A Few Interesting Blogs I have found…..

Posted on February 25, 2010 by katyquilts

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…..

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You just never know….

Posted on February 24, 2010 by katyquilts

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…

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What I worked on this weekend….

Posted on February 23, 2010 by katyquilts

I actually got some sewing in. Yayyyyy me!  First I finished this baby quilt:

These are hand dyed fabrics. They are actually a bit brighter than this pic shows. I wanted to make an interlocking design and this was the simplest thing I could come up with. It measures about 30″ x 40″.  Here is the back:

The back was actually a commercially printed fabric but it sure does a great impression of hand dyed!

I also finished my first pair of toe-up socks:

Okay, these are not so earth shattering. They are basic utilitarian socks. I am happy because I learned to make toe up socks with a no wrap short row heel.  They fit and I used every inch of the two skeins I used, which was the reason I wanted to learn this method!

I also worked a bit more on this block that I posted a while back. I decided to make a traditional medallion quilt using the scraps I had cut earlier.

I am not sure about the squares on point for the next round. I may have to rethink that. Otherwise, I like what is sewn thus far.

I will get back to the more “art” quilt style soon. I have some ideas percolating but also a very busy week ahead so we shall see!

Until next time….

Posted in Baby Quilts, Hand Dyed Fabric, Socks, Traditional | 2 Comments

A Late Valentine…..

Posted on February 23, 2010 by katyquilts

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!

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A Finish…..finally…..

Posted on February 12, 2010 by katyquilts

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!

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Ribbons :)

Posted on February 1, 2010 by katyquilts

Hi all,

I really am trying to get back into blogging. I enjoy it and it keeps me accountable, if only to myself, for what I am accomplishing artwise. Last weekend was the annual North East Arts Council Quilt Show in Standish, Michigan. This is not a huge show but it is always very nicely done. The Arts Council Headquarters is an old brick church and makes a great site for a quilt show. This is a low pressure show that I enter just for fun. They hang all quilts they get as long as they have room. The only thing I don’t like about this  show is that they they have really odd size stipulations for categories in this show. Their sizes are based mostly on size of the quilt and my quilts rarely have “normal” dimensions. So I end up searching for quilts that fit rather than choosing them based on what I would most like to show. Anyway, I took home 5 ribbons this year, one for every quilt i entered :). Though this is not a big show and they tend to prefer very traditional stuff, it still makes me happy.

Here is one that took a blue ribbon for small wall quilt, all machine, pieced:

It is based on the design of a labyrinth in the floor of a French Cathedral. I love labyrinths! I also took the second place in the same category with this:

I call this one, “What Four?” My son came up with the name. It was supposed to be chairs (imagine this upside down!) but my son saw it laying over the back of a chair and said they looked like fours and gave it the name. Pretty clever guy! I liked it and so this is now right side up! I prefer it to the one above but I won’t complain :).

I am off to class now. I will show pics of the others tomorrow. Until next time….

Posted in Contests, Traditional | 2 Comments

A few WIPs….

Posted on January 31, 2010 by katyquilts

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…..

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Remember me? Remember when?

Posted on January 29, 2010 by katyquilts

It has certainly been a VERY long time! Remember when I posted some ugly fabrics from an experimental dyeing session? Maybe this will jog your memory (if not scare you away!):

I had a blog giveaway for three pieces like this. I sent one to Patti, one to Carole, and I was unable to contact the other person so just today, I used it myself!  Here are the results. First, Patti’s piece called Reeds:

Here is Carole’s piece called Lost Ball:

Aren’t they  beautiful? Finally, here is mine: 

This measures approx. 12″ x 18″. I haven’t finished the edges yet. I was going to use a facing but since the edges of the pieces are all raw, I am trying to come up with a more “raw” finish to the edges. I may just topstitch close to the edge and call it good. Any ideas?

After a long break, it is good to be creating again :).

Until next time…..

Posted in Give AwayChallenge, Hand Dyed Fabric | 6 Comments

What I have been up to……

Posted on November 14, 2009 by katyquilts

A little of this and a little of that! Mostly this:

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and a bit of this:

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This is the best bread I have ever made! It was from a French bread recipe but I didn’t let the crust get too crusty. We like it soft :).

And finally, I managed to get this pittle piece quilted last week:

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Here is a close up of the quilting:

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I liked the way it has turned out so far. I still need to finish the edges and I intend to do this with a facing. Click on the “Tutorials” link on the side  if you are interested in my facing tutorial.

Back to a movie and my sock knitting! Until next time…

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Sock Knitting – After thought heel

Posted on November 11, 2009 by katyquilts

I got a new sock knitting book! Here it is:

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This book had an interesting idea called an “After thought heel.” The idea is that you knit a tube but use a piece of waste yarn where the heels goes and then come back and knit the heel later. I like this idea. I would like to try a sock with a pattern and I think it would be easier to do if I only had to think about the pattern and not the heel at the same time. So I decided to try this out. This is what it looks like when you knit across the number of stitches you need for your heel with saste yarn and then knit across these same stitches with the regular yarn to make your tube:

 

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Then you insert your needle in the stitches on one side like this:

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Next you begin to pull out the waste yarn (red) and pick up stitches on another needle like this:

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When you have pulled out all the waste yarn and picked up the live stitches, you can knit in the heel and end up with something like this (depending of course on how you knit your heels):

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I need more practice on this. The heel I did required the dreaded Kitchener stitch that I also need to practice. I think I like this plan though. It is definitely worth working on. It would allow me to work mindless rounds anywhere and focus on the harder parts when I am home and can concentrate.

JoAnn’s had a great sale on sock yarn and then I got an extra 20% off coupon. So this is actually the FIRST time I bought actual sock yarn for knitting socks! I was always freaked out about using wool but thanks to some encouragement from Melody at Fibermania, I decided to take the plunge!

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Thanks Mel! Here is the first pair I started using Deborah Norville’s Serenity which is a blend of merino wool, bamboo, and nylon:

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As you can see I have a very long way to go! It takes a while on size 2 dpns! Whew! I think that is about enough for one post! Until next time….

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