KatyQuilts

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Spring 2010!

Posted on May 21, 2010 by katyquilts

Amy over at Amy’s Creative Side is the founder of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. This is an opportunity for bloggers to share one special quilt and the story behind it.

Click on the link above to see all the participating bloggers. Get your coffee first, you will be there a while!

And here is one of my favorite quilts. I call it “Remember Me”:

I apologize for not having a full on shot but I can’t move that piano! This quilt is the first major hand pieced quilt I made. I tried to use all reproduction fabrics but they were a bit harder to find back in 1996! I fell in love with hand piecing while making this and have made numerous hexagon quilts since then. I do not use English paper piecing, I rotary cut my pieces using a plexiglas template and mark each seam line in pencil on the back. I carried pieces of this everywhere while making it and found I could make one flower between my house and the grocery store if my hubby was driving :). The border is hand appliqued and the buds are three dimensional. The applique in the four corners are a pineapple to represent hospitality, a flower pot to represent beauty, a bird for freedom, and grapes for flavor! This quilt is also hand quilted so I know it is one of my older pieces, I haven’t hand quilted in ages now. Here are some detail shots:

Join in the fun of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival and share the story of one of your favorite quilts!

Until next time….

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Windows from the Village

Posted on May 18, 2010 by katyquilts

I found the different windows at greenfield Village to be fascinating for some reason. Maybe I wonder how many people looked through them and wonder what they saw. Anyway, here are some pics of windows:

: From the blacksmith shop

No, I don’t yet know what I will do with these but just looking at them makes me happy :).

Until next time…

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Sewing related pics from Greenfield Village

Posted on May 17, 2010 by katyquilts

As promised here are some sewing and even knitting pics from the Village.

Lovely silk threadOne of many lovely quilts and rugsHandpiecing hexagons!Beautiful hooked rug in the Noah Webster HousePenny rug from the Noah Webster houseLinsey Woolsy Quilt

I could have taken many more pics but I often forget I am holding my camera in my hand! More to come…

Until next time…

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Greenfield Village

Posted on May 15, 2010 by katyquilts

Today was a lovely day here in Michigan even if it was a touch cool. My husband and youngest daughter and I all spent the day at Greenfield Village in Dearborn. This village was created by Henry Ford along with the Henry Ford museum back in the 30s. The village has many buildings that were either recreated or actually moved to the site. These were all places Ford thought were important to American history such as Edison’s lab from Menlo Park, McGuffeys birthplace, the Firestone Farmhouse etc. We bought a family pass this year which means we can go as often as we like. Good thing, we didn’t get too far today! Here are a few pics to give you a flavor of the place:

The Original Heinz Family Home

The Park Train

Crucibles from Edisons lab

Chemicals from Edisons Lab- Love the colors!

Edison's Lab

Boarding House for Edison's workers

Dutch Windmill rebuilt on site

Cotswold Cottage

All the houses are open and have guides in period dress. There were many more houses/buildings and if you are ever in the Detroit area, I HIGHLY recommend a visit to the Museum and Village. Just be warned, you cannot do both in a day! I can’t wait to go back. Tomorrow I will share some interesting sewing related pics from our day trip.

Until next time….

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A little of this and a little of that….

Posted on May 13, 2010 by katyquilts

…is about all I have gotten done the last few weeks! Today I sent my lovely oldest daughter off to India for three weeks for a study abroad class. I will miss her but I know this is one more step into her destiny and God will take care of her.

I bought a packet of charm squares at a quilt shop last week. I started making a lap quilt:

Hmmmm….its okay…..a bit boring. Whatever…. Then I decided to pull out my basket of solid scraps.

I had a number of strips in there of various sizes and widths and I decided to just randomly sew them together and see what happened when I put different colors together.

Ahhh….now this is much more fun and interesting! I am fascinated with how the same color can look so different depending on who its neighbor is. I made a bunch more random strip sets today. I am enjoying this so far, have no idea where I am headed with it or how big it will be. I have found since I started this that I have spent less time online and more time sewing…..definitely a step in the right direction! I also have ideas for more pieces….maybe this will be a series or maybe it is a continuation of past series. All I know is, this is getting fun again.

