Progress Journal
Go back to Heartland Quilting
Journal Front Page Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Archive 2
This is where you can read about my daily quilting progress. I plan on
updating it every night before I hit the hay but I may also update it during the day occassionally. This is a pretty plain page but I hope the ladies I'm quilting
for will find it a useful aid in monitoring the progress of their quilts.
First Entry, September 5, 2001 11:00 pm CDT
Things are finally getting on track. The kids are back in school and soon my Kindergartner will
be going to school every day. Things this summer worked out in such a way that I'm doing two quilts
at the same time which is something I'm not very good at doing. Today I have finally gotten an equal
number of blocks completed on both quilts and will try to do an equal number of blocks each day. This
isn't a very accurate way to gauge the progress however. One quilt has a lot more blocks of smaller size
than the other, one is a tad more time consuming and both quilt very differently. But I feel like I'm being more organized and 'fair' if I do
and equal number of blocks on each quilt.
So here is the tally to date:
Starry Path has a total of 81 blocks plus outside borders. I have completed 14 blocks from the center to the edge as well as the
border adjacent to the completed blocks. This leaves me 67 blocks plus the adjacent borders to complete.
Nine Patch and Hourglass has a total 256 blocks plus outside borders. I have completed 14 blocks from the center and am almost to
the first of 3 outside borders. This leaves me with 242 blocks plus the adjacent borders.
September 6, 2001 11:32pm CDT
6 blocks each done. Total of 20 blocks completed leaving 61 blocks for Starry Path and 236 for Nine Patch and Hourglass. Tommorrow is going to be a
house cleaning [YUCK!] and finger tip healing day. My finger tips are toast. I'm awful rough on my finger tips but I can't get the hang of using anything to protect my under
the quilt fingers. I'm now down to my ring finger so it's time to let my index and middle finger get callused over again. Might be able to do some more light quilting Sat.
eveing and will definately start in again on Sunday.
September 9, 2001 2:54am CDT
Whooo Hooo today is a VERY early morning! I've had about 2 hours of sleep and it's only bound to get worse. The good news is my fingers are almost healed up.
The bad news? Well it isn't devastating so that I guess it's good bad news. The down side to school starting is that all the bugs going around keep getting passed around. Friday morning at about 3:30am my 7
yr old son woke me up and told my Deshia had the flu. Poor little thing. I was sure she ate to much corn on the cob and just got a bad tummy ache but my mom told me later on that the flu was going around. She
woke up Fri. morning pale as a ghost and tried to convince me she was ok to go to school. She ended up crying herself to sleep when I told her she had to stay home. What a bummer when the little ones are so anxious
to go! About 1:30am this morning my 7 yr old son Austin once again came to wake me up and this time he's the one who's sick! He's sleeping a little bit now. I don't know which is worse - when all 4 are sick at the
same time or when they are picked off one by one. We had a pretty good year last year and skipped this stuff so I guess it's our turn. If things keep going at the rate they are I figure the kids should have all had
this by Tues. or Wed. I'm going to have some pretty disappointed pups if they aren't over it by Tues. Soccer practice begins that day and today I got the shin gaurds. Hopefully, Daddy and I won't get it. Dad usually does but sometimes I'm able to get around it. Besides momma's know how it goes, they don't have time to get sick and if they do they still have to
work! Well since I still haven't gotten my house clean I reckon now is about as good of time as any. If you're the praying type pray for the kids to make a speedy recovery and that having it once is enough! They'd appreciate it. I'll post more later on.
September 10, 2001 10:00pm CDT
Back again, I'm getting slow on the draw here. Well we had a good night last night and didn't have anyone praying to the porcelain 'god'. Austin was feeling better and was ornery enough that he went with Daddy and the other kids to work in the shop yesterday afternoon. Mom was a bum and slept all afternoon. I woke up in time to throw a roast in the oven and slap together some
supper. I didn't accomplish a thing yesterday. I played catch up today and cleaned out some of the out grown clothes. I finally got my 'clean' pile of clothes folded and put away. Jacob (my second to the oldest) came home from school and had to have a breathing treatment. He's got a cough and his chest was hurting. Dad has asthma and the two oldest boys are somewhat ashmatic. Jake's Dr.
perscribed him a Nebulizer when he was a baby. None of the oldest boys have inhalers but they have to have treatments every now and again when they get colds. I'm knocking on wood that no one gets sick tonight and plan on doing the 'work' I like best...kicking back in the chair with a quilt on my lap. I'm sorry things are off track again but hopefully things will go more smoothly now.
