no quilting

Got some sewing done, but nothing quilt related.   I wanted to make a bag.  Sort of like a cosmetic bag shape – but bigger.  Spent a couple days figuring out a size I’d like, drafting the pattern and then sewing it together:

I really like  the fabrics I chose.  I used a fusible fleece on the outside fabric and a medium weight fusible interfacing on the lining.  I like the firmness of the bag with the exception of the top.  It tends to want to sag in.  I’m thinking if I make this again, I will figure out a way to insert small tubing in the curved seam lines.   And now that it’s done, I’m not sure how I’ll use it….

Then I came across this a while back when reading quilting blogs.  And while I was in a creative mood decided to give it a go:

I liked the little pockets across the belly.  To give it some stability I used the poly beads in the bottom.  I made a little pouch – sort of like a bean bag – to keep the beads from shifting.  The white yarn I added to be able to close the wings:

I didn’t get the wings positioned quite right, so they’re a little ‘funky’.  I’ve decided this is a little guy and will be my sewing buddy.  He makes me smile…..

Maybe this week, I’ll work on some quilting stuff…..

Katie

Left overs and orphans

Before I cut fabric to make a quilt, I always try the pattern first using scraps.  Therefore, I have orphans.  And then there is the figuring out if I’ve cut the right size.  Sometimes when  I’m working out a new technique that I’ve seen or a new block, I try to figure it out on my own and end up with odd size units.  Or, I will make too many of one unit and have the left overs.  So what to do with these?  Now I love scrappy quilts but most of the time these orphans and left overs are so different in colors, not to mention sizes and shapes, a quilt would simply look junky (in my opinion) if I put them all together. I decided to put a backing on the frame, use my scraps of batting and just lay these units and blocks down and quilt.  It gave me an opportunity to play with some quilting designs, too…

The ones down the left hand side I added some Insulbright batt to them and I’m using them as hot pads in the kitchen.  The blue/pink has embroidery on it and I thought it was too pretty to be used as a hot pad, so it went into my bath to add a touch of color.  The pink/green pieces I’m using as runners – as well as the small squares piece on the bottom.  The smaller unit pieces I’m using as coasters.  I have quite a few more leftovers and orphans but these are what fit on the piece of fabric I used for backing.  The larger pieces I did use a binding to finish the edges, on the coasters, I used a satin stitch around the edges.  A bit of a tip here:  I like to use a stabilizer when doing satin stitch around the edges.  I have the embroidery machine so I have used tear-away and water soluable stablizers.  I think the pieces simply feed through the machine better..

So, what do you do with your left overs and orphans???

Katie

If you like pictures…..

I know many times a picture is what draws me in to read a blog.  I love seeing what others are creating.  There is so much talent in the world and I am so bad about sharing pictures – shame on me. 

In my last post I told you about the quilts I received from Barb J.  Here’s a small sampling of those quilt that need to be completed:

		Samplings VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I’m assuming that the Horse head center, the strip and the jelly roll quilt tops were done by Barb herself.  You can see from the others how rough the edges are.  Here is a before and after of one of the quilts I bordered and finished:

There was several different chicken print fabrics in this quilt and I just happen to have that chicken fabric in my stash so it worked out really well.  I did just a simple quilting on this and I like that it gave a bit of texture to the quilt.

On the QFC front, I’ve been receiving Preemie blankets from some of the ladies.  Here’s a sampling (with a couple close ups) of those:

		Preemie blankets VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

These little blankets measure 14” X 19”.  Just enough to cover those tiny babies and help keep them warm.  Whenever I make one of these, I think of what a parent might be going through with having a baby so very small fighting for it’s life.  I hope the little quilt/blanket gives that parent a bit of a smile and I say a quick little prayer for the health of the child who the quilt will cover….

And… Pillowcases – a few of these have been sent out, too:

These were made from the kits that Barb J. put together.  And these:

are from fabrics I had in my stash…

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  Now let’s see if I can remember to take (and post) pictures more often…

Katie

Happy Day

It’s been a while since I blogged.  Lately it seems like I’ve been meeting myself coming as I’m going.  I did get some finishes:

I know, not the best pictures with the sunlight hitting them directly.  When I first hung them up, it was cloudy.  Naturally, by the time I started snapping pictures, here was the sun… These tops were made by June F. (QFC member). 

