January 2013 – Kelly's Kwilts

I did it!

After this month’s guild meeting I was talking with some women about projects. One mentioned hand quilting a quilt and I mentioned that I wanted to learn. She said she’d teach me! Sue came over this week and showed me what to do, and said it was the fastest she’s ever seen someone pick it up. I’ve now finished my first practice piece, I just need to fold over the edges and whip stitch it closed. I can see in some places where the stitches are quite uneven and large, but over I think it looks pretty good. Since it’s so small I don’t know what I’ll do with it, probably put it under a vase somewhere. I’ve already got the next practice piece in the hoop (although I need to buy one of my own!) and plan on starting it tonight. I want to get as much practice in before I start working on the hexagon quilt. I’m so excited that I’ve learned how to hand quilt, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

I’m still working on hexagon diamonds, when my fingers hurt from quilting I switch to hexagons. I only have a handful of the half diamonds to finish and I can start working on the full diamonds again. If I have the hexagons for the half diamonds basted it only takes me about an hour to put them together. Takes a bit longer for the full diamond. Hope to be back soon with more pictures.

Hexagon Update

I’ve been hard at work on my hexagon diamonds quilt. I now have all the diamonds that are put together sewn into 1 piece. It is getting to the point where I have to stand on a chair and hold the camera over my head (almost!) to get a picture of the whole thing. I don’t know what I’ll do when it gets more rows added on! I’m busy working on all the half diamonds so they are ready when it’s time to add them in, and with making more black hexis. Won’t be able to add diamonds until there are black pathways. I’m hoping to have enough black made that as I put a diamond in I can add the black pathway as well. I’ve set myself a deadline of March 31st, don’t know if it will be ready for quilting by then or not. Right now this is the only project I am working on by hand. I hope to work on more machine work during the day when Alex is napping, the next one I hope to finish is the hubby’s ~~birthday~~ Christmas present. I’ll explain once I finish it!

We spend a lot of time sitting on the floor playing with Alex and I keep forgetting to get a pillow form when I’m at Joann’s, when they are on sale and I’m there I can’t remember what the size is I need, and when I’m at home and can get the size I never remember! A couple of years ago I used triangle scraps (I think I cut them with the Go Value Die) and made this pillow cover. Since I had pulled out a high loft batting for the ironing table and never used it and I know I probably won’t use it in a quilt since I don’t like mine that thick, I decided to fold it as needed and use that as my pillow form. It’s not perfect, but better than spending a ton of money on a pillow form! Alex loves to lay on it and watch tv, although we’ve decided to start limiting how much tv he gets to watch. He’s turning into a couch potato!

Design Wall Monday

I’ve been working hard on my hexi diamond quilt. Since I decided to use it in the RV I have a deadline – self-imposed since we don’t have a delivery date or a camping date! I have a few more diamonds completed, they just haven’t been added on yet because the colors are too similar to these and I want to spread them out. I’m hoping to get another row added on in the next week, I managed to get an entire diamond put together while at my MIL’s for dinner last night. Head over to PatchworkTimes to see other Design walls!

Ironing Station Finished!

I’m absolutely thrilled with how this looks finished! I put about 4 layers of cotton batting on before I put the fabric on. I decided to use one of my favorite patterns, Equinox by Blank Textiles, since I had a bolt of this bright pink that I haven’t used up yet. I think it’ll hide a lot of the dirt, and if it doesn’t I can always put something else on it! I probably could have done this cheaper by getting a shelving unit for $20-30, but I already use these storage tubs and cubes in my office. It made sense to expand the space for the tubs. Total I spent under $200 for the cubes and plywood. The batting and fabric was already here and I didn’t need to buy any. I think I emptied half of my batting tub on this! I was going to use some hi-loft poly batting, but thought it might melt and I should use cotton instead. I can’t wait to start using it!

Hexagon Diamonds

I’ve mentioned a few days this week that I was going to concentrate on my hexi diamonds. I’ve decided that with some extra borders this quilt should be large enough to fit on the bed in our RV. So I have 6-8 weeks to get it done, because that’s when we get the RV! I already know that I will do simple quilting, a line through the center of each “row”, might not make sense now, but it will later! I started attaching the diamonds to each other last night, I think I’ll put them all together before I start working on making more diamonds. I have all the diamonds and half diamonds kitted up, can’t wait to see what some of them look like finished! Today is HeLP for Hexie-aholics day over at sarah did it!, go take a look at what everyone is posting!

