Red Willow County Fair and the arrival of ‘Big Red’!

And this is the wonderful news….Best of Show at the Red Willow County Fair! So I believe these will be Nebraska State Fair bound! And to do it twice is even better! This isn’t the best pictures of my redwork sampler…it’s much better in person….but it makes me happy! I love redwork….and I love quilting even more!

I’ve been so busy at work that when I come home after being in the heat all day I just want to sit in my chair and crash…which I seem to do quite often. I’ve still been getting quite a bit done in my sewing room, but not as much as usual. I had the day off yesterday and a friend and I went to the Nebraska Quilt Show in North Platte ….It was kind of disappointing…only 8 vendor booths there and I only really liked two of them…so I didn’t spend too much money, which was a good thing. I did buy a cute pattern of the nativity and I’ve got one done already….it’s so darn cute…just need a black frame to put it in now….It will be around 5 x 12 inches in the frame. Hopefully I can find something at Hobby Lobby that’s not too expensive. I think these would make  really cute gifts and they will use up my scrap wool pieces, which is good and bad since I tend to be a ‘wool’ hoarder!

And in other news….My Nolting Pro 24 longarm has arrived…I’ve had it now for about 3 weeks and I’ve found it’s a whole different ballgame compared to free motion quilting with a domestic machine….I can tell I will really have to practice, practice, practice! And of course she is red in color! Woo Hoo! Her name is ‘Big Red’, but her nickname is ‘Red’,  she was named after my favorite team….Go Huskers! GBR!

And here is my Evelyn’s Album wool quilt….almost done! Just working on the borders now, so not too far away from being ready to quilt. I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to use red or the tan for the border fabric…I chose tan and then tea-dyed it a little bit to take the yellowish tint out of it…..I like how the wool vines/leaves and flowers stand out with the lighter color.

Here is one of the 61/2 inch unfinished hovering hawks blocks I will be needing to complete the border of my mom’s civil war quilt. I’m finishing this quilt that she  started before she went in the nursing home……I promised her I’d complete it, only 56 more of these to make and I will be ready to sew them together to complete the border. I need a total of 68.

And here is the results of my first attempt at using ‘Red’…this is a quilt top my mom had made that I told her I would quilt for her. It turned out okay…not perfect by any means but it was good practice. Nothing fancy, but it was fun!

Well….off to do some more sewing

Happy Quilting! Kris

Vacation equals a week of sewing!

I’ve been on vacation this past week, and didn’t do much but sew. I did take my mom to Kearney one day, but other than that I’ve been being pretty lazy.

We are having Christmas at my mom’s house this afternoon. Quite a few of my family members won’t be able to attend. It’s not the same when everyone isn’t with us. I’ll miss everyone who won’t be there.

I made three table runners for the auction we have….

Bear Claws that look like fall leaves made out of batiks….

Embroidered Snowmen red work…..my favorite!

Canning jars….this was fast and easy.

This is a project that I embroidered a couple of years ago and finally decided to finish it and give to my sister Susi for her birthday. She loves the color red and she appreciates anything I make for her….This is a pattern from CrabApple Hill and is a finished size of 30”x30”. I had all the fabric on hand for all of the above projects, so it was an inexpensive week of sewing. I did order some Weeks overdyed embroidery floss from Joanns. They had it on sale and I love that stuff! It’s very pretty and I love how it’s variegated, much prettier than plain embroidery floss. The main problem is that if it gets wet it will bleed. I had another one of the Winter pattern that’s above almost completely done when I spilled some water on it. The red bled so bad I had to throw the whole thing away. That was very hard to do since it was almost done. I will have to be extremely careful the next time.

And my 9th Primitive Garden Wool BOM is completed! Woo hoo! Only 5 months left to go.

Have a great week everyone! I don’t have to go back to work until Wednesday! I think I might be ready to go back by then. Having 11 days off in a row is very nice.

Happy Quilting!

Kris

My Redwork Sampler is finished!

Well, this redwork sampler is finished, and I love it. Just wish I had used the right marker to trace it with. I think this will work to hang in my sewing room and I’ll make another one that doesn’t have any black lines on it! I still get upset when I think of using the wrong marker…..Oh well, I can’t change it now.

I’m not sure how I’ll finish this….maybe just some fabric borders around it and then bind it? Not sure yet. I think I’ll frame one and hang it up somewhere. I just love Redwork!

 

This is another Redwork piece I did before Christmas, I haven’t done anything to it yet, again, I’m not sure how I’ll finish it. I do really like it though. It’s from Bird Brain Designs and is called:  Christmas Prayer Redwork #300

 

One more embroidery design from CrabApple Hill Studios  and I’ll call it good! This is called ‘Winter Sampler # 409’ I made this a couple of years ago and I still haven’t finished it. I also have the patterns and floss for the ‘Spring’, ‘Autumn’ and ‘Summer’. I really need to get started on them too. I think I will probably finish it like the patterns shows, small red quilt blocks around the embroidery. We’ll see.

I have 9 more blocks to make for my Retro Flowers Quilt….I’ve decided I will need to make 42 blocks for the quilt to be big enough to fit my daughter’s bed.

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

Kris

24 Blocks done and only 6 to go!

Lesley and Erik went home today, so I did quite a bit of sewing this afternoon. I got 4 more of the Retro Flower quilt blocks done, so I’m very pleased with my progress. I need to find 2 more fabrics that will go with the rest of what I’ve already purchased. Hopefully my daughter Karmon who is in Omaha for the next 2 days will be able to do a little shopping for me.

I’ve also been working on a Redwork embroidery sampler from Bird Brain Designs, I love to embroider and I just had to buy this pattern when I saw it. The only problem is I transferred the pattern with a permanent marker when I thought I was using my Frixion marker by Pilot, which will iron out. I think it will be okay, but a few of the lines will show a little….this is definitely a ‘lesson learned’! I just might end up doing another with the right pen. I’ve seen this Frixion heat removable ink pen in most quilt stores I’ve been in. The ink will reappear if you get the fabric real cold. I love mine and will definitely buy another one when this one runs out of ink.

Hope you all had a great day like I did! Happy Quilting!

Kris