the Special Quilt

A special quilt for a special lady.  We have a lady, Bea, who always attends Sew Fest with her sister, Mary.  Bea does not sew.  It’s not that she doesn’t know how, she just doesn’t care for it.  Bea comes and helps everyone with cutting strips, fussy cutting embroidered squares, putting blocks up on the design wall for quilt layouts, etc….  This year we decided we’d give Bea a special project.  Mary chose a ‘focus fabric’ and sent a fat quarter to everyone who would be attending Sew Fest with the challenge to make as many quilt blocks using coordinating fabric as they could.  Bea’s challenge was to take the various blocks and create a quilt layout.  What Bea didn’t know was that she would then receive the quilt..  Here is her layout:

Bea entrusted me to bring her quilt home and quilt it.  What a challenge that would be.  I procrastinated and finally decided to simply put it on the frame and get started.  Because of the variety of colors and the busyness of the focus fabric, I chose to use clear monofilament thread.  Each of the 4 corners is the same block pattern done in different fabrics.  Those are the only blocks that are quilted the same.  Each block was quilted differently.  I will show a couple pictures of the quilting, but honestly, with using the monofilament thread the quilting doesn’t show up so well.  But, I am happy with the quilting I did on this and I’m confident that Bea will love her quilt.

And of course, a special quilt required a special label….

So, that’s what I’ve done this week.  Next week will be devoted to more quilting.  I need to get the Sew Fest quilts that I brought home quilted and sent out to the Army hospital who is this year’s recipient of the Patriotic quilts.

Hope everyone has a terrific week,

Katie

My fears

I have a great dislike of spiders.  I don’t even want to see pictures of them.  They simply give me the creeps.  But I have a real fear of tarantulas and living in AZ, we have tarantulas!  Last evening after a shower earlier in the day, I was walking through my husband’s shop and yep, you guessed it, there was a tarantula.  I screamed, climbed up on his quad (ATV) and would have been if the rafters if there had been a way to get there.  He took his foot to push this ‘monster’ out the door and I headed into the house at a dead run.  I still have a hard time believing I have this type of reaction – I cry, I hyperventilate, the heart goes 90 miles an hour – it’s really terrible!  Now the clincher – I can look at those furry critters through glass at the Desert Museum, I can look at pictures and have even taken a few pictures of them.  My darling grandsons thought it was quite hysterical when they lifted the top off a container to show me a dead one they had ‘collected’ and I ran into the house.  But all those times, the tarantula was not moving.  That’s my phobia, I can’t handle it if they move!  Anyway, I’ve lived in this house for 35 years and only had to deal with this type of reaction twice… I still don’t like it!
Okay, so you didn’t expect that type of post from a quilting blog… sorry, but I really needed to get that out.
Today (I think) will be spent getting a quilt on the frame and start my quilting.  I wrote a mystery (quilt) for Sew Fest and I want to get my quilt quilted.  Here’s a picture of some from Sew Fest:
I wanted to show how the different fabrics can ‘alter’ the look of the quilt.  That’s me on the right with my green quilt.  You can see the bottom right corner is dark.  Each of the four corners of this quilt is dark.  Here’s the EQ mock up:
I designed this in red, white and blue as it was a project for Sew Fest, but I did not want the ladies to feel they ‘needed’ to make it in those colors so when I wrote the ‘clues’ I indicated light, medium and dark.  I revealed the name of this quilt at Sew Fest – Four Corners.  I chose this as the members of Quilters for Comfort come from the four corners of the U. S.   There was quite a bit of conversation over all the flying geese units in this quilt… There were 160 flying geese units.  But as I explained to the ladies – I designed, then I started writing the clues and I was making this quilt along with them.  I had not premade this quilt….  Everyone was making this mystery quilt - some worked a little on their blocks, a couple finished their quilt top and then, as you can see, some just started their assembly.  This was the last day of Sew Fest and the other ladies had already packed up their supplies.  I’m hoping they will all send me pictures of their completed quilts.
So that’s it for today.  I’m hoping with all the extreme heat that seems to be enveloping the U.S, that everyone is drinking lots of fluids and able to stay as cool as possible….
Katie

And what a week it was!

