Finishing UFOs…..woot woot!

I made a promise to myself that after the first of the year, I would finish projects that were half started and almost done…or else. I’ve kept that promise and am very happy with the results, many projects are completely done! I even allowed myself to start a new project last week.

Amish with a Twist is ready to quilt….last I knew my sister Wendy was going to take this one. I’ve tried to make a quilt for each one of my sisters, and Wendy is the only one who hasn’t got her quilt yet. I’m really at a loss as to how I’m going to quilt this one…I may need some help from my friend Kelly Kreft….

‘Grand Illusion’ Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt, pieced, quilted and bound…started this one the first of December and it’s completely done….I’m very proud of that. I changed it up a bit, but it’s pretty close to what Bonnie Hunter suggested. This is a very large square quilt.

And another quilt that I finally quilted and bound…My 2011 Calendar quilt, this is so much fun for me to just look at…It has a different strip of fabric for every day of the 2011 year, whatever I happened to be working on that day was the strip I sewed on to this quilt. I did the applique flowers  and embroidery since they were in some quilts I did that year too….I think I’m going to be doing this again in 2016. My grandson Walker is helping me hold up the quilt.

 

Block #5 in my Wool BOM from Primitive Gatherings….I love this quilt!

I’m still doing a bit of crocheting too…I have a grandson on the way so I’ll have to start making some boy hats as well.

A flannel baby blanket that a friend wanted for a baby gift, I really need to get busy and make a few of these to have on hand….I usually do, but right now it’s pretty slim pickings. I have a stack of flannel literally at least 3 feet high, so that’s not the problem.

This is the new project I’m working on….coloring and embroidery…what a fun combination! I love the scripture verses too…don’t know who will want this one, but I’m sure someone will, and then again I might want to keep this one for myself.

This is the border for my mom’s Civil War quilt she started before she went in the nursing home…she asked me to finish it…Not my favorite quilt, but I will eventually get the job done. Mom had done the center of the quilt and I finished the 4 corners…I wish she were still alive…she would love to see the progress I’ve made on this quilt. Now to make 68 of the Hovering Hawk blocks for the borders…Lots of half square triangles…I WILL FINISH THIS!

My haul from the quilt store this week….75% off! What a find….got enough for 5 quilt backs…This puts a smile on my face.

Happy Quilting

Kris

I’m a happy girl….I’ve discovered the joys of owning a ‘walking foot’!

I’ve owned only Berninas for the last 30 years or so. I bought a new machine about 2 years ago…A Bernina QE (Quilter’s Edition) Aurora 440, but I had to keep my old 1080 Bernina because it was such a good friend and had been there for me for many years. I still pull it out and use it every once in a while! My old Bernie had been very good to me. Well, my new machine has a BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) which I use quite often when I’m free motion quilting and a Walking foot, which has just sat in the box since I purchased the machine. I’ve  been trying to figure out how to attach wide satin binding to flannel/minky etc… for baby blankets and make it look neat and not all wavy and puckery….I finally remembered I had a walking foot somewhere and I thought I might as well give it a try. I had a preconceived notion it would take a long time to attach, but I found out it goes on as fast as a normal ‘foot’ does, and much to my surprise it made a world of difference. I’ve been watching youtube videos of people attaching the satin binding and they say how they don’t pin it on, just sew using a normal foot and from what I could see they had lots of waves and ripples. I experimented with my walking foot and I pinned a lot, and I had great results. I know these pieces of flannel don’t exactly look great together, but it’s all I had on hand, and I was raring to go to give my ideas a try! I also seamed the binding like you would a normal binding and I think it looks much better than most of the suggestions on the internet and youtube.

So since I’ve fallen in love with my walking foot I thought that adding regular binding would be a piece of cake for the walking foot, and it definitely was! I doubt I’ll ever sew it on with a regular foot again!

My wool applique table runner that is almost done…..I sewed this binding down with my walking foot and it was super easy and I loved how it worked.

And here is my 4th BOM of Evelyn’s Garden….All fused down and I only need to blanket stitch around the wool now….Fun handwork!

And the last three scarves I’ve knitted…the middle one is a pretty green, this picture just doesn’t show it like it really is.

Happy Quilting! Kris

Weekend Project….Baby Quilt

When we visited our daughter in St. Joe about 6 weeks ago, Lesley and I went fabric shopping to see what she wanted for a baby quilt. She chose a chevron pattern with four colors, lt. turquoise, yellow, pink and purple…She really wanted the purple.

