it together. Now all I need to do is decide if I want to add borders or call it good. It already measures about 63X76 inches. I will think on it for a bit.

I will probably go ahead with some borders as soon as I get my cutting area cleaned up a bit.

I sent Cathryn several designs for Jeremy's quilt and she picked the plain 9 patch. She figured he would like it better.

I may jazz the borders up a little, but then again, he would probably rather have it just plain. Here are the fabrics I chose for his quilt.

I know Ivan likes brighter colors.  Hazel also chose a pretty plain pattern for his quilt, but she said it had to have the yellow in it. Kind of surprised me. I sent her at least 6 designs and this is what she chose.

He also likes stripes. So this is the fabric I picked for Ivan's quilt.

I have tried really hard to come up with quilts that the guys will love. Now I just need to get them made. LOL Tomorrow I will show you all the back that I pieced for Bob's quilt. Kevin really likes it. Now, I had better get back to that mess, so I can get to sewing. (grin) Everyone have a great evening. Thanks for visiting.

Winona