KatyQuilts

You might wonder why I use this blue so often in my quilts. There is a story….

Not long after we arrived in Arizona, our first winter here, I was perusing the online ads. I found a lady selling four bolts of fabric. Three were parchment color and one was this aqua color. I hadn’t used much of this color before.

But since I had a bolt of it, I’ve reached for it again and again.

I will feel quite sad when it is all gone.

It has come in so handy and added a lot of life to quilts that may have gotten boring backgrounds otherwise.

I think when it’s gone, I will buy another bolt of a different solid color.

Have a great day!

Where were we? Oh, yes, at the design wall.

These weren’t working for me. So I made MORE blocks and sorted again.

Yep, I figured it out.

Should be done soon. Have a great day!

The quilting is finally finished.

Today I hope to get the binding done and give this a good soak.

I won’t share the finish for a while yet. This little bit is for the Humble Quilts swap. I’ll share the finish after my partner receives it.

Have a great day!

Have you seen the Instagram reels where someone puts paint drops on a page and uses a squeegee to make beautiful art? Click here to see what I mean.

I had to try it. So I purchased some supplies. I didn’t have a squeegee, but I figured a piece of cardboard would work.

I added my squiggles and dots….

And voila!

Epic fail. 🤣🤣🤣

I hope your day is more success than my artwork. 😂

I’m sure those of you that comment have noticed that I’ve been terrible at responding of late. Life has been crazy. Mr. Wonderful spent the first two weeks of April in Arizona with me and we flew back to Michigan last weekend. Between enjoying time with him, getting ready to go, and trying to get my bearings back up north, responding has fallen to the bottom of the list.

The pups were great little travelers!

I’ll try today to remedy that by answering questions here on the blog.

Stretcher blankets. They are just what they sound like, used for ambulance/hospital stretchers. None of those I purchased at Goodwill appear to have been used, one was new in the package. I did wash all before using! I’m considering buying a few for my design wall in Michigan.

The giant baby. I really don’t know the story behind this. It doesn’t advertise anything. They are large cut outs along the highway. The giant baby has freaked out the farmer by using his tractor as a toy. The mother appears to be saying, “Not again! Give it back!” I love the whimsy of it!

Straight line quilting. I quilted this on my long arm using a channel lock.

Farmers Wife. Some of you suggested extending the design into the border. Great idea! That is my plan now! And I’ve decided to emphasize the squares on point rather than the Ohio Stars. I was asked why I chose these fabrics for the alternate blocks. I think they have good contrast with each other, but they don’t grab attention away from the pieced blocks.

So sorry for the lack of individual responses. It’s going to take a while to get back into a routine here. I left my sewing room here in quite the mess!

I scheduled many blog posts ahead, so it will look like I’m still in AZ for a bit. Hard to believe I went from this:

To this:

I won’t mention the snow flurries we’ve had here. Ugh.

Have a great day!

One of my grandsons is obsessed with the alphabet. He is autistic and incredibly bright. He began reciting the alphabet before he was a year old and was reading by age 2!

For his birthday this summer, I’m making him an ABC quilt. I’m using the AccuQuilt GO! Carefree Alphabet die. There are free embroidery designs on their site that can be downloaded.

That meant I needed to get all the blocks done before leaving AZ, since my embroidery machine lives there.

I’m no expert on machine embroidery. I like to use Sulky Self Adhesive Tear Away stabilizer. It might not be the best for this project. After finishing one letter, I cut a piece of stabilizer to cover the hole and do the next letter. I replace the base layer from time to time. Beware, this is a quick and dirty method and your mileage may vary.

After placing fabric in the hoop, the design stitches an outline so you know where to place the die cut letter. Note: I put fusible web on the back of the fabric before cutting the letters out.

I like this little clover iron for fusing the letters down.

Then it goes back in the machine for the satin stitch.

Far from perfect, but I can live with this.

Do you have an AccuQuilt Studio Cutter? Do you want one? If so, check out these deals!

Have a great day!

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I picked up a bin of fabric at a sale recently and found this in it.

I think this is the start of a One Block Wonder quilt? I’m not sure. I never would have bought this fabric, but it’s an idea I’ve played with before. This is what a single block looks like.

This is the fabric before cutting.

And here are the blocks on the wall.

I decided I needed to sort them a bit and I made a few more while I was at it.

I think there is some potential here.

Have a great day!