Tops To Quilt

 And here are the quilt tops that are ready to be quilted...

2020 Stash Buster Challenge Quilt with 4" finished blocks

Scrappy St. Louis 16 patch almost all sewn together

As you can tell I love Scrappy Quilts. I have tubs full of scraps and I keep using from them, but they never seem to get any smaller. I have a very large Mt. Scrapmore to climb! But I'm up for the challenge.

2020 Stash Buster Challenge 6" finished blocks

Scrappy Keyhole Quilt

6"finished Ohio Star Civil War Reproduction Quilt

I also love Civil War and 1930's  Reproduction fabric. I keep making more reproduction quilts and I love every one of them.

Lollipop Quilt made from 1930's reproduction fabric

Mary Engelbreit fabric/circle quilt made for my sister Val who loves anything with Mary Engelbreit. This quilt has been in the works for quite a few years now. She's been very patient with me knowing that eventually it would be done. This fabric is very hard to find since it's been out of print for many years. I've picked up pieces as I found them. I even resorted to some Etsy shopping to find some of the prints I really wanted to use in this. 

A wild Christmas Tree Quilt that was made for Lesley

This is made from old feed sacks/flour sacks. My sister Val found a large ziplock bag full of these strips already sewn together at a flea market. She purchased them for me for $25. I collect feed/flour sacks so she knew I'd love them. They were much shorter strips, and I just kept sewing them together till they were long enough for a quilt. It's nothing fancy, but its an older pattern that suits these feed sacks. I do have this quilt loaded on my longarm now. It's been loaded for 6 weeks and I've only done about 6" on it. I can't seem to get motivated to get it finished. 

I have more tops that I'll show later. I have a couple of wool quilts from 5 to 6 years ago and some very old quilt tops from Civil War times and a top from the 1930's. When I retire hopefully I can get then all done.

                                                                      Happy Quilting!

                                                                             Kris

Vacation Week and soon to be Retirement!

 

Wayne and I visiting Erik, Lesley, Emy and Magnus in St. Joe

Happy Birthday Lesley!

While in St.Joe we purchased our new 2021 Honda Ridgeline pickup. We love it so far. We’re going to have to figure out all of the knobs and buttons....for me it’s a big learning curve. Wayne will have it figured out right away.

And of course I’ve been to a quilt store in Kansas City...I only bought a Tilda fat quarter bundle and a yard of a new Kaffe print, I couldn’t find anything else that interested me, which is a bit unusual. I also found a lot of colors of bias tape I can’t purchase locally that I use when making baprons. Here are a few of them I’ve recently made.

I’ve made so many quilts since I’ve last blogged many many years ago. I’ll try to catch up...you’ll want to get ready for a photo overload! 

The biggest ‘news’ in my life is that my husband Wayne retired in December and I’ll be retiring from FedEx in 7 weeks. I’m getting more excited by the day. The list of quilts I want to make on my bucket list is growing larger by the minute.

And one more photo of the last quilt top finish...

This quilt is ‘Lollipops’....made from 1930’s reproduction fabrics. I think I know how I want to quilt this top, I’ll be happy when it’s finished. Since I have about 12 tops ready to quilt I’m not sure when this one will get done.

Hopefully I’ll be posting again soon.

Happy Quilting. Kris

I'm Still Quilting! (Just in case you were wondering!)

It's been a few months since I've posted anything, I've just been busy with life! August 12th our grandson Magnus Andrew was born, so we've made three trips to St. Joe in the last few months. Work has been very demanding too and I'm sure that won't let up till after Christmas, I have to deliver all of those Christmas presents from Amazon. So here are a 'few' photos from my latest projects.....

Farm Girl Vintage

Two quilts done and one just needs to be quilted. I plan on making a few table runners, and maybe another quilt. It's been fun to make these from start to finish...I did some custom ruler work on these two and this was my first attempt with rulers....I learned so much with just 'going for it'! It gave me a lot of confidence to just try some new things. My friend Kelly Kreft came the end of September to show me how to do ruler work, I quilted 4 quilts in 4 weeks after she left...I was driven to finish them. It was so much fun! The more I learn the more I realize I need to learn!

 

 

Up close of some of my quilting......I'm very happy with my wooly sheep. I put black button eyes on him too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My John Deere Tractor block....Not sure what I'll do with this one yet...Maybe a wall hanging for my sister Barb's grandson who is crazy about tractors.

 

 

 

Magnus Andrew's quilt

The quilt I made for my new grandson...the circles are set-in, I love how this turned out...The quilting on it makes me happy too.

 

 

 

Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt!

the first clue was published this past Friday...we had to make 294 2"half square triangles for this week...Woo Hoo....I finished mine this morning. I hope they are all as easy as this week's clue, but I'm afraid they will only get more time consuming as the weeks pass....Even if they do, this is something I really enjoy doing.

Wonky Log Cabin Flannel Quilts  These are both ready to quilt...They are about 80 x 70....good size for the couch. They just might be for Christmas!

