Working on Wednesday

Hello everyone!  I know its been a long time since I have posted.  It feels like my house has been torn up forever.

Here is a sneak peak of the new colors in my kitchen and dining room.

 

Ah yes, the mess!  Packing everything up for the construction to begin back in October.

 

Kitchen all gone!

 

Stay tuned for more to come! 

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

Thursday Links

Some of my friends have been asking for the links to the block of the month links that we have been working on together.  Here they are girls!

October 2014 Block of the Month Links

Country Threads 2014 BOM

October Block link: http://country-threads-chicken-scratch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/October-BOM.pdf

September Block link with corrections: http://country-threads-chicken-scratch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/September-BOM1.pdf

Layout #2 link: http://country-threads-chicken-scratch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Part-2-Layout-Diagram.pdf

Quilt Doodle Designs

October Row link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-UGYD12TSr-eEFpeExxUVJiWW8/edit?usp=sharing  

This is the last month of Quilt Doodle designs.  You can get Oct. free but will have to pay a small fee for each row's pattern to catch up.

Bonnie Hunter just released her fabrics clues for her 2014 Grand Illusion Mystery quilt.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/10/surprise-quiltville-winter-mystery.html

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

Design Wall Monday

I don't have anything on my design wall currently.  Today I am going to share the design walls at my sewing days from two weeks ago.

 

Here is an old string quilt that Betty J. saved.  Someone gave her the top and she finished it and had it machine quilted .  It was so fun just to stand and look at the large assortment of fabrics. 

 

 

 We had a Snowman Panel Challenge to make charity quilts by our group.

 

  We each took the winter snowman panel and made a charity quilt to be donated.  Below is Barb's quilt.

 

Carol Onken's quilt. 

 

Susie Rezlaft's quilt front. 

Susie's quilt back. 

 

 Susan May's quilt.

 

Betty's quilt.

 

Cathy Brock's quilt. 

 

Mera's quilt.

 

Nancy Boomgarden's quilt.  This quilt was large enough for a full size bed.

Isn't it fun to see each person's creative interpretation?

 

 

Barb was work on this soothing yellow and gray quilt.

 

Susan was working on this memory quilt for her mother.  The quilt was in memory of her brother who had passed away.  It included pictures and t-shirts. 

 

A closer picture of the blocks. 

 

This is Mera's bright, children's quilt.  It is so much fun with all the novelty fabrics.

Look at this fun pieced backing.  Its truly a two-sided quilt.

 

Look at Mera stiking a pose.  Don't you think that pose is saying

"Yes, I really put a pickle on the back of the quilt!  Geez!

Who has more fun than quilters with creativity?"

 

A great time was had by all.  We were missing a few ladies and hope they will be able to join us next time.

 

Today I am linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

 

 

 

Friday Finishes

I am so excited that I can finally share these finishes with you.  This is a charity quilt that Sue W. is donating to Heritage Manor to be raffled off. for their Christmas Bazaar.  Look how creative she was with the backing. 

The whole quilt was made from her stash and I just love her choice of colors.

 

Some lucky person is going to win this wonderful Christmas quilt. This is quilted with Stars and loops with off-white thread.

 

This second quilt is also by Sue W.  It was one of the first quilts she made and has been folded up in her sewing room waiting for a home.  It will now be a Christmas present for her daughter-in-law.  I used dark red thread and the quilting pattern is Lisa's Lace B2B.

 

This quilt was sent to me by Stephanie O.  This quilt is headed to an auction for St. Jude's Children Hospital.  We have an affiliate hospital in Peoria, IL and this quilt will help to raise money for our local affiliate.

This quilt has black thread and Lisa's Lace B2B quilting pattern.

 

The pattern is Yellow Brick Road.

 

Thank you Sue and Stephanie for bringing me great quilts to work on!

 

Is anyone ready for Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt? Watch for information on her blog at Quiltville.com.  Last year I had a little giveaway on my blog after Bonnie released her fabric clues.  I would like to have another giveaway of fabric this year after Oct. 15th.  Please check back for further info. 

 

Today I am linking up with ..... Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link a Finish Friday, Freedom Fridays, and Crazy Mom Quilts. 

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

Waste Not Thursday

Today is my day off from my mall job.  Trying to use up all the food that has been given to us from Dad's garden and others.  I had some huge apples given to me and unfortunately a few were bad on the inside.  I cut up the good apples and added a few from the refrigerator and made apple cobbler.

 

Then I moved on to cutting up watermelon.  I also cooked up some fish I had defrosted so my husband can just heat and eat his dinner tonight.  I will be gone to quilt guild tonight. 

 

Also, cooking up some squash so I can freeze it and have it ready to zap in the microwave for dinner one night.  We are preparing to have your kitchen remodeled.  Therefore, I am trying to use up food and cook ahead so we have some things to pull out of freezer while the kitchen is torn up.  I know we will get tired of restaurants.

