WIP Wednesday and other news

Things have been moving slowly but surely around here. After finishing the denim rag quilt, I spent a few days going through my stash. You know, it's a small stash, especially compared to most of the people who have posted pictures of theirs online, but I do seem to have most of what I need when I need it, LOL! I started working on my snowman blocks for the snowman swap I'm in with the Ohio Quilters group. I've got 3 sets of 5 blocks to do, I've got 3 done of the first set and I'm still waffling on which blocks I'm going to do for the other 2 sets. The first set is paper pieced, my first foray into paper piecing and it's going pretty well if I do say so myself. I found the pattern online, it's actually small blocks put together to make one and it is really cute! I'm doing a different color set for each block (I hope that won't be a problem!!) and so far they are so cute I'm gonna have a hard time sending them away! Here are pics of my first 3:
I still have to embroider the eyes and mouth on them, but aren't they sweet?!



I got the free pattern for these cuties at Wendy's Quilting Place

One of the other two blocks I may be doing is also paper pieced and the other is appliqued. Then I'll have to decide if I want to hand applique them or machine applique. So many decisions!!! LOL! I guess the decision on the applique will depend on how much time I have left to get them done.
I would just like to get these finished in the next week or two, they aren't due until September 1st, but I would like to finish them early so I can get a start on the leaf block swap I am in for the Stashbuilders group. I'd like to join another snowman swap that is happening in another group but I am worried about getting involved in something else when we could be moving soon. Oh well, there will be other swaps!

As far as the moving goes, things are going well on the financing end so far. We've got everything taken care of on our end, we're just waiting, waiting, waiting for things to start moving on the other end. The realtor for the house has not put it back online, which is a good sign, so hopefully we'll have something good to tell them by the end of the week!

I've decided to start exercising again. I've gained a bunch of weight after the baby was born (silly me, I though a person LOST weight after having a baby---someone forgot to tell my body that fact!!!) I found an exercise bike on freecycle so DH went and got it for me and I've been trying to get 30 minutes a day on it. The baby is obsessed with it, of course. After watching me ride it from his crib, he climbed up onto it and figured out that he can move the handles and make it move like mom does, so now as long as he is near the bike, he can't stay off of it! Here are some pics of him exercising:





He's always trying to do what mom is doing. We spend all day getting him off the computer upstairs too! One of the kids blew out one of the keyboards so now it belongs to Seamus and he is thrilled to have his own, he takes it over to the computer and thinks he's doing something, LOL!
Poor kid fell today, just tripped over his own feet and met the corner of the wall with his forehead. Got a bump the size of an egg and a nice cut to go with it. It sure scared the heck out of me, I very nearly took him to the hospital but once he settled down he was back to his old self. You'd think after 6 kids I'd figure out that wounds on the head always look worse than they are, they bleed a whole lot and they swell up big---but they are usually just bumps and scrapes. Jeremy once fell off the monkey bar on our old swingset---headfirst---had no mark of any injury but he did happen to fracture his forehead. We ended up taking him to the hospital because he was obviously woosey and seemed to have a concussion---which he did. He was probably 4 years old at the time and the docs told us to keep him quiet for 3 weeks. I wasn't so worried about keeping him quiet as I was worried about keeping Stephen away from him! He healed fast and easy, so it all worked out. Seamus' bump ended going down by over half after a while so it doesn't look as bad as it did at first. He spent the rest of the day climbing and jumping and running as usual. KIDS! If I had fallen like that, I'd have a migraine for days!!!

Today was baking day so I took the day off from sewing---I spent almost the entire day in the kitchen, except when the baby got hurt and then I had to run Jessica up to TJ Maxx. I baked 2 loaves of bread, a batch of chocolate chip cookies, a batch of peanut butter cookies, a batch of snickerdoodles, I made an herb crusted roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, garlic breadsticks and dirt cake for dessert. It's actually less than I usually bake, I stopped baking after Seamus got hurt so I'll have to do more tomorrow. I'm going to try and get up early and make 2 more loaves of bread and a few batches of onion bagels. Then I'll spend the rest of the day sewing---well, when I can, anyway.

That's it for today! Hopefully I'll have some really good news soon (I know, I've been saying that for weeks, I'm getting sick of hearing it too, LOL!)

Rag Quit is Done!!!! Oh, and some good news!

