2013 – Page 3 – Kelly's Kwilts

Electric Quilt on the Mac!

I am super thrilled!!!! A few months ago someone posted on one of my EQ groups that EQ was coming out with a version for the Mac. After we got our tax refund last year I moved to a MacBook Pro laptop and this year after we got our tax refund I got a Mac Mini. Since I really only have a few programs that run in windows or don’t have a replacement version for the Mac I decided to use Parallels and run those programs under windows on my macs. So when I found out that a Mac version was coming I was all for it! This means 1 less program I need to use Parallels for, and if I ever find a decent embroidery program for the Mac that isn’t a lot of money I might be able to get rid of it!

Any way, they were looking for people to beta test and I signed right up. We just got the beta version a week or so ago and I’ve been spending time as I can on it. I like taking quilts I find on websites or in magazines and redesigning them in EQ. This allows me to make changes to them as I need, depending on what colors I have in fabric or sizes I have already cut out. I designed one recently from a website that is 5 x 5 25-patch blocks with sashing to make a quilt measuring 86″ x 86″. Of course I need to see what the different sizes are going to be so I looked at 4×4, 3×3, 2×2, and 1×1. I think I might start with making the 1×1 because it’s the perfect size for a table topper! This might be the best way for me to get sewing again!

Where have I been – Part 2

Ok, lunch is over and the laptop is plugged in charging. I said I’d explain why Alex and I stayed home from the CA trip right? We’ve been trying for awhile to get pregnant, we really didn’t want Alex to be an only child. Since we had so many issues getting pregnant with him, and after a few months of trying ourselves and doing IUI’s, we started the IVF process again. With a failed cycle in December and another failed attempt in the spring, we were finally lucky enough for it to work in July. The IVF transfer was the day before the hubby left for his trip and we didn’t want me to attempt flying after all of that. So Alex and I stayed home, I had to do all of my shots myself instead of hubby helping me. Let me tell you, progesterone shots in the thigh are not pleasant, but it’s better than not doing it at all and losing the baby. I have a genetic clotting disorder called MTHFR that requires me to take extra folic acid pills in addition to my prenatal vitamin. I also take a low dose baby aspirin and do twice daily heparin shots to prevent my blood from clotting.

So needless to say it’s been a rough couple of months with morning sickness, not in the morning as you’d expect but at night right before bed. And not once in awhile like it was with Alex, but every night! Lots of doctor appointments with the specialists and various OBs (due to my age and clotting disorder I’m considered high risk so I have to see a specialist because of that!). We’ve had lots of ultrasounds which gives me lots of chances to see that everything is ok. I’m a paranoid person when it comes to this since we’ve had LOTS of problems in the past. We have a doppler that allows us to hear the baby’s heartbeat and I ask the hubby if we can hear it every couple of nights or so.

Due to my high risk issues, we had a blood test done called NISP that checks for Downs syndrome and other chromosomal issues. Not that we’d terminate if the results were bad, but if we knew we could do research to find out what special things we’d need to get. The other benefit to the test is that since they are testing fetal DNA in my blood, they can tell the gender. So the doctors office called one Friday afternoon close to 5 o’clock. The nurse tells me that the test was negative so we didn’t have to worry about any disorders. Then she asks if we know the gender and if we want to know. Of course I say yes, but that I’m afraid to know the answer! She says “They found no Y chromosomes”, and I’m sitting there for about 30 seconds trying to remember what that means! She must have realized I couldn’t think so she says “It’s a girl” after which I immediately start crying because that’s what I wanted! As soon as I got off the phone with her I called the hubby and told him. He was just as excited! Hubby posted this picture on his Facebook page with no comments and we don’t think many people got it.

So come March 2014 we’ll have a new face in our house and a daughter in our hearts. I am hoping to start sewing again soon, now that things are calming down and I’m getting my energy back. I have a few scrap projects in mind and can’t wait to work on. Also hoping to work on cross stitch again at night while we watch tv, it’ll keep me from going to sleep too soon! If I can start working on projects, you’ll be seeing posts!

