Calling All Silk Ties……

Well, the word is out on the streets….I’m looking for old silk ties. I’ve done pretty well these past few days since I’ve decided that I want to make a silk tie quilt. My previous post has a few pictures of the start of my collection and now I’ve gotten a large donation from my mom! These ties belonged to my dad and my uncle. My uncle was a radio personality in the midwest….his name was Dick ‘Noodlesoup’ Klasi…..he was on the radio a long time ago….thinking about the 40’s and 50’s, maybe even earlier. He was a cowboy singer, so most of his ties had horses or something western on them, most of them are very narrow and bright red…..I really like that about them. My dad’s ties are a bit more subdued….he was a high school principal before he quit and came back to the family farm. I had a great time looking through them last night. My mom told me she has a book about silk tie quilts that she loaned out about 20 years ago, she remembered who had it, gave her a call and should have the book back today! I am very anxious to see who wrote it and what’s in it. I think I got about 90 ties from my mom…so I now have over 100 ties. Wilber is helping me count them!

This is a special order baby blanket that is almost done. I’m just working on the binding. Very simple….just flannel and minkee.

Happy Quilting Kris!

My Vacation is almost over :(

Well, after a week of sewing, and making a short trip to Kansas City…..my vacation is about to come to a close. I love my job, but I’ve really enjoyed my free time to do whatever I wanted to do this past week.

I’ve started  free motion quilting my daughter’s Retro Flower quilt. So far it’s turning out pretty good. I’ve gotten my Primitive Garden Wool Quilt April BOM almost all embroidered….am just waiting to pick up three more colors of Valdani thread to complete this month’s BOM. So far I’m loving how it looks! I made 20 burp pads….had an order for some of them and my selection left was pretty slim pickings, so I went to work and made as many as I could without buying any more flannel. I even pieced some of them. They look really good. I also need to get a baby blanket done by the end of this week….she wants it in flannel with a minkee backing. I’d like to get most of it done today….we’ll have to see about that. We left our daughter’s in  KC last night and didn’t get home until 1:45 a.m…..so I’m suffering form some jet lag….I do not do well when I go to bed late. I need my sleep!

While in KC we went to several antique malls and had a great time just looking around. I started seeing lots of old silk ties and I got the bug to make a silk tie quilt. I bought 3 ties to start my collection and by the time I got home last night I had over 20 of them. Erik, my son- in- law, had a bunch of silk ties from his dad and he gave them to me with the idea that he and my daughter would get the quilt when it’s done. I think that is a great idea! My mom also said she had a bunch of them from my dad and uncle I could have….so I have a great start to my silk tie collection. That made me a happy camper!  So I’m putting the word out…anyone with old silk ties they don’t want….they know who to give them to! ME! Still don’t know what I’ll do yet, but I’ve been collecting different pictures on Pinterest.

My Primitive Garden Wool Quilt…..Love the colors!

20 Burp Pads!

The start of my tie collection…

Some of my favorites! This is going to be a fun quilt to think about and to work on….I have found a Blog/website that talks about how to wash the ties and  get them ready to sew….

Here is the start of my free motion quilting of Lesley’s rather large quilt. So far….so good!

I couldn’t find my cat….and then I turned around and he scared me….He’s sleeping on/in the quilt I’ve been working on. He cuddles deep down in the quilt and sometimes you can hardly even see him….Black hair on a white quilt….Uh oh! I’d like to get going on this quilt, but I just hate to disturb Wilber!

Happy Quilting….Kris

Primitive Garden Wool Quilt

I had to post again because I’ve gotten my Primitive Garden Wool Quilt started. It’s a block of the month from Primitive Gatherings and it started this month. I saw this quilt being made in a quilt shop on my route. I absolutely loved it when I saw it and got the bug! It’s very expensive, but I think it will be worth every penny, the BOM lasts for 14 months. I’ve gotten all of the wool fused to the the block and now all I need to do is the blanket stitch around the wool pieces. I plan on doing  that in the car on my way to KC this coming week. These pictures do not do the color of the wool justice….it is beautiful. This is going to be a fun one for sure.

Happy quilting! Kris

Vacation Time!

Well, I’ve been busy the last week and a half and I’ve been neglecting my blogging…..Had a very nice Easter, we had a house full for dinner after a very good church service. I’ve also worked some overtime so didn’t have lots of spare time this past week. The wonderful news is that this coming week is VACATION time! I’m planning on doing lots of sewing and then at the end of the week, we’re going to Kansas City to visit our daughter and her husband. I’m ready to see them and hopefully stop at a few quilt stores when we get there.

I’ve become obsessed with hexagons. I made an Aunt Grace’s BOM and I had to make about 8 hexagon flowers for it. By the time I’d finished the last one I was hooked, and thought it would be a good idea to make a quilt with them and use lots of my fabric scraps. I started making them in my spare time about 3 weeks ago, and evidently I must have lots of spare time because the total count so far is up to 100 hexagon flowers. I’m cutting out hexagons from card stock and you can print them from many different websites on line. I’m using 1” hexagons and have pretty big plans for this quilt, I’d like to  do some hand applique in the borders of this one, ideas for this one are swirling around in my head, by the time I’ve made enough hexagons, I should know more what I’m going to be doing to finish this quilt.

I‘m also a huge Nebraska Husker fan and I found this fabric and thought this is just perfect for me. Don’t know if I’ll actually use the Husker ‘flower’ in my quilt, but I just might not be able to resist! GO BIG RED! I like the other ‘word’ flower too, it will be in the quilt for sure. 

I’ve finished my Patriots in Petticoats BOM and I’m glad to see the end of that one. It’s about 100x100 when finished so it’s going to my friend Kelly Kreft in Colorado to be quilted. It’s just too big for me on my domestic machine to try and free motion quilt. I think I’m so tired of this one I don’t even like it anymore. Hopefully when it’s quilted I’ll fall in love again!Since we’re going to KC to visit my daughter, I was going to make a good try at getting her Retro Flower quilt done. I ran out of white fabric and only need one more 6” strip for the top border. I can’t find any within an hour distance of here. I meant to stop in Norton at the quilt store and get some on Friday, but completely forgot until I was almost home. Every other quilt shop is out of the true white. I guess that means it will have to wait another week or so.

My big project now is the Primitive Garden BOM from Primitive Gatherings. I got the first one in the mail about 10 days ago and I just started working on it this weekend. My goal is to get all the pieces on the block before we head to KC, so I can do the hand work (blanket stitching) while on the road. It doesn’t look like much yet, but hopefully I’ll have it done by the end of the week. I think this one will be lots of fun.

Happy quilting,

Kris

P.S. I’ve also become addicted to Pinterest the last couple of weeks! I’ve gotten too many new quilt ideas….Not  enough time in my  lifetime to do them all!

Another busy weekend….

Well, I did get quite a bit done this weekend….

• receiving blanket and matching burp pad
• Patriots in Petticoats Civil War quilt
• Grandmother’s flower garden hexagons
• church and small group

I now have more than 40 of these made! I still have quite a ways to go yet….but quite a few done considering I’ve only been doing this for 10 days.

this quilt was a BOM and I’d really like to finish it before I start on another BOM in May. I’ve got all of the blocks done, I just need to finish sewing them together. It also has a ribbon border and than an outer border. It’s a very large quilt. Some of the smaller blocks have over 70 pieces in them….they are a 10” finished size.

My skills as a free motion quilter are improving….Practice! Practice! Practice!

Well, time to get ready for work!

Happy quilting Kris