2013 – Page 2 – Kelly's Kwilts

Guild Block Exchange & New Project

Well I am ALMOST done with my guild block exchange quilt!! I just need to do the borders. I had to do a little fixing on some of the blocks, including some of my own! I just added strips of my background fabric and then squared them up to 12.5″. Made it quite easy to add all the sashing and finish putting the rows together. I really like how it’s turned out, and I can’t wait to see what everyone else has done.

I know, I need another project like I need a hole in my head! I saw a few rows of a quilt on Facebook and really liked the idea of the scrappy 25-patch blocks mixing with a scrappy block that has an applique on it. I’ve already pulled all the pieces I need for the hexie flowers and started pinning them to my 1″ papers. I just happen to have the 6.5″ square die for my Studio so I can cut the white squares I need to applique them to. By the time this is done I’ll have used up 517 2.5″ squares!!! Quilt will end up being 58″ x 58″ with the border.

I mentioned the other day that I was joining another SAL over at Terry’s Treasures. I designed the quilt in EQ so I could play with sizes and decide how big I wanted to make it. With a border this quilt will be around 58″ x 58″. This will be entirely made of scrap pieces as well, using 2.5″ squares (or triangles) and 4.5″ squares. I need to see what whites I have to use, I may have to make a trip to Joann’s to get a white of some sort to use. I just figured it out and this quilt (in the size I’ve chosen) will use 192 2.5″ squares in the 16-patches, 96 4.5″ squares, 144 2.5″ squares (or triangles) in the X blocks. That will use 336 2.5″ squares in the quilt! Between the 2 quilts I’ll use up a lot of scraps!!!!

I still need to cut 40 black 6.5″ squares for the scrappy 9-patch quilt. I will most likely cut the white and black squares at the same time since I’ll have the Studio out from under the sewing table. I just got the larger tray and the large Go adapter for the Studio today, so I’ll be able to use my 2.5″ strip die now. Definitely having fun working on scrap quilts, even though I have LOTS of other quilts I need to finish! I’ve also been slowly working on pieces for my hexagon diamond quilt, still haven’t put the row together even though I finished the diamonds, I will need to work on that soon, but I did start working on the black hexies I need for fill in on the top and bottom. Although now I’ll be working on the hexies for the applique instead!

Alex is up from his nap, so I better get him up and it’s almost time to start working on dinner anyway. Laters!

Various Updates

I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks, but I have been busy! I finished all the 9 patches for the scrappy 9 patch quilt. I just got the die to cut my 6.5″ squares to go with this, but since I really want to get my guild challenge quilt done I’m putting the scrappy one aside for awhile. I have sashing on half of the 12.5″ blocks for the guild challenge quilt, the other 8 need a little bit of help making that 12.5″ size. I don’t think I’ll have time tomorrow to work on them, we are heading to my mom’s to celebrate some birthdays, mine and my sisters! I turned 40 a week ago and my little sister turned 36 last Wednesday.

While I waited for my aida to show up for the Monopoly board cross stitch, I continued working on hexagons. I finished the 5 diamonds needed for the 3rd row from the bottom. Just need to attach those to the main piece and I can work on the next row. I took a bunch of black squares to guild the other night and worked on getting those basted so I can start working on the fill in sections at the top and bottom. I need about 71 black hexies just for the top sections alone! Can’t wait to have this one done so I can get it quilted!!! I hope to put it in our next quilt show too.

While reading blogs the other day, I found that Terry over at Terry’s Treasures is planning another sew along for next year. I participated in this years – and of course couldn’t wait and got the whole quilt completed before everyone else. Of course it’s still not quilted!!! I really like the idea of this quilt, and it can be scrappy, so maybe I can use a ton of my 2.5″ squares and triangles that are already cut up in the containers. So I’m doing another sew along next year. I might fall majorly behind at the beginning of the year, what with the baby being due in March and all! But one day at a time is all I can do! Of course I also had to draw it up in EQ, just so I could experiment with sizes and the components of each block. I really like how it looks!!

I’m starting to fall asleep already so I guess I need to get going and maybe go to bed early!