Cavs Cross Stitch Update

Well I did it, I finished the first page! As I think I said before I’m putting this aside for a little while to work on my hexagon diamonds. I’ve been kitting more diamonds and I really like some of the combinations I have setup. So back to the cross stitch, I only have 14 pages left to do, lets hope they go as fast as this one did! The back looks terrible with all the confetti, but that’s ok since no one will see it once it’s framed!

Wiggly Whimsy Quilt

Well I have everything cut out and ready to go on the Wiggly Whimsy quilt for the QAL over at Terry’s Treasures. I’m thrilled I got everything cut out using the black fabric I bought since I stole most of it for the Dear Jane Siggie quilt. It’s unbelievable how quickly I cut it all out using my Accuquilt Go. I was so glad I bought the machine and even more glad that I got the 2.5″ multiple die. So now I’m ready for the next step in February, can’t wait to start putting this one together now!

Late Night Update

I’m waiting for the end of the Cavs game, I just have to finish watching it before bed! I just spent the evening working on cutting 2.5″ squares for the Wiggly Whimsy quilt and using those same fabrics for kitting up more diamonds for my hexi diamonds quilt. I only need 9 more kits of diamonds and everything will be ready for the whole quilt. Well, not the whole quilt because I will still need to get more black for the pathways between the diamonds. I’ve decided that I’m going to put the Cavs cross stitch away for awhile (once I finish the page) and concentrate on the hexi diamonds quilt for awhile. I’m also figuring on this being a good choice for taking camping, since everything is already kitted up it’ll be nice to work on at night or even during the day if we aren’t doing anything else.

The directions for the Wiggly Whimsy quilt say to cut a charm square into quarters so you’ll have 4 of the same squares in the quilt. I’ve taken that to an extreme and I’m only using 1 piece in the quilt. I will not have any matching 2.5″ squares in the quilt. I’ve got 130 sitting here, I just need to find 18 more unique squares. I think I’ll be able to pull from my 4.5″ cut squares to find what I need and I won’t need to cut into my yardage. I absolutely love that I was able to cut so many fabrics tonight using my Accuquilt Go – I never would have been able to get all this done just using the rotary cutter. I have TONS of black to cut for this quilt, not sure if I’ll work on that tomorrow or not. But I will definitely be finishing off the colored squares.

Hubby did help me get the cubes put together, his part was easy putting the casters on. We checked in the garage and garage attic and don’t have any pieces of wood large enough to use for the top, I’ll need to go to Home Depot this week and have a piece cut.

No pictures tonight, I’ll take some of my 148 colored 2.5″ squares tomorrow when they are all cut.

Ironing Station

Well, my order from Joann’s showed up late last week and I got the cubes put together. Need hubby’s help to put the casters on and we need to see if we have a piece of plywood we can use for the top or if we need to buy one. I’m really hoping we have a piece that we can use and that I can get hubby to help me get this finished. I have lots of left over batting and I need to pick some fabric to use. I think I’ll use some of my brown equinox fabric – not a lot of things I use it on since it’s a weird brownish color. No pictures yet, everything is spread out in my office. I’ll get some as soon as it’s all together though!

No sewing or stitching was done this weekend, it was such a nice weekend weather-wise that we took Alex to the park on Saturday morning. He loved playing on the equipment, looking at the geese and then we went walking on a bridle trail. He did not want to turn around and go back to the car! Needless to say he slept quite well that afternoon! I think the fact the he likes the outdoors is a big plus because we bought an RV yesterday! Spent 6 hours at the RV show and decided on one that has 4 bunk beds! Have to wait 6-8 weeks for them to build it and we cannot wait to go camping! Never thought I’d say it though! My idea of camping is A/C, heat, kitchen, bathroom – not tents!!! Oh and now I need to make a queen sized quilt for our bed!!!

I hope to have an update on the Cavs cross stitch soon, I’m working on filling in the white letters now.

New BAP Cross Stitch

Last summer someone had posted on a Facebook group an awesome NFL logo cross stitch that they had received as a gift (the pattern) and said that she got it from ncaasportsoutlet.com (site is now down). This site had NFL, NBA, etc charts for all the teams. I bought Miami Heat, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Cavaliers charts. So I kitted up the Cleveland Cavs one and had to wait for months to start it because I needed to get Christmas presents done first. So December 29th I started working on it. I’ve been taking pictures every night that I work on it because it’s really cool to see the changes from day to day. I’m currently just about done with the first page (actually page 8 since it’s in the middle). You can see the pictures larger if you click on them.

Stats:

Started 12/29/2012
62,208 total stitches (288 x 216)
16″ x 12″
18 count white aida (cut 22″ x 18″)
15 pages in the chart
45 colors

12-30-12

12-31-12

01-01-13

01-03-13

01-07-13