 

This is one of my cupboards.  You are looking at a drawer without a front because it fell off.  It has be glued, screwed and L-bracketed on several times.  There nothing left to glue it back onto.  It does make for easy access to measuring cups.

 

Yesterday it as sunny and as I walked out onto the back deck the geraniums looked so happy.

The two pots are just blooming their little hearts out!

Have a great Thursday and stop by tomorrow for Friday Finishes.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

 

Design Wall Monday and Work in Progress Wednesday

Hi there!  I know its been a while since I sat down to write to everyone.  A week ago I finally got away for a few sewing days.  I think my sewing machine did a happy dance when we arrived at the quilt store. (This post has been waiting to be published for a few days as I got a new smart phone and couldn't get the photos to download to the blog.  Argh!  Today I am thankful things are back to normal.)

 

It was a very productive few days.  I finished a baby quilt top and five pillow cases.  WooHoo!  It felt so good to sew again.

 

Here's the pictures of the progression of the baby quilt during my sewing days.

 

 

The baby has arrived so now the quilting needs to get finished.  I have the cutest turtle fabric for the backing.  The inner part of the quilt is a pattern called "Child's Play" by Emily Cier published in Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Spring 2013.  The outer border of fish is my design.  The original pattern called for the quilt to finish 41" x 41", and it felt too small.  I would rather the child have to grown into the quilt.  My outer border is an additional 6.5" wide.

 

Above are my pillow cases.  The three regular size pillow cases with puppy prints will be donated to charity.  The king size pillow cases are for our new pillows from Ikea.

 

Below is a sneak peak at the quilts I have been finishing for customers.  I will post full size pictures of them on Friday. 

 

 

Next on the list for quilting is a bright orange quilt.  You might have to wear sunglasses to look at it.

 

I hope you are enjoying this beautiful fall weather.  It was a little chilly this morning but has warmed up nicely. 

 

Today I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

Tuesday Tip

Since I started working at Bath and Body Works last fall, we have to wear white shirts to work.  I dug out a few old shirts and found that they had yellow underarm stains.  I tried several things that didn't seem to do the job.  My friend, Lisa Barnes, suggested Grandma's Secret Recipe Spot Remover.  I finally remembered to pick some up at the quilt shop.

Its hard to squeeze but put the spot remover on the yellow stain and it does remove it.  I have saved several shirts from the rag bag.

 

So if it works on underarm stains, how about other stains you ask?  I found a pair of jeans that my son had worn while putting new brakes on a car.  I put Grandma's Secret on the grease stains and washed almost right away.  Stains gone!!!

 

This is not a paid ad,  this is just information from my own experience.

 

Today I am linking up with Connie at Freemotion by the River.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

Friday Finish is a Friday Start

No finishes this week as I have been taking in new quilt tops to quilt.

Yesterday I cut batting to fit the quilts I had taken in.  I just love this new batting I am carrying, Legacy 80/20.  Its so soft and beautiful drape. (Don't know why my camera is showing this in sepia tones.)

 

I have a quilt loaded and one row is quilted.  WooHoo!(I took pictures but they won't transfer off my phone.  Time for a new smart phone this one seems to be dumb today.)

 

Now I am off to work.  This is a big weekend for us with the roll out of the rest of our fall products.  I have 47.5 hours between now and Tuesday.  Wednesday is my day off, hope I can sleep in and soak in the tub.

 

Have a safe Labor Day weekend.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

Work in Progress Wednesday -- Madison Bus Trip

The Covered Bridge Quilt Guild is taking a bus to the Quilt Expo in Madison, WI, on Saturday, Sept. 6th.  They will be leaving Princeton, IL at 7:30am.  Please Carolyn Schmitt at 815-875-3161 or 875-878-4810 if you are interested in this bus trip.  Cost is $39 per person and includes your ticket for the show.  (Note this trip was originally planned for Fri., Sept. 5th)

We need to fill the bus by Sept. 4th or the trip will be cancelled.  Please call Carolyn ASAP.  Let's pack the bus.

Yours in quilting,
Terry

Preparedness Tuesday

Since my family is work such crazy hours, I am cooking ahead so that we have "heat and eat" meals in the refrigerator.  Last night I started with 4.5 lbs of ground chuck and 4 lbs of chicken breasts.
I first made Sweet Chili Lime Chicken with Frank's Sweet Chili Sauce.  I serve this over rice.  I put the cooked chicken in one container and made a big batch of rice in another container.  This is the guys favorite grab-n-eat meal. Then I moved on to making Grandma Pat's Casserole which is like a mock chop suey, with 1.5 lbs of hamburger, also served over rice. I put the casserole in the oven to bake for forty minutes. 

Next I browned about 1 lb. of hamburger and mixed in Hunt's Spagetti Sauce.  The guys cook noodles for themselves and they will have a quick meal.

Today I used the last 2 lbs of hamburger and made Sandy Roseberg's recipe for meatloaf with Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce.  I also mixed up brownies from www.hersheyskitchens.com and baked those at the end with the meatloaf.  I baked the brownies for 24 minutes instead of 30 and they are fudging, yummy good.

TaDah!!!  We have "heat and eat"  food for the week.  We are like ships passing in the night with all our crazy work schedules.

Time to go to work.  I can post the recipes later if you need some easy ones.

Yours in quilting,
Terry

Its Monday!

It was a busy weekend here.  It was fair week here and we usually go to the fair on Wednesday with our friends for our annual "oil change".  In other words, one night a year we eat all the fried food at the fair along with a lemon shake-up.

 

This year because of my new job, we weren't able to join our friend for this annual event.  I had to work each day so Saturday night Rod offered to take me to the fair for our "oil change".

We each had a corn dog and shared a large lemon shake-up.  Rod bought his annual box of Malone's State Fair taffy.  We walked through the barns, especially the hog barn, so Rod could talk to the pigs.

You can't take the farm out of the boy.  We headed home with all that heavy food in our tummies.

 

I just had to laugh, we were in bed asleep by 9pm.  We both had worked so hard this week at our jobs that we were all in, all done.

 

I haven't really come out and talked about it but its probably time to fill you in.  I am working full time at Bath and Body Works in the Peru Mall.  I started there last fall as a holiday worker just to get a little socialization.  Quilting in the basement was getting lonely.  Then they kept me on after the holiday but I only worked a few hours here and there.  About a month ago, we had 6 people leave and I was asked to step up to a sales lead position for the fall and Christmas seasons.  We also had one person  who had her baby a week ago.  We have been working with a skeleton crew and are slowly getting positions filled.  We have a new manager on board completing her training.

 

Yesterday we had our annual inventory.  It is so much work getting prepared for the inventory crew to come in.  I am happy to say all the hard work paid off and the inventory went smoothly yesterday.  I left at 7pm last night and they were about 2/3 done already. 

 

I am continuing to work on quilts at home and working full time at BBW.  We are hoping to do some remodeling on our home this fall and the extra money will help pay for some of the new items for the house.  We met with a contractor Saturday morning at 7am to try to finish the planning for the remodel.  Next we will have to live through having the house torn up.

 

Have a great Monday!  I am off to work to open the store.  I am ready for a sewing day with friends.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

 

 

 

 

I

Friday Finishes

Hello everyone!  I am glad the road to heaven is paved with good intentions.  I would love to post everyday like I had previously, but my job at the mall is up to 40 hours a week.  So, I have to pick and choose how to use the rest of my time.  I will post as much as I can until this temporary job ends in January. 

 

So here are my latest finishes.

This quilt was made by Kara A. who is a beginning quilter.  She did a fabulous job considering she stated, "I didn't know what I was doing".  Keep on quilting Kara, you did just fine. :)

 

I used Ocean Froth by AnneBright.com as the quilting pattern and soft white thread by Omini. 

From longarm to finish....

 

This wedding quilt is ready for the binding and its trip to the wedding.

This quilt will be a signature quilt at the wedding.  Guests will be asked to sign in the white areas.  I asked Kara to send me a picture of the quilt with the happy couple to post later.

 

Isn't this  a happy quilt for a guy?  I just love all the different fabrics.

I quilted waves all over the quilt.  You can see the rest of Gloria's quilts in my previous post HERE.

 

Gloria B. is the maker of this quilt and one of her lucky guys gets this quilt for Christmas. 

Thank you Aaron, for holding the quilt for pictures! 

 

I used my new batting in the swim trunk quilt, Legacy 80/20 and love the results.  It has a wonderful drape to it and is cuddly soft.  Plus, I had no lint in my bobbin area of my longarm. 

 

Today I am linking up with ..... Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link a Finish Friday, Freedom Fridays, and Crazy Mom Quilts. 

 

Have a great weekend and stay cool!  Its steamy hot here in Illinois.

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry

 

Vintage Thingie Thursday

A while back I had an adventure with my friend, Barb.  We went to a home that was filled with treadle machines and a few feather weights.  Oh my, oh my, where do we begin!

This was their reading lamp.  This was super cute.

 

Every where we turned there were more machines.

 

This is a Wheeling & Wilson.

 

So I came home with a Feather Weight table.

 

Grandma Esther's feather weight now has its own table!  Its so cool!

 

I will be going back as I left my name on a beautiful oak treadle machine.

I had to leave before I was tempted to buy more.  I don't have endless room to store these things.

 

Have a great Thursday!

Yours in quilting,

Terry