KatyQuilts

Finish It Up Friday

Posted on June 5, 2015 by katyquilts

I recently took part in a swap hosted by Lori at Humble Quilts. Since my partner, Janet, has now received her quilt from me, I can show you what I sent.

Janet posted about it on her blog, Mrs. Sew n’Sew, here. I am so glad it arrived safely and that she liked it!

And this week, I received the quilt Janet made for me! She also posted about it here.

Isn’t it gorgeous? She even hand quilted it! I love this so much. I feel so lucky! Here is a picture of the back. I am crazy about double pinks and indigos. This will look great with my recently finished vintage log cabin quilt too!

Isn’t that beautiful fabric? Thank you so much, Janet!

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

ETA: THe Link up for Lori’s Swap is up! You can check out all the little quilts from the Humble Quilts swap here.

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Doll Quilts, Finishes, Swaps | 20 Comments

Throwback Thursday….. Sort of…..

Posted on June 4, 2015 by katyquilts

I plan to share some quilts with you today from way back when….but none of them are mine, nor were they made by me. These are all quilts that I saw while antiquing with Mr. Wonderful.

Love the yellow thread in that one! Sadly it appears ace bled onto the background fabric.

The squares in the 9 patches of that last one were about a half inch!

Quilting Jet Girl has a Thursday link up called Thankful Thursday. I think it is good to reflect and cout our blessings. I am thankful for my hubby who is willing to traipse through countless antique stores with me. He never fails to find all the vintage toy sewing machines before I do! I’m thankful for the chance to see and admire these beautiful quilts from years past.

Posted in Uncategorized, Vintage Quilts | 6 Comments

WIP Wednesday

Posted on June 3, 2015 by katyquilts

I finally have all the 16 patch blocks together. I spread the top out on the guest room bed to see how it looked.

Wanda, from Exuberant Color (one of my favorite blogs), suggested adding a 3 inch white border and then a wide border of a print. I have decided to take this suggestion. I just have to decide on the print and it won’t come from my stash. I just don’t have enough of anything appropriate.

I came up with a plan and started quilting the last QOV top that I have right now.

I hope to make some serious progress before work this morning on it. I’ve also kept going on the little squares as leaders/enders.

I don’t know what they will grow up to be just yet.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced and Sew Fesh Quilts.

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

May Wrap Up and June Goals

Posted on June 1, 2015 by katyquilts

It is that time again! This year is just flying by! Here are the goals I had set for May and my results:

1. The SQT group challenge for the Month is to make a Log Cabin quilt. I think that makes it a perfect time to finally finish these 4″ blocks and make the quilt already! Not done! But I did finish making the blocks and got all the paper torn out.

2. I also signed up for the small quilt swap being hosted by Lori over at Humble Quilts so I need to get something made for that. I have been toying with a few ideas and made a few HSTs before work yesterday morning. Done! And received by my swap partner.

3. I want to get this Quilt of Valor completely finished. I have a recipient in mind and time is of the essence! Done and presented!

3. I would like to make a baby quilt for a gift from this fabric. If I run out of time, I have another baby quilt already made that I can give.

I didn’t get this quilt made but I gave one that I had done last fall so I would call that a partial finish! Here is the quilt that I gifted:

4. In pondering the SQT Log Cabin challenge, I remembered this vintage top that Mr. Wonderful gave me for Christmas in 2013. I would love to quilt this up this month as well. Done!

5. I also have these lovely Amy Butler strips patiently waiting to be pieced into blocks. Done! And I have started piecing them together.

6. I signed up to do a Pay It Forward gift on Instagram. I would like to get those packages together and sent this month as well. Not done.

Now, what else did I get done this month?

I finished this small quilt:

And I quilted two QOVs.

On to my goals for June!

1. I have one more QOV top that needs to be quilted.

2. I want to finish my 16 patch top. The biggest hindrance here is deciding how big I want this to be and what to do about borders.

3. I have an idea for a flag quilt made from hourglass blocks that I want to make for my entry way. I have the pieces all cut. I would love to have this complete so I can hang it for the Fourth.

4. I am going to make a quilt for each of my sisters this summer. I have fabric for both but need to make some decisions on designs. I want to have at least one of them to the piecing stage this month.

5. I want that darn log cabin done this month!

6. I also want to start putting these blocks together.

I was given these by a dear blog reader, Jan, last year and I want to see them in a quilt this year!

That is probably enough, given that summer brings surprises of its own.

Linking up with Lily’s Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day , Free Motion by the River for Linky Tuesday, and I have to Say for Show and Tell Tuesday.

Posted in Finishes, Goals | 11 Comments

Design Wall Monday

Posted on June 1, 2015 by katyquilts

My weekend just flew by! I did get some hexies sewn, but no progress on the 16 patch or the quilt on the frame. Hopefully I will get to those today. I did cut out pieces for a new small project.

