KatyQuilts

Progress

Posted on September 14, 2017 by katyquilts

I finished quilting my batik rectangles quilt and I’m on to the binding stage.

I decided to bind this practice piece to make a table runner.

And I haven’t forgotten my leader/ended project. I’m up to 117 of these 6 inch blocks.

I started my 4 patches for the Humble Quilts QAL.

I needed 2 inch cut squares. There is more waste than I would like using a charm pack for this, but it did save me a lot of time.

This is the die I used. It took me about 2 minutes to accurately cut 168 2 inch squares. For me, that makes that amount of waste totally worth it.

You can find all the current Accuquilt deals here. They also have new free patterns available here. I do make a small commission on any purchases made through links on my blog.

Have a great day!

Posted in Accuquilt, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

This and That Wednesday

Posted on September 13, 2017 by katyquilts

I’ve been flitting from one thing to another this week. I finally have this on the frame.

Before I loaded that, I had some leftover backing on the frame and decided to play with some free motion ideas.

I used this Fantastico variegated thread from Superior Threads.

Since this piece is long and narrow, I suppose it could become a table runner.

Also, have you heard that Lori at Humble Quilts has just started another of her famous quilt alongs? I usually go scrappy for these. But I’m thinking about using this charm pack with a couple added fat quarters this time.

Time to get to work!

Have a great day!

Binding on the Long Arm

Posted on September 12, 2017 by katyquilts

I’m nearing the finish line for my log cabin quilt. I know of several long armers that add the binding to the quilt before removing it from the frame. I decided I would give it a try with this quilt.

I placed the binding with the cut edge lined up with the edge of the quilt. The edge of the foot on my long arm is one quarter inch from the needle so I line the edge of the foot up with the cut edge of the binding. I started out using a ruler to keep the seam line straight.

Even with that I had some wobbles.

At the corners, I sewed off the corner just like I do on my domestic machine. Instead of cutting the thread, I “park” the machine just out of the way.

Then I fold my corners as usual and start sewing from the edge. You can see the stitches where I moved the machine. This will all get trimmed away.

When I got near the end, I trimmed so one end was about an inch longer than the other. I folded back one end as shown.

Then I tucked the other end inside and continued stitching.

I got a little pleat. Hopefully it won’t be too noticeable when the hand stitching is done.

Once this was all sewn on, I removed the quilt from the frame and trimmed it. Now I’m ready for the hand stitching. This process involved tolling the quilt back and forth big on the fame, and will require some practice. Overall, I’m glad I took the time to learn a new way to do this and will likely do it again.

Have a great day!

Posted in Long Arm Quilting, Longarm Quilting, Tutorials, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

DWMonday ~ Baby Quilt

Posted on September 11, 2017 by katyquilts

Of course, I ended up making a baby quilt for the shower I attended onSaturday. I thought before I show the finished quilt, that I would share my design process with you. I decided to keep the piecing minimal. So I planned to use these pieces to create a pieced panel to run from the top to the bottom on the quilt with solid borders on each side. I cut these with my parallelogram die. They come in several sizes and there is one included in each of the Accuquilt GO! Cube sets. You can see these dies and view all current Accuquilt deals here.

I agreed with many of you who said to keep the yellow!

I didn’t have enough of the gray screen print to have a piece on either side of the panel. So I tried putting this darker gray chevron on one side.

It looked too dark so I added some dark diamonds for balance.

I wasn’t quite feeling it at this point so put solid white pieces on each side.

Yep, much better. This gives me lots of room for some fun quilting. I’ll share the finished quilt soon.

Have a great day!

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Cooking Up Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt

This post contains affiliate links, and I receive a small compensation for any purchases made through them. Thank you for your support

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Slow Stitching Sunday ~ A New Project

Posted on September 10, 2017 by katyquilts

I went digging through my vintage tops to find my next hand quilting project. I love this first one, even though it doesn’t lay quite flat and has some significant fading.

I found this piece too. It would make a nice crib size quilt. I dug through my stash of vintage fabrics to find a piece of green for that missing border, but came up empty handed. I asked on Instagram and one lovely person had a piece that matches exactly. Even more amazing, she was willing to part with it!

I decided to baste the first one so I can start hand quilting it today.

I basted it on my long arm using a long stitch length and very large stipple pattern.
Have a great day!

Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts

Posted in Hand quilting, Uncategorized, Vintage Quilts | 10 Comments

Labor Day Weekend

Posted on September 9, 2017 by katyquilts

Life has been a little stressful lately, so hubby and I decided to get outta Dodge! We took Oscar and went camping. Isn’t this a neat tent that Mr. Wonderful found? We had an air mattress in the back of the Jeep and it was very cozy!

