KatyQuilts

My son is a Trans Am fanatic. His first TA was a 1995 and he now drives a 1977. A few months ago, he sent me a link to a picture from one of the Trans Am forums showing a quilt with a Firebird appliqued on it. He came home for Christmas with a Year One catalog (for Trans Am and Camaro parts)  to show me the appropriate bird for a ’77 TA…….

I highly doubt he will look at my blog so I will post my progress here:

Sorry about the plant in the way! I appliqued this using Teri Grant’s method using Liquid Thread, a fusible glue. It was a LOT of work to get to this point and I haven’t even started stitching yet! I am thinking this won’t be done in time for his birthday next week…..

So I guess it will be a graduation gift. He is currently in school for Automotive Technology at UTI in Phoenix. I am going to see him next week. Time to start packing my projects to take but sadly, this wont be one of them.

BTW, if anyone knows any good quilt/yarn shops in the Phoenix area, let me know!

Until next time…

I love reading blogs! Here are a few I have enjoyed recently:

Bumble Beans – great funky stuff here!

Simply Robin– beautiful art quilts!

Attic 24 – mostly crochet but beautiful color and yummy ideas!

Inspired by Antique Quilts – just what it says!

Sew Many Ways – lots of clever ideas for stuff you find in the hardware store!

Repro Quilt Lover – again, just what it sounds like!

Exuberant Color – wonderful, fresh, full of bright colors!

Fibermania – breathtaking art quilts, hand dyed fabric, luscious knitting!

As you can see, I like a wide variety of quilting styles. I love art quilts. I love traditional quilts. And pretty much everything in between!  I will post more faves at another time. You probably have something to do today besides reading blogs!

What kind of blogs do you enjoy?

Until next time…..

My daughter and I made this quilt together a few years ago (sorry about the terrible photo). It was just a fun thing to do together. She pieced the blocks with some help and I machine quilted it doing random free motion work in each piece. It is based on the Turning Twenty patterns though not exactly as I never had the pattern. I saw a picture and came up with my own measurements.   It doesn’t match her room at all. She really hasn’t used it. I was recently cleaning the linen closet and wondered what to do with it as it was just taking up space. 

Then my niece’s house burned down. She and her room mates lost everything but they are all okay. That is the most important thing!  She is a college student so everything to her is different than everything to a couple that has been married forty years but still. She is a good 600 miles from me. Then I thought of this quilt. It was perfect, unused, ready to go. I had it in the mail the next day along with all the school supplies I could fit in the box.

I was so glad it had been sitting in my closet. You just never know when these things will come in handy. I can’t imagine losing everything I own but it does remind me that the stuff that is most important in life, isn’t stuff.

Until next time…

I made this a few years ago and try to remember to hang it for Valentines Day. This year, I remembered! The pattern was from a magazine, not sure which one, but it was supposed to be shadow applique. I hand stitched it as redwork instead. It is machine quilted and about 20 inches square.

Hope your Valentine’s Day was wonderful!

Though not a huge one, it is a victory of sorts that I can finally say I did in fact finish something! Here is the little quilt all quilted:

I stipple quilted it all over and realized in the process how out of practice I am! Yikes? I also recently finished my first pair of socks made from merino/bamboo blend ysock yarn:

Thanks to Melody for her encouragement on this! They fit pretty well, just a touch big. They are warm and not the least bit scratchy!

Last weekend, we went to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. I love that place and had not been there in a while. I picked up this  treasure:

Lots of lovely pictures in this book, all very traditional. While we were down that way, DH spotted a Tuesday Morning. I love that store and ours closed last summer. This is what I scored there:

The yarn is a yummy organic cotton and  you can see here, I have started my first toe up sock! I am really happy with how the toe looks. This is much better than doing the dreaded Kitchener stitch! However, I am withholding complete judgement until I get the heel done. I do love the traditional heel/gusset on the top down socks. But I have always wanted to try toe up socks because I love the thought of using up every inch of yarn :). I plan to knit on this sock until I run out and start a new skein for the second sock. 

I also knitted some mittens last weekend:

And I made one block from the scraps I have been trying to get under control:

I am not sure what this will become yet but I like it so far. Until next time!

Confession time…….I am truly a schizophrenic quilter……

I LOVE LOVE LOVE art quilts. But, I LOVE LOVE LOVE traditional quilts too. But mostly those made to look very old. Think repro fabrics… I am not too big on much in between these two extremes.

Weird. I know….

Anyway, I have been away from sewing for quite some time and seem to have lost my creative mojo.  In recent weeks, I have been reading a lot of blogs in an attempt to find some inspiration! I was particularly drawn to the scrap busting sites. I have had several bins of scraps that I have not touched in years. I thought taming them might lead to some inspiration…..I went through three good size bins and using my Marti Michell templates, I cut them into usable sizes and shapes.

Last weekend, I finally started sewing again. Granted these are bits and pieces, no where near finished. But hey, I dusted off the machine! First is a 30s baby quilt sans the borders:

Next I used a charm pack of repro madder prints to make this doll quilt top:

I need to add borders yet to this as well. It feels good to sew again. Now that I have cut up scraps, when I don’t know what to do, I can do some mindless piecing and eventually I will have SOMETHING done!

Until next time…..