New Quilt Room Update

I have not been able to do much in the quilting department for a few weeks now.  Between work and the basement and then being sick I have not accomplished much.
I quilted some potholders the other day and today I sewed the bindings on.  I just need to hand stitch them now and they will be ready as Christmas gifts.
I also have purchased the flat sheet for my grand daughters birthday quilt and will soon get it loaded on the HQ.  I need to finish it by March.
I have not progressed on the baby quilt that is due in January.  I am struggling with just how I want to piece the various blocks to go into this quilt so I am stalled right now. I really need to push ahead on this quilt and I will soon.
I just went down and took a few picutres to show the progress that is being made down there.  It is slow but the tile, carpet and plumbing is now complete.  This is big progress and it looks great. This is the kitchette with porcelin tile. Not a good picture.

This is the livvingroom with the fireplace.  This is a very large room.

This is my sewing room. This shows the lighting, fan and the doors that are going in the room.  I have 3 eight foot lengths of track lighting in the room. I have been teased allot about how much lighting I have in my room but I am thrilled to finally have good lighting to sew by.

I will have laminte flooring in this room.  It is a light wood grain laminte and is beautiful.

As you can see it is not done yet.  We got the entryway done so we could get the carpet laid up next to it.



I am hoping that we make some good progress over the holidays.  We are going to be off work for a total of 11 days.  That includes two weekends.  This is allot of time off for us and we plan to really make a difference downstairs.

I will sign off for now but will try to give some updates soon.



Bonnie Hunter and Mystery Quilts

I am a great follower of Bonnie Hunter.  I have been reading her blogs for years now and have tried my hand at many of her quilts on her website Quiltville.
I was able to do her first msytery quilt, loved it and gave it to my grand daughter Lizzy for her birthday that year.

Lizzy loves this quilt.

I have also made the Tabacco Road quilt when Bonnie gave it as a mystery and I have it on my bed right now.

Underneath this quilt is Orange Crush.

I have made many more of Bonnie's quilt along the way. Double Irish Chain is one of my favorites.

I have more quilts of Bonnie's that I  have made but this post is getting a little too much in pictures so I will make another post with Quiltville quilts later.

I love Scrappy!!

What I am Working on Now

I have not been able to work on too many quilting things lately because of work and the basement that we are trying to fininsh.  The basement is coming along very slowly and it is very frustrating.

Today I took off from work so the Electrician could come and finish up our electrical stuff.  He didn't show up at all and did not call.  I also had a tile guy coming over for a bid on the bathroom and kitchen tile and he didn't show either.  I had another tile guy coming at 6:30 tonight but he called and said the weather is too bad and wants to come tomorrow evening.

I worked on a couple of things while I waited.  I needed to make pillow covers for the sofa pillows and I have almost finished them today.  I just need the backing for them now.

I have also made the official start for the baby quilt that I need to have done by January.  This is our 21st grandbaby.  I have made these cute embroidered barn animals into quilts several times. This one will be green and yellow as our daughter is not going to find out what is coming until the baby arrives.

I have all the words done also so I need to clean up the threads on these and trim them to the size I want them to be.  I will be making green and yellow blocks to go with them. I will be backing this quilt with minky and will not put in batting.  I have seen a few of the baby quilts made this way on the web and decided I wanted to try this out.

Well, this will make two posts today but I am not sure when I will be able to post again so I think this is pretty good.

Sunbonnet Sue

When I was very young my Grandmother made me a Sunbonnet Sue quilt.  I loved that quilt so much and I have saved it all these years.  Recently I cut out some of the Sunbonnet Sues and I will be making a little memory quilt from them. The quilt itself has been in pieces for years and so it has been stashed away and never seen.
Just before I got my HQ I made a Sunbonnet Sue top and completed it in 2006.  I had it hanging in my closet for almost 5 years before I quilted it because I was scared to quilt it.  I finally decided that I needed to finish this quilt and so I did. I am so glad that I got brave and finished it.  A finished quilt is better than a masterpiece in my mind.

I have it drapped over my sofa in the front room most of the time and I have a little grand daughter that likes to cuddle up in it all the time.

This is a sweet little quilt and of course it is scrappy.

I love Scrappy!

New Sewing Room

We have lived in our house for over 10 years now and have an unfinished basement.  Well, last winter we decided that we wanted to finish our basement.  We planned to get started the 1st of April but didn't get started until June and so we got a little behind on the plan.  This is a picture of my Quilt room just after we got the framing done, the electrical has been started at this point and the plumbing has been started also.

In this project there will be a Man Cave and a Quilt Studio.  Boy, doesn't that sound impressive.

I sure don't want to ever do insulation work again.  It is a miserable job.

We now have the sheet rocking and texturing done. This picture only shows the sheet rock up but not the texturing. I forgot to take pictures before we started the painting. I will have my HQ along this wall.

This is the wall the HQ will be in front of.

This wall will be my design wall. I am really looking forward to having such a large one.

We have the painting 90% done and we finally feel like we are really going to get our basement finished.

We will not officially have bedrooms downstairs but will take back the old sewing room for a bedroom upstairs.

I am getting pretty excited about this whole thing.  I am just showing my room in the basement but we will have a large family room and kitchette besides my husband's room and the storage areas.  This will increase our finished floor space by almost double the amount we originally had in our home.  We are not completely finishing the storage areas but the large storage area is sheet rocked, textured and painted.

No flooring.

We really want to have more room for our kids and grand children when they come over for dinner and parties.  This will provide areas for everyone to enjoy each others company.

Quilts of Valor

I have been making Quilts of Valor for several years now.  I was very excited about doing these special qults from the very beginning. Our son spent 1 year in Iraq and I have let him pick out two different guys to receive Quilts of Valor.  It is a very rewarding feeling to say thank you to some very giving people.

These are some of the qults I have made over the years.  This is the first one I made and it was sent by the Quilts of Valor organization to Afganistan to a nurse working there.

This is the second one I made and my son picked out a local guy to receive this one.
I made another one just like this for my husband.  My husband was in the Army for 11 years and we lived all over the world and all over the United States.  He is a disabled veteran.

I made my son a Qult of Valor for his birthday this year and he is thrilled.  He requested a lap size quilt that he could have to wrap up in when he was feeling down.

I have made another one for a  friend of my son but for the life of me I can't find the pictures I know I took of that quilt.  This guy is a Marine Vietnam Veteran and when he got the qullt he called my son and cried.  He says this is the first time anyone has told him thank you for his service.  I think he served 2 or 3 tours in Vietnam. He claims that he will be buried in this quilt.  I wasn't sure how to take that but I am honored by his gratitude.  Apparently he is coming to visit my son soon and wants to meet me and my husband.

Freedom is not free!

My Double Wedding Ring

I have finaly finished my Double Wedding Ring quilt.  I started the piecing on this quilt last winter.  This was a very tedious quilt and it felt like I was never going to finish it.
I completed the piecing and put the top together in August and finished the qulting on it last week.
The quilting itself was custom quilted but since I am not too good at custom quilting yet I really stressed myself on it.

I must say though that I am very happy with this quilt and look forwarrd to having it on my bed.

I love scrappy!