I'm still here!

I've been mia online for most of July. I took on a home remodel project that just got totally out of hand! Phew!

It all started with wanting to paint the den. It's been probably 10 years since we've painted and between kids, pets, and the woodstove my walls and ceiling were in DIRE need of updating.

So I talked to the hubster about it and he came back to me and told me if we were going to do the walls we might as well take care of redoing the hardwood floors that never got finished. Okay....I could do that. Then I told him I wanted that useless window looking out to the addition gone. Yes the quilt covering was pretty but let's get rid of it. The green quilt is covering the window....

All would've been good if I'd left it alone at that point. But have you EVER known me to do that? No!

Old useless window out! See the board behind? That's the addition.

 The new beadboard that went up where the old window was.

So I looked at that window we pulled out and I looked at my very messed up front window and thought since they were the same size it should be no big deal to switch them out. That is what got me in trouble! There's the old window halfway out....that's as far as I got before dh stepped in and said we might as well put a new one in.

Oh what a mess I can make! One of the problems with an old house is the windows now are different sizes. Nowhere we looked had this size window. But we did find a clearance window we liked. Another problem popped up when the hubster found out he was headed out of town for work. Gulp....replacing the window by myself was NOT on my list of skills. So a dear friend stepped in and helped us out. It took three days of HARD work but we took siding down, cut new openings, put in new windows, and got the siding back up.

And now that almost everything is back in place, we have furniture we can sit on, we can walk through the house, and most of the dust is gone I am thrilled with the den......even if it did take most of July and blood, sweat, and tears to accomplish it. Oh and my boys say that if I ever say I want to redo the den again they are moving out!

I'm still working on curtains though......

July is here!

And canning season has started. Whew! Yesterday was a marathon canning session. Both canners went all day long. I put up TONS of tomatoes and peppers. It seems that some years cayenne peppers do better and other years jalapenos do better. This year is definitely a jalapeno year which is good since my supply of canned ones was very low. The boys and I picked Thursday night and filled the wagon up.

See those monster zucchini? That's the last of the zucchini for the year. Thankfully they shred well to go in soups or spaghetti sauce.

On the quilting front I started on two of Pat Sloan's quilt alongs. It's fun doing a block a week and when I finish I will have two quilts.
Look at this bottom block. It's from her quilt Winter Solstice. This will be my first quilt where all the blocks are not the same size.

The top block is from the new quilt along Grandma's Kitchen. I'm going to do both of them quilt as you go. Grandma's Kitchen on the machine and Winter Solstice by hand.

All quilts and quilt blocks on the premises are inspected for quality as soon as they are made. Standards are high and this one passed with flying colors. I could barely finish quilting it before she took over. She had a bath and then a nice long nap.

And just in case you thought all I do is can and quilt (would be fine with me!) Here's a pic I took Sunday...dh asked me if I would iron a "couple" shirts for him.....

More sewing stuff

I just love this Minnesota machine! It sounds like my Davis but has the vibrating shuttle of my Singer 127. It is a beautiful machine and in a parlor cabinet. Then while on a shop hop yesterday I found this old pie safe. Actually I don't think its that old as it has initials and the numbers 88 carved in the bottom. But it has character! It was super cheap too as it has some water damage on the bottom back but not enough to hurt anything. Doesn't it go perfectly with the treadle? I will use it to keep some basic sewing supplies in the den. Please just don't look at my walls. I desperately need to paint them! That is the project for next month though.

So long since I've updated!

Life has been so busy! There were two graduations in our family in the space of three weeks. To start the ball rolling our youngest daughter graduated from high school. Where did the years go? I can't believe that all my girls are now adults...

Then a week off to recover and plan for the trip to Florida to see daughter #2 graduate from college. To add to the stress dh could only take two days off work. When you're the boss and have a deadline that happens. So we rented a large van, loaded seven of us up, oldest dd went with us, and headed out on Thursday night. We made it to dd's around 5am to sleep. Then that night to her graduation. She graduated with high honors! It took her a while to get her life straight but now she is on a good path and we couldn't be prouder of her!

We got back home early Sunday morning and I crashed. Really I went to bed and stayed all day. Monday we started VBS at church and I had volunteered to help in the kitchen. If you can have jet lag from driving I had it. Also that week was our yearly TreadleOn gathering otherwise known as TOGA. I only got to go to two half days but it was better than nothing. I brought this sweet, sweet machine home with me from TOGA. 

And in the quilting world.....

This is what I'm still working on. I so want to finish it but I keep getting sidetracked! See my design wall? It's made out of thick foam-like posterboard and duct tape from Dollar Tree. It works and it folds out of the way when I need it to. I like that I don't have to pin to it like I do my design curtain...plus its right behind my machine. The quilt on it I'm calling Field of Colors and is something I just came up with.

