Saturday, January 29, 2011

changed my mind... again

It seems my quilts never really look like i planned them to look when i started. I have been working on the postage stamp quilt for bridgette... and maybe its because im bored with just sewing little 2 1/2 in squares together... or maybe its because i have been drawn to pinwheels lately, even made a couple today with no purpose in mind that will probably end up being potholders or something... but I was reading blogs and came across this... and thought!! THATS IT! so... my postage stamp is changing.

I really like mary's blog but im not sure how to follow it since shes not on blogger.... hmmm...

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

postage stamp

wow... its a  lot of little squares! I keep cutting squares out of my stash because i think i have enough 2 1/2 inch little buggers and then wow... i dont have very many again! lol... i am the only quilter alive that doesn't have enough scraps!

But i am between 1/3 and 1/2 done... here is a preview... the picture is actually sideways, and i had to take them here at zippys on a cloudy day... but you get the idea.



I can tell as i go along, my skills are improving and my seams are more uniform and are matching up... i guess its what i needed to sew straight!

I still haven't finished the twins quilt... but here is the fabric i bought for the back of one of them.




The hold up on finishing these is buying the batting to do it! It seems like everytime we have the money to go to town to get it, we cant because we are then rushing home to feed horses before it gets dark, (and once were home... were staying put.. and the few times we could go to center to buy what i need, we have had cash flow problems and there wasn't the money to do it right then!

oh well... i will get them done and even if they are late, i will send them!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

another start??

Trevor and Landon are 4 year old (yes they are both 4) step brother grandbabies that share a room so i want to make them matching quilts. One birthday is in May the other isn't until september.... so i was going to do them both in may. I also knew i wanted to do something with the red and blue plaid shirts... trevor was the first BOY grandbaby of ralphs and i wanted to make his out the plaid shirts... so last night, an ad in a magazine caught my eye... not even sure what it was an ad for... but this is what im making the boys


cute plaid X's with 3 1/2" squares! This is the third "test" i have done with ideas... i think this one is it!! Im going to call it "paw paw sugars" little X's (kisses) from their paw paw.

ralph must have liked the idea because this morning he gave me two more of his old shirts (one has stains and one has a collar he hates) to use for it...




Phew... it took me 2 days to post a blog entry. I only have internet at work these days and we have been really busy slinging pizza! (thats a good thing, the holidays are always slow!) The other problem is i am ALWAYS working right now. We had two employees that we should have fired and replaced weeks ago... but for some reason we hate letting them go. We finally fired them both the other day, means were short staffed and im working 6 shifts instead of 5... but at least now i KNOW when im going to have to be here and i can plan. i swear every day i had off where i looked forward to sewing, one of them would call in sick and i had to work. it got to where ralph and i were pulling doubles constantly AND working on our day off. It was driving me insane. Tomorrow will be my first day off in what seems like weeks!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

3 am idea

i wasn't that excited about the double irish chain because there wasn't enough contrast between the white and the scraps.. and it was too scrappy. So... ive decided that it needs something to be dominant in it. I have decided to make it smaller than planned, add a solid border, a border of flying geese, and more of the solid border. I am not sure what i will use. I have a dark teal sheet i could use but im not in love with it either... i may buy something. But this idea came to me as i was sitting there staring at it at 3 am when i couldn't sleep the other night. Once i decided what i was going to do i went back to bed!

I bought the fabric for the back of one of the twin quilts yesterday... its pink with peace symbols on it. It was one of the better quality fabrics at walmarts marked down to 2.00 per yard. Because of the direction of the fabric i have to piece it longways and i should have alot of scraps from it.

this morning ralph is horseshoeing, he brought me to work early so that i could open... so i have a couple hours to surf quilting blogs... yeah!!!

Monday, January 17, 2011

design wall monday

I have noticed that others kinda have a routine of posting... design wall monday, wip wednesday... i like that idea. Usually im a rebel and refuse to follow anyone and maybe thats a sign of being old... im able to admit when someone else has a good idea... but dont tell ralph that... he will wonder why i never admit when his are good... and that is just plain stubborness.

anyways honsetly there isn't anything on my design wall right now. It is actually a flanell lined tablecloth hung on my hallway wall (the onlyplace i had room at the time) But when we walk by, we blow things off of it so i usually dont leave things on it long.