My niece has finally moved down here to Prescott (from WA) to help her mom, so there is not going to be as much running back and forth to help the sister-in-law now.  Niece is not in the best of health either, but her just being here seems to help. 

I spent last week in CA at Disneyland with my son and family.  Always a good time but I’m thinking I’ll be getting up close and personal with my orthopedic doctor soon.  I’ve had my left knee giving me fits for a couple years now whenever I do extended walking and this time at Disney was the worst.  Time to get it fixed (if it can be fixed) so I’m ready for next year!

Met up with a QFC member in Phoenix.  She was in from Las Vegas for the weekend and due to health issues has had to curtail some of her sewing.  She brought me almost 100 quilt tops to distribute among the QFC group for finishing.  Some are roughly done due to having been done through a community service project, but all are usable.  She also had fabric put together to make pillowcases, which is another QFC project.  I felt like I hit the jackpot for QFC !  A big THANK YOU goes out to Barb J.

I’m thinking (hoping) life will start slowing down a little bit here on the home front.  The temps are in the mid 80’s here in AZ and I’m thinking it’s almost time to set up a sewing machine on the back porch for some sewing outside.  I love to sew outside! 

Hope all is well and that spring is showing it’s face where you are.

Katie

A few finishes..

But not too many pictures … I have managed to get 2 quilts quilted and finished.  One more quilted waiting for it’s binding.  I have two more ready to put on the frame – they are crib size so I’m going to try and do 2 at a time.  I’ve never tried that before, but shouldn’t be to difficult.

I told you I was wanting to make mug rugs/ snack mats in last post – well here they are:

I fused the little circles  and then used a blanket stitch and went around each one.  These were fun to have on the table while we were playing dominoes.

Sew Fest is in September this year.  Last year I wrote a mystery and made this quilt:

This year there is another mystery that Cathy B. has designed.  She’s chosen different block patterns and assigned different colors for the blocks.  The mystery is that those of us participating don’t know what blocks/colors we’ll be getting… Here are my first blocks:

I made a mistake in one  0f the blocks but I won’t point it out and if I have time, I will redo them…

Going to return my sister-in-law’s dog tomorrow.  Will be a long day 4½ hours up and then the trip back.  We won’t stay the night as her daughter is staying with her until her stuff gets shipped from WA and her daughter has 4 dogs and hubby is allergic!  Not to mention she doesn’t have the sleep space with her daughter there. 

Next Sunday I’ll be headed to Disneyland with my son & his family.  I’ve started calling it our annual trek!  So this next week will be busy with getting ready for the trip.

Until next time -

Katie

Ta Da!

Look at me starting out with a picture!  Now isn’t that new….  This is the Disappearing 9-Patch pattern that I made for my Brother-in-law.  Here’s a close up of blocks not yet sewn together:

This probably doesn’t measure a ‘true’ queen size as it measured 84 X 98” but big enough for a wedding gift for a young couple living in a 5th wheel camper trailer and who my BIL says he doesn’t really expect they’ll stay together.  What!?  My hubby suggested that he take the quilt home, put it on his own bed and give said couple a card with some money in it …..

So that done and not ready to move on to starting another quilt, which  I really shouldn’t anyway because I have my stack waiting, I made a few pillowcases:

These will be given to a lady in Ohio.  There is a hospital where she lives that makes up Easter baskets for all the children in the hospital and also for a couple other places.  She estimates they give out approximately 250 baskets each year.  She thought it would be nice to put something in the baskets that the children can take home with them and have for a while.  The children range in ages from babies up to 18.  The main body of the pillowcase is a width of fabric measure to 27” (3/4 yard) the cuff is 9” and the little trim piece is 2” so this is a good way to use up some excess fabric and scraps.  I’m using the tutorial that appears on You Tube done by Jenny Doan from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Speaking of Jenny…. I was watching the NBC news a few nights ago and she was featured.  I thought how great it was that someone from the general quilting world got some well deserved national recognition.