I finally got a quilt totally finished!!! I finished the rag quilt late last night and after washing it and drying it, and spending an hour cleaning out the washer and dryer, it is done! Here are pics of the progress of the rag quilt:
Click on pictures to get actual size!

Here is the basket of squares and yet to be cut jeans. I probably cut around 80-100 pairs of jeans, mostly size 5 to 8 young boy jeans (hence the need for so many) I needed over 150 squares for the quilt.



Here is a strip about a quarter way into the job. From what I had read, most people waited until they had it all pieced to cut the seams, I didn't want to do it all at once and hurt my hand so I did each strip as it was added on. Saved my hand some cramping!!



This was the stack of squares about half way through.




Here is the front and back halfway through. My hands were tired from cutting and playing Guitar Hero with the kids, and we had received the news of no financing for the house so I took a week break from the quilt.



Here it is completed and signed. I decided to just sign it with a Sharpie instead of making it a label, it's a more informal approach for an informal quilt--and plus since it is for an 11 year old, he thought it was kinda cool that I was writing on his quilt. I told him not to even think of doing it himself, LOL! Although, it IS his now.

Ok, so now on to my swaps I joined, I have to make snowman blocks and leaf blocks---I'm just trying to find the right patterns for me. More on that later.

The good news----we are about a week away from starting the loan application again. Our broker has assured me that once we receive proof of payment of some of the bills that were on our credit report (which we should have by Tuesday), we will be able to get our financing---100% financing! The realtor for the house has not officially put it back on the market yet, so it should still be ours once this is all finished! I'm not getting excited or even thinking much about it---I don't want to be crushed again should anything go wrong so--I'm not going to think about it anymore past this post, LOL!

Ok, I'm done! Have a good weekend, hopefully I'll have some blocks done for next WIP Wednesday.

Waiting, waiting and WIP Wednesday

Hey all. Sorry I haven't updated in a couple of weeks, things have been unstable, to say the least. We were so close---so, so close. Then we were told---it wasn't going to happen---no house for you. Seems our broker didn't bother to find out until the last minute that the bank no longer works with the down payment assistance program---and if HUD has their way---no one will. Instead of looking for other solutions, he basically said it's over and wrote us off. We had 2 days of extreme disappointment, depression, upset---and then we pulled ourselves out of the muck and mire and decided to fight! We contacted another mortgage broker that we were acquainted with and told him what was going on and he thinks he can help us. We took care of the last albatross on our necks---a huge bill on his credit report that needed cleared off--so if all goes well we should be able to qualify for 100% financing and not have to worry about down payment assistance. Please pray for us----our lifelong dream is dangling precariously in front of us--if this doesn't work---I don't know if it ever will.

Needless to say, in the midst of all this I didn't get any quilting done. BUT, I started working on the denim rag quilt and if all goes well it should be done by Friday, hopefully!!!

I did receive my bottle for the Summer bottle swap---how exciting!!! I got some nice stuff---here is a picture:


Thanks Carolyn, this really made my week and I love everything!!

I should be getting some 30's FQ strips in the mail soon---can't wait for that! I am considering joining some block swaps, but I am hesitant to do so due to our not knowing if we're moving or not. I did join a snowman swap a couple of months ago on my Ohio Quilters group---once I finish the denim rag quilt I'm going to get started on those and mail them off. They aren't due until mid or late September, but I'll sleep easier knowing they are done, LOL! There is another snowman swap on another group I belong to and a couple of leaf block swaps that I'd really like to join in---but there are also tons of quilts I'd like to make and 14 UFO's to finish. ACK, so much to do, so little time.

We had DD's graduation party last weekend, it was fun and an old friend I haven't seen in a couple of years came with her daughter---it was so nice to see her again.

Here are both graduates with their mothers. DD wanted a cake from Dairy Queen so she got a chocolate chip cookie dough cake and her boyfriend wanted a cheesecake, so I baked him one. I made tons of food as well, it was all a great success!

Well, that's it for me today---hopefully I'll have a happy update soon! Tomorrow is pierogi and bagel day---I'll be busy making both from scratch so I'm keeping busy during the day with cooking and baking and sewing at night. It helps keep me sane, LOL!

Have a good week, I'll talk to you soon!

