Retirement, Quilting and Canning

 I've been retired for a month now. I Love It! I was worried I'd be bored, but I almost feel like I'm working harder now than I was when I was actually working. The only difference now is I can stop what I'm doing and sit in my chair to rest up. Ha!

I've been canning quite a bit, I'm enjoying making jellies and jams again. I didn't realize how much I'd missed doing that.  

I haven't been quilting near as much as I thought I would either. I've finished the top of my BH Mystery Quilt 'Grassy Creek', it's still not my favorite, but I feel like it's okay now. I put a very light gray outer border on instead of the string pieced border she called for, to me it made the quilt 'muddy' looking. I think once it's quilted I'll like it. 

I've also finished my Civil War Reproduction Quilt of 6" Ohio Stars. It's a favorite that I'm pretty sure I'll keep for myself.

I've begun quilting on a Mary Engelbreit quilt for my sister. She loves all things ME. I've been collecting ME fabric for at least 5 years. It's gotten very hard to find, I'm sure she hasn't designed any fabric for years. Then I couldn't decide what pattern I wanted to use. I finally decided on just set-in circles and an extra wide black ric-rac in the border and a little something to personalize it for my sister. There were plenty of ME 'sayings' to pick from. But this one was my favorite. 

I should have it completed by the end of this week. I only have two more rows of circles to quilt and it will be finished. And that's all the quilt related things I've been working on lately. I've only done a little on my Temperature Quilt, and I'm a month behind. I should catch up pretty fast if I spend a day working on it.

I've decided the next quilt I'm loading will be my 'Lollipop' 1930's reproduction quilt. I'm anxious to see it quilted.

Well,  I hope you all have a very Happy 4th of July! God Bless America!

Happy Quilting,

Kris

Grassy Creek Mystery Quilt (Bonnie Hunter)

 This is the 7th Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt I’ve done, I’ve always enjoyed doing them and most of the time I really like them. This year not so much. When I saw the ‘reveal’ in January I just put all my finished parts and pieces in a large ziploc bag and put it away. I just wasn’t interested in finishing it right away like I usually do. Well,  last week I opened that bag and started sewing those pieces together. I’ve finished the 25 blocks and the sashing pieces are ready to sew together. I will change the border. In my opinion, all of the different colors of gray used in this quilt make it look 'muddy'. 

Grassy Creek Mystery  Quilt Blocks

The border was supposed to be string pieced with varying shades of gray. Of the finished quilts I've seen on line, the only ones I liked had used a different color for the gray, or had used only really light grays instead of light, medium and dark grays. I'm far enough along that I'm not going to change what I've already completed. I will be changing the border to a tone on tone light gray, with a small inner border of a bright green. I'm hoping this will help me like it a little bit more! Only time will tell...

While I've been sewing these blocks together I started on an Arkansas Crossroads quilt for a leader and ender project. It's fast, easy and will use up a lot of scraps. It's time to go through all of my scraps and organize again. I try to have boxes of 2 1/2" strips, 3 1/2" squares/strips and 1 1/2" strips. This method works the best for me. 

Scrappy Arkansas Crossroads 

I did just finish my Keyhole/Hole in the Wall Scrappy Quilt. It's just a fun scrappy quilt that's very fast and easy to make. I end up making lots of scrappy quilts, they're probably one of my favorite quilts to make. I quilted it with a variegated thread, did a wavy piano key in the border and just did an overall meander in the center. It's so busy you can't see the quilting anyway.

The feed sack quilt that was loaded on my longarm for 2 months is at it's forever home. Took a long time, but it's done. I just quilted it with a small all over clam shell design.  It needed a good washing and it came out of the dryer beautifully. I would love to know who started sewing all the feed sack strips together and when that was done. My sister Val found the ziploc bag full of these feed/flour sacks at a garage sale already cut in strips and partially sewn together. She knows how I love and collect feed sacks so she bought it for me. It took me a while to decide what to do with them, I didn't want to rip them apart so I needed to figure out what pattern to make with these.   I finally decided to add some strips of Kona Snow and sew the shorter strips into lengths long enough for a quilt. I love how it turned out. 

My 2021 Temperature Quilt is caught up through the end of April. The more days I add the more I love it. 

I've only got 2 more weeks of work left before I retire. I'm getting pretty excited about that, I guess I know I'm ready and it's time.

                                               Happy Quilting!

                                                      Kris

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

Sewing puts me in my Happy Place!

I love to sew…quilt….crochet and all of that good stuff. Going into my sewing room and sitting at my sewing machine puts me in my Happy Place, it puts a big smile on my face and I can forget about everything but what I’m working on. Truly a day doesn’t go by that I don’t sew for at least 30 minutes…usually at least a couple of hours. It really is my therapy!

This is my Prairie Rose BOM that I finally finished…I did more ripping on this quilt than I have on everything else put together in the last two years….If it could go wrong it did! But I prevailed and got it done….now to get it quilted!

Mitered corners and I haven’t always gotten along so well…I’ve been able to do them but with much frustration and confusion. I finally found a tutorial from Riley Blake and she had a guest on that showed what worked best for her…they were cut before they were attached to the quilt. It just all made sense to me and so I tried it with very good results…it’s definitely worth watching.

One more thing to cross off my to-do list…Kyle’s t-shirt quilt is now done and ready to quilt. My mom had started this before she went in the nursing home and when we were cleaning out her house we found it…my sister Val asked me if I would get it done and of course I said yes…So a year later it’s completed! Only took 5 days to do it…but it was the getting started part that was so hard. Mom  only cut out about 5 t-shirts, so I made the whole quilt. It finishes at 86 x 98.

Getting started quilting my Bonnie Hunter ‘Grand Illusion’ Mystery quilt….It’s very big too! This is not a quilt I ever would have done by just seeing it in a book, not really my color choice either, but I love what Bonnie Hunter does and I thought this would be a good year to get started doing her Mystery Quilt and I jumped right in. I changed the outside border up a bit which I like much better….I’m happy with the over all results and will be doing her Mystery Quilt again next year.

All quilted and on a bed….have to add the binding yet…will use the turquoise colored sashing strip for that.

And here is what I did in the border….I’m learning, but I’m finding it just takes lots of practice.

I’m ready for block 5 in this wool quilt from Lisa Bonjean which is a 14 month BOM….fun fun fun!

This is a baby quilt I quilted for my masseuse…she and I are trading,  quilting for massages! I didn’t figure I could go wrong with that! I also sewed the binding on for her.

My 2011 calendar quilt is done now too….just need to bind it! So as you can see I’ve been very busy the past few weeks. I’ve also crocheted around 60 infinity scarves since the first of January…I guess you could call me an over achiever! I love doing hand work…..Which actually is an understatement. 

Happy Quilting!

Kris

Just a few pictures

Wool table topper ready to quilt….

Embroidery project all done….

Wool BOM for this month done….

Prairie Rose BOM is getting closer to being done…but I’m not enjoying this one at all….just need to finish it

And I’ve decided to do Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery quilt for 2014….I think it will be fun.

 

 

Happy Quilting

Kris