What’s next on my agenda?  I can think of at least 101 things I’d really like to do, but alas, I have my stack waiting…..  Hubby and I have what we call D & D night with our friends who were in Seattle 8 months while he underwent a stem cell transplant for Leukemia (he’s doing amazing!).  We love to play Dominoes with them (hubby doesn’t like to play cards….) and we’ve turned it into Dinner and Dominoes every Friday night.  We try to come up with new and different ideas for dinner.  We’ve had some really interesting (in a good way) meals.  We try to share the preparation of the meal and alternate between each other’s homes.  This week is my turn to host and we decided on soup and sandwich.  I will make a Tuscano soup and they are bringing the fixings for Ruebens.  Friday is supposed to finally be rainy here in AZ so this turns out to be the perfect meal…  Oh, yes and I was going where with this?  I’ve been wanting to make up some snack mats (mug rugs) for our D & D nights.  I want to make them look like a Dominoe tile so I may work on those today and quilting tomorrow…. I think it would just be a fun thing to do and have when we get together…

Okay, enough of the boring stuff…. Hope you all are staying well and being safe where there is so much bad weather (even be safe where there is good weather – there are some crazy drivers on the roads these days!)

Katie

Not again!

Sometimes I wonder why I even started a blog!  I seem to be getting worst and worst on posting… I think I only have a couple readers anyway, so again sometimes I wonder why I bother.  Ah well, if you’re one of my very few readers, thank you and I’m sorry I don’t post more often. 

I actually have been busy, busier than I’d like I almost say, but truly I do enjoy keeping my mind and hands busy.  QFC is in full swing again and again I have a stack of quilts waiting for me. ( By the way, Deb (if you’re reading), I put a box in the mail to you yesterday… ) I have a map of the U.S. panel also waiting not to mention a stack of my own quilts waiting.  Have you noticed I said “waiting”?  My brother-in-law (BIL) commissioned me to make a queen size quilt that he wants to give as a wedding gift.  He gave me a date of March 1st.  No problem, gave me plenty of time as he asked this back in December.  Fabrics chosen, pattern chosen – I am ready to rock:

Unfortunately – I rolled!  This is the Hidden Wells pattern and requires a lot of starch because once the strip sets are sewn, you’re working with bias edges.  Now, I know I’m not perfect – not even close.  And I am not a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination, but I ended up with 3 different size blocks!  I was so frustrated, I even called a quilter friend to come tell me what I was doing wrong.  She checked my seam allowance, she checked the size of strips, she checked my squares and, like me, was totally stumped!  Well, I knew that trimming all these blocks to a matching size, I’d lose some of the impact and I also knew that frustration would make me crazy.  These are now all neatly put away and will be a UFO for when I get ready to simply throw it together and make it a ‘me’ quilt because I do love the colors and pattern.  So now what?  I still have a quilt to make by March 1st.  No pictures yet, but I decided on a Disappearing 9-patch using 9 different colors.  Moving right along and BAM – phone call from the police department in the town my sister-in-law (SIL) lives in.  They had to “breach” her home and she was being transported to the hospital.  Long story short, she was severely dehydrated and extremely weak.  If it had not been for a caring neighbor, we would not have my SIL today.  She is now in a rehab facility to try and regain her strength.  We brought her little rat dog chihuahua home with us and her daughter came from WA state to help.  But… consequently, I’m behind in getting a quilt done.  AND, my BIL calls last evening and was ‘wondering’ if the quilt will be ready this weekend.  Okay, let’s see.  the blocks are done, I just need to assemble the top – okay a couple hours there.  Get said quilt on the frame and get quilted – another 3 –4 hours there as I am going to do a simple free hand meander.  Cut and sew binding strips, get on quilt and thank God I do not hand secure binding but machine sew it.  So sure, I can do this …..  Yes, I will post pictures in a later post and hopefully, it won’t be too long from now…

Katie  who has to go to Tucson as Hubby has a doctor’s appointment, who has to buy a batting for a queen size quilt, who has to get some groceries, who really needs to get her butt in gear or Hubby may be later for said appointment ….