here lately

Despite all of my precautions,

I've been flat laid out by the vile virus

that's been making its rounds.

Since I finally have enough strength to type

(not hold my head up and type,

mind you,

just type...)

I figured I'd pop in here for a few minutes.

~

Based on my cooking thermometer,

the kitchen was 50 degrees this morning.

That's with heaters in the kitchen, dining room and LEM

going full blast all night long.

The living room

(another heater - full blast all night)

was only slightly warmer.

I am so ready to be out of this house!!

~

I'm also absolutely overwhelmed

with all of the work we still have to do

for that to happen.

I told Tyler that when we moved

 - and by moved, I mean our bed; not everything -

we are taking at least 2 weeks off.

We are closer to moving today

though

than we've ever been.

So there's that.

(I stole that line from my sister in law :-)

~

Let's see.

We did all camp out in the new house 

on Christmas Eve

and woke up nice and toasty

and had a warm and peaceful morning.

Well, whole day, really.

not that I like mess or anything - but this makes me happy because there is room for mess, without Momma freaking out.

Brandon's closet is finished

I love it so so much!

so all his room needs 

in order for him to move in

is baseboards in the closet

and we need to nail, fill, caulk and paint

the baseboards that are already in place around his room.

Something to cover the window might be nice too.

And a doorknob.

Of course there's plenty more that needs doing,

but that can come later.

~

The kitchen cabinets are painted!!

(picture to come when I feel up to walking out there

 and snapping one)

We opted to pay (big) money to have them

professionally painted.

I wasn't overly excited about the idea,

but the thought of all that prep work

(and how long it would take!)

persuaded me.

I'm not thrilled with my color (SW Watery) choice

(or rather - how it looks on the cabinets.

I'm still bamboozled about this,

because I am good with the dot of paint on the can)

but I am choosing to be happy with them.

I'm sure I'll like it better 

when we've added knobs and pulls

a black walnut counter top

and a backsplash.

~

Tyler helped me get the boards ready

(seriously - the prep work on all of these projects!!)

and while he was gone on a business trip last week,

I finished staining them,

sealed 'em,

and then

Lily and I built the closet shelving in the master closet.

(she was the only non-sick kid)

the shelves look really narrow, for some reason, but they're 11 3/4". 

I left an embarrassing number of nails

for Tyler to cut off.

Actually,

there were so many,

it passed embarrassing

and went to downright ridiculous. 

I told him I am losing all of my badges

in the home stretch 😖

I still need to buy the rods and rod hangers

but those aren't needed for the baseboards to go in.

Baseboards, you may know,

 mean one giant step closer to carpet.

And carpet means 

we can move the bed in!

Sojourner, a finished quilt

This was a fun one,

and I am so so pleased with how it turned out!!

Back in April,

Billie told me she'd like to order a quilt.

That started off a flurry of messages,

and sending links back and forth

so I could get a feel for what she liked.

We ended up choosing Kathleen's Gypsy Wife quilt

as inspiration.

I thought at the time

that it was not an actual Gypsy Wife,

because her fabric choices 

made it look so different from all of the others I'd seen

but Hydee assures me it does follow the pattern.

Not knowing that, though, 

I drew up my own pattern /map.

I told Tyler and Brandon during a brain storming session

that I wanted a name that was similar to Gypsy Wife

but more appropriate for this quilt

and for Billie and Andy,

and when somebody tossed out 'sojourner',

I knew we'd found it.

You see,

Andy and Billie are currently living in Bosnia

teaching English,

using the Bible.

Not only are they currently literally sojourning,

they live their entire lives

with a Kingdom focus,

as if this earth is not their home,

so the name was doubly perfect.

I ordered lots of fabric

and even ordered a couple of jelly rolls for greater variety

(there are at least 156 different fabrics in this quilt!)

and started piecing on May 23rd,

not long after finishing up my niece's epic quilt.

I finished the 64 x 80 inch top in mid July

and then sewed the backing.

We went with a wool batting and lawn backing

to produce an exceptionally luscious quilt

and I basted the layers together with Lily's help

in late July.

I didn't actually start on the quilting until mid September

because I quilted Sparkle first,

so I could give it to my sister sooner

and also so I could just get in more quilting practice.

Using a quilt of Kathleen's as inspiration

was rather intimidating!

I'd already told Billie that my quilting

wasn't going to look anywhere near as good as Kathleen's,

but still, I didn't want her dissappointed,

ya know?!

I watched videos

and practiced practiced practiced

a whole bunch of new to me quilting motifs.

And then,

to make sure I was ready,

I made a whole practice quilt.

All of that paid off,

and I am ridiculously proud 

of the quilting on this one!

I feel like I have grown so much as a quilter this year,

even though I was sooo busy with building 

that I only made a few quilts.

I know that Angela Walters says

that seam ripping doesn't make you a better quilter,

so you should never un-do your quilting,

but I unpicked quite a few 

less than excellent lines of quilting anyways.

It might not make me a better quilter,

but it makes the quilt better,

so it makes me a happier quilter.

And that's better ~ right?

Because I love adding scripture to quilts,

I quilted in 2 verses;

"How beautiful are the feet of them that bring good news"

and

Psalm 146:9

"The Lord watches over the sojourners."

How perfect is that?!

I love the image of God himself

watching over my friends.

My photographer friend, Lisa,

 was going to take pictures of this beauty for me

but I wasn't done with it at the appointed time : /

I finished sewing on the binding

about 26 hours

 before they were going to be picking up the quilt.

(and still had to make the label!)

