KatyQuilts

Well, yesterday was an interesting travel day for sure! My son and I left for the airport at 3:45 in the morning. This turned out to be the middle of a storm producing record breaking amounts of rain in the Phoenix area! Main highways were closed due to flooding and many vehicles were stranded. What should have been a 35 minute drive took 2 1/2 hours! Thankfully, God was with us and we got there and my son got home safely. I missed my flight but was able to reroute and made it home at 10:30 last night.

One adventure I found time for, was a visit to SAS Fabrics.

I learned about this gem of a place via Christine who blogs at Triangles & Squares.

I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the inside. It is a huge warehouse type place and they have anything and everything you could want for any type of sewing project. I only frequent the quilting cottons. They have remnants ranging from 1/4-8 yards. All $3.99 a yard. These are quilt shop quality fabrics and you never know what you might find. Here is my haul starting with some vintage Repro prints:

A few modern prints:

A fun novelty print:

And a big piece of this great print for Quilts of Valor.

It is good to be home. I need to unpack and do some laundry before working until 9 tonight. If I get enough coffee, I might even get the borders sewn on this QOV.

Maybe….

Have a great Tuesday and thanks to everyone for sticking with me even when I haven’t responded to comments while out of town.

I am currently winging my way home after a wonderful time with my kids and Baby L in Arizona. I just love it there. This is what awaits me on my design wall (table?) at home.

I can’t wait to play with these! But first I have to add the borders to this QOV and get it loaded onto the frame.

And I also have these blocks nagging me.

I really need more blocks to get this to the size I want but I don’t feel like making any more. They may have to do some closet time.

Back to work tomorrow. It’s not gonna be easy!

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for DWMonday.

My time is slipping away here too fast! I did spend some time stitching yesterday while Baby L napped. I prepped the last of my pumpkin seed blocks.

But then realized that I forgot to bring my thread assortment.

Grrrr….

So I switched to hexies and got half a row done before nap time was over.

While stitching, I listened to the last of my audio book and then picked out the next one.

I have been enjoying getting caught up on blog reading also this week and exploring on Instagram. My nickname there is katyquilts, in case you would like to follow me there.

There was a lovely thunderstorm here last night!

The sky was gorgeous!

Baby L and I enjoyed a nice walk this morning.

Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend!

A few more quilts from the archives to share with you today. First up is this 25 patch quilt. Not sure if that is the proper name but it works for me. I remember that I was inspired to make this from a very old book that I still own and love called American Patchwork and Quilting published back in 1985! My quilt was made about 20 years ago.

I used it on my kitchen table for a long time and then it went to live with a friend who liked it. This is another quilt I would like to make again.

This next quilt was made from a line of fabric made to look like men’s ties. I believe the designer was Shirley Botsford who wrote a book called, Daddy’s Ties.

That binding took forever. I remember that I made this quilt while we were living in France so it was sometime between 1997-1999. It was donated to some group to take to refugees somewhere.

This next one was another baby quilt, made for one of my hubby’s coworkers in France that had a baby so it was made in the late 90s also. I made several wonky star quilts like this for baby gifts. They were fast and fun.

Linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for NTT.

I made this quilt about ten years ago as a wedding quilt for my nephew and his wife.

It was quilted on m vintage 1955 Singer 201.

I love that wide feather in the border. I bought that stencil in a little quilt shop in he south of France. I would like to try using it with my long arm some day as it makes a pretty impressive feather, it is about 10 inches wide.

Her is another oldie that I made as a baby quilt for someone in years past. I have no idea who any more.

I would like to remake this one and quilt it differently.

Still having a great time with my kids and Baby L. Daughter #2 brought the grand dog over last night. She loves Baby L!

Last week I ran across a box of photos I had taken years ago of quilts I had made and long since forgotten about. I thought I might share a few this week since I am not sewing much. This one I must have made back in the mid 90’s.

It was made for a family friend. I still really like this quilt. Maybe I should made another!

The pictures here are photos of photos so the quality is not great.

I sure am enjoying my time with Baby L! Such a sweet little guy!

I so appreciate all the lovely comments and visits. This week I will continue to post but probably won’t respond to comments as I would like. I hope you understand. Snuggles with this guy are my priority!

I was nominated by Shirley at SIMPLESEW to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop! It is a fun idea and a way to follow the rabbit trail to discover new blogs. Each person answers four questions about themselves as a way of letting others who visit get to know them.

1.      What am I working on?

Hmmm…let’s see. I am working on a hexie project:

And  a Quilt of Valor:

And some pumpkin seed blocks:

And some shirting bits:

2.      How does my work differ from others in its genre?

This is the hardest question because I am pretty eclectic in style. I love and make modern quilts like this:

And this:

And this:

But I also love traditional quilts like this:

And this:

I love to use reproduction fabrics and real vintage fabrics also:

I also enjoy making art quilts like this:

And this:

And I am passionate about making quilts for our veterans via the Quilts of Valor Foundation like these:

So I really don’t fit any one category! I like nearly everything!

3.      Why do I write/create what I do?

I create because this is something God created me to do. I believe by exercising my creativity, I am giving glory to the One who gave it to me in the first place. I love to bless others with the work of my hands. Quilting and sewing is very meditative for me. I can hear God best in my sewing room. I talk to Him there.

I write my blog as a way of keep track of my quilting journey. It is also very motivational. I love to teach as well and it gives me a platform to do a wee bit of that also. I truly enjoy “meeting” other quilters around the world in this way.

4.      How does my writing/creating process work?

I see ideas for quilts pretty much everywhere! I have some sketch books where I sometimes commit ideas to paper! I get my best ideas by just playing with my fabrics and thinking, what if? I like to have several projects going at once because when I get stuck on one thing, I can start working on something else. Usually the answers to my sewing dilemmas come while working one a different project. I like to have a hand project, a piecing project and a quilting project at all times. Usually I have more than one of these. I am not bothered by UFOs, some projects need some closet time before they are ready to come to fruition. I do keep lists though so I have a pretty good idea of what needs to get done.

As far as writing, I usually blog just before bed or first thing in the morning. It helps me to think about what I have accomplished and what I need to work on next.

So there are my answers and it is time to pass on the nomination to (drumroll please!):

Deb of Quilts N Things Done by Betty Boop! Hop over to Debs and she will answer questions about her creative process next Monday, September 8th!

Deb is active in quilting quilts for QOVF. I came to know Deb via several quilting boards. She has a wealth of knowledge about quilting and is so very helpful with the hundreds (thousands?) of questions I have had. Thanks Deb! I can’t wait to see your post!

And Kathy at Empty Nest but Full Heart. Kathy and I have been following each other’s blogs for some time. She hand quilts and recently finished the most beautiful chevron quilt for her daughter. I can’t believe how fast she quilted this huge quilt all by hand!

You can see Kathy’s Around the World blog post next Monday as well.
 

I’m getting a bit if slow stitching in this week. First, the pumpkin seeds:

And also a little knitting. I grabbed this yarn on my way out the door on Friday.

I haven’t done any knitting in ages. It was a perfect plane project.

I am a very slow knitter and didn’t get very far but this will be a sock.

I am very much enjoying Baby L and his momma and daddy!

Linking up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday.