KatyQuilts

Craft Night ~ String Art

Posted on March 14, 2018 by katyquilts

Our first craft night was a great success! Not everyone finished, but we all had loads of fun. And we will get together again to finish. Here is a quick tutorial on string art for a crowd. First I cut and stained the boards ahead of time.

We added these hangers on the back before doing anything to the front.

Next I taped a simple line drawing to the front of my board and pounded nails in along the lines. 3/4 inch bright nails worked well.

The nails make your hands dirty so there is plenty of hand washing.

After all the nails are in, tear away the paper.

Then use some crochet thread to randomly wrap around the nails. I wanted my design fairly well filled in so I went over it quite a few times.

It is off center on purpose, I plan to add some lettering. Here are some of the other projects worked on last nigh.

The project was fun, but the best part was hearing the laughter and talk among young moms that needed a night out. I can’t wait until the next craft night! Have a great day!

Posted in Crafty Things, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

New Toy Tuesday

Posted on March 13, 2018 by katyquilts

I recently got a new toy. I purchased this camera, a Canon 60D, from Daughter #3 when she upgraded.

I have a lot to learn, but I’ve been having fun playing with it! The grand dogs are great models.

I’m hosting a craft night for a bunch of women from my church tonight. Tomorrow I’ll share our project with you.

Have a great day!

Posted in Photography | 7 Comments

DWMonday ~ Puss in the Corner

Posted on March 12, 2018 by katyquilts

One of my goals for this month was to make progress on this quilt. The blocks were made as a leader/ender project.

There isn’t much actual design work here. I’m going to piece the top in four large sections and then put those together. I’m not spending a lot of time rearranging. Each block finishes at 6 inches. The corner blocks were cut 2 inches. The center square was cut at 3 1/2 inches and the side rectangles were cut 2 by 3 1/2 inches.

I did take care with pressing in the block construction phase. Each one was pressed like this.

Doing this meant that I could rotate the blocks so that the seams always nest. Like this.

It is a simple matter to get the blocks to nest row to row as well.

It’s always amazing how much the top shrinks up when sewing blocks together!

I have a busy week ahead, but I hope to get all the blocks together and decide on borders.

Now, I have a shameless favor to ask. Hobbs Batting is giving away a roll of batting for the photo with the most likes on Instagram. I go through a lot of batting making Quilts of Valor so I would love to win this! My Instagram user name is KatyQuilts. If you would care to take a minute and “like” this photo, I would so appreciate it!

Thanks! And have a great day!

Posted in Leader/Ender, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Slow Stitching Sunday ~ The Pink Quilt

Posted on March 11, 2018 by katyquilts

And so it begins! This is a good size quilt, over 82 inches square. My plan is to quilt one fan per day.

Yes, big Baptist Fans again. I am using my stencil from Fun with Barb.

The big difference this time is the batting. I ordered some Quilter’s Dream 100% Cotton batting in the lowest loft. I put unbleached muslin on the back.

It really is a dream! I don’t think I’ll use anything else for hand quilting. It is so much easier to needle. My hands appreciate it!

Have a great day!

Posted in Hand quilting, Uncategorized, Vintage Quilts | 5 Comments

Little Star Finish

Posted on March 10, 2018 by katyquilts

I’ve finished making a little quilt out of this vintage star block.

I kept the quilting simple with a cross hatch.

I love that it looks so primitive. My wonky hand quilting fits right in!

I added it to my wall of red, white, and blue minis.

Have a great day!

Posted in Doll Quilts, Finishes, Uncategorized | 19 Comments

My New Helper and a Finish

Posted on March 9, 2018 by katyquilts

Big E was over the other day and I decided to start training him to be my assistant. Isn’t he just the cutest three year old?

He’s holding my little bow tie quilt before I washed it. See that rust stain towards the bottom? I wanted to try to remove that.

When it was time to take photos of the back, E decided he was more interested in the quilt than in taking photos. Smart little man!

I just can’t get enough of this sweet boy! Anyway, here are photos after washing. The stain isn’t completely gone, but it is much better. I used Restoration by Engleside Industries and a bit of Dawn dish detergent and washed it in the sink.

This vintage backing seems a couple decades newer than the top, but I’m glad to have found a place for this funky piece of vintage fabric.

It’s perfect on my little doll bed.

You can’t always square up vintage tops and this is no exception. I’m totally fine with these little quirks.

I had never really planned to finish this little bit of vintage patchwork, but I’m glad I did. It was a quick, fun little hand project.

Have a great day!

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict , Busy Hands Quilts , Crazy Mom Quilts ,

Posted in Doll Quilts, Hand quilting, Uncategorized, Vintage Fabrics, Vintage Quilts | 17 Comments

Antique Quilts

Posted on March 8, 2018 by katyquilts

I found some fun quilts and tops at an antique mall last weekend.

It isn’t always possible to get full shots of quilts in stores. I don’t like to move them much if I am not really interested in buying.

I loved this top, but sadly it had been washed in a washing machine. This is not a good idea for an unquilted top.

This tied crazy quilt was unbelievably thick! I’ve never seen one so thick before. It had just the one basket block in the middle.

This top was very tempting to me. This photo shows just a quarter of it.

The stars had been applied with a machine straight stitch and then buttonholed by hand. I’m still thinking about this one!

I also saw this sweet little purple toy machine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this color before. I left that there too!

Have a great day!

Posted in Uncategorized, Vintage Quilts | 9 Comments

WIP Wednesday

Posted on March 7, 2018 by katyquilts

I feel like I’ve been moving from project to project this week. I finished these four blocks from the pieces I had found. I think I will just add them to the box of orphan blocks for now. Someday I’ll put them all together into a random sampler of sorts.

I worked on some repairs to this old top and got it basted for hand quilting.

And I made ten more of these blocks. I’m up to 30 now. They finish at five inches. I still don’t have a plan for them, but they think I will cut some more out tomorrow.

It has t been all quilting around here. Daughter #1 and I took the littles to the dinosaur exhibit at a local museum. They loved it! We had a great day!

Hope you all have a great day too!

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Scrappy Trips and Diamonds Progress

Posted on March 6, 2018 by katyquilts

Thanks for all of your thoughts regarding my diamond quilt top yesterday. Hubby is out of town so that means staying up late and sewing! I managed to finish this top late last night. This photo shows my background choice.

I can’t wait to get this top on the frame. But I have to finish my Scrappy Trips first.

This is the panto I’m using. It is from Urban Elementz . My machine has an 18 inch throat and this panto is a bit too big. It can be done, but it takes a bit of finagling. I wouldn’t use it on a quilt any bigger than twin size. I need to remember that I’m much happier with pantos 12 inches and less with my machine.