This is what I've been sidetracked with....the Evil Villain chair as the kids call it. I bought this several years ago at an antique store. I just fell in love with it. The only thing I didn't love was the fabric. It collected every single bit of cat, dog, and people hair that it could. Every single bit. Weekly vacuuming only held it barely at bay.

It took me forever to decide on a fabric though. I picked out a beautiful red floral at a second hand store only to discover I didn't have enough of it. Then I remembered this roll of fabric given to me several years ago and languishing in my closet. I wasn't crazy about it at first and then a friend and I started recovering the chair. It is absolutely perfect! It blends with my couch and I see a beautiful color in it to paint my walls this summer! Now all I need to do is find some teal fabric to redo the footstool and the throw cushions on the couch.
You know you have a true friend when she will come help you tackle a project like this!

Of course I can't leave Miss Calikat out of this post! I got a small package from Amazon last week. She barely fit but she made it into the box. All boxes must be inspected and approved you know.

Senior Prom for my daughter...

This is my youngest daughter...my last girl to go to prom....it was bittersweet. She looked gorgeous! There's a story behind that dress. We looked for weeks to find the "perfect" dress.
Then the store didn't have her size when we found it.
We ordered the wrong size and then they couldn't find one smaller. We ended up getting one at another store that needed the zipper fixed.
All of that took weeks and it was the week before prom when she finally had "her" dress.

Boys are easy compared to that! All you have to do is convince them they have to actually put on a tie!

This is my daughter and oldest son....don't they clean up good? lol!

You might be a quilter if.....

Where is the most unusual place you have ever quilted? I quilt on card rides, waiting for kids at various activities, at the beach, on vacation, in the mountains, basically anywhere we go I have a quilt. I am not a good passenger so the hubster appreciates me quilting while he drives lol!

But this past weekend I had a first time for a new quilting experience! The boy child wanted to go skating with a friend who had free tickets. I didn't know anyone there and wasn't comfortable dropping him off so I stayed and my quilting friend (his friend's grandmom) stayed also. I no longer have the ankles to skate so guess what we did? We quilted of course! Here's a quick snapshot I took.

So skating rinks aren't only for skating lol!
 

Gardening time! and some quilting....

Look at this beautiful raised bed the Hubster built. I have been asking for ones like this for forever in the garden. No bending over and hopefully less weeds! This one is not in the garden though....its in the front yard and is for herbs. I started planting it but need to either get some more plants or some seeds. I can't wait for fresh Basil and Thyme, and Cilantro and Parsley! Oh my. I love gardening almost as much as I love quilting. At least till it gets to be 100 degrees lol, then I want to sit inside in the AC and quilt.



The crib bumpers for my niece got finished. A good thing since she is doing her best to have her baby early. He's not due until May 11th but she's been in to the L&D unit three times now with contractions. They were nowhere near as hard to make as I thought they would be so I don't know why I put them off so long.


And last but not least the Quilting Chicks are having a sew day today! I'm going to start on this quilt. I got the idea from a picture of the tulip fields in Holland. I actually woke up in the middle of the night thinking about making this into a quilt. So here goes my attempt at turning an idea in my head into a quilt. I will post how it's going!

Moving the Camper

Sunday the hubster and I took off to bring the camper to his next job site. He'll be home for hopefully three weeks but we are limited on space to park the huge thing.

We left Tennessee around lunchtime in the rain. The mountains are beautiful in the rain. It feels like you are in the clouds.

I do admit to being more than a little nervous while we were coming thru the mountains. Traffic was heavy and I really have not ridden in the tow vehicle many times over the years. I'm usually following or at home since the boy loves to help the hubster do this. So this is what I did while we rode. Lots of time to handquilt and I got a lot accomplished on this part of the double wedding ring for my sister. My stitches aren't too bad for riding in a bumpy truck. 

 Another view of the ride.















And last but not least this is how we ended up at the new campsite....NOT fun! We were stuck! The owner had to come with his tractor and pull us out. I wish I had taken a picture of that but I was too busy holding my breath!

A week away..

Dh has been working out of state the last month. I hate him being so far away but it did give the boys and I the opportunity to get a week away. Things have been crazy lately so it was much needed.


We started out Monday exploring the lake we were camped by. Beautiful....absolutely beautiful! And that water? Warm, it probably helped that there are three power plants using that lake for cooling. Temps in the 70's that day didn't hurt either. This end of the lake was shallow and the boys had a blast walking all over that part. There was some amazing driftwood that made me so want an aquarium again. Sadly though I hurt my foot walking that day and was laid up the next day so the boys spent that time exploring the woods and riding their bikes.

Look at the size of that deer track! The boy wear a size 11!

Snail and turtle shells.....

Rinsing off the turtle shell               

Bird tracks in the mud

I rallied after resting my foot (getting older and having issues suddenly pop up stinks) and we went to Sevierville next. There is a huge knife store there and the boys were begging to go to it. So being the kind of mom that thinks every boy should have a good knife, off to the knife store we went. I'm not sure that the youngest will get a lot of use out of what he got other than being able to show it off to his buddies. I will benefit about as much because I earn "Coolest Mom" status for awhile lol.