Until next time…

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Another baby quilt in the works…

Posted on May 5, 2010 by katyquilts

Life has been more than a little stressful lately. I decided I needed to get back into the sewing room for a low stress project. I started with this stripe I bought at least 5 years ago:

I lined up the stripes as carefully as I could and cut quarter square triangles and made these:

I probably had enough for a lap quilt but since I gave away all my baby quilts, I need a few of those on hand. So I decided I could make a way to stretch these into two baby quilts. I could divide into ten blocks a piece like this:

Or this:

Or maybe the first one will only have 9 blocks like this:

Hmmm…..maybe this:

Or this:

I like that one better but this is what I ended up with:

I added 2 1/2″ white strips around each, log cabin style, and then trimmed them to 9 1/2″. I will add a plain white border and then use some strip for the binding.The colors are more dark purple and teal than it shows here on my monitor.

I think I like this. Now what to do with those other 11 blocks?

Until next time….

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A finish!

Posted on April 28, 2010 by katyquilts

Despite dealing with a lovely cold my husband so kindly shared with me, I did actually finish something this week! Yesterday I put the top together and quilted this baby quilt. I usually pre-wash everything but the green fabrics for this were purchased as a roll of fat eighths. I hate washing tiny pieces so I decided to use unwashed bleached muslin as well and go for it. One thing I do like about this is the shrinkage you get when it is washed after quilting. This is before:

And this is after washing:

Maybe you can see the shrinkage better here:

The binding is entirely done by machine. This has caused me some problems in the past….I have had the edges ripple because the binding didn’t want to shrink as much as the rest. I think this may be due to the top stitching I was doing. This time I decided to use a narrow zig zag instead of a straight stitch for the final stitching and it worked great! No rippling at all. For a baby quilt, I really like the idea of a totally machine stitched binding. That baby won’t care! I will definitely do that again.

In case you are interested, the center rectangles were cut 5″ x 8 1/2″ and the strips surrounding them were cut at 2 1/2″ wide. I didn’t have a pattern for this, you really don’t need one. I just had an idea in my head and wanted to use the fat eighths I had as efficiently as possible. I just have a few scraps left. I didn’t want to keep track of pre-washed and un washed scraps so I either use it all up or throw them out! I ended up with very little waste. The finished quilt measures approx. 32″ by 48.”

Until next time….

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Where have I been?

Posted on April 26, 2010 by katyquilts

Last week was all about finishing projects, papers, and presentations. I have one more class and a final today and should be studying…..but am I? Well, yes, in between reading interesting stuff on the web and writing a blog post….thinking about dinner….

Anyway, this is all I accomplished this past week. Finished a pair of socks that had been languishing since February!

Starting a new pair:

Starting a very easy baby quilt:

These blocks may get cut up and rearranged yet……Anyway, I also started reading this book:

Frank Peretti is one of my favorite authors/thinkers. This is a great read and I highly recommend any and all of his books.

Back to studying. Until next time…..

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And the winner is……..

Posted on April 19, 2010 by katyquilts

……..drumroll in the background…….

Kathy Angel Lee! I will e-mail you shortly to get your mailing info! DH pulled your name out of the hat and your gift is being prepared!

Thanks to all who have visited and left comments in my 100th Blog Post Give-away. It has been a tough week with lots going on and I so enjoyed each and every comment! Also, Kathy makes the most beautiful quilts, please treat yourself to a visit to her website by clicking on her name above.

And now because every post should have a picture:

This is a recently finished piece that I call “Latitude.” I have entered it into a local art show and will find out this week if it has been juried in. While you might not get this by looking at it, this piece is about relationships and how much “latitude” we have with those around us.

Until next time……

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A bit more of spring….

Posted on April 18, 2010 by katyquilts

…..because after a Michigan winter I cannot get enough of it! But first, don’t forget that the drawing formy 100th post give-away happens tomorrow so leave scroll down for details. Now onto the beauty that is spring!