Happy New Year

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year. We are staying home as always and probably will be asleep when the New Year rings in. It is foggy today and I have to take my Mother to the hospital for a procedure and so I will be missing for awhile. Hope all your wishes for the New Year find their way to your door. Chris

Cleaned machine and some sewing

Today is a down day for me. Not a downer but down. I am tired of a week of grandkids. Most of the time they were here with me. Dad had to work and they are not old enough to stay by themselves. I got up this morning and cleaned my sewing machine. That was my Christmas present to my machine. It was long overdue and I have put it through it's paces the last couple weeks. I loaded it up on oil and started a new mindless project. I had about 1 1/2 yards of bandanna print in red. I cut it up into 9 napkins for the kitchen table I got out a basket and salt and pepper shakers that are chickens and I am using it for a center piece on the table.

Even though it is the kitchen table it seems to be a dumping ground for hats, gloves and things as they are carried in from the car or the garage. I would like to stop that practice. Hard to teach and old dog new tricks. I am as guilty as the rest on that issue. But at least I played with some fabric. Do you all have new projects for the New Year. I think I have one. Have to wait and see how it falls into play. Chris

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone had a Great and Wonderful Christmas. We had ours yesterday and even though it snowed most of the day we had a nice and warm Christmas. This is the top I worked on everyday up until they got here and I didn't get it finished. After packages and dinner I sat back down and got it done. They were really happy with it. As you can see they liked it. Todd wanted to fall asleep and instead got interested in a movie and laid down on the floor to watch it. They both liked the quilt. The 12 year old said he was going to put it on his bed and his Mom said no. So I guess Grandma has to make two more quilts for their beds. They both just recently got new beds so time to get started on the process.

I have leftovers for the next month. Well maybe not that long, but I did send stuff home with everyone. Hope all over your holidays have been Merry Chris

Cutting and piecing for months

All of the machine quilting is done. After having to order more thread and months of working on it, it is this far. Almost 3000 yds of thread was used in the machine quilting. Not sure about the piecing. Should hold together through several washings. It measures about 110X103 inches.

I have made up my mind I am nuts. I did all this quilting on this quilt and used all this thread. LOL You would think it was an heirloom quilt the time I put into it. Just a scrap quilt.
My neighbor and I exchange small gifts and this year I made her a casserole potholder and and extra one to use too. She has a yellow kitchen with red dishes and pots and pans. Thought it would look good hanging on the handle of her stove door. The patched blocks were orphans and I machine quilted fabric with all Cotton batting in between.

The pockets are there for your hands and you hold the long part of the potholder up against your arms to keep from getting burned. They have saved me many times from burning.

So I have one of the two done and the next one gets pin basted tomorrow. Here's hoping you all get enough time to finish what you need to. Chris

All I want for Christmas is another month

You know that song? All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Well I want another month. Time is running out and I am not getting things done as fast as I like. This is the fabric I purchased and didn't get uploaded. Today I hope I can get to the store and get another batt bought. I thought I had another one and I guess I used it. Shame on me. As I said always a day to late. Colder than a boulder out and yet things to do. I guess bundle up and get out there and get it done. Chris

The wind is howling and the fire is going

Boy sitting here waiting for the pictures to load I can really hear the wind. We have pine trees on this side of the house and it really whooshes through them. The fire is going and the drapes are shut on the windy side. But the wind is changing directions every few seconds from the NW to the SE in just seconds. It is snowing on top of it. I have been up since 4: 30am. My son doesn't get up well and he asks to be called. He has to drive 23 miles to get to work. We had ice underneath yesterday from the rain and now the loose snow. He just texted me and said the roads were really bad. He has a 12 hour shift as a 911 dispatcher today. I am sure his day will be busy with calls. Good thing he has a KFC right across the street so he can get something to eat if he can't get out. The fabric for the back of the top I finished and the thread I needed for the quilt I have been working on got here yesterday. This is a pic of the fabric for the back. This is the first fabric I have ordered online. I am a touchy feely person when it comes to fabric. This was a piece I ordered from http://www.connectingthreads.com/ . I order my thread from there. It washed up nice and has a nice finish on the surface of the fabric. It was 2.96 a yard. My order was over $50 and free shipping. I think I will do this again. Stay warm and safe today if you have to be out. Chris

