What's up?

What's new with you?

Our ninth darling baby is already 5 months old, 17 lbs and 27 inches. I blame the boy's siblings. All that love makes them grow right? Well, he's a honker of a boy now! He loves kisses, especially kisses on his elbows. I have no idea why he finds that absolutely leg slapping hilarious but I can't stop. Baby giggles are so addictive! Every day I have to make him laugh until he snorts (the only thing he got from me was the laugh-laugh-laugh-snort-laugh-snort, the rest is all from Daddy).

And! I have a grandbaby. Yes, I know I look to young to have a grandchild, but obviously I'm not. She's been such a joy and only 2.5 months younger than Catfish, she's got a buddy for life. She is absolutely PRECIOUS! Her mama is absolutely amazing as a new mom. SO MUCH LOVE AROUND HERE IT HURTS!

The sewing room has been humming along. I got a new industrial sewing machine, which sews zoooooomgosh fast. Should I ever decide to quit sewing we'll turn that sucker into a go cart because wow. Major fast motor and technical stuff I don't really understand. Just take my word for it, It's FAST. ZOOOOOOM!

Of course.... it couldn't all be good right!? Not even 3 weeks after I got the new machine my longarm got jealous and killed the bearings in the motor. She's fixed now but she sure did give me some panic. She's a discontinued model and parts aren't easy to come by. Thank goodness we did find the parts we needed, even if it took some searching. The machine belonged to my mom before and was passed on to me... I have to say, I think we deserve bragging rights since between Mama and I we finished off an industrial machine in 20 years! That takes some serious sewing!

I decided to make a few Christmas things this year, so one thing I wanted to do was make a Modern Christmas quilt... turns out I cut out enough pieces for three quilts.... rather than waste them I've been sewing them up. Also I'm almost finished piecing a rainbow quilt. Just a few more strips and that will be done. Baby quilts going to the long arm and Christmas ornaments..... you get the idea! I'll post pictures once I get my phone back (Jesus is working on it out in Texas. I'm not kidding. I have full faith in the guy! ha!) I'll post pictures, updates and yada yada.... lets hope I don't let another few months slide by before we can catch up again.

Do you like the new layout? Suggestions? Thoughts? Ideas on what I should write about? I'm all over the place over here... give me some direction folks! (or I could ask Jesus in Texas right? If he can fix my S3 he can do anything yeah?)


Much love.... and don't forget to make the babies laugh till they snort... it will make your day, I promise!

Baby love

So I've got a little baby that is now 6 weeks old! He's not always grumpy but he doesn't like mama doing much else. We'll be back soon!

One of THOSE kinda days...

So I finally started painting today. All went well till about 1 pm, when hubby sent me a text telling me he broke his finger. More like crushed the tip, after it was cut through the nail. Ouch! He went to the dr and they bandaged him up. Since he was working on a water line break which was under a broken sewer pipe, they also gave him meds to (I hope anyway) combat any potential E.coli and other icky infections.

Then he locked his keys in the car. No Big Deal right? Call pop a lock and they'll take care of it...

Except he forgot his money. WHAT?

So I loaded up the kids and we were about to go across town to deliver some cash.

The sky looked really weird. I thought maybe a tornado was on the way. It wasn't.

It was baseball sized hail. About halfway to hubby's work a huge piece of hail hit the windshield and cracked it, from one side to the other. It sounded like the van was getting shot up. People were running for cover under anything they could find. We found a tree that kinda helped, a little to late.

Within about 20 minutes it was over, but damage was everywhere. Hubby's coworkers had broken rear windshields left and right. The local Wal-mart had to evacuate customers to the storage part of the building due to fist size hail coming through the sky lights. Insanity.

When Mother Nature starts her own snowball fight, it is not pretty.

In this picture you can see the hail has a core. It's like a super frozen bullet inside a softer ice. They were heavy. And since it was 77F degrees outside, a real surprise. it was over almost as soon as it started, but not before so much damage was done everywhere.

So we get back home, safe and sound. I was almost ready to go back to painting, just had to take a potty break and.... I heard it. "Mooooooooom....... Ollllllllllliiiiiieeeeeeevvvvveerrrrr... Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnnnt......" Almost a whole gallon. Everywhere... table, floor, OLLIE!!! Poor baby. We scooped him into the bath, then we cleaned up the paint as quick as cleaning paint can go. I secretly hated the paint I had bought (it was goopy and didn't go on smoothly) so I'm sort of glad to be buying a different brand to finish the second coat. shhhhh. It would have been easier to throw it out. BUT

(Insert good news here)
I finished up this quilt for a customer. It's headed off to NY,NY next weekend!

I did my own version of a nautical themed quilt. I was going for a simple Pottery Barn look, which I think I did ok on. Most of the fabrics are stripes and plaid shirtings, which I absolutely love for boy quilts. I used a buttonhole stitch for the applique' work and machine quilted in a loop de loop design. My buyer was super happy and it's off to NY, NY for this quilt. It's headed to a new baby boy that was born this past January. I hope it gives him years of happy sailing dreams!

xoxo

kristy

Chunky Churn Dash is Complete!

I am currently obsessed with with Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville website!! The quilts are easy, use up tons of scraps and they're just FUN. If you don't follow her on facebook you really should. She's always on the go, so I get tired for her when I read her blog updates.

So here's my version of Chunky Churn Dash:

Click here for the Chunky Churn Dash Tutorial!