September 11, 2001 11:42pm CDT
What an AWFUL day! A horrible loss of life and for what?! Hate period. God help us all. ~shaking my head~ My heart goes out to all those whose lives were viciously snatched from them. I can't even begin to imagine the pain their families must feel. Today the time I could concentrate on quilting was spent on the 9 Patch & Hourglass. I was worried about the lady who made it as I feared she was to close to one of the attacks. Although she was within ear shot of one of them she is safe and sound. I'm ashamed to admit that I only completed 4 blocks. I have 3 more to do and I'm at the border. I pray everyone has a safe night and safe tomorrow and that our country will triumph over the devastation we saw today.
PSALM 121
God is our keeper
I will lift up my eyes to the hills-
From whence comes my help?
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neiher slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
The LORD shall preserve your going
out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.
September 12, 2001 11:00pm CDT
Short & sweet tonight. Had to go to Bow this am to pick up beef at the locker. 9 Patch 3 blocks 1st outside border adjacent to 3 row block completed. Started echo quilting on applique border. Starry Path 2 1/2 blocks completed. I'm almost done with 1/4th corner of the quilt so I am leaving the border undone on one side. This isn't explained well. Visualize the quilt divided into 1/4ths. right now I'm working on the last 2 rows of the first 1/4th with the border being done on the bottom first. When I get the adjacent border to the bottom blocks done I will do the border on the side. This is to insure that the feather motif will turn the corner correctly.
September 13, 2001 10:53pm CDT
Got 2 blocks on Starry Path completed and starting on borders. A little Echo Quilting on 9 patch. Hubby got the jeep fixed so I had to go check the wells & cows today and the kids had soccer practice.
September 13, 2001 2:00am CDT
Had a fever all day and slept some this afternoon. Worked on Starry Path Borders off and on stayed up late to try and make up for snoozing but didn't make as much progress as I'd like. Tomorrow we have to go to Grand Island for our niece's (post) wedding reception. They were married in July but the wedding was in Oklahoma so we didn't get to go. Her in-laws live in G.I. so they are throwing a reception for the relatives here in NE. It's a nice idea but since I'm feeling lousy I'd rather stay home :0( Next week I'm doing things a little different in hopes I'll get more done. Bouncing back in forth betwixt quilts each day isn't working for me so I'm going to work on one quilt every other day.
September 18, 2001 1:30am CDT
On Sunday I worked on Starry Path and have almost completed the corner border. Today (well I guess now it's yesterday) I worked on 9 patch & hourglass. I have finished the echo quilting & last outside border. I ended up ripping out what I had started because I didn't like it. I was following the old 'rule of thumb' for echo quilting and was quilting about a finger width apart. That didn't suit the border well as it was spaced to far apart. I think it looks much better now with the quilting lines closer together. Picture update will be sent soon. My little brother has my digital camera right now. Today I will be working on Starry Path.
September 18, 2001 10:39pm CDT
I'm FINALLY catching up knock on wood! I'm 1/4th done with Starry Path and only have 3/4th's left! I'm going to post the a link to pictures of the borders to both Starry Path & 9 Patch here. It finally dawned on me today that I could still send picture updates without my camera. Use the scanner - DUH! We'll blame it on staying up to late last night lol. The 9 Patch Scans I could resize to a decent size but Starry Path I had to leave as HUGE image files because the quilting lines don't show up very good against the fabric. To save on e-mail download time I decided to post them here. It will probably take quite a while for the page to load so you'll have to be patient. Take a Peek. Well I'm gonna crash early tonight.
September 19, 2001 11:00pm CDT
Quilted 2 blocks on 9 Patch & Hourglass. The mud dried up enough for me to put around the pasture to check the wells & cows today. Whittled away at the mountain of laundry - it's not quite as large now that missy is in school as she's not changing clothes 100 x's/day! I also updated my Electric Quilt Page with a new project file from a lady in TX. Tomorrow I'll have to do a little house cleaning in the kids room. Been nagging for a week now and they haven't done anything.
