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. 

Last day of Fall into Fall Giveaway!

It has been quite a week around here. I had planned to blog a little more, but it just didn't work out. Our daughter's FIL passed away on Sunday. Kevin had to work his hours around so that he could attend the funeral with me today. The funeral was an hour away, so we had two hours in just driving. I am glad we could go to support our SIL, Bob. I know he and his family appreciated us being there. Kevin had to work last night, now tomorrow he goes back to his regular day shift. It is not easy to switch to a night shift for one day, then switch back, but he wanted to do this. Robert's death was not a surprise. He had been sick for a long time, but it was still hard on his family. They had a very nice service for him. He will be missed, but is in a better place.

I was so sure that I could get Bob's quilt done. Then I ran out of thread. Never a good thing when you see your spool like this. LOL

Now that spool is completely empty and in my purse so that I can get the right color the next time I am in JoAnns. I never would have dreamed I would use more than a spool of thread on this quilt. I have one whole border side left to quilt. Oh well, this gave me the excuse to move on to Jeremy's Nine Patch. Oh, I am having so much fun with this one. I only started it Monday and already have almost half the blocks quilted. It is mostly straight line quilting, cause Jeremy likes simple. LOL I am using a 80/20 batting and muslin for the backing. I am loving this muslin on the back. The needle just goes through it like butter. Here is a section of the nine patch.

I love how the quilting is showing up on the back. That muslin really shows every stitch.  Shows wrinkles too. (grin) Good thing I like the crinkled look. Hope Jeremy does. LOL

Last week end, I played around a little with some charms. Nola, do you recognize these little pink squares? I cut some of the pink charms I won from your giveaway into 2 1/2" squares and made this cute little quilt. I then machine quilted it. I am trying to come up with an idea of something to applique in the center. If not, I will just bind it and give it to one of the granddaughters for a doll quilt. This was another just pure fun quilt.

Now I am buckling down and concentrating on the SIL's lap quilts. If Ivan's goes as quickly as Jeremy's has, I may be able to be done with them before the end of November. That would be good!

I will be closing the Fall into Fall giveaway at midnight tonight and will draw a winner and announce it tomorrow sometime. Not sure what time since tomorrow is once again grocery and errand day. I want to thank everyone who has commented to be entered in the giveaway and all of the lovely people who have become followers. I never dreamed that I would have over 300 entries for the bow tucks bag and over 100 followers. Wow! Even my husband is amazed. LOL  So if you haven't entered my giveaway yet, you still have a few hours, about  5 to be exact. (grin) Good luck!

Thank you all for visiting. Have a good day and see you tomorrow. Won't tomorrow be an exciting day in blogland!

Jeremy's Top Is Done!

It feels so good to have all three of these tops put together. Since I tend to lean towards earth colors, I am loving Jeremy's top. I really hope he likes it too. I finished this top a couple of days ago. Took all my pictures. Had some great pictures of Aeris on top of it. Then could not get the pictures to download to my computer. I struggled with it yesterday till I became frustrated, then just turned the computer off. LOL I am not very computer savvy. That is why I love Windows 7. It just about does everything for me. (grin) Since I was so put out with my camera, computer, and just technology in general yesterday, I decided to get Bob's Patriotic Shoo Fly basted. It took me about 5 hours to get this done. Four for the actual basting. The other hour was spent pressing, measuring, and getting things lined up. Oh my goodness, my back was killing me last night. I am so glad to have that job done.  So I am ready to begin the quilting. (grin) Just need to finish hand sewing the binding down on the redwork barns/sunflower wall quilt. I hope to get that done tonight, then it is full speed ahead!
Here is Jeremy's top.

A closeup of the cornerstones.

I have some advice for those of you, who like me,  may not be particularly friendly with the computer. When a message comes up that says you need to reformat your disk (SD card), it really means it. Ignoring this message will cause you a whole lot of headaches. LOL My poor dh spent at least a half hour trying to figure out why I could not get my pictures off the camera last night, when I finally thought of this pop up message. I got the look. You know the one I mean. LOL Anyway, he reformatted my disk. I lost what pictures I had on it, but it now works. Lesson learned. I am supposed to write down any messages that pop up in the future, so I can show them to Kevin before he tries to straighten out my messes. Oh boy! I felt kind of dumb. I thought my computer or camera was broken. I am very grateful that it was a simple fix.

I never use to buy quilting magazines, but lately I've found a few that I really like. I have a subscription for Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting. Then I found both of these in Walmart. Each one has at least a couple of quilts that I like.

 Look at this cute pink charm pack of  '80's fabric that I won in a giveaway on Nola's blog. I love them. Such pretty colors. Thank you Nola. I will enjoy creating something with them.

Today was grocery day. The only good thing I can say about it, is that it is not as hot as it has been. This weekend is the 'back to school tax break' in our state. Basically things bought for back to school are not charged state tax. I am not sure what all it includes, but do know that school supplies are on the list. So I bought a few things that I thought I might use in the next year.

I also bought several folders, computer paper, and glue sticks, but didn't get them in the picture. Oh goodness, Walmart was a madhouse. It took me 45 minutes to get through the checkout line.  I also bought the backing fabric for Ivan and Jeremy's quilts. I bought a 90" wide muslin, so I don't need to piece the backs. I kind of like muslin on the backs of quilts. I had planned to use a sheet for the backing, but then thought, I might as well buy the muslin. It is unbleached and should work fine with both of their quilts.

I bought some little cat toys filled with catnip for my babies. They have been having quite a time with them. At first Aeris was afraid of them, but she got over that after seeing all the fun Callie was having. I will try to get a picture or two of them playing for the next time.  The heat is supposed to come back on Sunday. Not looking forward to that. I hope we can get some mowing and weed eating done tomorrow before the heat hits. Everyone have a great weekend. Thanks for visiting my blog and please come again.

It's Hot Outside!

Wooo! It has been hot for the past couple of days. It is even reaching triple digits. Heat index between 105 and 115. I am just staying in with the A/C. I do not do well with heat, so the garden will just have to be put on hold till this breaks a little.  I got Jeremy's center blocks put together on Saturday. For such a simple design, this one has given me fits. On Sunday I got all the blocks sewed together with the sashings. I laid it out on the bed to take a picture. By the time I had my camera ready, Callie was already taking a nap on it. LOL Doesn't she look aggravated at me for disturbing her? LOL

Another picture of the center blocks. Sorry, you will just have to look around the fluffball in the center. (grin)

Yesterday I had to go do mom's bills and meds for the month. I also had a call from Isaiah and one from Carolyn. So I didn't get a lot done on it, but did get the red borders put on.

Callie was sort of put out with me since I sneaked a picture without her. Isn't she cute, all curled up with my tape measure. By the way, I have to hide this tape measure from Aeris. She chewed my last one to pieces. Callie doesn't seem to care about it.

Today I will be working on the pieced borders. I already have the side strips and the cornerstones sewed together. Just have to get them on the quilt. I also want to get the quilting finished on the borders of the redwork barns/sunflower wall quilt. I marked them in the blue washout pen and it has been so humid that the marks are disappearing. LOL  I also need to work some more on the Charm Square Quilt Along 4-patches. I have about 10 done. Only 65 to go. LOL

Thank you all for the birthday wishes for our Madison. Isaiah said she is doing well. I voted today. If you are in Missouri, please go vote in our primary. It looked like a pretty good turnout while I was there. At least not bad for a primary. Well, I'd better get to sewing if I want to get anything accomplished today. Thank you for visiting. Please try to stay cool in this heat. Have a great day.

Picking green beans.

I picked a bucket of green beans this afternoon. I also got some much needed mowing done. Oh boy! I was so hot when I came in that I thought I was going to melt. Hmmm. They said our high was supposed to be 85* today. We already have 94* and mom has 96*. Who determines the predicted high temps? I think they need to do some more research. LOL  Anyway, I decided to do a blog post while I try to cool down. Then I will be snapping these.

  This is my chore bucket. It holds about 1 1/2 gallons. I will probably have this many more to pick in a day or two. This is just one row. I have another row that is just a little later. It is about ready. Our tomatoes are not doing good. We have huge plants, but not very good tomatoes on them. I think we have just had too much rain. Kevin picked 3 zucchini this weekend, but I didn't see any today. The sweet potatoes are taking over the garden. LOL The peppers are not doing good. I have a few little peppers on them. They are usually loaded. I have 2 eggplants growing, but not any more blooms. Oh well. I will take what we get and be grateful for it.

I started putting Jeremy's quilt together last night. I thought this would be the easy one. Huh! I have had a terrible time getting the seams to line up right in the nine patches. I was ironing everything towards the brown. Iron to the darkest color, right? Well that just didn't work for this quilt. I switched and started ironing away from the brown and everything lined right up. Oh well, glad I finally figured this out. I have 5 blocks done. Most of these had every seam sewed and ripped out and resewed at least once or twice. I was ready to pull my hair out.

I also have the cornerstones ready to go.

I don't think I shared a picture of the charm square quilt along blocks since I got the lights cut out. I still need to turn these into half square triangles.

I pin them together in groups of 10. I got tired of constantly counting to see how many I had. LOL

Thank you so much to everyone who wished us a happy anniversary yesterday. We had a nice day. Kind of laid back, but nice. We both piddled on our computers. Then Kevin watched a movie while I sewed. (grin) We were in the same area, though. I made a run to the deli, but they were out of chicken tenders. Whoever heard of a deli being out of chicken?  So we ended up having pizza instead. Not bad, but probably not great for us. We decided we won't celebrate anything else till Thanksgiving. Anyone want to take bets on this? Nah, me neither. LOL 

On a serious note, please say a little prayer for my sweetie. He has come down with shingles. They look pretty nasty to me, but he says they aren't bad. I'm not sure he is telling me the truth about this, though. He doesn't like to worry me. So if you could just say a prayer that he can heal quickly, I would be very grateful.

Thanks for visiting. I see my blog is still behaving. We had a serious talk and I threatened  to delete it, if it did not straighten up. I guess it got the message. LOL Everyone have a great day. Please come again.

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

Heard back from Cath.

I played around some more with EQ7 and sent Cath some other designs for possible quilts for Jeremy. I used a simple 9 patch and snowball design. Guess which one she picked. Yep! She said Jeremy would like the simpler one better. It will be easier too. Here it is.

Since I still love the first design, I think I will use it for Ivan's quilt. I talked to Hazel last night. She said that Ivan would love anything I made. So that took any pressure off of making his quilt. LOL He also likes brighter colors. So now I have a plan. LOL

I need to get Kevin's lunch ready and fix him something to eat before he leaves. So I need to get off here, but  I also wanted to share with you my latest table runner. I still need to sew the binding on it, but I really like this one. I used the Missouri Star tube piecing tutorial again for this.

The back.

Oh and Jackie, I think Callie heard you the other day when you asked where Callie was as I was piecing the PSF. LOL She soon joined me.

Doesn't she look innocent? Hah, if I left those pieces unattended, they would be everywhere when I returned. I love my kitties. Thank you for visiting. Everyone have a great day.