Last summer, someone on the SQT group shared a little tumbler flag quilt they had made. This year they are talking about it again. I love flag quilts and thought it would be a fun project that would also be quick. Here is my layout.

This will finish pretty small. The template I used creates tumblers that are 2 1/2 inches tall finished.

I have to get some housework done today. My reward will be to sew!

Lining up with Patchwork Times and Cooking Up Quilts. I am also trying out a new linky party today at That’s what Che Said.

Posted in Design Wall Monday, Doll Quilts | 9 Comments

Frankenbatting Part Two

Posted on May 31, 2015 by katyquilts

I was a wee bit surprised at all the love on my Frankenbatting post! I decided to do a follow up post to answer your questions. So if you want to clean up your scraps, this is all you need to know! I am using small bits for demonstration purposes but the process is the same.

First, trim the edges of your batting so they are straight.

Most batting containing any cotton is either needlepunched and/or has a scrim (a very thin membrane) to hold it all together. This means the two sides are not the same. It doesn’t matter which side is up here, but you want both pieces that you are joining to have the same side up. Lay the two pieces side by side.

See how neatly they fit since I trimmed them? Now take them to your machine and set it for a wide zig zag stitch. You are not satin stitching here, keep the length pretty long as well. Center the join under the needle when it is in the middle position.

And zig zag away! Simple as that!

I do use my walking foot for this. If you overlap your pieces, you will get a ridge. You don’t want that. They should be just touching.
I have not joined poly batting this way. If I needed to, I would probably do a very loose whip stitch by hand. I am so glad I took the time to do this. I only wish I had taken a picture of the “before” mountain of batting! Here is the “after” including a shot of my trash showing the trimming and bits I am throwing away.

Hubby and I did venture out to the antique festival today. Here is my only purchase:

I thought it would make a perfect trash can for my sewing room. It does seem too nice for trash though. I could use it for scraps…….

Thanks again for all the lovely comments. I hope this helps you to tame your scrap batting bits!

Posted in Tutorials | 7 Comments

Frankenbatting and Slow Stitching

Posted on May 31, 2015 by katyquilts

I have a quilt in the frame that I am procrastinating on so I decided last night to tackle the batting scraps that have been accumulating for some time now. I hand several piles like this stashed here and there.

Actually, that is one of the smaller piles! I sorted first into batting pieces of the same type. Then used my rotary cutter to straighten the edges. Next I butted the edges up to each other and zigzagged them together. Lastly, I folded and labeled each piece with the size. This looks so much better!

I have more to do today but I am feeling motivated to get this done. It wasn’t as much of a pain as I thought so maybe I will follow a better job of keeping up with it.

I got another row of hexies done last night whike watching a movie. I plan to add a few more today as well. You all must be so sick of looking at this same thing week after week! Someday it will be done!

My favorite local antique festival is this weekend. The weather has been in the high 80s all last week, yesterday it poured, today it is windy with a high in the 50s. Not sure I will go after church or not! If not, I have a lot more cleaning and sorting I would like to do in the sewing room. And there is that quilt in the frame….

Linking up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday.

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Quilts of Valor

Posted on May 30, 2015 by katyquilts

I quilted two more Quilts of Valor this week. The first is Terri’s sampler quit.

I loved the narrow gold sashing that she used and decided to go with MilItary Gold thread from Glide on it. Here is a shot of the back:

The next one was made by Sue. I kept wanting to sing Let it Go from the Disney movie, Frozen, while working on it!

This was a new panto to me called Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend. It took forever but I love the results. This type of panto looks great on this beautifully pieced quilt but would not look so great on a top that ended up a bit wonky. There is so much more to choosing the right pantograph for quilting than I realized when I started long arm quilting.

BTW, Urban Elementz currently has 25% off all there pantos. No code needed. They are my favorite place to order. Great customer service.

Linking up with Pink Doxies Pet Projects and Sew Can She’s Show Off Saturday.

Posted in Finishes, Quilt of Valor | 8 Comments

Finish It Up Friday

Posted on May 29, 2015 by katyquilts

Remember these?

That turned into these?

Which turned into these?

And became this?

Well, after this:

It ended up like this:

Thanks again to Lori at Humble Quilts for the pattern. I don’t know that it is available for sale, she taught it at a guild workshop. And one last thing, if you are interested in these:

I got them at IKEA in the laundry section. They are great for so many things but especially hanging quilts temporarily. And just one more, just because.

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

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Doll Quilts, Finishes | 13 Comments

Throwback Thursday

Posted on May 28, 2015 by katyquilts

Here are a few more 1930’s style small quilts from back in the day. This first one is about 40 inches square. I purchased the vintage blocks, machined pieced the top, and hand quilted it.

This next one has blocks that I hand pieced from vintage fabrics but I machine quilted the quilt.