September 21, 2001 10:15pm CDT
Last 2 days were a bust ended up having to run errands in Kearney & Bow both days. Barring any more unexpected road trips I'm planning on quilting tomorrow.
September 22, 2001 12:00am CDT
Completed 4 blocks on Starry Path. Tomorrow Hubby has me working outside cleaning in the yard & garden. He's mowing with the tractor and I'm picking up hoses and corn stalks. Oh joy!
September 23, 2001 10:00pm CDT
Good Grief, I've had the dates messed up on this page more than once. I've either got to quit writing when I'm tired or it's a sign I'm getting senile! Any way I think I know what day it is now lol. 3 1/2 blocks completed on 9 Patch. Interesting day. Got the lawn mower fixed and the weed patch mowed for the last time. My oldest son got the loader stuck in the manure pile while filling the manure spreader. Daddy was over at the cemetery trimming the graves. Brett & I tried to get the blessed thing unstuck with out any luck so we shut her down for the night. When Daddy got home he had me watch so I'd know how to do it next time. Wouldn't ya know it? It only took him about 2 seconds to get out. I tried to dump the loader and lift the farmhand up but would the down lever work for me? Nooo of course not! But isn't that the way it goes?
September 25, 2001 10:24pm CDT
Well I forgot to post last night, Sorry about that. I got 3 blocks on Starry Path done yesterday. I need to post the tally as I'm losing track. This leaves 50 blocks left for Starry Path + it's borders I'm getting closer to being 1/2 done. Today I got 3 blocks done on the 9 patch which leaves 221 blocks + borders. I'm going to have to start giving more attention to Starry Path for a week or two as I'm getting down to the wire. It's been getting colder had some frost the other morning. So I'm getting things ready for winter. Tomorrow I have to dig the potatoes, carrots and start hauling the watermelon & squash to the house. Then all I have left is to take the air conditioners out. Gonna hold off on that for a day or two though as they say it will still get warm in the afternoons.
September 27, 2001 10:02pm CDT
Got everything from garden hauled to the house on the 26th. Had to go to Kearney this am for a Dr. appointment (routine appoint. I'm not sick) I almost forgot about and kids had soccer this afternoon. 3 blocks on Starry Path Completed. 47 blocks left to go. Saturday the kids have their first games. It will be a half day type deal as we have to leave @ 8:45am and the kids each play at different times then they are having a picnic afterwards.
September 28, 2001 12:07am CDT
4 blocks on Starry Path done. Tomorrow soccer game all morning well at least I don't have to cook dinner. Brett's hauling the 'smell' of money to the field's in the afternoon. Daddy and the other kidlets will be fixing fence. Hopefully I'll get some stitches in before slinging hash for supper.
September 30, 2001 11:10pm CDT
I gave 9 patch some attention today and got 4 blocks completed. It will be a little neglected here for a while as I'm so I can get Starry Path done before the 1st of Nov. and then be able to give 9 Patch my undivided attention.
Well the soccer games turned out pretty well. Litchfield's K-1 won their game. It was so cute there were almost more kids than field! The other teams lost but they have really improved since last year. Went to Kearney yesterday and got a ZipCD so I can backup alot of files and make room on the hard drive. It took awhile but I got the hardware installed. My power switch for the computer has been 'touchy' for awhile so when I finally got the new drive in the computer didn't want to turn on. This am had hubby check to see if the power switch was getting juice & it was. So he thought the switch just wore out. I put it all back together and hit the button 1 last time and we had tone. BUT I'm not sure how long it will keep working. If this page isn't updated for several days in a row it will probably mean my computer is in for repairs.
October 1, 2001 7:20pm CDT
No quilting done today. Am down with a sinus thing(?). Bad headache, puffy eyes and stiff neck. Crud is going around now. Had to do some errands in Bow so I got some Sinus Med. Hope to be feeling better tomorrow.