Normally I like to stick to slightly larger pieces, 2.5" being my favorite. This quilt uses 1.5" pieces at it's smallest, not to bad but definately got me to step out of my "big strips" box. I really enjoyed that! Now I'm not afraid to keep the smaller scraps for future use. I love how the triangle blocks offset the  churn dash blocks to look as if they are set on point. The whole quilt measures 86" x 86", perfect for a full size bed. I keep saying I need to go bigger or smaller, but my quilting brain thinks full size is perfect. 

Next up I'll be making a nautical themed baby quilt and finishing up a snowball quilt (posted about it before, have since redone the sample blocks). As of tomorrow we'll be painting the living room, entry way and hall, so not much sewing will be going on for me. Talk about "enjoying" Spring Break! Hope yall are having fun!

XOXOXO

Kristy

Snowball WIP

This week we've been doing some spring cleaning. So far we've cleaned out the junk that lives in the laundry room and the kitchen. It's amazing what we 'stash' thinking we'll need it soon, only to forget about it for months (or years!)

In the sewing room I've started a new snowball memorial quilt. Once the layout and colors are approved I'm going to hopefully whip through this bad boy and be done done done! I want to work on smaller lap/crib sized quilts for a while. They're easier to manage and much more fun for the ego. Nothing feels better than saying "ALL DONE!" after making the smallish projects to give my mind a break.

Here's a Terrible No Good Very Bad shot of the WIP-

The snowball blocks are the memorial fabrics, the squares are the fabric the customer chose. Lets hope this one turns out pretty pretty!

Have a great day and keep sewing!

I'm on a finishing line! Or, New quilts in the shop!

I HAD to. I've been following Bonnie Hunt at  Quiltville for-eeeeevah now. Her blogs and tutorials have taught me so crazy much, I have to go back and read through every so often as a refresher. I had bookmarked the "Scrappy Trip Around the World" but when the whole craze came through, I knew I had to make it RIGHT NOW. So I did. It was so. much. fun! Bonnie's method makes it fairly simple and I love that I could really dig into the scraps and get those used up. I could literally SWIM in my scraps, there's just to many. One quilt at a time and I'm hoping to dig my way out! So.
 Without further ado, I give you my version of Trip Around the World.

 My Trip Around the world is now available in my store, so check it out! 

Next up is my version of Chain Reaction, a pattern I picked up from Craftsy.com. This one went together ok, but if you like to slash and dash quilt, this one will require a bit more careful cutting. I really love the look of it, so sweet and girly! And yes, this one is available in the online store also!

Click here to shop for this quilt!

And finally, a Map quilt! Kids, teachers and homeschooling moms luuuuuuuurve this quilt. It's great as a wall hanging or to toss on the floor for a geography lesson. (or three, because kids really love this one.) Of course I didn't make the print, but I did all the fancy pancy quilting on it, and I hand sewed the binding, so lots of love goes into these quilts also! 

Click here to shop Deaf Mama Designs for our Map Quilt!

Now that those are finished I feel a bit lost! I still have a few things I've  procrasinated on, but those will be done soon too... stay tuned to see what I can whip up next!

My valentines... you stole my heart!

To the tiny little bundle of baby boy kicking me in the ribs...
I love you for reminding me every day what a precious gift life really is...

To Ollie, my 13 month old little boy,
I love you for trying so hard. When you fall, you get back up. Pretty soon you'll be walking like a champ.

To Aralyn, my stubborn little girl, almost 3 years old now...
I love you for reminding me that snuggling on the couch watching cartoons isn't wasting the afternoon.

To Brett, my 5 year old and first boy,
I love you for being so loud and quick to laugh. You keep me smiling.

To Alexis, my silly 9 year old,
I love you for being such a good big sister and being as helpful as you are.

To Amanda, my 12 year old talker (talk talk talker),
I love you for listening and for all the hard work you do. I know you're going to be a strong woman some day.

To Anna, my quiet and sweet 13 year old,
I love you for being so graceful, in mind, spirit and body. Always my butterfly.

To Alliyah, my soft spoken, pink haired 15 year old,
I love you for the amazing woman you are becoming. Smart, beautiful and confident, the world belongs to you.

To Ashtyn, my first born,
I love you for making me a mother. You've taught me all I know and taught me I knew much less in the beginning than I thought I did.

To my husband Paul,
I love you for everything. You've taken a blended family and made it whole. You work hard every day to provide for us. You make me laugh, you cry with me and make me smile again. You've given me three beautiful babies in as many years and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

To my wonderful sweet, kind friends,
I love you for letting me be me, wacky and nutty and accepting me even when I'm not "the norm". That  means the world to me.

To my family,

I love yall because I used to think we were kinda weird. Then I realized we're the somewhat normal ones. Wacky or not, we stick together, laugh together and pray together. Thank you.

Cold January

It's been so cold in the sewing room that I've barely been able to get much done. Add in pregnancy and babies roaming the house, I'm flat out behind. I've pulled out my flannel shirts and layering on the clothes, so time to get to work!

Did I say "pregnancy"? I sure did! Baby #9 will be arriving in June and we're expecting a boy! The hubs is through the roof with happy as well as the kids. I'm loving the idea of another boy, with 6 girls and 2 boys, it's time to even the playing field a bit. :)

I hope everyone has been staying warm and having a wonderful, calm start to the new year. We had a touch of snow last week but it was gone by that afternoon. We don't get much snow here, so when we do, it's a real treat for the kids (and us big kids too!)

The market starts back in just two weeks. I'm not ready but I'll be there as always. Love to you all!