I started on the baby crib size quilt 40”x 50” on Saturday and this morning I just finished sewing on the last strip. This will be cute when it’s been quilted and washed. I hope it turned out the way she thought it would. I think I’ll bind it in one of the colors of the chevrons, whichever color I’ve got the most of left. I need to buy some backing now, not sure what I’ll get yet….

Happy Quilting!

Kris

Baby Blankets and more….

My goal of sewing a block a day for my Pony Club Quilt has gone out the window this past week. I’ve decided it was time to get a bunch of baby stuff done for my granddaughter who is due to arrive on August 23rd. We are having a shower for my daughter the end of June and I want to have some things done for her by then. So I’ve been making burp pads and receiving blankets…..

I’ve got over 20 burp pads made and about 13 flannel receiving blankets made….I give a lot of both of these away whenever I know someone whose had a baby, so I usually try to have some extra on hand. The next item on the agenda for my new grandbaby is another quilt, which Lesley picked out…It will be a chevron quilt.I’ve been embroidering in the evenings while I’m sitting in my comfortable chair….I’ve got two more of the large blocks and two more of the smaller blocks to embroider and then I’ll be ready to start on the piecing of my Vintage Tins quilt….

I’ve also been doing some stitching on my wool quilt, “Primitive Garden”….only one more border and it will be done! I just got the last one in the mail about a week ago….This border is the one on the left side…..Now only the top border to get done and it will be ready to send off to be quilted!

Happy Quilting! Kris

A busy sewing week….

My vacation is almost over, but I’ve  gotten quite a bit done this week.  We went to St. Joe Missouri to visit our daughter and her husband, and while there Lesley and I went shopping. It’s funny how our tastes in fabric are definitely not the same. My niece who is also pregnant is not sticking with traditional ‘baby’ colors either. As long as I know what they want, it’s not so hard. I’ve got two baby throws done for my soon to be little granddaughter….nothing fancy but very soft and something that will be used a lot. Lots of Minkee in the them…..

I started working on my Farmer’s Wife Pony Club quilt about two weeks ago, and I’m up to 30 blocks done, so only 60 more to go! I’m really enjoying working on them since they are all different and I’m using up my stash. They finish at 8 1/2 inches per block. I will repeat the fact that unless you are very experienced with piecing you will have nothing but trouble with this book. Lots and lots of set in seams and absolutely no instructions…you just have to know what to do. I’m working on one block right now that I’m going to be throwing away and trying my hand at again. It’s got a bunch of curved seams and they are giving me fits….I usually don’t have any trouble with curved seams, but something is just not right. I’m a bit frustrated right now!

I got out my Vintage Tins pattern last night and started doing some embroidery, this one won’t take me too long to finish. The embroidery blocks are all pretty small and most of the blocks aren’t too intricate….(except for the motorcycle block!) This is the first one I grabbed and I almost finished it last night while watching T.V. with my husband. I love to have handwork laying around so I can just grab it and work on it whenever the mood strikes.

Well, it’s back to work on Monday and I’m going to miss having all of the extra time I had sewing this week. Oh well, I’ve got to earn money so I can buy more fabric….

Happy Quilting ! Kris

Baby Stuff!

I’ve been making baby blankets for years, I usually try to keep a stash on hand so when I need a gift I have plenty to pick from. The newest addition to my ‘stash’ has been burp pads, I made these when my daughters were babies, so I’ve been at it for years. Though recently when my grandson was born, my daughter asked me to make her some, and by trial and error we slowly changed them until we came up with something we both liked. When I give these for gifts, almost everyone who gets them calls back and wants to buy more of them. I enjoy making them and they really go together fast. These are my ‘self-binding’ baby blankets, the corners are mitered and I think they look pretty nice! These are my larger receiving blankets…..they are 1 1/4 yards of two matching prints that are sewn right sides together and then turned right sides out. I sew a fancy stitch around the outside edges and then just ‘wrap’ them up with a bow of like fabric. They are always a hit!These are flannel baby quilts. Before my grandson was born, my daughter and I just knew he was a girl….so I made double of all of the baby stuff for a girl. Well, we were wrong, so I have lots of girl stuff and very little boy stuff left.A nursery set that I made for my daughter’s sister-in-law. These were the fabrics she picked out, they were batiks. I would have liked to have made the sheets too, but she said she already had some that would match…..I can’t wait for another grandbaby, so I can get busy and make some more baby things! And last, I have more retro flower blocks made. I’m waiting for my daughter to send me the measurements to see how much bigger I need to make her quilt. I have over 30 of the Retro flowers blocks made now.

Kris…