KatyQuilts

Finish It Up….Thursday?

Posted on December 24, 2015 by katyquilts

Since Christmas falls on Friday, I thought I would post my finishes early this week.

Hopefully, this will be my last Noteworthy post for a while. Please note that I said Noteworthy, not noteworthy. I hope all my posts are noteworthy! LOL! Anyway, I finished the two baby quilts and here they are.

It was windy and dark the day I took pictures. They really are straight and square!

And here is my favorite of the two.

I made sure “Las Vegas” didn’t appear in this one either! LOL!

The backing is from Ikea, purchased quite a few years ago. It was nice to use up some bits from the stash on these!

Now, I need to get my house cleaned before church this afternoon. I hope you all have a blessed Christmas Eve!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

Posted in Baby Quilts, Finishes, Uncategorized | 16 Comments

WIP Wednesday ~ Binding

Posted on December 23, 2015 by katyquilts

I am working on the binding of Calamity Jane today and thought I would share a bit about my process. This is not a full out binding tutorial. Just a few tips. I love vintage enamelware and have collected it for some time. I use it a lot in my sewing room. When I press my bindings, I let it side off my ironing table into a bowl.
It stays loosely pooled in the bowl until I am ready to attach it. It never gets wrinkled or out of sorts.

Then I take the bowl to my sewing machine and set it on the floor. I comes out opposite of the way it went in, tangle free. I have to say that I rather perversely enjoyed needling Jane a bit.

When I hand sew the binding, I do not use any pins, clips etc. to hold the binding in place. I’ve realized recently that I hold things a bit differently than a lot of quilters. I place the quilt face down on my lap with the binding facing me. I take a stitch into the backing and catch a small bite of the fold with my needle. I hope you can get the idea from this picture. I use my left hand to hold the binding in place an inch or so ahead of where I am sewing. It is like a small applique stitch. The stich in this picture is a bit bigger than what I normally take but I wanted you to see what I meant.

The next picture shows what it looks like from the other side.

I will probably finish the hand sewing of this binding while the family is here over Christmas. I sure hope Jane behaves.

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Calamity Jane Earns Her Name

Posted on December 22, 2015 by katyquilts

Sigh….

Were you mad that I called you this? Or were you destined to live up to your name?

I got the top together and realized I measured two borders wrong. Ugh.

I got it loaded into the frame and spent 20 minutes quilting some hideously ugly feathers.

I spent the next 4 hours picking it all out. In the process, I cut a tiny whole in the border. I dabbed fray check on it.

I switched to monopoly thread which is handy in some situations, but feels decidedly inauthentic for a quilt made with repro fabrics. But clearly, I was not at the top of my game and needed help camouflaging my shoddy work.

I like my quilts with lots of tight quilting. It just wasn’t to be here.

Someone yesterday commented on my well pieced blocks. I nearly spit my coffee out! Because some look like this:

Um…yeah. Granted those little brown squares are only a half inch but goodness, some are practically disappearing! And how about that stitch not quite in the ditch?

When I finally took Jane off the frame, I realized I missed quilting one of the blocks and I had to go back and fix that. I’m not sure what happened in this corner.

After I get the binding on, I’m going to see how Jane feels about a violent run through the washer….

Linking up with Free Motion by the River

Posted in Uncategorized, What was I thinking | 17 Comments

DWMonday ~ Calamity Jane

Posted on December 21, 2015 by katyquilts

That is what I have decided to call this quilt. I couldn’t bring myself to make even three more Jane blocks so I made these three instead.

I thought they might be a bit too “chunky” compared to the other blocks. But then this is one from the book.

It’s pretty chunky too. I may use this one to put the date of completion on the quilt. I put all the blocks up with the alternate blocks that I cut earlier.

There is still some rearrangement to do before sewing these together. I hope to have this done before the end of the year. Time to start thinking about the quilting!

Linking up with Em’s Scrap Bag, Patchwork Times, Cooking Up Quilts

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Design Wall Monday, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Slow Stitching Sunday

Posted on December 20, 2015 by katyquilts

I love hand sewing the binding on quilts! And both Noteworthy baby quilts are at that stage.

One of these days, I will get back to my Brinton Hall quilt!

Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Finish It Up Friday ~ Red and White SQT Challenge

Posted on December 18, 2015 by katyquilts

I haven’t been very active with the Small Quilt Talk Yahoo group this year. Too many other projects, I suppose. The challenge for December, was to make a small red and white quilt. I tried to ignore this challenge as well. But I love red and white quilts, and I thought it would be nice to make something quick this month….you know where this is going.