Cutting Review on Studio

I figured that since I was already going to be cutting fabric I’d do a little review on my new Studio. I love it! It cuts so much nicer than the Go, even with the Go dies! I have a bolt of Kona black that I’m using for projects that is 44″ wide. So since I want as many black squares as I can get, I cut an 8.5″ width and the length is the full 44″ (22″ since it’s folded on the bolt). I know it’s hard to see folded up on the die, but it’s folded so that there are 4 full layers and 2 layers that are partials. After I run it through, I have a stack of 48 2.5″ squares and a small pile of scraps. There’s almost NO waste! I did 3 of the 8.5″ strips to get 144 total squares. If I don’t need these for the 9-patch scrappy quilt, I know I can use them for the hexie diamond quilt. I worked on some hexies last night while we watched tv, I’m waiting for a shipment to come from 123 stitch with some Aida cloth. I’ve decided to put away my Cavs cross stitch and do my Monopoly board instead. I have almost all the floss, just needed a big enough piece of 18 count aida to work on it. When it’s finished it will be a full sized Monopoly board and we can play on it once it’s framed/mounted. I’ll post updates as I work on it. Time to get back to sewing, laundry is done for today (more for tomorrow), dinner is in the crock pot and Alex is still sleeping!

Design Wall Monday – November 4th

I managed to get a lot done yesterday on my scrappy 9 patch quilt. Got all of the 4 patch blocks for the border pressed and ready to be put together, pulled all the black squares I have cut out and matched up to the scrap squares. 7 9-patch blocks are put together, 6 more are almost put together. I think I’ll be cutting out more black squares this afternoon and hope to put more blocks together. I also have a bag full of fabrics that my mom gave me when she was cleaning out her stash, some of them are small pieces that are going to get cut up into 2.5″ squares. Unfortunately I have laundry to do too and that has to be done before I can get back to work. *sigh* The things a mommy has to do! 🙂

Had a check-up today with my OB and everything is going great! Baby’s heartbeat was 164 and is growing like she should. I’ve started to feel her moving around the last week or so and it’ll get better as she gets bigger. Other than fatigue I feel great!

Back soon with updates!

Busy, busy, busy!

It’s been busy around here the last couple of weeks. My son was the ring bearer in a friend’s wedding last week. He looked so handsome!!! We were very proud of him, he did everything he was supposed to do! I made the couple my usual wedding gift, cross stitch picture in a matted frame for 2 of their wedding pictures. I’ve probably made close to 10 of these for family and friends over the years.

Hubby helped me get my Studio situated yesterday. We had a table in the basement that he made years ago for his music keyboard that has just been sitting there. So I had him cut the legs down so that it would fit underneath my sewing table. You can see a couple of boxes under there, once I take care of those (documents that need shredded) it should fit nicely against the wall on the left. Haven’t used it much yet, just did a trial cut the night it got here. I do have a TON of black 2.5″ squares to cut, so it will get a workout soon.

I couldn’t decide what to work on today, hubby is busy with his business partner and Alex is napping, so after working on cleaning some stuff up in my office and starting the homemade chicken noodle soup I decided to pull out the scrappy 9 patch quilt I’ve been working on as leader/enders. All of the 4 patches are completed, just need to iron them all – so I started working on the 9 patch blocks. This is what I’ll need the black squares for. I think this will go fast, since most everything is cut already. Next I’ll need the 6.5″ black squares and I might wait to cut those until I can get the die for the Studio. We’ll see!

When we were cleaning out my grandmother’s house, I got a box FULL of buttons. I finally finished cutting them all off the cards or cutting them off strings and got them in a vase for on top of my cabinets. Then I decided to take another vase and put all the thread that I got from her house too. Since it’s been a lot of years since she’s sewn, I don’t really know how old the thread is. Some of it is on wooden spools! I decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to use it, I’d rather use it for decoration. Either way, it will remind me of her.

I think once I get the 9 patches done I’ll go back to the guild challenge quilt. Just need to decide on which color to do the sashing in so I can put it together. Shouldn’t take too long, I have just over a month before it needs to be done for our meeting. Hopefully back soon with another update!

Update and Delivery!

OMG it’s here!!!! Lucky for me we were still home when UPS delivered and the delivery woman put it inside the door for me. Lifting that bottom box would be a major issue for me! Can’t wait for the hubby to get home and get it setup for me! I only have 1 studio die so far, but I bought the die adapter to let me use almost all of my Go dies on the Studio. This means I can put my Go away in the closet. I think I have a table in the basement that we can cut the legs down so that I can store it under my sewing table. Just have to have the hubby do that work! I think for now we’ll put it on my cutting table. I don’t know where else I can put it even temporarily. I just can’t wait to get it setup and ready to use!

I finished my scrappy table topper last night. I really like how it turned out, I can’t wait to make a larger quilt like this! I’m not sure where I’m going to use it yet, but it was pretty quick and easy! I think it will be really easy to work on the 25 patch as a leader/ender project, and boy do I have a lot of 2.5″ squares!

I’m still working on the guild block exchange quilt, like I said yesterday I got all my blocks finished I just need to cut out the sashing strips. Not yet sure if I want to use black or the gold (like in the EQ picture yesterday). I am still leaning toward the gold, I really think I’ve been using too much black lately!

Hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow with an update on my Studio!

