Kelly's Kwilts

Long Time No See….

Wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long! Let’s see if I can do a life update to explain before I get into the quilting.

Fall of 2022 (back to my last post) changed everything for us. My mom had some medical issues that she couldn’t come back from and ended up going to a nursing home for long term care as we couldn’t take care of her at home any more. All my free time was spent running out to see her multiple times a week along with helping dad out with things at the house. May of 2023, the week after Mother’s Day, she had multiple strokes which the doctors said there was nothing they could do to help her. May 22, 2023 she passed away and we had a lot of things to take care of. Lawyer, bank, cars, etc. It’s been hard to deal with mom not being here the last year, but she’s not hurting anymore and is at peace.

To add on top of the things going on with my mom, my lovely husband broke his leg in January. 2 surgeries and about 4 months later he was back on his feet with a cane and walking. Then over the summer we realized that when he fell and broke his leg he also damaged his shoulder. Surgery for that in October to repair 2 massive tears in his rotator cuff. 2023 was not a good year for our family!

I didn’t have a lot of mojo to quilt the rest of the year, I used to quilt with mom and my heart just wasn’t in it. Oh I still worked on EPP projects, but didn’t get anything close to a finish. I also picked up cross stitch again and spent evenings working on that when I didn’t want to work on EPP. At Christmas, hubby and I decided we weren’t getting each other gifts but did a weekend trip to Kalahari Indoor Water Park as a family gift from Santa instead. To my surprise he handed me a letter basically saying that due to him being home most of the year and not working as much (plus everything with mom) he realized that tomorrow is never guaranteed. We needed to enjoy life more. So he made me a promise that come 2024 we’d figure out how to get me the long arm I’ve been wanting for a REALLY long time. So, April of 2024 I purchased a Handiquilter Moxie XL, the 10′ frame and the overhead light bar. In order to have a place to put it I had to do some MAJOR cleaning in the basement – I had between 15-20 garbage bags, a few things that went on Facebook Marketplace and were sold and a lot of sorting! There’s still a little bit left to clean up and/or sell but the basement is now pretty usable. I also had to call an electrician and get a lot more (and better) lights and outlets in the basement. That turned out WAY better than I expected!

So since the beginning of May I’ve been quite busy working on finishing various quilts. 2 small ones that were donated to the guild community service group, 1 the kids stole almost immediately (waiting since 2013 for quilting), the Pokemon quilt (waiting since March 2020 for quilting) and Cassie’s bed quilt (currently finishing the binding and has only been waiting 2 years for quilting).

In addition to getting all these quilts finished in the last few months, I also got a few cross stitch projects finished. A new line of signs from Fat Quarter Shop that I loved but finished totally differently than they did – of course I quilted them and made them wall hangings for the doors! I finished 3 of them, I have to start working on the fall, Halloween and Christmas ones. I finally finished my quilt-o-logy and stitch-o-logy pieces, instead of buying the wooden spool, my dad made them for me out of wood from our backyard that he’s been making things for us for years. Of course I just realized I haven’t hung them up yet and I don’t remember where I put them after I showed them off at guild! I’ll have too look so I can hang them in my office/sewing room.

Today is the first day of summer break for the kids, they’ve accomplished so much in the last year and a half! Alex is doing great in middle school, Honors ELA and science (8th grade science in 7th grade!), and almost all A’s (a B+ in Honors science). Next year he takes 9th grade science in 8th grade and gets high school credit for it! Cassie is moving to 5th grade next year and is so smart it kills me! She’s been identified as gifted in math and ELA so that should continue into middle school like Alex with honors classes. I’m very proud of both my kids, even though Alex has surpassed my height at 13!

I’ll be around more, I have lots of things to finish and I think my mojo is finally back!

Finishes and Updates

I have finally finished something! I started quilting this awhile ago, got frustrated and pushed it to the side of my sewing table. A couple of weeks ago I decided I just needed to bite the bullet and get it done. While I was quilting it, just one block left to quilt, my machine froze up and wouldn’t make another stitch. So emergency trip the next day, 90 minute drive south, to a quilt shop that I trust to work on my machine and do it while I’m there. I was gone all morning, did some retail therapy, and got my machine fixed up. So that meant this week I was able to get the last block quilted, binding machine sewn on and then was able to hand stitch the binding at night while watching tv.