Oldest son got one he can actually carry in his pocket....look at those curls he has! He definitely got that from me.

Cleaning time!

Yes the machine....the house can wait lol! I've done several baby quilts and some piecing and it was time to clean and oil my machine. Boy was it due! She is now purring right along.

Anvil Blocks...

I've been busy making these little 6" blocks for awhile now. I started a few months back and thought I had cut all I needed for a king size quilt. Obviously I was wrong because I got 5 rows made and ran out of pieces. Hmmm.....I also ran out of the fabric I was using or its hidden somewhere in the depths of one of the scrap bins. That put me in a slump and I put them away till this week. Then I got an idea and pulled them out, I decided to scrappy it up! Here are a few of the scrappies.

 These are the original blocks I started with so not too different.

 And these are what I plan on adding in...I'm going to take apart the rows I already have done and blend in these brighter and scrappier blocks.

 I don't know why but for some reason these blocks were so hard at first. Now they're easy but I still put this one below together wrong lol.I was talking and sewing and apparently I can't do both.  I do wish I had made them a bit bigger though, maybe 9 inches. While I'm making these I am going to just go ahead and make enough to do a small lap quilt that will be gifted to someone.

Snow day

Enjoying it while it lasts!

A Perfectly Relaxing Day....

That is how I would describe yesterday. Other than a short trip out yesterday morning I stayed home and played in my studio all day. I made the ties for my niece's crib bumpers. I'm not yet brave enough to make the actual bumpers so I'm working my way up to it lol!

I used my new iron to press them and then I started pulling scraps out for the anvil quilt I set aside a few months ago. I didn't have anywhere near enough fabric cut and was out of what I used so I got frustrated and put it up. Now I am refreshed and just making it scrappy.  I pressed and pressed and pressed, and then I cut more 2.5" squares and I pieced more anvil blocks.

Netflix was on and I was chilled! If you haven't seen it google "Netflix and quilt", there is a neat t-shirt being printed now with that saying. While I would love to have one I'm NOT paying $27 for a t-shirt!

I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow on the ground.....I was hoping for more since this is all we've gotten this winter but we'll take what we get. I'm hoping it will set the blackberries so we have a good crop this year. Blackberry muffins, blackberry pancakes, blackberry jam.....yummy!

 Here's my setup yesterday. My little basket of leaders and enders over on the right is filling up. I may work years on that though before I have enough to make any size quilt. I'm also questioning my sanity of the size of those tumbler pieces.

 I had a bedtime snack of my dd's homemade peanut butter cookies and a glass of milk and Miss Calikat thought since she helped me quilt she deserved some too! See her in my lap above? It turned out she only wanted the milk though. Spoiled cat!

 After our snack we decided it was bedtime and since the hubster didn't make it home this weekend due to the weather, Miss Cali snuggled up and slept with me. That is where she stayed all night long and anytime I moved she stuck her paw out to grab my hair.

A new iron!

Technically I didn't "need" this iron. I have an iron that works but it's lightweight and I really like a heavy iron for pressing. So for weeks I have been going back and forth over whether or not to do this. I finally broke down though and boy am I happy I did! I love the feel of this. It's nice and heavy and pressing blocks doesn't seem like work. I do need to get used to the fact that it has an on/off button. My other iron is a really cheap one and that is one thing I have missed having. I even used the steam function and it was great. So this is my excitement for the week. Now I am just itching to press fabric lol!

And here is the baby quilt for my niece. I am also making crib bumpers for her (first time doing that) and I used my new iron to press the ties for them.

Can I just say how much fun I am having with Google?

Right now Google is rocking my world lol! Everyone has google right? But are you really using it? I know I wasn't. I mean I checked my email and that was it. It all started with our homeschool group having difficulties with yahoo email. Some get the emails but quite a few don't get them for weeks if ever. We started looking at google groups to see if it would be a good alternative for us. We think it will and this summer we will make the transition. But then I started playing around with all the other things google has to offer. Like photos....usually it is a slight pain to email photos from my phone to the computer, with google photos though I just pull them up. Probably the neatest thing though happened Sunday night. Dh travels for work and is having to miss our small group study on Sunday nights. We're studying Revelation and he was upset he couldn't be there. So I recorded it on my phone, uploaded it to my google drive and shared it to him. Worked perfectly!

In the quilting world I've been busy!! My room is clean and I've turned out two baby quilt tops in two weeks. One will be tied tonight and the other just as soon as I can piece the backing. I didn't take a picture of the first after it was completed but here it is in the making. The backing is below and will be turned diagonally.

 This one is for my great nephew due in May. I also have to make crib bumpers to match this.

And yes, I shared these from my phone with Google photos :-)