What was on it when i woke up is the double irish chain im making for Sharons birthday present (April) I only have 15 more chain blocks to make and about 25 4 corner blocks and it will be finished!




i can honestly say im not all that excited about this quilt. It is scrappy and i like scrappy but i think it needs to come together some more before i can fall in love with it. I keep putting it up on the wall... and eh... its ok.

Friday, January 14, 2011

finally pictures!!

Well here it is... Birthday Present number 1!! finished only 4 days late!!


you can see its already on our bed, and ralph wasn't too happy that i was taking pictures of it while he was still in bed... but he got over it! I love it! Its out of plaid shirts, most of them were ralphs. Its just the right amount of warm that we can use it year round.

I wasn't creative on the back. The new walmart in Many LA has muslin backing 108X108 for about 15 and i just bought that! The binding is from some pieces that I had sewn together to use on the back, I cut them into strips and used them for binding, and i did cheat and didn't hand stitch the back... i just sewed it.



I finally have pictures of my other recent finish! The quilt from the scraps that someone gave me. It is being donated to the VA hospital in Houston.




Even the backing and binding were in the box of scraps she gave me.


here are some previews of the fun to come:



how fun... little 9 patch out of 1 1/2 in squares!



and a scrappy double irish chain with 2 1/2 inch squares.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

I have been growling at my quilt!

I am new to this machine quilting thing... im not liking it very much at the moment.

First... i cant sew a straight line... on the other one it was easier going from corner to corner because the corners were closer together... on this one im eyeballing it and well... those lines, i meant for them to be curvy! lol.

secondly... my arms hurt from moving the thing around on the table! slide it that way, slide it this way... i was wore out after an hour of that!

third... if that wasn't enough, i had to slide sammy cat around with it... i could NOT keep him off of the thing and half the time i was kicking emma (the dog) off the bottom that was on the floor... they didn't make it any easier.

BUT... i have about 20 min left of sewing and Ralphs Birthday present will be quilted and i will just have to bind it. I am hoping to finish by tuesday... lol... then it will only bee 1 week late!

today im working a double... tomorrow just in the morning then i have saturday off... hopefully i can find the time to finish over the next couple days...

I ordered the battery for the camera and I should get it tomorrow or saturday... i cant wait to take pics!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

a giveaway

I dont enter many giveaways but the fabrics on this one were just too pretty to pass up!

Click here to check it out!

not the day i planned

I had planned to finish ralphs birthday present!

It always works this way, i plan a day and then at 9 pm someone comes in and orders lasagna for 80 by noon the next day! lol... so at 7 am i am at zippys making lasagna!! It will be 3 or 4 before i get home today because we have errands to run after that (which im sure wont go as planned and it will be more like 6 or 7)

When we got home last night i noticed the well compressor was running which meant something was wrong... I have no idea how this thing works, ralph has no idea either so we dont have water at home right now and probably wont till tomorrow. I have fiddled with all the thinks i know to fiddle with.... i think im going to have to call a well repair guy! If i get home before dark, i will go tinker with it some more. I think its the pump... everything else seems to be working fine.

We went to lufkin yesterday to get cheese from sams... opps... sams wasn't open on new years day!! But, i did get to go to hobby lobby and i found a new clearance rack they set up!!! I had 7 dollars in tip money and  change to spend... lol.. i spent 15! But i have one of the jewel tones for leah's quilt, and some other fabric that will be pretty in the scrap quilts im making (i will cut off a few 2 1/2 and 1 1/2 squares!) I never buy alot of fabric... unless i really love it i get less than a yard. So, i have 7 new pretty fabrics in my stash. (i really dont have much of a stash... im actually trying to get MORE of a stash... give me a year or two and im sure i will be talking about stash busting like everyone else)

Someone posted about their grandparents ranch in california... im sorry i dont remember your name right now... but it made me think about the ranch that we live on and our grandchildren, the memories and legacy that we are leaving them. Ralph is the 4th generation on this ranch and he loves it like his parents and their parents. We need to do more to pass that love on to the little ones growing up right now. We need to start some traditions for them... ive been thinking about that alot lately, with the holidays. I decided next year we will take the grand kids out the day before thanksgiving to cut down our christmas tree and then on thanksgiving day they can help me decorate it. We will pull out all of those ornaments that their parents made for ralph and lydia and the ornaments my family has made me. I think that will be a nice tradition. But... those everyday things that i want these kids to remember about their grandfather... im going to have to work on those. Little things like sunday dinners, helping pawpaw with chores, those things that will be with them like my memories are with me. Right now we are pizza pawpaw and mimi... lol.. id like to create more memories with the horses and with the land for them, i want them to love it like ralph and i do.