Even though it wasn't done done,

all washed and crinkly,

the sun was out,

so I threw it down in a spot of sun 

got a few pics with my phone,

then grabbed the boys

and told them to grab something to stand on

and we quickly ran out in the 15 degree weather

and snapped a few more pictures.

I made the label after everyone was in bed,

sewed it on yesterday,

tossed it in the wash

and pulled it out of the dryer

about 10 minutes before Billie messaged me

that they were on their way.

Cutting it a bit close, eh?!

Sojourner was a joy to make

and I am so happy to get to make a quilt

for such precious people,

and to start the year off

giving a couple of machines

to Rahab's Rope!

Andy and Billie - we love ya!

Thanks for being such wonderful examples of love and generosity.

Thanks for partnering with me.

Oh, and Billie - you know how you said India

is becoming more closed to missionaries?

That's where our machines are going.

💗

linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

moving on, not in

We won't be moving in to the new house by Christmas.

It wasn't for lack of trying,

I assure you.

Between life

and work

and illness,

there is just plain too much left to do.

We do have water in the house now,

not just to it.

And we even have a working toilet!!

We also have a functioning tub
and an almost functioning shower,

and should have a fully plumbed sink

complete with faucet by Sunday afternoon.

We have a water heater!

We have carpet upstairs,

and luxury vinyl plank flooring in 2 bathrooms.

as soon as the carpet installers left,
Josiah had the bag of bolts for putting together his
new to him loft bed that we purchased in the summer.

There are only 3 receptacles that still need to be wired

and all lights (that have been purchased) are installed.

The upstairs closets have custom shelving and rods

built by yours truly and the 3 youngest (but mostly Josiah),

though Tyler stepped in to help on one shelving unit

after somebody had a fit and mini-breakdown

(over what, exactly, I can no longer recall)

and quit temporarily.

We have a railing upstairs at the balcony

(but we still need to build the stair rails.)

obv. this was before install....

Kitchen cabinets are partly installed,

and we have all of our appliances

thanks to Black Friday sales.

We even have ice in the freezers.

Made automatically!

The kids are pretty excited about not having to 

crack and refill ice cube trays.

Little by little,

we're getting there.

We just aren't there yet.

We'll camp in it on Christmas Eve,

so the kids' dream of waking up in the new house

on Christmas morning

can still be a reality

even if we aren't actually living in it yet.

And we'll keep plugging away

until one day,

it'll be done enough
that we can move in.

when I saw this tree a month ago, I wanted it for the girls'room; I knew they
would love it! But funds are tight, as we pour everything into the house,
so spending $80 on trees for my kids' rooms (need one for boys, too...)
 wasn't really an option. Still, I thought about those trees a lot,
and really wanted to surprise the kids with them.
Yesterday, while at Walmart, grabbing a few things that I wasn't able to find
the night before, at a different WM, they announced over the loud-speaker that
all display trees were 75% off. I hightailed it back to the garden center, thankful.

a quilt for Corban K

This is my final 

sewing-machine-earner of the year.

It will be a young man's main Christmas gift,

so I'm thankful that I managed to squeeze in a finish

in the nick of time

(hee hee - Nick of time.

Saint Nick.....

bwahaha

oh - never mind.)

I've never been shy about my feelings

when it comes to making t-shirt quilts.

They are 

soooo

 not anywhere 

on my list of favorite things to make.

But

when that is how God chooses to provide me

with an opportunity

to earn money for another sewing machine,

I will gratefully cut up and stabilize the darn shirts

and make them into a quilt,

honored that folks see fit to trust me with their treasures.

I gave my client a generous

 'single moms are super heroes' discount,

because goodness

those gals have my sincere admiration!

I worked really hard to keep the materials cost

as low as possible,

but they still added up to $97.

Even so,

 I earned *almost* enough for 1 1/2 machines

for Rahab's Rope.

When I add that to the money I had left 

from my latest quilt sale,

I'll be able to give 2 😊

Instead of using interfacing,

after deconstructing the t-shirts,

I stabilized them with undiluted liquid starch

after doing a quick search to see if there was any reason 

that shouldn't be done.

After some    ummm    experimentation,

I arrived at a method 

which was ever so much less time consuming

than the way this gal suggests.

I'm very pleased with the results of starch vs interfacing,

though in the future I would 

either triple-starch the thin super soft Old Navy shirts,

or go ahead and actually interface them 

instead of starching,

because they did want to move a bit still.

I spent hours trying to come up with the perfect quilting plan,

and when I saw Leeanne's stars and swirls

I knew I'd found it.

I added treble clefs 

and an occasional music note

to make it even more perfect.

After a bit of practice,
first with pencil and paper
and then the machine,
I loaded my machine (both needle and bobbin)
with Bottom Line #622
and started my workout quilting.

This quilt

was an absolute beast.

(before I had to take off the 2 1/2 inch outer border

(which I did after quilting)

due to some bad jujumagumbo,

it measured 88 x 110)

Because it was so heavy

(6.8 lbs after trimming!)

I couldn't make large movements at all

and had to quilt it twice as densely as I'd planned.

I bound it with this great stripe

which I thought finished things off really nicely.

I sewed it onto the back first, 

then pressed and glue-basted

and stitched it down to the front

by machine.

Thanks, Jessica, for partnering with me

to help change and save lives 💗

and trusting me with your boy's memories.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

popping in

just popping in to say

we are alive,

and ever so busy

living under the delusion

that if we work reaaaally hard

we might move in 

to the new house

by Christmas.

(and simultaneously finish 3 major quilting projects,

(2 of them commissioned)

and start and finish a 4th)

It could happen.