We hit some trails.

And did some hiking.

This is Lake Michigan.

On our last night, we stayed in this cute little cabin at a state park campground. Honestly, the Jeep was more comfortable!

Here’s the best breakfast chef ever!

Have a great day!

Posted in Life, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Finish It Up Friday ~ Indigo Crib Quilt

Posted on September 8, 2017 by katyquilts

As promised, here are the photos of my finished indigo crib quilt! This project had its beginnings in places unknown. The blocks were hand pieced and mighty wonky when I found them in an Indiana antique shop some years ago. I used some vintage fabric to sash each block and then trimmed them all to the same size and sewed them together.

I used a Baptist Fan stencil that I had to mark this for quilting. By eye, I added arcs in between each of the marked ones so it would have the close quilting I wanted. You can see how wonky the blocks are.

Here is a closeup showing the binding.

I pieced together some vintage feed sacks to use for the backing. I love how the quilting shows up here! My hand quilting is not great, but I have found that with lots of close quilting, you notice the texture more than the individual stitches. The texture is what I love.

It is living here in m family room for now.

Time to come up with another hand quilting project!

Have a great day!

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

Posted in Baby Quilts, Finishes, Hand quilting, Uncategorized, Vintage Quilts | 19 Comments

Making Connections Blog Hop!

Posted on September 7, 2017 by katyquilts

Today is my turn for the Making Connections blog hop! I’ve been looking forward to this book for some time so when Dorie Hruska asked for bloggers to help with the blog hop, I quickly raised my hand.

I’m so excited to share my project with you. After reading the book, I immediately had an idea of a pattern I wanted to make to practice her techniques. As I was looking for fabric, I found these scraps and knew they would be perfect for what I had in mind.

It didn’t take at all long to piece together this small top out of my hand dyed fabric scraps.

Time to quilt it up!

For each design in the book, Dorie has a page like this showing the design AND the stitching sequence. This is so helpful!

I chose several patterns I wanted to try and sketched them out on paper first.

Then I moved to the long arm. Using a highly contrasting thread color was not the best idea, but I wanted you to see the stitching. The squares here finish at 1 1/2 inches.

If I hadn’t had some issues with thread shredding, I could have quilted the entire center section with only one start and stop! I marked a diagonal grid on the border and used one of the designs from the center to quilt that.

My brain struggled a bit with turning the design on point! Things are pretty uneven there. Here is a look at the back.

Some closeups of the front.

And the border.

This last picture shows the truest color.

I really enjoyed making this quilt and trying out some of the ideas in the book. I definitely learned some things that I will be using on many future quilts.

Here is more info from Dorie regarding her book:

Making Connections Quilting Workbook

$27.95

A Free-Motion Quilting Workbook: 12 Designs Suites

Quilt with fewer starts and stops!
Streamline your free-motion quilting with this workbook full of exercises to build your skills. Easy-to-follow, step-by-step illustrations for each design suite show how to adapt the quilting design for blocks, borders, sashing and all over quilting. Practice each design with a pencil on the included practice pages before stitching by machine, then put your skills to the test on a gorgeous pieced sampler project. A signed copy of the book is available here.

Now for some really great news, you can win a free copy of this book from C&T Publishing! Just leave a comment on the post and I will announce the winner in a few days! Winners in the US will receive a hard copy of the book, those outside the US will receive the e-book version.

For more chances to win a copy of the book, visit all the stops on this blog hop as listed below.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Thursday, September 7, 2017

KatyQuilts
Slice of Pi Quilts

Friday, September 8, 2017

Webster Quilt
Needle & Foot

Monday, September 11, 2017

Sunflower Quilts
Masterpiece Quilting

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Rebecca Mae Designs
Samelia’s Mum

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Quilting Jetgirl
The Quilting Mill

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Quilting Mod
Kathy’s Kwilts and More

Friday, September 15, 2017

QuiltFabrication
Forever Quilting

Have a great day!

Posted in Free Motion Quilting, Long Arm Quilting, Longarm Quilting, Uncategorized | 63 Comments

Gender Neutral Baby Quilt?

Posted on September 6, 2017 by katyquilts

I have a baby shower to attend on Saturday. I try to keep a stash of baby quilts to give away, but I found out today that the happy parents do not know if they are having a boy or a girl! So, these two quilts are the closest I have to being gender neutral.

I went online to check out their registry to get a feel for the colors they have chosen and neither of these will go. I pulled a few fabrics that I thought might work.

Here are a few of the items on their registry.

Aren’t they cute? Looking at these again, I’m not sure about the yellow I pulled. Maybe I should go with just gray and white. I’m trying to decide if that is too boring. I am running out of time so I better figure this out soon!