WIP Wednesday and life in general

Hiya everyone! Sorry I didn't get anything up last week, it's been crazy here to say the least. The financial stuff for the house moving along well, and rather quickly, at least more quickly than I expected. Hopefully, the appraisal will be done by the end of the week. Our mortgage dude said that typically after they approve things with the appraisal, we could have it all wrapped up within 48 hours. By the end of next week, we could be homeowners!!! Well, we'd have to wait for the official close, but---still!!! Not much longer and this long, grueling process will finally be over! I checked the listings today, nothing better available---which is what I figured, we got the best house on the market that we can afford and that will work for us. Now, time to plan on how to make it mine ( whoops, ours, LOL!), and I surely could use all of your opinions on one room in particular. My quilting room. The space is 7 X 17 approximately and I will be surrounded by windows, so I don't have much wall space. We will be replacing the outside windows, hopefully before it gets cold!!! Here are a few pictures of the space:
Now, the plan is to have a work surface across the far wall and along the front. My machine will be on the front and my computer will be in the corner of the side and back wall. Something like this--click on it for full size:

Any suggestions, ideas, or opinions would be greatly appreciated! This space is only until we can remodel the basement into a decent room for me----which is way down the line of things that need to be done in the house. We're going to cover the floor in carpet squares, the front door will not be used as an entryway---we will use the back or side doors, so I don't have to worry about traffic in or out from the outside. The porch is heated, so it can be an all season room---although it will need better windows. I don't have much wall space, so all my storage will have to be below the windows and any work space I have. I can also put stuff in front of the outside door, since it won't be used. It's not the biggest or bestest area, but I think it'll work well until we get the basement done. One good thing about it is that I can see right into the livingroom/kitchen/diningroom so I can be in my studio and watch the kids, too!

Ok, enough about that---here is what I've been working on.

I started the denim rag quilt. It took me 5 days to get all the jeans cut up and then cut up my squares, boy did my hands hurt after that!!! Then I cut up 180 blocks of flannel for the back. I also cut out tons of strips for the next quilt I am making for my little niece. It is going to be based on this quilt I saw at maryquilts.com called Amish Stripes and Strings
I will be using pastels, brights and whites.

Ok, here are some pictures of all I've been working on:
These are all of the 30's strips that I have been collecting. I got a fat quarter bundle at Abigayles' and cut it into 3 inch strips for the swap I am in. The bag o' strips goes out this week and by the middle of July I'll have 45 new strips to add to my pile!!!! YAY!

Here are all of the other strips I cut, many or most of them will go to the quilt I am making for my niece.



Now, the thing that has been taking up most of my quilting time of late:
Here is the pile of denim and flannel blocks, about half of the way through the pile.


Here is the front and the back. It is half way done so far--once all the rows are on, I
will throw it in the washer and dryer 2-3 times to get the snipped edges all fuzzy and soft.

This is going to my son, Sean. I saved a pocket from a pair of his pants when he was much smaller and used it for one of the blocks, LOL! I was originally going to quilt each block with x's or spirals. I got through 2 rows and realized that I didn't like the look of the spirals so I pulled them out and put x's there instead. It didn't have to be quilted, but I like the look of it.

Ok, that's it for me this week. I also have another quilter in a bottle swap that is going out this week, I have to make a trip to the LQS to add a few more goodies and it'll be ready to go. Man, I really love swaps, LOL!

Have a good week, hopefully next week I'll have some final news on the house and news of moving in a few weeks or so!!!

WIP Wednesday and other stuff

Hiya gang! We made an offer on the house last Saturday and they accepted on Sunday so........ WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!! After seeing it again Saturday, I realize that this old house could really make a nice home for DH and I and the boys--and the 5 acres of land could really be a wonderful blessing. So, we're waiting for the family to sign off on the house (it was an estate that was held by 5 grandchildren so they all have to sign off on the deal, we're just waiting for all the signatures) and then go through all the financial broo-ha-ha and then we'll have a new home.

Quilting wise, I've been cutting up all the familys' old jeans for a denim rag quilt for my son Sean. I have enough squares cut to make 2 quilts so far and tons of jeans to go yet, LOL! I am also busy digging through my stash to make another red, white and blue quilt. The pattern I will be using is called A Cry for Freedom and you can find it here at Quiltville. Bonnie at Quiltville has some beautiful patterns, I want to make them all, LOL!! I am hoping that I have all I need in my stash, including backing fabric. I plan on using that fusible batting on the Spring Stars quilt top that I finished last week, so we'll see how it does. I really don't like using polyester for bed quilts, I had originally purchased it for the Summer Daisies wallhanging, but I'd like to give it a try on Jeremy's quilt first. My only problem is that my iron can't hold water anymore and you are supposed to steam it big-time. I hope my water bottle and the iron can work until I can get a new iron!!!! Here is my puppy Raven watching me intently as I go through fabric.