I grabbed some red and white and cut some HSTs. These finish at 1.5 inches and I used Die 50771 for my Accuquilt Studio cutter.

And started piecing.

My inspiration was a Quilt of Valor that I made a couple years ago. I loved it so much, that I had a hard time parting with it! Piecing commenced.

I didn’t want it to be too square.

But this wasn’t working for me. Time to piece some more.

Wonky, but better. Time for a little quilting.

And a bit of binding.

Here is my inspiration quilt.The pattern is a very old one called Tree Everlasting. It measures about 60 inches by 72 inches.

And here is my new little quilt. It measures about 30 inches by 33 inches.

I quilted a freehand grid in the “trees” and a feather in the white spaces. I got the feathers too close to the edge on one side!
This is how they should look! I need to remember not to quilt too close to the edge!

This backing fabric was purchased from Ikea a few years ago.
And this is where it hangs, above my fireplace. Here you can see it in context.
I debated washing this for the crinkle effect. Someday I will but I will enjoy it this way for now.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts, A Quilted Passion

Posted in Accuquilt Studio Cutter, Finishes, Small Quilt Talk Group, Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Dear Jane….

Posted on December 17, 2015 by katyquilts

I’m sorry to tell you this, but we are over. I have tried to make you twice but cannot bring myself to complete you. The first time, I got tired of your myriad of blocks with tiny pieces and invented some of my own. It worked well for me and I even won a ribbon at a local show.

I came across your book again a few years later.

And I tried again. I made 47 blocks and put you into time out.

Last summer, I found a new sampler love that only required 40 blocks. I could make a slightly bigger quilt if I made only 3 more blocks. Maybe this one?

Or this one?

Or maybe I will make my own again! I have pieces cut for the alternate blocks.

I’m moving on without you. Brenda can have you, along with all of those crazy Janiacs. This quilt will have a new name, perhaps Jan…….

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

WIP Wednesday ~ Another Noteworthy Baby Quilt

Posted on December 16, 2015 by katyquilts

I am still undecided about the backing for the baby quilt top I showed yesterday, so I decided to work on the second baby quilt I cut out of the Noteworthy leftovers last week. It went together so quickly!

This is pretty much the same layout as the baby boy quilt that I made last month. I even got it loaded in the frame and started quilting.

I decided to use this Flower Burst panto from Meadowlyon Designs. It is one of the first pantos I ever purchased, but I’ve only used it once before.

Once I started stitching, I remembered why! This is not an easy to follow pantograph. Thankfully, there are little arrows to help keep you from getting lost!

It takes forever and I would not do this on a big quilt. However, it really looks great for a little girl quilt! I am using a pale pink thread in the top and white in the bobbin. I just hope it doesn’t end up being too stiff with this close quilting. I will wash it when it is done and that should help.

I didn’t end up using all the pieces like this that I cut out so it looks like there will be at least two more Noteworthy baby quilts. I just can’t get rid of this stuff! But I’m putting those away for a while. I’m getting sick of this fabric line.

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

Posted in Baby Quilts, Pantographs, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Tuesday

Posted on December 15, 2015 by katyquilts

I finished the baby quilt top that I showed yesterday.

I realized while putting this together that some of the blocks seemed a wee bit inappropriate for a baby quilt.

I just can’t put a block in a baby quilt that says to party in Vegas! So I pieced some scraps together for a couple blocks so I could cut that part out. And I bet you can’t even find them in the picture above!

Then I went digging through my stash to find something for the back and found this.

At first, I thought it was perfect. But now I’m second guessing myself.

Too busy? Maybe I’ll keep looking while I ponder how to quilt this. I should probably look for binding at the same time.

Linking up with Free Motion by the River, Quilt Story

Posted in Baby Quilts, Uncategorized | 15 Comments

Design Wall Monday ~ More Noteworthy

Posted on December 14, 2015 by katyquilts

Last week, I showed you these pieces that I had cut for a baby quilt. The squares actually need further cutting and to do that, I am using this nifty tool.
I cut my triangles to finish at 2 inches. With the corners nipped, this can be done with a 2 1/2 inch strip. So I place this tool on the square so that the top edge and the 2 1/2 inch marks are aligned with the sides of the square.

I use my rotary cutter to cut off the two corners like this.
See how nicely the triangles fit now? It only took one track of my audio book to trim these up. See those little left over triangles? I swept them into the bin!

Here is a pieced block.
And this is how I press my seams. One towards a triangle, and one towards the middle piece. This way the blocks can be arranged so that the seams all nestle together neatly when piecing.
This is the arrangement I am going for.
I have quite a few more blocks to go so I best get moving!