And I have made progress! Though I’m not sure if you can see it.
The next photo was the best I could do to capture the texture.
I’m about 70% done at this point. I’d forgotten how fast it goes when doing this type of utility quilting. The thread is actually ecru, but I tweaked the photo so the stitches would show and now the thread looks very dark.
See that unquilted bit in the middle? That is all I have left!
Maybe next Sunday, I’ll be working on the binding.
In case you were wondering what the black spot is, it’s a shoe.
I gave my Valentine away and had a great time doing it!
I got up early and went to a park. I took my coffee to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful!
I took my quilt with me and hung it in a tree. I attached a note saying that anyone that found it was welcome to take it. I was inspired to do this by Luke Haynes’ affirmation quilts.
You can barely see my quilt from across the lake.
A guy came along and started fishing in front of it.
I enjoyed my park time and left. A few hours later, I had errands to run and decided to drive by and see if it was still there. It was. But just as I pulled into the parking lot, I saw this.
The quality of this photo is really bad. I was in the truck quite far away and zoomed and cropped a lot. Because of that, I’m okay with posting a photo of people I don’t know.
Please don’t leave comments saying I’m a nice person. It was great fun to share in this way, but if I were a really nice person, I wouldn’t have shared my deed with the world!
This was really fun. I hope this family enjoys it. They made my day!
Before I get into today’s post, I wanted to let you know that I will be at QuiltCon today with my friend, Zenia, from A Quilted Passion, she’s the cute one on the left.
If you are there today and see us, please say hello! I’ll be carrying this bag, a gift from my lovely daughters.
Now, onto today’s post!
This is another throwback finish from 7 years ago. I can’t believe it has been that long. I still love this little quilt made back then. The kindness of quilters never ceases to amaze me. Enjoy this post from February 2015. Have a great day!
I finished the binding and took a few photos of this tiny tumbler quilt just before getting on the plane last week. I love how it turned out!
Since I had the big 30s Carpenter Star quilt loaded on the frame, I quilted this on my domestic machine. Boy, am I out of practice!
A sweet friend cut these tumblers from her stash and sent them to me. She also sent me this lovely print that I used for the border! I am keeping this little quilt.
Here is a shot at the back.
Looking forward to another lovely day here in Arizona! My time here is flying by all too fast. Happy Day, everyone!
My friend, Kelly, visited recently and told me about a rope bowl class she took. It reminded me of an idea I wanted to try out. I purchased this cotton clothesline rope for it.
I’m no expert here and there are lots of classes and videos you can find to show you how. But this is how I did it. I started by creating a small coil and using long pins to hold it together.
Please excuse this pitiful diagram. I start stitching with a wide zig zag where the red arrow is pointing. I go back and forth over this a few times. Then I zig zag in a spiral, keeping the little well between two sides of the rope centered under my walking foot.
In the next photo, you can see the needle down to the right. Always put your needle down on this side, if you lift the presser foot to adjust.
It is a bit awkward at first, but it gets easier as you go.
I cut my rope at and angle and zigzagged over it at the end.
It took a while to decide how to lay these out to create a table runner.
Once I did, I zig zagged the pieces together. I feel like I need more small pieces, but I’m out of rope. I suppose I could add more later.
I’m in the market for a new leader/ender project. I picked up this gorgeous piece of fabric a while back and thought it might be the perfect constant for another scrappy quilt.
Remember this full bin of 2 1/2 inch squares? That last little project didn’t put a dent in it.
I grabbed this die to cut up some of the blue.
Here is my test block. I quite like this.
I’m in a bit of a quandary though. I realized when I cut these squares that this background fabric is 60 inches wide. I have over two yards of it. It would make a perfect quilt back, so maybe I should save it for that.
What would you do?
Have a great day!
PS I almost forgot! Click here to register for this week’s AccuQuilt Live! You don’t want to miss out on the fun prizes!
I made this little quilt quite a few years ago now, but those that have seen it seem to really enjoy it. So I thought I’d make and share a new version today, along with a quick tutorial so you can make your own. It’s my little Valentine to all of my dear readers.
You will need about 2/3 of a yard of background fabric and 24 – 2 1/2” squares (A) in any colors you want.
Cut your background fabric into 8 – 2 1/2 by WOF strips.
Subcut your background strips as follows. I recommend cutting the longest pieces first.
B Cut 6 – 2 1/2 inch squares
C Cut 5 – 2 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches
D Cut 4 – 2 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches
E Cut 2 – 2 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches
F Cut 4 – 2 1/2 by 10 1/2 inches
G Cut 5 – 2 1/2 by 12 1/2 inches
Lay out your colored squares as shown below.
Then place background pieces in their positions as follows.
Sew pieces into columns. Press seams in each column in opposite directions. Next, sew your columns together.
Cut side borders 2 1/2 by 20 1/2 inches and add to each side. Cut top and bottom borders 2 1/2 by 26 1/2 inches and add to top and bottom. Press seams toward the borders.
Quilt as desired! And come back on Friday to see my finished Valentine. If you make a quilt using this little tutorial, please post on Instagram and tag me in your post (@katyquilts).
I was feeling rather unsettled about some things last week. After running some errands, I headed toward the mountains. Turns out that was just what I needed.
It’s a place where I can listen and learn.
The beauty is unmistakable, thorns and all.
It is a place of resilience.
It is ancient.
There is life and death, and beauty in both.
I hope today that you will be able to find a place that restores your soul. A place where you can listen and hear the whisper of God.
My little map quilt is done and I’ve decided to call it Road Trip.
See that little Jeep all loaded up and driving from Michigan to Arizona? I probably should have pointed it the other way, since we will head back before long.
I originally planned to quilt this with straight lines, but grabbed this pantograph instead. Since everything I do is hand guided, this is far from perfect.
It gives great texture, but it isn’t easy to get it right and every wobble shows.
I was glad I tried it out on a very small quilt! This is 22 by 28 inches.
And what does this have to do with anything? I like to take photos in the corner of my backyard. Our neighbor has a lemon tree and she said we can have all the lemons we can reach. I just noticed they are almost ready!
You can see a wee bit of our lime tree below. It’s pretty small yet, but it has a bit of fruit starting.
KatyQuilts 