That's it for me this week, I know---I'm a lot less talky than usual. This house stuff has us so wound up right now that I really haven't been able to concentrate on much. Since I don't have much to show or say right now, I'll leave you with my prize peanut butter cookie recipe! This one has neighbor kids running over when they smell them baking---and my daughters enterprising boyfriend would have me make a bunch and he would sell them at school, and make a nice profit for himself, LOL!

Marsaili's prize peanut butter cookies

1 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

3 cups all purpose flour

Sugar or sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

In a bowl, or the bowl of your mixer, mix the shortening, peanut butter, brown and white sugars together until creamy then add the eggs and vanilla and mix until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.

Using a cookie scoop or your hand, make 1 1/2 inch balls and put them on the baking sheet. Press down with a fork dipped in sugar to make your criss crosses. Sprinkle on sugar or sprinkles. Bake for 11 minutes, turning the trays half way through the cooking process. When lightly browned, remove from oven and cool on a rack. Makes 4 dozen

Enjoy and have a great week. If anything comes up with the house stuff, I'll be sure to post the news!!!

WIP Wednesday and other news......

Hi there! It's been a busy week since I updated last! We are still on our quest for a homestead, we looked at 6 houses last Friday and only saw 2 possibilities. The other houses were great houses but they were either grossly neglected or trashed by people who foreclosed or went into bankruptcy. We saw a formerly beautiful house, more than big enough for our large brood---but the people who lived there foreclosed and before they moved out they ripped out the boiler, water heater, air conditioning and all the copper piping throughout the house. They also broke windows and put holes in walls--in addition to leaving behind a HUGE mess. It was so sad. That house was on 2 beautiful acres, deep in the country on a quiet, beautiful street. DH says it would cost too much to replace everything, way out of our budget. Ah well, here is a picture of a house we may put an offer on---it's a nice house on 5 wooded acres but it's on a busy, loud road--which I really didn't want to live on, but there are enough pros to the property to maybe overlook that issue. We can have small livestock (goats, chickens) since there is 5 acres and DH would clear some of the trees for a large garden area for us. It's not my dream house---it's much smaller than I had wanted but it does have potential. The front porch is closed in and finished and would make a nice, albeit small sewing room--but it would be much bigger than what I have now! The basement is partially finished--it could eventually be a larger sewing area, maybe. Dh really likes this house, I like it--I'm still pining for the "dream house" we found and lost. We will most likely be making an offer this week, unless I find something better, which I haven't in weeks.

I got the top for the Spring Star quilt done, finally! It turned out real nice, even after all the issues I had with figuring out the measurements for the set in triangles. I found a couple yardage estimators online but they were very wasteful, especially when I wasn't plugging in the correct measurements, LOL! But after some trial and error, I got them all the right size and it looks good! Here are some pics of it:


The pictures don't do justice to the colors in the quilt, they are much more vibrant than they look. I found some fusible batting at JoAnn's, I had never heard of that before, I usually use cotton or wool and safety pins for basting so if this works well, it'll be nice to have an alternative. I haven't heard anything bad about it!! I also found a Bernina "recipe" for a hand-look machine quilting stitch, so I'm going to give that a try and attempt to machine quilt it. I've been practicing the free motion some more so hopefully I'll get it down and be able to actually machine something more than straight lines, LOL! I've now got 3 tops done and I plan on at least 3 more---then I'm just going to quilt, quilt, quilt! DH is making me a quilting frame for the items I want to hand quilt. I NEED to get these quilted! I motivated myself to stay up night after night to piece them, I need to get that same motivation and get them finished. Wish me luck, LOL!

My daughter graduated from high school last night, I am so proud! She is planning on going to the community college and taking AP courses for a major in American History, then she wants to transfer to Cleveland State to get a teaching degree in American History. That is so cool, I've always love history and even though she won't admit it, she got that from me, LOL!!! I wish I could get her interested in quilting. Maybe someday.... She used to like to sew when she was younger.

I've been power sewing for days, I'm going to take a couple days off to do some gardening and baking. I hope you all have a great week, I'll see you soon!

WIP Wednesday and the continued quest for a homestead

I have finally managed to get some sewing done! Since DH is usually busy on the weekends doing projects around the house (which leaves me to be with the baby and not able to do much beyond taking care of him) I told him last weekend he was going to have tons of bonding time with the baby and the other boys while I spent a good deal of the weekend sewing. He agreed and I managed to get a lot of work done for a change!

