Circles! And Set-in Seams to Boot

My daughter Lesley wanted a circle quilt for my grandson who will be  born the end of July, so I started researching the best way to go about doing this. I was debating between appliqueing and set-in seams, and I really didn’t want to applique a whole bunch of circles. I found a tutorial and that began my journey with the circle quilt, the baby quilt is done and waiting for the baby’s name to be stitched on…and since I don’t know the name yet, it will just have to wait a bit longer. I just finished piecing a circle table runner for my daughter Karmon…she picked out the colors…I had fun making all different size circles…it’s getting easier and easier to do. Now to figure out what to quilt on this! That seems to be my stumbling block right now. This picture does not do it justice...the colors are much brighter in real life.

Here is part of the circle baby quilt and my Wool Block of the month from Primitive Gatherings, I’ve got 8 of the wool blocks done and I’m now working on the four patch block that goes between the wool blocks. I love the colors in this quilt!

 
Three of the latest wool blocks I've done. 

 

The hexies are coming along pretty well, I’ve got all of the purple ones made, I just need to get them sewn on to the quilt. Again, another decision to make…what color hexies for the next row?

 My favorite fabric for the moment…American Jane by Sandy Klop for moda…Most of it is out of print and hard to find…But I’ve been on a mission and I’ve accumulated quite a bit of it. This pile of fabric puts a smile on my face! I love to get it out and just play with it…I’ve started to worry about my fabric hoarding tendencies…and I’m serious about that! Serious that is,  about the hoarding and all of the fabric ‘petting’. I LOVE my fabric.

My new favorite book: Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt. I love the fabric used in this book and I love the patterns. I've been looking at it every night and getting ideas. It was worth the $30 just to look at it! Thanks for thinking of me Regina and Jamie from Stitch up a Storm in Norton Kansas. Those girls know what I like! 

Still plugging away on my mom's civil war quilt...I've only got 32 more of these 6 inch Hovering Hawk blocks to make for two of the borders...So I'm more than half done with these. I know my mom will be smiling down from heaven when this one gets done! I can hear her asking me if I've been working on it and how much I've gotten done on it...Well, mom it's almost done.

Happy Quilting

Kris

Long-arming, Embroidery and Circle Blocks

I bought an embroidered/pieced/colored quilt pattern a couple of weeks ago called ‘Love Covers’ by Tricia Cobbs. It’s got quite a bit of embroidery and very bright colors, I like the Scripture in the embroidery so I was drawn to it…..I’ve got all 12 of the large blocks embroidered and have 2 done of the 14 small blocks….You also use Crayola crayons to color in the blocks…It’s been fun so far…I’ve got quite a bit of bright colored fabric collected to get started on piecing the blocks…Fun!

My Prairie Rose BOM by Jo Morton is done! It’s quilted and off the frame now. While I was quilting it I thought I was doing a horrible job and was kind of in the dumps about it, but now that it’s off the frame I really like it. Now I only need to add the binding and it’s completely done!

Here are my Wool Spring Gathering BOMs from Primitive Gatherings…the top one is the latest one and the center block will go between all of the wool blocks….I’ve done 6 of them now.

This is the start of my grandson’s quilt…He is due July 29th, and my daughter wanted a circle quilt….It’s really not too hard to do…I found a tutorial on-line done by Dale Fleming and it really makes sewing the circles easy…I did not want to applique them so I thought I’d give this a try. My circles get better with each one I do.

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

New wool project!

This is the new wool project I got started on yesterday….It’s from the book ‘Simple Appeal’ by Kim Diehl. I seem to be drawn to anything she makes/designs..I love the colors she uses and the use of applique with piecing and wool. I can pick her stuff out every time! This is a 30” quilt/table topper and it sure uses up a lot of wool….But I’m sure enjoying myself making it….I’ve got all of the wool pieces cut out and most of the center stitched down, then on to the outside wool oval units….you can see I laid some of them out, they will go all the way around the table topper. Just looking at this makes me smile!

I’ve got one more block done on the Prairie Rose BOM, so only one more block to go and I will be putting this one together…..finally! After I start some BOM’s I wonder why I ever did them…this is one of them….It’s okay, but it’s really not something I would ever do again. My civil war BOM was the same way, after it was done I really didn’t like it. Oh well, I will finish this project and maybe after it’s quilted I’ll change my mind.

Happy Quilting!

Kris

UFOs….finishing a few of them!

Well, I’ve been doing my best to try and finish some of those projects I started over 20 years ago! I have a few more than I thought, and they’ve been bugging me for the last few months, so as I was cleaning my sewing room and finding them, I kept them all out and have been doing my best to work on them. I’m still starting new projects…I just can’t help myself!  I’ve completed my 4th wonky log cabin quilt this past week…It’s probably my favorite one, it’s got the fireside plush on the back and it’s so soft and warm…It was made for my daughter Karmon…..my grandson Walker is helping  hold it up in these pictures.

Thank you to Kelly Kreft,my friend from Colorado for sending me the pattern for this fun snowman embroidered wall hanging….it will measure 16 x 20 when it’s finished.

The picture with the redwork is from the picture on the pattern…..I really wanted to do it in redwork, but even with a drawer clear full of embroidery floss,  (and I’m not exaggerating on that either,) I couldn’t find the red I wanted…so I’m making do with black for my first one…I’m changing up the embroidery stitches on a few of the panels too…I think this will be fun and easy. I guess it came out of a magazine quite a few years ago.

Here is the quilt I’m making for my niece’s baby who was born a week ago…It’s on the frame and should be done in about a week…

A new project I  started this month…a BOM from Primitive Gatherings…It’s a 14 month BOM….so you’ll be seeing new blocks from this one for quite a long while…I just love wool!

This is the 7th block in a BOM I should be done with, but I’ve been too busy doing ‘other’ things that to me seemed more important! Now it’s time to get this done…

A tub full of 3 dimensional flannel bow tie blocks…I had most of these sewn together and then decided I really didn’t like how they looked, so I tore them all apart and will try another layout….this is a UFO from at least 25 years ago….and by the looks of some of the blocks you can tell that I really didn’t know what I was doing!

My great find at a store in Norton this week…all silk ties for .75 each! I was quite happy with the price and the colors….brighter ones, which I needed for the tie quilt I’m ruminating on!

Okay….so I showed you a few of my UFO’s and some newer projects….I am going to whittle down on half started projects…I am! I am! I am!

Happy Quilting!

Kris