I have been enjoying some beautiful fall days here in Michigan! These are two of my lovely daughters. I have one more currently serving in Americorps and a wonderful son out in the Phoenix area finishing up automotive school.
I have gone back to work so the sewing/knitting/quilting has been cut back a bit. I did finish a quilt for my son last night and will post pics later today.
Until next time….
….the sacrifices made for our freedom.
May we all fight to the end to retain what was so valiantly won for us.
Long may she wave.
I haven’t forgotten the blog, it has just gotten set aside for a bit while life whizzes by. I have been out and about taking some pics lately though. Here are a few.
I see some inspiration in these. They are raw, no editing at all. I am saving that bit of fun for the middle of winter!
And I hate to say it again, but please do not lift these for your use. These images were taken and belong to me. Thanks!
Until next time…
….at Freckled Whimsy this week! I would love one of these! You can find the details here.
Good luck!
Until next time….
Seems all my baby quilts are a bit on the girly side! So this one is more boyish:
The stripe is from a new pillow sham I picked up at a thrift store. I really like stripes though I don’t use them often. This little zig zag is about as easy a quilt as you can make. Perfect for a beginning quilter or when you need to whip up something fast!
Until next time….
One blog I read pretty much every day is Exuberant Color. Wanda inspires me with the sheer volume of quilts she makes. Amazing! She is fearless with color and often uses batiks. I had a small stash of batiks but really haven’t used them much. She has inspired me to use up this portion of my stash. I mostly had fat quarters. So I pressed them and layered then and started cutting.
I started with this:
And now I am here:
My design wall is small so I hung up a flannel sheet. This will end up a twin size coverlet. I have some other bits and pieces to use but they are all cut into uniform sizes. I will probably buy a couple half yard pieces to use in a scrappy border as I only have small pieces left. I like that in some places there is high contrast and in other places everything blends together like a watercolor quilt.
My youngest daughter wants this when it is done…..we’ll see!
It does feel good to have cleared out a portion of my stash that has been sitting unused for a long time.
Until next time….
I am going to be doing a one day craft show this fall. So I have spent spare moments this summer making tote bags and baby quilts. Here is another one recently finished:
The quilt is really, truly square! I was being a lazy photographer :P.
I have been playing with some fast and easy ways to free motion quilt these. I am happy with the texture in this one:
Here is a shot of the back:
One technique I use to maximize the texture on the front of the quilt, is to use all pre-washed fabrics on the front and UNWASHED fabric on the back. Yes, I know, this breaks all the rules but the quilt police have never stopped by my house. The binding on this quilt was not pre-washed either and it is entirely applied by machine.
The fabrics are hand dyes I cooked up when learning to dye a rainbow using the terrific instruction provided by Melissa at Fabric Dyeing 101. If you are at all interested in learning to hand dye fabrics, you must read her blog! Such a generous person to share all her years of wisdom on the subject. This blog gave me the courage to finally take the plunge and try this.
Until next time….
If it is August in Michigan, it must be blueberry time! This is a typical blueberry farm in Michigan:
The bushes are much taller than I am. And here is the luscious fruit:
And this is what about 8 punds of blueberries looks like:
I will probably pick another 7-8 pounds and we will enjoy these all winter in blueberry pancakes and muffins. Yummy!
Until next time….
Recently, Lori at Humble Quilts had a blog give away and I was the lucky winner! It is the first time I won a give away and I was so excited….still am actually :). This is my great prize:
I have wanted this book for a long time so I was thrilled to win! Lori, being the generous person she is, also sent along this panel from the Sister’s Show:
Often I have a hard time cutting stuff like this up….I don’t know why. However, since I never attended this show, I didn’t feel any angst about cutting into this piece. I have some ideas cooking for this…..
Thanks again to Lori and if you haven’t yet visited Humble Quilts, get a cup of coffee and enjoy!
Until next time….
I have really enjoyed writing this little blog and have been contemplating certain aspects of this blog. Specifically, comments. I love getting comments as most bloggers do but at times, I am at a loss how to best respond to them.
Do I post a reply comment here on the blog itself?
Is it better to send an e-mail (if there is one)?
Visit the commenters blog and leave a return comment even though it may not have anything to do with thier current post?
I would love for this to be a bit more interactive but I need to figure out how.
I appreciate each and everyone that visits and would love to let you all know that! So today, I will send flowers:
Until next time….
KatyQuilts 