Fast Service

I got my thread and fabric today. I ordered on Monday. It came from the West coast and got here just in time. Didn't know with the holidays if it would give me enough time to get anywhere with it. As I said next year I will not wait so long to get started believe me. We have Blizzard warnings out for our area so I am ion for the duration. Did all my running today and home now until it all calms down. Hopefully we don't loose electricity. I plan on sewing bindings on a side at a time, but that way I can keep busy if we do loose it. We have a fireplace so we will stay pretty warm and out of the weather. Stay Safe and Warm Chris

Another top ready to quilt

This is another one finished waiting for backing fabric. It is ordered with the thread. Hopefully today or Monday it will arrive.

This is a couch throw for my stepson and his wife for Christmas. Lots of machine quilting will go on in the next few days. This afternoon I have to get back to the one for my son. I need to get some more done on it and hopefully the thread will be here soon. Time is running out and I feel the pressure as all of us do. I always say I will be done way before the holiday and look here I am down to the wire and nothing is done yet. Chris

Busy and dealing witht he cold

It was really cold this morning. 1*F when I got up. A little warmer now. As you can see this chair as it stands now. Wish I had taken before pictures. My DIL found them along side the road waiting for a garbage truck. The cover on them was dirty and torn and somebodies dog had chewed the bottom rungs until they were chewed in two. They brought them to Dad to fix, but Stepson wanted something different for his house. Dad fixed the rungs and re stained and varnished the chairs. My Mom wanted something different in her bedrooms to sit on to put her shoes on in the mornings, so we went to Joann's and got a Waverly fabric for the seats and recovered them. I got them delivered the other day and she loves them for the bedrooms. Low arms and just the right height for her.

He was able to get the stain to come close to the furniture she has in the rooms also.

Here is a pile of UFO's. It was started for me by my Mother. She was making a Broken Dish pattern and she got frustrated with it. So she gave me the blocks a few days ago and I found fabric to finish the top the other day.

Here it is in the works. My stepson and his wife have done a lot for us recently and I thought a couch throw would be nice. He stands 6ft 6 inches so it has to have some length to it. This is turning out to be close to the look of the couch throw I made for our couch. I have the top half sewn together this morning. I have been up sewing for over 5 hours and finally stopped to get something to eat and take pictures.

Here is an upclose picture of the scrappiness of the top. I sure hope they like it. I almost wish I hadn't agreed to make it for them. I kinda like it myself. Chris

Ran out of thread

Yesterday I ran around trying to find a close match for some thread for the quilt for Christmas.

I had ordered it and I won't have enough to finish. I have gone through almost 2400yds of thread for the quilting. Thought it would be more than enough boy was I fooled. While I was out I needed a coat zipper. My in between coat has a broken zipper and I use it to drive in if going short distances. Then I needed a pj pattern for my granddaughter. She has grown so much so I found a quick pattern. As I am browsing I ran across a 1/4 inch foot that fit my regular sewing machine. I am thrilled over that. It didn't come with one. Very cold here today and I have one small outside thing to do and then I am chaining myself to the sewing machine today. I drove to the nearest fabric store and spent several hours away from home and the thread I bought which didn't match real well, yes I took a sample, I got home and it was 100% polyester. Disappointed I am going to order the thread I need. TODAY! Maybe it will be here by the first of next week. Well I am getting the urge to get going better stick with the momentum and do it to it.

Haven't Felt Good

The tissue box and the pills have been my favorite things lately. Sore throat no fever, but still feeling horrible. I try to machine quilt and I get to feeling lousy and have to stop. I don't think I am going to get this done being so close to Christmas. We have a fireplace and burning more wood this year. We didn't burn much last year. I am not sure if it isn't the smoke and the smell of the firewood.

I have allergies to everything else why not to the firewood. I go to bed early and get up early and I just don't care if anything gets done. Didn't even sew a seam yesterday. Guess today will be the day. I am waiting on a package to be delivered and not knowing when it will get here I had better do something to stay awake. Snow storm warnings are out for our County for tomorrow. They are not giving totals yet, but sounds like it could be a bunch. Have to get the chains on the lawn tractor for the snowplowing. Jeff isn't strong enough to do the plowing so it will be my job again this year. Not looking forward to this time of the Winter and it isn't even Winter yet. LOL Chris