October 4, 2001 12:00am CDT
Lousy last few days. I'm feeling better though and got 2 blocks done on Starry Path. Today was pretty much a complete wash. The blessed cows had the pipe running from the WindMill pushed up so the water wouldn't fill the tank. I had to go fixing. After
a few choice words, scrounging for the right size of wire, a foot on the pipe and my mouth held right I got it down far enough so the water would run in the tank. Had to do some cleaning because the Life Insurance Agent was coming tonight. If that
wasn't aggravation enough the school called at noon and told me my 2nd grader got sick at school. Right now I'm getting ready to pull an all night quilting session to get caught up. Will post how much I got done later in the day.
3:34am 3 blocks completed. I'm gonna crash before everyone has to get up for work & school.
October 6, 2001 12:37am CDT
Skipped another day of posting sorry about that. Well as far as blocks go I'm half done with Starry Path. I'll be getting the borders done on that 1/2 which leaves me with 36 blocks and their borders. I'm going to finish Starry Path then get serious about 9 patch.
October 7, 2001 9:14pm CDT
Still working on Starry Path Border
October 8, 2001 11:16pm CDT
Well I think I'm getting senile. It took me 8 days to realize that I didn't upload
the previous journal pages with the links to this page! I uploaded them this morning so if you've been
wondering if I fell off the face of the earth, the answer is no. I've just been operating in dingbat mode!
I'm still trying to finish up the border on the first half of starry path. I feel horrible I've been neglecting
the 9 patch but I'm getting down to the wire on Starry. Tomorrow I've got some running to do so I'm not sure how
much I'll get done.
October 10th, 2001 11:40pm CDT
I'm now half done with Starry Path and got 1 block done. Might have to go to Kearney tomorrow morning. It's still up in the air. Kids get out early Friday so I might need more food.
October 12th, 2001 10:07pm CDT
Had errands yesterday so I only got 1 and 1/2 block done. Raining today and kids were home early to drive me even more battty. 2 blocks done so far this eve. Posting now so I don't forget and going to work some more tonight. We have the last soccer game tomorrow weather permitting.
October 14th, 2001 10:13pm CDT
Well soccer is finally over! I'm glad we about froze standing there watching the game and it finally started to warm up when it was over. I lost count of the number of blocks I did yesterday and today but I only have 28 to go on Starry Path. I have to go to Bow tommorrow so I won't quilt until
I get home in the afternoon.
October 15th, 2001 9:43pm CDT
Got home late from Bow and didn't get much done. 1 block completed. Will be home all day tomorrow and have to make a short jaunt to check the wells after the kids get home from school.
October 17th, 10:33pm CDT
On the 16th I got 3 blocks done leaving me with 25 to go. I've gotten 2 done today but my worn spots on my fingers got to bleeding - didn't get any on the Quilt so it's a ok. I'm going to have to Super Glue my finger tips and give them a day to heal. Kids have the day off tomorrow because of a Teacher in-service. Oh yippee!
October 19th, 11:24pm CDT
Today was a wash. Got a little bit of quilting done but not enough to amount to much. One of the horses died last night. Poor thing he was 20+yrs old. He has been sick with cancer for quite awhile and was pretty blind. Had to go get Brett's replacement frames for his glasses. I got more running around done than anything.
October 21, 2001 9:05pm CDT
Short & sweet tonight. Things have been pretty hectic seems like when 1 thing goes wrong everything else pretty much goes to hades. I have 17 blocks left & the border on Starry Path. I might go to my 2nd cousin's funeral this Tuesday. He passed away Friday night. I'll have to
see how things go so I may be home to quilt that morning if things don't go well tomorrow.
October 23, 2001 9:10pm CDT
12 blocks to go + border. Have to do some running tomorrow for the ranch so I probably won't get any quilting done.
October 26, 2001 10:27pm CDT
6 blocks left + border. Sorry I haven't posted we're getting ready to bring the cows home for winter. Working Cows tomorrow. Am working on quilt more tonight after posting. I may not get anything posted until Monday night. Working cattle this weekend so things are going to be hectic.
October 28, 2001 9:04pm CDT
Well got the cows worked & moved this weekend so now I don't think I'll have to mess with them until it's time
to start breaking ice every day. When I get done quilting this eve. I'll have 3 blocks + borders left.
October 30, 2001 8:00pm CDT
Finished blocks and am now working on the 2nd half of the border. I concentrated on the blocks instead of doing the border as I got to it like I did with the first half. I'm getting really close to being done. Still working tonight just wanted to post before I forgot again. Border goes a bit faster than blocks but I am having to remark the feather as the white chalk has worn off in spots. I marked
the whole border before starting to quilt to make for sure it would turn the corners.