Speaking of ralph... in reflecting on the last year... we have lived together for a year now! I moved in to the ranch in December last year. I dont think either of us thought we would work, lol, we do both have tempers and prior to being a "couple" we used to fight like cats and dogs. But, living together... we have found more harmony in our relationship! For those of you who dont know our story... i moved to texas 8 years ago to start a business with ralph and his wife lydia. They adopted me into their family, they were my best friends, it really was a strange relationship, we all three were inseperable! Ralph and I ran our various businesses (we have had 3 since then, the most recent a pizzaria) Lydia worked as a lab tech so she wasn't as involved... it meant ralph and i spent alot of time together... lol.. and we fought ALL the time. Lydia was the peacekeeper.  I loved lydia as much as i love ralph. Lydia passed away almost 2 years ago from pancreatic cancer. I miss my best friend more than anyone can ever imagine. But, ralph and i are a couple now. I love him with all my heart and he really is the man of my dreams. We do belong together, dont get me wrong, i would give up this relationship to have her back... but this is what fate dealt...

anyways, the biggest blessing of 2010 is ralph and i figured out how to survive without our peacekeeper. We have found our harmony. lol... dont get me wrong, he still makes me mad and there are days i could strangle him and vice versa.. but for the most part we have found a peace and happiness together that i dont think either of us have ever felt before.

ok... nuf emotional stuff... the lasagna sauce smells fantastic... i have noodles boiling and its time to assemble a 2'X3' pan of lasagna!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

happy new year!

Ive been reading blogs but since i dont have a battery for my camera, i haven't been posting much... hopefully i will get one in a week or two!

but... its the new year so i thought i would post my quilting resolutions...

its finish a quilt for everyone in the hampton family this year by their birthday! The first is Ralph's in 3 days so im going to finish my plaid shirt quilt. I just need to quilt it and since i only have 3 days... im going to machine quilt it!

The next birthdays are the twins Jan 30th and i have the flimsies for theirs... so i will finish them next week so i can get them in the mail.

After that I have Bridgette and Sharon... they are in April. I have about 1/4 of one of theirs done, its going to be a scrappy irish chain. Its going fast and i will either tie or machine quilt them.

There is also leah in April. Leah is tougher... but an idea came to me in the shower. (we have diamond patterened walls in our shower) Im going to do something with jewel colored diamonds with a black background... shes 14 but not girly... i think she would like that. But i want to finish these by March because of may!

May is going to be a busy month. Buck, i have all but the star finished on his denim scrappy quilt... i will finish that by then. Caty... im going to do something scrappy with 2 1/2 inch squares, Waylon will be one... i will finish the baby quilt i want to make him and Trevor. I am going to do something with blue tan and red for him.

I then have a rest in june, July i have harley... ive started one for her, just need to finish it and Jess... i will finish the 2nd denim rag quilt.

September will be the next birthdays. Travis... another denim rag quilt (have it cut out already) Faith, Ive started hers too, it matches her sister Harleys. Dallas, shes another puzzle, im not sure what im going to do for her but im sure i will be inspired by then!

October we have landon and wesley. Landon's i will probably make when i make trevors in may (or at least i will cut it out then) They share a bedroom so i will make them match but different. Wesley, it will be something simple and geometric or if i can afford it something with  Spiderman.

In november there is my birthday and yes.... im going to make myself one too! I would like to have the one im hand piecing done by then... or if not there is this 9 patch thing im playing with and making... i will finish one. Jonathan... another denim rag quilt.. already have it cut out!

Then december... the last two are coleman and chris... i have cut out for them denim rag quilts as well... so that will be an easy finish to the year.

So... ambitious i think... 21 finishes in one year from the girl who just finished her first quilt in 20 years! lol

Oh... i also have at least 2 baby quilts. Bridgette is going to have one in 6 months and my preachers wife is pregnant and there is a baby shower next month... thats a wishful thinking one i think! lol.

anyways. have to get back to slinging pizza... ive been blessed this year and i hope all of you are equally blessed in 2011!