1/2" Hexie Quilt  It's still growing! It's measuring about 52" now at it's widest point. I'm not sure how big this will end up yet, I'll just keep going till I get tired of it, or it's the size I like...we'll see which one comes first. The Hexie paper punches make this a much easier job....I used to cut  all of the hexie's out of card stock...now I just use a paper punch...I have the 1/2", 3/4" and 1" size...There will be more hexie quilts in my future! The picture below is my 1" hexie quilt...I finished quilting it about a month ago...I used a baptist fan ruler and then did a piano key border. I LOVE it!

Wool Projects...I almost always have at least one wool project going at all times. Right now I've got a Buttermilk Basin-January thru December  project going and I just recieved my last month of a Primitive Gathering's 'Sunflower Gathering' BOM wool quilt...I'm pretty much caught up with both of them, so I'm very close to getting both of these projects done. I love to just sit and stitch.

And last but not least....Baprons...which is a cross between an apron and a bib. I've got two sizes, a 6-18 month and an 18 month to 3T. These are fun and I'm using fabric I've had for at least 20 years. I'm even using old bias tape I found in my stash...I have had to buy a bit more bias tape, but that's been it so far. I'm lining them with flannel...These should make great baby gifts.

Happy Quilting and Stitching!

Kris

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've been very busy in my garden and at work, I'm not having quite as much 'quilt' time and I don't like it! If I want to buy more fabric I have to work, so I guess it's all okay, except when I get home at around 9, and I'm just too tired to do anything but go to bed.

Believe it or not, I got Best of Show at the Red Willow County Fair again. I'm really surprised at this, I thought other quilts were better, but I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. This quilt is really impressive with all of the embroidery on it, and my piecing was very good, but my longarming was just okay on this one. I'm still happy to see it hanging up with the Big Ribbon on it though. Below are the other quilts I entered.

In my opinion this quilt I made for Emersyn's 1st birthday was much more deserving of the Best of Show Ribbon....Lots of curved seams and I thought the long arm quilting was better on it too, but who am I to say?!

This Kansas Troubles Log Cabin quilt was the second one like this I made....this was pieced right before my mom went in the nursing home...I would make a block and she would cut out the flower to put in the center and iron it on...I would then blanket stitch around each one...My sister Barb has the other one I made. This quilt has a lot of sentimental value since mom and I worked on this one together.










This is my 2011 Calendar quilt that I just finished quilting...This is a very fun
quilt and I love to just look at all of the fabrics in it...I added a strip for every day of the year, and used the fabric that I was using that day. I did a bunch of embroidery on it too.








My latest fun project...Farm Girl Vintage Book by Lori Holt...these are 12" finished blocks, you also can make them 6" if you wish. I've been making the 12" and will probably do them smaller also. This is just plain fun to do.

Some of my wool projects that I've started...only 4 more months to  finish the Summer Gathering BOM quilt, and I'm just waiting for the next block to come in the mail... the ones on the top represent a month....May will be up next for me. The snow man table topper was purchased for 75% off and that made me very happy! I'll have it done in a few days.

My hexie quilt is growing daily...I love working on this.


In the last week, I've frozen 30 bags of corn, made 39 pints of salsa, made cranberry hot pepper jelly, strawberry mango hot pepper jelly, Peach mango jam and Peach Rum jam...Yummy! I'm on a jelly making tear right now...who knows how many jars I'll end up with by the end of the summer!

Happy Quilting,
Kris

My Longarm and I!

I've been encouraged about using my longarm the last few weeks...I've been watching You Tube videos/tutorials on free motion longarm quilting every morning when I take my walk and I think some of it is starting to sink in! So I decided it's time to just 'go for it' and get that longarm a stitchin....I've been having fun! This is the wool table topper that came from Kim Diehl's book 'Simple Appeal'...I enjoyed quilting it, and experimenting as I went along.

Karmon's table runner all done! I did a geometric pattern on this one which I think I will do on the baby quilt for my new grandson when he's born. It's also a circle quilt. I'm happy with how this one turned out.

This is 'Snow Days', a pattern by CrabApple Hill...I've had this top done for a few years, but just never have gotten it quilted before now, hopefully it will turn out good enough to enter in the county fair.

January and February  from Buttermilk Basin...these are shown in the pattern as small wall hangings and one for every month...I think I'm going to put them all together and make a large wall hanging/small quilt. I think I'll embroider under each one of them, the month they represent.

 The 9th block in the 'Summer Gatherings' wool quilt by Lisa Bonjean....This is fun! Only 5 more months to go until it's finished...
Happy Quilting!
Kris

Sewing for Baby Weekend

I decided that this weekend would be the time to get a bunch of stuff made for the upcoming baby shower this coming weekend in St. Joseph Missouri, (that will be a long drive for going down on Saturday and coming home on Sunday.) I'm looking forward to seeing Lesley and Emersyn though! It's hard to believe the baby is due in about 6 weeks...I'm wondering where the time has gone. 
So far I've made 3 blankets , 3 crocheted caps and 3 burp pads...so not too bad....the quilt is almost done but again, I can't do anything with it until I know the baby's name....I'm thinking it won't get done till after the baby is born. I've let my 'stash' of baby things dwindle and I really need to get some extras made...So I've decided that this week before work, baby items would be my sewing projects. I'd like to get several boy and girl things made to just have on hand.
Happy Quilting
Kris

I WILL FINISH more UFOs!!! (and I really do mean it!)