Where have I been???

Wow, it’s been a LONG time since I posted anything! I was trying hard this summer to get my hexie diamonds quilt finished for our quilt show, until they posted that quilts had to be completed by the end of September. AHHHHH! I’d never make it since I had 3 rows to finish, plus the black fill in spots at the top and bottom, PLUS quilting it? Yeah, I decided to just put it aside and work on it slow and just have it ready for the next show. Then I realized I needed to start working on a cross stitch piece for a wedding gift. Now of course it’s still not done and the wedding is next weekend! The bride works with the hubby and asked Alex to be the ring bearer! He’s going to look so cute in a tux, I just don’t know if he’s going to do what he’s asked or not!

In July the hubby went to California to see his dad for his 70th birthday. Alex and I stayed home since I don’t really want to take him on an airplane yet! (There’s another reason why we didn’t go that I’ll explain in another post.) Turns out it was a good thing we didn’t go as Alex got sick that weekend and had a 100 degree fever – only for about 24 hours though! Anyway, I found out there was a new quilt shop (The Quilt Loft) that opened within walking distance of his dad’s house. We’ve always had this deal that if one of us went out of town, the other would bring back a “prize”. So I told him where he could get my prize! So he went and picked out a jelly roll of Icicle Kisses by Kansas Troubles Quilters. I have no idea what I’ll do with it yet, but I will come up with something!

I was playing around with one of my Accuquilt Go dies and made this little table runner. I’ve had it pinned for awhile, just haven’t gotten around to sitting down at the machine to quilt it! This was a charm pack that I ran through on the triangle die (don’t remember which one off hand since we are camping while I write this post!) and just put them together into 2 rows. Haven’t decided if I will square it off once quilted or bind it with the angled corners. Once we get home from camping I will look at which die I used and also get the information for which line this was from.

Spent some time working on blocks for our Guild block exchange using the 2013 Hoffman Challenge fabric. All blocks have been exchanged and now it’s time to put it all together into a quilt. We want to have all the quilt tops completed by the December meeting so we can hopefully get more people to participate next year! I’ll do another post with those once we get home, I haven’t taken pictures of all the blocks yet!

I received an email yesterday from Accuquilt that the Studio cutter is on sale again for $399, the lowest price I’ve seen all year. I’ve been debating it for a long time, mainly because there are a few dies I’d love to have that are only made for the Studio. Plus I’ve been thinking about adding die cuts to my business, since at some point I need to get that going again. I currently only have 2 customers for embroidery work and I need to start making things I can put on etsy. Die cuts might be a good thing, quick and I could even cut customer fabrics! Plus right now is triple reward points and that will be nice, since it will give me a good way to buy more dies at limited cost to me! 🙂

Time to charge the laptop and make some lunch, I’ll be back later with more of where I’ve been!

Quilt Show!

I know, I know, I haven’t been around much lately. I will explain in a post (or 2) soon. I wanted to get this posted right away though. My guild (Lorain County Piecemakers) is having a Quilt Show October 4-6.

Over 100 guild quilts will be displayed along with our own Quilt Car. Many vendors will be set up displaying their sewing and supply items. We will also be raffling off a Serger and many baskets of sewing and other items.

Hours:
October 4th: 10am – 8pm
October 5th: 10am – 5pm
October 6th: 11am – 3pm

New Russia Township Hall
46268 Butternut Ridge Road
Oberlin, Ohio

Hope to see you there!

Hexie Diamonds Update

It’s been busy around here lately, but I have managed to get all the half and full diamonds completed for the next row. I’ve started to sew them to the main piece and hope to have it done before the weekend, I don’t want to take this big thing camping! I was going to work on it last night after Alex went to bed, but my fingers got slammed in the car door and now 3 finger tips are bruised and hurt. Hoping to work on it soon! I have the next row all prepped and plan on taking them with me, I should be able to work on it at night when Alex is asleep. I’m determined to finish this quilt so I can enter it in the Guild quilt show in October, but that means I have to have it completed (together and quilted) by the end of September. If I can finish it soon, it’ll be just over a year since I started it. I posted about designing it here, and that was last June. I had a lot of start and stops last fall though since I was working on presents for people, and that was all cross stitch. I’ll probably only work on cross stitch and hand quilting when this quilt is finished, I need a break from hexagons! But if I had to guess, the break won’t last long!

Four rows to go!

I managed to get the 5 diamonds finished for the next row pretty quickly. Only took about 10 days to get the 5 diamonds put together. I love the colors in this row! I think my favorite is the rainbow stripes. The picture of the full quilt isn’t the best, we took it at night and the hubby wasn’t holding it right. I’m working on the next row and hope to have it done pretty quickly. I HAVE to have the top completed and quilted before the end of September, so I can enter it into the guild quilt show. I have 2 others I’m entering, but they are ones that have been completed for years. Hubby will be out of town next weekend, so I’ll have PLENTY of time to work on it! 🙂

Winner!

Look what I won last week! I retweeted something from Quilter’s Newsletter and won these two magazines – Best Weekend Quilts and Best Fat Quarter Quilts. Can’t wait to see if there’s something in these that I can use my fat quarters from the Guild exchange! I don’t usually win giveaways, but it seems no one wanted to win on twitter! 🙂 I’ll keep entering giveaways and at some point I have to win more!

Design Wall Monday

Well I was able to get 2 diamonds finished this week. I have my baggies ready for the next 3, and need to get working on basting them and putting the diamond together. I was going to work on hand quilting my first hexagon quilt so I could put it in the guild quilt show, but with everything going on this summer, I know I just don’t have the time. I’d rather concentrate on finishing hexagon diamonds and get it quilted for the show. I took a break yesterday though and decided to do something different. I pulled out my Cleveland Cavaliers cross stitch piece and worked on it for awhile. I haven’t worked on it since January, but it was quite easy to pick it back up and work on it. There’s a total of 15 pages and I had finished 1 in January. So I started working on page 7, there’s a lot of solid color so I figured it’d be easy! So when I need a break from the hexagons, I’ll work on my cross stitch. Hope to have more diamonds finished this week so I can put it all together this weekend.
Linking up to Design Wall Monday at PatchworkTimes

Hexie Diamonds

I managed to get the 4 diamonds attached today while Alex was napping. There are now 5 rows left to add before this is completed. I am really liking how this is turning out, even though there are a few fabrics I don’t like. But since they are such small pieces of them, it doesn’t matter too much! I’m going to sort through the rest of my baggies tonight and figure out which diamonds are going in rows together. It’s also a way to make sure I have everything I need to finish this quilt. I have a LOT of black hexies to make to fill in the top and bottom, not sure if I’ll leave those for the end or do them before I finish the rest of these rows. I’ll decide later! Time to watch the Heat beat the Spurs (Game 6 of the NBA Finals) and sort through the hexie baggies.

Hexie Diamonds Update

Oh my goodness does my arm hurt! I wasn’t feeling well this weekend and decided to take it easy today. So while Alex played (and napped) I spent the day working on my hexie diamonds. I got all 4 put together that I need for the next row. I’d start working on attaching it all to the main piece tonight, but I think my right arm needs a rest – too much repetitive motion!! Hopefully tomorrow I can start putting it together. I have 5 rows after this one and then the filling in of the top and bottom with black. Then I’ll be able to baste it and quilt it. I had intended this to be done before we went camping the first time, but now my goal is to have it done and ready for the guild quilt show in October. The colors aren’t too good in this picture, I took it in the family room and it’s a little late at night for good pictures! I like almost all of the colors in this row, except for the money fabric. I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought that fat quarter, but at least I’m figuring out a way to use them!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at PatchworkTimes and HeLP for Hexies at Sarah Did It.