KatyQuilts

Thankful Thursday!

Posted on December 5, 2013 by katyquilts

I have so much to be thankful for. Here are a few things:

A whole bolt of my favorite batting.

New thread for my long arm.

A color card from Glide.

The decorations my hubby puts up.

The reason Christmas is even celebrated.

The slippers my hubby bought me.

But today, my heart is so very full of thanks for this beautiful baby.

My daughter and her husband had their first ultrasound today. Baby Q is due in June.

That makes two grand babies in one year as my son and his wife are due on Valentines Day.

God is so very good.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Work in Progress Wednesday

Posted on December 4, 2013 by katyquilts

Getting a late start in blogging today. I worked until 9 last night and didn’t feel like sewing after that. I have decided that the next bed quilt I make will be for me! I will use these Kansas Troubles Wrapped in Paisley charms and layer cake.

I haven been working out my plan on EQ7.

And choosing my dies:

I also finished the last two dog beds.

I put a bed pillow inside Lucy’s just to get an idea of how it will look when filled. Here is Bambi and Daughter #2:

And here is silly Lucy:

Now I am off to work again until 9 tonight.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

A tiny finish!

Posted on December 3, 2013 by katyquilts

My first finish for December!

And a peak at the back:

I had great fun sneaking in this little quilt for the SQT challenge. I have had this border print scrap for ages and I just love it in this little quilt.

I also got the fleece for the next two dog beds quilted.

I used black thread but the stitches sunk in so much, you can hardly tell!

Daughter #1 and I went to the antique mall. I loved this sampler:

And I nearly brought this top home:

After dinner, Daughter #3 and I made some paper ornaments for our foyer tree.

She made the adorable origami dresses. The map circles represent places that are near and dear to us.

My Christmas decorating is done but my projects are not. Hope you have a productive day! BTW, I am linking up with Connie for:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Crafty Things, Doll Quilts, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Design Wall Monday

Posted on December 2, 2013 by katyquilts

I hope you all had a great weekend! So sorry to have it end. Now onto to Christmas. But first, a wee little me project.

The challenge for the Small Quilt Talk group this month is to make something with little sawtooth star blocks. Kathy posted a pattern for 5″ blocks. As you know, I am always changing things so I can use my studio die cutter. So my blocks will be 4″ finished size. They don’t currently make a 1″ finished HST die for the studio so it purchased the GO! die and an adaptor so I can use it with my cutter. I am happy to say my first star is darn near perfect!

Here is one of the finished dog beds, it has a zipper so I can fill it and obviously, I haven’t done that yet.

This one will be for this guy.

I also finished one for this girl.

The fleece for the next two are embroidered and on the frame.

I am linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for DWM. Go see what others are working on today. Time to get to work! Have a great day!

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Design Wall Monday, Doll Quilts, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Slow Stitching Sunday

Posted on December 1, 2013 by katyquilts

I am finally starting some Christmas sewing. I got two of the dog beds finished yesterday and have two more to go. Yesterday, I showed the quilting on the front and this is the bottom:

I decided a simple meander would be fast and wouldn’t compete with the plaid.

I also got out this kit that I have been saving.

Remember these? I had one when I was a kid and I made them for my kids when they were small. Now they are hugely popular again. I thought I would make them for my upcoming grand babies. If you are squeamish, look away now!

A whole box full of monkey parts!

They are all ready for the hand sewing that I hope to do today.

I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday. Click on over to see what others are stitching today.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Quilting on fleece

Posted on November 30, 2013 by katyquilts

I wanted to try quilting on fleece. I did not want another practice piece laying around though. So I decided to make dog beds. This is actually a forest green fleece.

First I embroidered her name and the layered with cheap muslin and poly batting and started playing with freehand quilting.

My husband picked up a couple cheap fleece blankets that I am using. I love the look so far. I think I can do one large and one small bed out of these two blankets. I will add zippers so they can be emptied and washed. My daughter said she saw on Pinterest that someone used old t shirts to fill them. Such a great idea! Makes it easy to wash.

I also finished my piecing my star blocks yesterday.

These are 8″ blocks.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Posted in Free Motion Quilting, HQ Avante, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Thankful

Posted on November 29, 2013 by katyquilts

I had such a wonderful Thanksgiving! Daughter #1 cooked her first turkey Wednesday night and hosted our Thanksgiving dinner with help from Daughter #3. It was lovely!

Yesterday, hubby and I spent the day at home with Daughter #3 and the dogs with a brief visit from Daughter #1, SIL, and the grand dog. These silly dogs know my hubby is always good for treats!

I made a small roast but most of the day was spent lounging by the fire.

We watched football, ate snacks, played games, and spent a tiny bit of time sewing.

I am using up the scraps from the 16 patch wedding quilt I recently finished. I thought this would make a nice gender neutral baby quilt to have on hand for a gift.

I did just a bit of online shopping for long arm thread. If you like Glide and Magna-glide bobbins, Fil-Tec has a great deal now through Monday. It is 10% off everything and free shipping with orders over $35. Not hard to do that! They also have thread and stabilizers for machine embroiderers.

I am working this afternoon and I am very thankful for my job. However, I admit that I wish I could have another day just like yesterday at home with my family!

I am linking up with Sarah today.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 28, 2013 by katyquilts

I have so very much to be thankful for! Here are a few things:
My wonderful hubby!
My kids!

Our military men and women.

My home.

And just for fun, I have been playing with an app on my phone:

And a final thought:

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

A finish!

Posted on November 27, 2013 by katyquilts

I am happy to say that I got the QOV I was working on bound and washed yesterday. And here it is!

The credit it for this design goes to Mary at Making Stash Quilts from Stash. She had recently posted this design that she created in EQ. I tweaked it a bit for my quilt but as soon as I saw her design, I knew it was perfect for this quilt.
And just for fun, here is the matching one I made earlier.

I wanted the designs to coordinate without being the same and wanted to use the Army fabric in each.

I will finish the cases and labels this weekend. They will be presented to two brothers who both served in the Army in Iraq.

And my WIP for today?

Getting this label on.

And making green bean casserole. My daughter is cooking Thanksgiving dinner at her house to night! I can’t wait until work is over and I can get there!

We have so much to be thankful for. She and our SIL got to hear their baby’s heart beat for the first time yesterday!

God is so good.

Posted in Quilt of Valor, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Dye running update

Posted on November 26, 2013 by katyquilts

Remember last week when I washed a finished quilt and the red dye ran? I was baffled by this as I had used the same fabrics before without trouble….or so I thought….

I went to label this QOV and decided to take a closer look in bright light.

You guessed it, the colors ran there too. Thankfully it was not NEAR as bad but I wanted it perfect.

So I washed this again with one addition to the Dawn Dish Soap and color catchers. I dissolved a few tablespoons of Oxy-Clean in some water and added that through the detergent dispenser of my front loading washer.

Success on the first time through! I wanted to add this update as I think the Oxy-Clean really helped and I would definitely do this again. I do think it was important to dissolve the powdered Oxy-Clean in water before adding it to the washer.

Hope this helps someone out there! Now I can get back to labeling this quilt. Especially since my state coordinator is going to present it to a vet on Saturday! I cannot tell you how happy I am that I am not cutting bits for a rush quilt right now.

Happy Tuesday to you!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments