KatyQuilts

Decisions, Decisions – DWM

Posted on June 15, 2015 by katyquilts

Thanks for all the input on the log cabin border. I still haven’t made a final decision but have narrowed the options. Today, I am trying to come up with a plan for a quilt for one of my sisters. I made this quilt for my niece a couple years ago.

She took it to college with her but since she is home for the summer, my sister nabbed it for her guest room. Since I still have quite a few of these fabrics, I told her I would make her one of her own. These are all Denyse Schmidt prints. I have these strips all cut up and may use them if I can figure out a plan.

There are both 2 1/2 inch strips and 2 inch strips in here. I also have this lovely stack of charms that I cut.

I have yardage as well. I really love DS fabrics! I started collecting these prints when Daughter #1 got engaged so I could use them in her wedding quilt. I spent a week cutting all the bits for her quilt and at the same time, cutting out tumblers, hexagons, these strips and charms. This was before I had my die cutter! Here are the quilts I have made so far from my week of cutting. First a full on shot of the tumbler quilt for my niece shown above.

The next one was Daughter #1’s wedding quilt.

This one I put together from leftover blocks and Daughter #1 quilted it for a friend of hers that was going through some health issues.

And this is my DS Hexie quilt that I recently gifted to a dear friend that is moving away.

I still haven’t tired of these prints and today, I may just put that die cutter to work and cut up the rest!

Linking up with Patchwork Times and Cooking Up Quilts.

Posted in Design Wall Monday | 8 Comments

A Finish for Flag Day

Posted on June 14, 2015 by katyquilts

You may have thought that I had forgotten to share my little tumbler flag quilt. But no, I was saving it for flag day, which is today in the US. And here it is:

I backed it with an old calico from my stash.

And now it is hanging in my office at work.

Along with this little quilt made back in about 2002.

And here are a few other flag quilts I have made and shown before.

Those yoyos are an inch across.

After church, a meeting, and a very important birthday party, I plan to do a bit of slow stitching on the binding of this top secret project.

Happy Flag Day!

Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday and I have to Say….for Show and Tell Tuesday.

Happy National Sewing Machine Day!

Posted on June 13, 2015 by katyquilts

Did you know this was a holiday? I confess, I didn’t until this morning and then I had to check to make sure it was true! Mr. Wonderful made it home safely from Germany this morning and we went to an art fair and some antique shops this afternoon. He spotted this little darling and it came home with us.

It is a 1920’s Little Worker made by the New Home Company. It is not actually a toy but sold as “a practical sewing machine or portable for travelers.” Apparently, quilting retreats were popular even in the 20’s. Ha!

When he got to the checkout, they told him there was a cabinet that went with it.

This is a Martha Washington sewing table and never originally came with this machine. But who am I to quibble over a free vintage sewing table?

I think I will spiff it up and put it by my chair for Slow Stitching Sundays!

Posted in Toy Sewing Machines | 8 Comments

Border Choices

Posted on June 13, 2015 by katyquilts

How can it be Saturday already? The days just fly by! I can’t believe we celebrate Little E’s first birthday tomorrow!
I finished piecing my little log cabin blocks together and I am trying to decide on a border now.

It seems this project has been a struggle from the get go. The blocks took forever. It took forever to decide on a layout and I am still not 100% happy with it. I’ve been trying to settle on the border all week and I am already stumped on the quilting!

I did a bit of rearranging in the sewing room yesterday. I had an eye exam in the morning and it took forever for the drops to wear off so I could see well enough to sew. Ugh. I am working this morning but Mr. Wonderful should be home from his business trip to Germany by the time I get home. Yippee!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Finish It Up Friday

Posted on June 12, 2015 by katyquilts

First of all, thank you for all the lovely comments on my Mick Jagger quilt! I haven’t decided yet what to do with it but I am sure I will think of something!

I finished the baby quilt I was working on yesterday and managed to get some pictures as well.
I found a very soft white fabric with a lavender polka dot to use for the backing in my stash. Perfect for a baby quilt!

This ended up at 40 inches x 48 inches. The squares finish at 4 inches and the rectangles are 4 by 8 inches. Now that it is bound and washed, I am happier with it.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts, and Quilt Matters.

