KatyQuilts

I won!

Posted on December 22, 2013 by katyquilts

Last week, Cindy at Live a Colorful Life informed me that I was a winner for the Sew Mama Sew giveaway on her blog! When I got home last night, the most wonderful package was waiting for me.

See all my goodies? A charm pack of California Girls, two of Cindy’s patterns, the 100 Quilt Blocks Winter issue, and a calendar panel from Modern Yardage! Thank you Cindy!

I have already looked at the Jammin’ Jelly pattern and decided it is perfect for a QOV.

If you haven’t yet seen Cindy’s blog, I encourage you to visit. You are in for a treat.

Happy Sunday all and stay safe!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

REAL Studio Tour!

Posted on December 20, 2013 by katyquilts

Today is the final episode in Vicki’s REAL Studio Tour. Check it out here to see the link up to the sewing rooms on tour. And without further ado:

Welcome to my happy place! I sew in our finished basement and actually have two areas. The room for my long arm is shared with my hubby. He has his computers and exercise stuff, we have a sitting area, and I have my HQ Avante. Here is my area:

My storage under the frame:

Everything else happens in the sewing room. I will warn you, this is the REAL tour so it is messy! I didn’t clean up for your visit today! I will start from the door and move to the left around the room.

This is my ironing table. It is made from a vintage lab table from a high school. My dad gave this to me and I LOVE it! Dad had added a Formica top and I covered that with a couple layers of cotton batting and some Teflon ironing board fabric.

To the left of that is a vintage metal cabinet I picked up at a yard sale. I have rulers, cutters, and scissors in the basket on top and some paper crafting and vintage sewing items inside. The wire lines above are curtain wires from IKEA.

Going around the corner is the bulk of my fabric collection in wire baskets, again, from IKEA.

I do most of my piecing on this Featherweight and my rotary cutting is done here also. I love these vintage enamel top tables! The cabinets behind hold tons of stuff. Here is a peak at a couple:

You can see some of my vintage toy sewing machines above.

They are great for my studio cutter dies.

From here you can see my embroidery corner and my computer monitor.

This is my Bernina 1030. She mostly gets used for bindings these days. My hubby modified this steel case desk so I could put the machine in it. You can read more about it here. Love this!

I love my studio cutter! Behind that is another design wall. Big problem with this set up, I can’t reach it because I am too short!

And that takes us back to the beginning. You can see some of my vintage machines under the ironing table. I have more in the closet.

Still with me? I hope you enjoyed my little tour. Please check out the other studios at the link up on Vicki’s blog.

Posted in Sewing Room Pics, Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Tiny Knitting

Posted on December 19, 2013 by katyquilts

No sewing so far this week but I hope to change that today after work. I did finish knitting a tiny pair of socks for one of the grand babies that will soon be here.

I made a tiny pink sock earlier that ended up way too small. I decided to turn it into a tree ornament for my daughter.

I keep thinking she will have a girl though I have nothing to base that on. They will find out in late January.

I haven’t been knitting much lately but I think I need to start a new pair of socks to work on over the holidays.

Linking up with Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday.

Posted in Knitting, Socks, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Pandora’s Box

Posted on December 18, 2013 by katyquilts

My swap partner for the Small quilt Talk Secret Santa Swap received her gift so now I can share the little quilt I made for her.

The pattern is called Pandora’s Box and I found it years ago in a vintage Aunt Martha publication. I don’t remember the size of the original but it is simply squares and 60 degree diamonds with equal sized finished edges. In this little quilt, the edges finish at 1 inch. I have made this pattern a number of times in different sizes.

I finished my Christmas shopping and shipping yesterday so no sewing got done. This morning I am scheduled for a hair cut before work.

But I keep thinking that I have the dies and it would be so easy to cut pieces for a big Pandora’s box quilt….

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Doll Quilts, Small Quilt Talk Group, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Such a great day!

Posted on December 17, 2013 by katyquilts

I had such a good day yesterday! First of all, it was the day to open our Secret Santa Swap gifts from the SSS on the Small Quilt Talk Yahoo group. Ann from Florida had my name and I had hers. She sent me the loveliest sewing kit! It is seriously beautiful!

Isn’t it amazing? I think I will get out some hexies so I can use this. It sure beats my plastic pencil box!

Hubby, Daughter #1 and I had a great time shopping at Ikea also. I wanted to find some storage units for under my long arm frame. I wanted some place to put finished quilts before they went to their new homes. The units I thought I would buy were 2″ too long. Hubby thought he could modify them but I decided to keep looking. Daughter found some perfect units in the closet organizer area. They cost more than I planned to spend but they are so much nicer.

They fit perfectly!

Great pantograph storage.

And quilts.

And I still have empty drawers!

There is also room for storage on top of the cabinets. I love how much neater this all looks now. I still have three plastic storage drawer sets for thread and templates but all the broken mismatched ones are gone.

I feel blessed!

Linking up with Connie for:

Posted in Sewing Room Pics, Small Quilt Talk Group, Storage, Swaps, Thankfulness, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Design Wall Monday

Posted on December 16, 2013 by katyquilts

Well, everyone said to go with the narrow sashing and I agreed! I got all the sashing and cornerstones cut and have some sewn to blocks.

I am really happy with it so far. I need to choose a fabric for setting triangles. I would like to use a shirting fabric but I will have to see what I have. Maybe this one:

I think I have enough. No idea yet what I will use for a border fabric.

I am already thinking about quilting thread. Monopoly seems a good choice but possibly Superior SewFine in an off white. Or Premosoft. I just got some and haven’t tried it yet. It is recommended by Kimmy Brunner, one of my long arm heroes.

Today, I am off to Ikea with hubby and Daughter #1 so I don’t know how much of this will get done.

You just never know!

I am linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for DWM and Lee for WIP Wednesday.

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Design Wall Monday, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The REAL Studio Tour – Storage

Posted on December 15, 2013 by katyquilts

Vicki at Field Trips in Fiber has been hosting a REAL studio tour link up. This week she asked and shared her ideas for storage. My favorite storage containers are vintage enamelware containers like this:

I collect all shapes and sizes but prefer the rectangular ones with lids.

I have a white cabinet where I store my studio dies.

The milk crate in there really helps. I need to add another for smaller dies. And this is how I store most of my fabric.

What a mess!

Check out the links at Vicki’s for some great storage ideas.

Posted in Accuquilt Studio Cutter, Sewing Room Pics, Storage, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Farmer’s Wife!

Posted on December 15, 2013 by katyquilts

I am finally going to make something for me. Instead of working on the Kansas Troubles blocks, I decided to pull out a UFO. Daughter #1 bought me the Farmer’s Wife book for Christmas 2 years ago. I never intended to make all the blocks. I want to hang this in my front hall and that would be way to big. I made 62 blocks and stopped there. Sure wish I could remember how I was going to lay it out!

I do know that I am going to use sashing and cornerstones. Trying to decide between 1″ finished and 1 1/2″ finished sashing.

I am leaning toward the narrower sashing. What do you think?

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Another finish!

Posted on December 14, 2013 by katyquilts

I got one more finish in last night before bed! It was a productive day. After I finished at sawtooth star baby quilt, I finished piecing the confetti quilt top and got it loaded on the frame.

I am using another new panto from Urban Elementz called Loop the Loop.