My first accomplishment--I finished the Daisy Quilt top, here it is:
It took me quite a while to figure out all the settings for the blanket stitch on my Bernina. My book goes over all the different stitches and what lengths, balances, width and tensions to use for different effects--all but the blanket stitch. I went to the Bernina website and they have nothing for older machines (mine is a 1090 which I bought in 1994) After searching through message board posts that came up on my Google searches, I found enough information on other types of stitches to be able to use different buttons on my machine that I've never used before to achieve the perfect blanket stitch applique. It took a lot of tension adjusting and ripping out stitches, but I finally got it and it looks pretty good--not as good as I'd like but no one else could see the flaws I saw, LOL! I've never done much beyond a typical straight stitch or a zig zag and a few of the embroidery stitches---I never realized how much more I have to learn about using my machine! I found a "recipe" for a hand look quilting stitch, I'm going to try that out on the daisy quilt and try to free motion machine quilt it! I think I have to get a new foot, but at least it's not as expensive as the walking foot that I've been wanting forever, LOL! Still haven't been able to bring myself to spend the bucks on that foot.

While I was messing with my tension and buttons, I was watching episodes of Simply Quilts that I had DVR'ed a while ago and hadn't watched and I saw another project I am going to tackle, probably this weekend. Alex had on Wendy Etzel who has a book out called Log by Log and it's all different log cabins she's made. Now, it's not the log cabin quilt pattern, it's actual log cabins made from strips and appliques. I fell in love with her quilts and have decided to make one of my own, since I've always dreamed of living in a log cabin, since I was a child reading the Little House books! Anyway, her book is available at Amazon and I am purchasing it this weekend, although I've already planned out my log cabin and picked out all the fabrics for it, I just need to cut them out. I'm on a roll, LOL!


Fabrics picked for my log cabin.






Now, after I finished the top to the Daisy Quilt, I immediately started cutting out fabrics for a mystery quilt that my Ohio Quilters guild has been working on lately. I wasn't going to make it, I have a hard enough time working on the projects I already have started, but I just decided to go for it and I went through my fabrics and started cutting. The pattern is called Spring Stars---but I decided to do it in reds, whites and blues for the 4th. It was also supposed to be a lap quilt, I'm making it twin sized. I need 35 blocks, I've got 17 done so far---here's what I've got:

The original pattern has them in rows of 4 and 3 with edges on the rows of 3 to take the place of the 4th block. Instead, I am putting them on point with sashes in between the blocks---probably a blue sash with a red border and a blue binding or vice versa. The blocks are simple and quick, it's a fun quilt to work on! I should hopefully have the top done by the end of the weekend, I am going to have to get more red fabric to finish it off and I'll probably do a backing of 2 strips of blue with a red strip in the middle. Or not, LOL!

I got my 30's strips from the swap I was in with the Ohio Quilters group---they are so cute! I have to admit, I really didn't care for 30's fabrics before I entered this swap. Now I love them and I joined another 30's swap, this time fat quarters! We also have another quilter in a bottle swap for the summer, so I am really looking forward to that one! I love swaps, LOL! Here are my 30's strips:

Aren't they pretty????








We're still looking for our homestead. We looked at a bunch of houses a week ago, nearly made an offer on one until we found out that that house comes with a neighbor from hell! At least we found out BEFORE we signed anything, LOL! We are going to go power look at 6 houses on Friday, I'm kinda not looking forward to it because it's going to take all day, it's projected to be in the 90's and we have to take all the kids because we can't leave them home that long and while we are that far away. My 15 year old can handle my jaunts to the store, close to home, but the baby is too much of a handful for an all day job! The good news is that there are actually some really good possibilities and hopefully, maybe, we'll be in a new house by mid-summer. I am going to get my planter boxes ready for some veggies this weekend, but nothing to go in the ground since we don't know where we will be.

It's been an emotional week for me. My oldest baby went to her prom. She was so beautiful and grown up in her gown and her BF was very handsome in his tux. I have to admit, I cried when they left---geez, I hope I can make it through her last concert this weekend and her graduation next week! I can't believe she's graduating high school. Time really did fly!!!

Ok, I'm off to bed---hopefully I'll continue to have a productive week and I'll have more stuff to actually show off next week! Have a good week!