November 2, 2001 8:06am CDT
Still working on borders. Had to do ranch business last 2 days. Shooting for Monday shipment then can start catching up on 9 Patch.
November 8, 2001 9:37am CDT
I am getting sooo depressed! It seems like nothing is going right. I shot for Monday and missed. I have about 64 inches left to finish on the border of Starry Path and now I've got to rip out 30 inches to start the last stretch of border
over. I hit a wave in wide outside border that is being a stubborn buger and refuses to ease out. So I'm going to have to try starting over to come at it from a different direction. Will try to post this eveing.
November 8, 2001 5:40pm CDT
Ok here's the scoop. I 'think' I've got her about as eased as she's gonna get. What happened was that I had 1/2 of the last piece of border done and ended up with about a 1 inch pucker. That aint a good deal. Borders especially wide ones can always be a royal pain sometimes. Wide borders are kind of like my waist - it started somewhat narrow at the top then it decides to start widening out towards the bottom! Add quilting in a hoop and it can really be fun.
What I've done is to rip out what I had quilted on that border and the end of the other 2 sides that connect to this one. Then I put it back in my Q-Snap frame to try to even out the ripples. I then tried to smooth it out then saftey pinned &
thread basted. Tonight as I begin I'm going to work from the middle out to the one corner that has the biggest problem. If I end up with another big pucker I've got a plan B. More later.
November 9, 2001 6:45pm CDT
Ahhhh, things are working a little bit better today. There's still going to be some "poofy" spots but I think I've got her set so that big ole pleat doesn't rear it's ugly head. I'll tell ya I just about totally panicked when that happened! I'll post a picture when I get to the corner. Had rugrats underfoot today teachers had a workshop or something and K-6th didn't have school. Hope to post more later tonight or in the morning.
November 9, 2001 11:45pm CDT
Let me preface this entry with, "The quilt is still doing ok". Why is it when things start looking up and going smoothly a little gremlin has to throw a monkey wrench in the works??? I should have knocked on wood in the other post right after I said things were working better today! My 2nd to the oldest has just done 1 round with the stomache flu! Sigh, but on the bright side in a few minutes I'll be able to say, "tomorrow is another day". After all my 3rd & 4th kidlets have already had this once! Now it's 3 down 1 to go provided the other 2 don't decide to join in the fun - EEEEEK!
Hope to have a picture later in the morning. Talk To Ya'll a little bit later!
November 10, 2001 12:00am CDT
Ok I'm seriously late again. Here are the pictures as promised. The one photo shows where I encountered the big pucker. It's still puckered along
the edge but very carefully easing the binding on that spot may reduce it somewhat and keep it a little more hidden. While it's still rough looking and pucker poofy, there isn't an inch wide vertical pleat there anymore. The corner shot blurred and there isn't as many poofy puckers there. I was worried there would be and that I'd have to
make a pleat into the mitered seam. But thankfully I didn't have to. I was about ready to sweat bullets. More later.
November 12, 2001 4:10am CDT
IT'S DONE! Starry Path is done! Almost had a little trouble with the last corner but after I ripped some more out and did some easing I got by without having to use plan B and the one spot I've shown you is the only most obvious spot of trouble. I'll have to take pictures tomorrow with it on my clothes line as it's so heavy it won't stay in my quilt hangers. Tomorrow the kids have a Veterans Day program at 10:30am and I'll have to check to see if the place where they have the UPS Drop off is open tomorrow so I can send this baby home. Will e-mail the quilts owner tomorrow with details.
Sorry it took so long to get posted. Had to go take pictures at the concert my little brother put on. He and some of his classmates have started a Christian Band Star7Music and they love to have our cousin Luke Mills' band ATO (After The Order) come play.
Tonight Rylie and his band opened for ATO. I was supposed to take pictures but mom needed help getting ice so I went with her. By the time we got back they were done so I've still never heard Rylie sing or play :0( Here's 1 picture it didn't turn out as good as we thought so now he'll probably be twice as disappointed!
Well I'm going to get some Z's before I have to wake everyone up.