Posted in Baby Quilts, Finishes | 8 Comments

Grafitti Practice

Posted on June 11, 2015 by katyquilts

The other day I mentioned that I had a plan for these threads. My plan was to practice some Grafitti quilting. This term was coined by a fabulous young quilter named Karlee Porter. If you haven’t seen her work, take a look! You won’t be disappointed.

I have used my version of this technique as background quilting on my Grafitti Heart quilt, my Fiesta quilt, and my City Sampler quilt. This is the first time I have used contrasting thread. It’s a whole ‘nother ball game, folks!

Yikes! I can do a decent swirl, until I try to put one in red thread smack dab in the middle of a whole cloth piece! It is MUCH easier to hide your mistakes when the thread matches the background! Here is a shot of the whole thing.

And the back:

This is the worst part. That horrible center and the Mick Jagger tongue. Yikes!

But once again, I learned a lot! In fact, after stitching the center, I turned off the stitch regulator on my machine and did the rest without it. And guess what? Everything went much smoother. Not perfect, but better. Sorry for too many pictures, I want to keep a record so I can look back and see progress.

There are some ares I do like such as the area below that looks like saw blades and the echoes on the feathers. I also like the blending of the thread colors.

You can see that this is not bound. I am thinking about cutting it up to make zipper bags out of it. Then I can get rid of that ugly center.

Linking up with Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing for Free Motion Mavericks and Pink Doxies for Pet Projects.

Posted in Free Motion Quilting, HQ Avante | 12 Comments

Work in Progress Wednesday

Posted on June 10, 2015 by katyquilts

I finished piecing this baby quilt top. The fabrics are Westwood by Martha Negley.

This was a really quick top. I like it, but I am not in love with it. It was nice having the perfect thread on hand for quilting.

This is celery by Glide. I wanted a feminine pantograph and decided on this one:

I quilted the first row.

Um, yeah, it doesn’t show at all. I turned off the room lights before taking the next picture.

There it is! Hoping to get a couple more rows done before work today.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced and Sew Fresh Quilts.

Posted in Baby Quilts, Fresh Modern Quilts, Pantographs | 9 Comments

Empty Nest

Posted on June 9, 2015 by katyquilts

Daughter #3 left the nest this past weekend. She is sharing a house with her best friend. So hubby and I are officially empty nesters! It is bittersweet, I must say. I did very little sewing yesterday, I did a lot of housework instead. I picked up a crib at a yard sale because little E has outgrown the pack and play and I put it in Daughter #3’s old room.

I like the gray walls in there and this gives me a chance to use some of my brighter quilts. There is plenty of work to be done yet in there.

I did some cleaning in the guest room as well since I took the pack and play out.

I love to respond individually to comments, since you are so nice to leave them. However, I am woefully behind in this and I have decided to give myself a bit of a break from any extra computer work this week. I will be posting here and on Instagram, but unless there is a question, not responding to comments. My job involves lots of computer work, especially with summer reading program starting this week so I have decided to do as little typing outside of work as possible. Thanks for understanding.

Happy Tuesday!

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Design Wall Monday

Posted on June 8, 2015 by katyquilts

I hope you all had a great weekend, we sure did. I am still arranging and rearranging my log cabin blocks on the design wall.

In person, the contrast between the light and dark sides of the block doesn’t seem quite as pronounced. It helps to look at a picture of the blocks for that reason.

I also started something new. I have been wanting to make some baby quilts to have on hand. I made the blocks for this one yesterday.

The fabrics are from a layer cake of a line called Westwood by Martha Negley. This layer cake had quite a few duplicates in it. I used 30 of the squares for this and plan to use the other 12 in another baby quilt. This one will finish at 40″ x 48″. The other fabrics in the layer cake had a lot of lavender, coral, and a gold/tan color.

I also loaded up some fabric for a bit of play time at the long arm.

I plan to use some of these threads.

Looks like I have plenty to keep me busy this week! Check out what others have on their design walls over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Another QOV Quilted

Posted on June 7, 2015 by katyquilts

It took me forever to start the actual quilting on this, but once an idea took hold, it was so much fun! That eagle in the middle is actually part of a pantograph. I centered the eagle and just stitched that part of the panto. I surrounded it with a small stipple. I went with a simple loopy freehand pattern in the background. For my “spineless” feathers, I just drew a chalk line and stitched feathers going up one side and down the other. I could do three feathers before breakn g my thread this way. I did the same thing with the feather border. Have a wonderful day!