Thought it only right to start this post with a picture!  This is a small sampling of what was accomplished.  These are not finished quilts as yet.  We made quilt tops and those will be sent out to various quilters to finish and then send on to their destination.

What a great week I had.  This retreat is Quilting on the Rim located in the White Mountains of Arizona.  The owner Barb and her hubby, Denny treated us all like royalty.  They welcomed us into their home with open arms and made us feel like long lost friends and family.  I can hardly wait to go back and YES, I will go back.  Quilters for Comfort Sew Fest started traveling to different places a few years ago.  Sew Fest was held in Kansas City, KS for it’s first 3 years at a hotel and conference center.  We then decided we’d like to try a retreat setting and found it was much more relaxing and, surprisingly, more economical! 

Okay, so on to pictures! 

		Sew Fest 2013 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

One of the fun things about sewing with a group is the working together to complete a quilt – “what fabric should I use as the borders?” “Gee, should I add a second border?”  “ I wonder if I should make mitered corners?”  and on it goes.  That little furry critter curled up is Lily, Barb & Denny’s little terrier.  What a sweet fur baby!  I really wanted to bring her home, but she really loves her mom and dad……

I will cut this post short as I really could go on and on and on and, well, you get the idea   I will be spending the next couple weeks quilting.  I brought home 6 specifically assigned to me and 13 more ‘kits’ to send out if others from the group ask for them, if not… I’ll be doing a whole lot of quilting …

Katie

Heading out….

I’ll be heading out in the morning to join up with 7 other wonderful ladies for a week of sewing, laughter and just plain enjoyment.  I will pack up my truck this afternoon and I know it will be so hard for me to NOT jump in and take off until tomorrow morning.  I will have stories to tell and pictures to show when I get back, so stay posted

Katie

A very Happy 4th of July to all

I couldn't think of a better way to wish you all a Happy Independence Day than to show a few pictures of some of the quilts made at the last Sew Fest I attended.  We hung the quilts on a line outside and it was very rewarding to see people slow down and look as they drove by.  I thought afterwards that maybe we should have a put a sign out "quilt show" :-)

Please have a safe and happy day,

Katie

So sorry….

I signed up for the Stamp on It blog hop and yesterday was my day.  I had my stamp done and the blog post written weeks ago and unfortunately, I used the ‘set post date’ and guess I messed something up there.  Consequently I was late with my post.  It did get it posted on the right day just not the right time….  I apologize to those who came looking and did not see…

Katie

Stamp on it Blog Hop

Hello, today is my day for The Stamp on It Blog Hop.  I really would like to thank Thearica Burroughs from Pig tales and Quilts for being our cheerleader and great scheduler.  Also a big Thank You to Madam Samm at Sew We Quilt for getting these hops organized.

When I signed up for this hop, I knew what I wanted to do.  I wanted to represent the state I live in – Arizona USA.  I love, love to make fabric postcards and just knew that’s the size my stamp would be.  So much for what I know!  I didn’t want my stamp to be cluttered so it grew!  My finished stamp is 12” square.  So without further ado, here it is:

As I was looking for fabric as my background, I knew I wanted to show the colors of Arizona.  This fabric jumped out at me.  The Arizona sunsets are spectacular!  The bright pinks and oranges just light up the sky.  Most people think of Arizona as desert.  Well, yes we do have the desert, but we also have mountains, forests and lakes.  So the blue represent the water that reflects the clear skies of Arizona.  And the cactus abound here, therefore, I had to have a Saguaro.  The howling coyote could not be left out.  I hear them almost nightly where I live (which is very rural).  And, of course, what would the desert be without the road runner?!  They really are a little comical to watch.  And the embroidered image?  That represents the legends of the cowboys.  We are a western state and deep in cowboy history and tales of the wild west.  And how did I come up with .48 cents for the postage?  Because Arizona is the 48th state in the United States. 

I really enjoyed making this stamp and displaying a little of what I feel represents Arizona.    I hope you will take the time to visit the other blogs on today’s schedule:

Sew and Sow Farm 
fishkopp
Scraps of Life
Meadowbrook
Katie and Kwilts  * This is me!*
Em's Scrap Bag
GrammieQ's
How ART you?
BumbleberryStitches
A Stitch in Time

Enjoy,

Katie