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!

Posted in Finishes, Quilt of Valor | 5 Comments

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.  
IMG_2781           

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