2010 – Kelly's Kwilts

Happy New Year & Dear Jane

I hoping that I will be able to start posting more in 2011 – at least I’m going to make an effort to try! 🙂 This year has ended on such a happy note for our family and I can’t remember what life was like without Alex in our lives.

I’ve been able to work on applique at night this week after he’s gone to bed and finished 2 blocks. AND I was able to prep a few more and complete a pieced one today. Lucky me, I got to end 2010 with some sewing! The applique isn’t perfect on these blocks, but I think they look ok and I’m not redoing them! With the one I completed today I’m now happy to say that I’ve completed 75 of the 169 blocks needed. I need to get to work on the triangles too!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy new years!

Dear Jane Update

I have finally been able to work on some of my applique blocks after the baby is put to bed at night. I’ll need to prep some more so I can keep working on them! I’ve been toying with piecing blocks by hand just so I can get them done, since I don’t have time to sit at my machine these days. My only free time seems to be when he’s napping and he isn’t always consistent with the length of his naps! I think I’m getting better with my applique, I still need to work on the turning points though, some of them are a little messy. I’ve now completed 72 blocks and 5 triangles, I’m making slow progress! I know this is supposed to be a quilty blog, but I just can’t help posting pictures of my handsome son once in awhile! 🙂

October Blocks – FINALLY!

Well, it took me almost 2 months, but I finally finished my October blocks. The first 2 weeks in October I cut out all my pieces, but due to the fact that I was 9 months pregnant I couldn’t really get to the sewing machine. My little boy was born October 14 (10 lbs even and 21 inches long) and I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect child! Trying to get into a schedule of some sort took time, and this was the first time I have been able to actually sit at my sewing machine in 2 months! Took me 2 days to get everything together, I had to fit it in with his feeding schedule. I am hoping to get November’s pieces cut out tomorrow, as my husband is still home from work and can keep an eye on him.

I haven’t been to guild in 2 months and I’m looking forward to going in December. Alex will be going with me, I think the ladies would kill me if I didn’t bring him!

Latest Finishes

I know I haven’t been around in awhile, but I’ve been VERY busy getting things ready for my son’s arrival. I haven’t even had time to work on my Dear Jane quilt – although that could also be due to the carpal tunnel!

I’ve added another finish to the PhD Challenge for the quild, I finally got the Sudoku quilt quilted and bound. The best part of this quilt is that it is the first quilt I completed on my quilting frame with a pantograph! I haven’t been able to work on any others on the frame, even though I have many I could do because my belly is a little to large to get close to the frame! They’ll have to wait until after this little one is born!

I also managed to complete the Shower Quilt and a Wallhanging that allows me to put pictures in it. There’s lots of room left on the Shower Quilt to allow others to sign it once he’s born, but it looks pretty good in his bedroom.

I doubt I’ll be around much in the next few weeks, we’ll see what I can get done before he’s born (I’m not counting on it being very much!)

September Star Crazy BOM

I finally got my September blocks completed after working on them for about a week. It’s hard to sit for long periods of time at the sewing machine when you are 8 months pregnant! I’m really liking how the colors are turning out in the different blocks, I can’t wait to see what it looks like all put together!

I have some other projects that have been finished, I’ll post about them very soon!!!

Cross Stitch Update

I’ve been working on lots of cross stitch projects the last year or so. Last summer I finished the second in the Quilts series and got it framed. I kept working an managed to get Autumn and Fall completed as well. Unfortunately I didn’t have the money to get them framed. This summer I saved enough to get them both framed and they are now all hanging on the wall!

I’ve also been working on a picture for my son’s bedroom. I bought it 2 years ago when we started trying to get pregnant but refused to actually work on it until everything worked the way it was supposed to. So, this was started 3/5/10 and completed 8/17/10. I was determined to finish it before the baby shower which is scheduled for this weekend! Now I just have to worry about getting it framed, but I’m really happy with how it turned out.

August Blocks

Well, it took me a few days to get them all cut out, pieced and ironed, but I did finish putting my blocks together! They seem to be easier to put together, but I really want to start putting the top together! We have to have enough pieces by now to start putting it together! *sigh* Oh well. I know I’ll be able to finish September’s blocks, but I don’t know if I’ll be on time with the rest of the year. The baby is due in October and I just might not be able to get to them. We’ll see what I can manage!

Happy Day!!!

I’ve had my Mini-Pinni frame for almost 2 years now and have really only played with it. I haven’t finished a SINGLE quilt on it! It wasn’t until March that I figured out why it wasn’t working correctly (this post). I decided that if I’m going to get anything else on my PhD list done before this baby is born, I have to be able to do some pantographs. So I went up today and tried the free one that came with the frame package. It worked! 🙂 I need the hubby to help me figure out the right way to hook the laser up to my machine so I don’t have to hold the button down while I’m sewing, but it works! I think the first one I do is going to be the Quilter’s Suduko that I put together in January. Hopefully I won’t make too much of a mess of it and be able to put the binding on in a few days!

Last weekend I put together the backing for the quilt for the shower. I mentioned last month that I wasn’t going to actually quilt it until after the shower, but I figured it might save me some time later if I figured out the backing now. I got out my Accuquilt Go and cut out tumbler blocks out of all the fabrics that were used in the front. Lucky for me I had just enough tumbler blocks to have enough for the backing without adding anything! This left some of the fat quarters that I didn’t know what to do with. So I got out the die that came with my Go and starting cutting them up into 4.5″ squares and 2.5″ squares where I could. I now have a nice pile of 4.5″ charm squares that I can use to make some more quilts! Not that I need to make anymore!

Since I already had the Go out, I decided to start going through all my scraps and see what could actually be saved and cut up into 4.5″ or 2.5″ squares or 2.5″ triangles. I still have more scraps that need to be cut up, but it will get done sooner or later. I also have a small pile of scraps that can be cut into 1.5″ strips (this needs to be done by hand since I don’t have the die for my Go). The 1.5″ strips will be used for my locker rug hooking. I know, I have way too many projects going!!! 🙂

Sorry, no pictures today!

Finish #7!

I finished yet another item off my PhD Challenge list! I finished quilting it the other day, but couldn’t put the binding on until I finished shirts for a client. Finished those yesterday and decided to put the binding and sleeve on it. It’s really small, so it didn’t take long to hand sew it on last night. That’s now 3 items for show and tell at guild this month! I want to work on quilting on the frame, but until everything gets moved around and set up I don’t want to add the machine weight to the frame. Mom and dad are coming over tomorrow night so dad can help Michael move the bed from the nursery into the “guest” room.

Yet another finish!

I actually quilted this yesterday, but finished putting it together today. I’m very happy to get another item off my PhD Challenge list. I have 1 more item that I’d like to see if I can finish today, if I can then I can have the hubby put my machine on the frame and I can play with learning how to use the laser and the pantograph. If it works I have a BUNCH of quilts on the PhD list that can be done with a pantograph. I have a job for a client that has to be done before I can play though, but I’m planning on doing that tomorrow!

I didn’t come up with this idea on my own, I found it on Kim’s Blog. I made a change to it and rotated the blocks in the center, just because I liked it that way better. I used my Accuquilt Go to cut all the squares and triangles on this and it was so fast to cut everything out! I have lots of scraps left, and I have a few ideas of what I can do with them. I just want to finish some other projects before I start a new one! Since I didn’t feel like making a lot of these blocks (they finish at 24″ x 24″) I decided to make it into a pillow. I just need to get to JoAnn’s to buy a pillow form.