Guild Block Challenge

Well, I finished the blocks I needed to make in order to put my top together. I made 4 blocks for the corners, all the challenge blocks will go in the middle. I’ve put some of them in just as an example. I am hoping to work on cutting out the sashing pieces tomorrow and attach them to the blocks. I am hoping I still have enough of the challenge fabric to do the borders, I’m pretty sure I do have enough, but I’m not cutting it up until I have everything put together. I used my Accuquilt Go to cut out most of the pieces for the corner blocks, I think it was cut out in less than an hour!

I’m really happy with how this is turning out so far and next I’ll need to decide how to quilt it. I really don’t want to think about that part yet though! I have a lot of other tops to get quilted!

I can’t wait to see how everyone else sets their blocks. It will be great if finished tops will get more people in the guild to participate next year. I really like the colors in the Hoffman Challenge fabric for 2014.

Time for me to go and see if I can finish the binding on my scrappy table topper. Hoping to post the finished piece tomorrow!

A Finish!!

I finished hand stitching the binding down last night on my table runner! This was made out of a charm pack called Blessings by Brannock and Patek for Moda. I used my Accuquilt Go and my 4″ Finished Triangles in a Square die to cut out all the triangles. It went together so quickly, and then it sat for a few months all pinned and ready to quilt. I think it may have only taken an hour or so to quilt. Why do I do that? Get it ready and then let it sit when I can have it done and use it if I just sat down to quilt it. Oh well, this one is done and ready to be used on the table.

I quilted the scrappy table topper yesterday afternoon, it only took a few hours to complete. I put the binding on, and started doing the hand work last night after I finished the table runner. I am hoping to finish working on that tonight.

Today I’m going to see if I can cut out the pieces I need for the 4 additional blocks for the Guild block exchange quilts. I wanted to make mine a little larger so I’m making 4 blocks for the corners that match. Almost all of the pieces I need can be cut out with my Go so I think maybe I can start sewing them together this afternoon. I know it won’t get quilted before the December meeting, but I really just want to get the top completed before I forget about it! We want to get more people signed up for next year!

Time to get to work on cutting, I’ll be back when I get the table topper finished.

Progress!!!

Boy am I on a roll this week! I mentioned on the weekend that I designed a quilt in EQ that I had found on someone’s website. Yesterday I spent some time cleaning up my office so I could get back to work. It took me less than 2 hours and I have a completed table topper (about 22″ x 22″). I found a backing today and got it all pinned so I can quilt it tomorrow. I’m just doing straight line quilting, and I’ll put a black binding on it. I really like how it turned out! It used up 41 2.5″ squares that I already had cut up in the bin. I just needed to cut the long black pieces on the sides, which was pretty quick! The pattern shows a 5 x 5 block quilt. I think just one is perfect for a table topper!

Today I spent a couple of hours and finally quilted my table runner (mentioned here) – again just straight line quilting as it didn’t really need anything more than that. I started hand stitching the binding to the back this evening, when I get finished I’ll post all the details on it.

While I had my tub of batting scraps out today I pulled enough batting pieces to fit my Red, White and Blue Signature quilt. So once I get these 2 quilts done I can work on quilting the signature quilt. It will most likely be straight line quilting too, just because it’s easy and quick!

Alex and I stopped at Joann’s today, I needed to pick up a frame for the wedding gift I finished over the weekend. They have a big sale going on this week and I picked up some fat quarters, a yard or so of white Kona and just over a yard of Cars fabric for a quilt for Alex. Don’t know what design I’ll use yet, but I do have some ideas rolling around in my head. I want to get some of these other projects done before I start making this new one for him.

Looks like this baby wants mama to go to sleep, I never got a nap today and I’m getting to the point that I just can’t keep my eyes open!

New Purchase

OMG! I can’t believe I just pushed the button and bought the Accuquilt Studio! I have no idea where it’s going to live, I’d love a table that rolls underneath my big 6′ wide sewing table. That would be the ideal solution, I just don’t know if that will happen. I also bought a 5″ charm square die that cuts 8 at a time, I’m hoping to be able to cut charms and put them on etsy. I’d like to also cut other peoples fabric – maybe something like drunkard’s path dies, or winding ways, etc. I just don’t know if it would sell or not. I hope this isn’t a case of buyer’s remorse already!! 🙂

I hope to start working on some sewing this week, since I designed a few quilts this week while I was testing EQ, I have a lot of ideas! I also have to fix an embroidery order for my friends bakery, I guess pregnancy brain hit me early and I didn’t do the full design on her shirts. Logo is there, but the name of her business is not!

I did finish the cross stitch piece for the wedding, just need to get to Joann’s and get the frame. I’ll get a picture up once it’s framed.

Til later,