This quilt is my OLDEST UFO and is now complete! Back in 2007 I was a member of the Quilting Stash Podcast Yahoo Group and we decided to do a block swap. We used the 2007 Hoffman Challenge Fabric (the butterfly fabric) and made blocks – if I remember we each made 2 – and sent them to Annie Smith (Quilting Stash Podcast host) and they were sorted and sent back to us. I finished my top in January 2009, but didn’t get around to the quilting part until this year when I wanted to get something done. I started working on the black sashing, then was going to do ruler work on the blocks and was having problems, hence the reason it got pushed to the side of the sewing table. While I want to do different quilting, sometimes you just have to do the best you can to get things done. Cassie has already stolen it for her bed, since mommy still hasn’t finished her bed quilt!

So WAY back in October 2020 I mentioned that I found some cigar boxes with pieces that were possibly meant for a double wedding ring quilt and that there was no way I was going to hand piece one of those. Fast forward 2 years and now I’m doing one via EPP. We are only doing 2 a month and it’s really hard for me to not keep going and do more at a time. But I have so many other projects to work on, I need to try and stick to the 2 a month rule. Now that I have a ScanNCut, I can cut out all my EPP papers instead of buying them, saves me some time and money. I’m using all my 2.5″ squares in the scrap bin, so I didn’t have to buy any additional fabric for this yet. Not sure yet what I’ll be using for the background or backing, we’ll see once I get the whole thing put together next year.

I’m working on getting my blocks completed for our guild block exchange, I finished my first block a little while ago, I need to work on the other set tonight while I watch Ohio State kick some butt. 🙂

Updates

I know, I know….I’ve been missing again! End of the school year was really busy with a graduating 5th grader and 2nd grade field trips and as soon as school was out it was travel time. We’ve had a great summer and now school starts on Monday (8/29). I’ve been spending time working on various projects, cross stitch, EPP and quilting.

This summer I found a new EPP designer, Elise Baek, and have been participating in some of her SAL’s. Yesterday I finished my expanding dresden and just need to applique it to a background and quilt it. It will be finished as a wall hanging. Another SAL from Elise was Dilly Flowers and I did some fussy cutting on some of the flowers. I am planning on using them in a Jack’s Chain quilt – I’ve started putting it together, but I have a lot of 9-patch blocks to put together still.

At the beginning of the year I started a cross stitch SAL with FatQuarterShop.com called Heartfelt. All the motifs were hearts and looked like pieces of patchwork – how could I NOT do it? I stayed on track for the whole SAL and got it finished right on time. I need to work on my finishing skills, but this is the first project I’ve finished in a long time that wasn’t just trimmed and put in a frame. I have a lot more projects coming that will be finished similar to this one that I will be able to practice my techniques on.

Since I’ve gotten back into cross stitch I’ve started watching flosstubes on Youtube and one of the many I follow is FatQuarterShop. They have so many downloadable patterns and I absolutely loved a set, one geared toward quilting and the other toward cross stitch. I completed the quilting one and at some point I’ll do the cross stitch one.

Back in March my father-in-law unexpectedly passed away and while my husband was in California helping his step-mom he volunteered me to make t-shirt quilts with all of his dad’s t-shirt collection. So I’m working on a total of 9 quilts out of 2 large boxes full of t-shirts that we brought home from our California trip in June. First quilt is for his step-mom as I think she needs the memories the most. I have the shirts separated and I’m working on making sure I can fit all the shirts in and I do want to put some pictures in if I can fit them. We’ll see what I can figure out in the near future. The kids start back on Monday and I’m hoping that means I’ll have some time to work on some of the many projects in the queue.

Now that the expanding dresden EPP is done, I’m going to be starting a new EPP project this week. Elise Baek is doing a Double Wedding Ring EPP SAL if you are a member of her EPP Club. We are doing 2 rings a month and it should take about a year to get it finished. Unfortunately I can’t participate in the zoom call tomorrow, kids have open house and orientation, but I’ll watch the replay so I can start basting pieces and start sewing them together.

Back soon!!

March OMG and Cross Stitch

I didn’t do so well on my monthly goals, while I did complete the quilting and get binding on the front of the pentagon quilt, it’s not stitched down on the back yet. I did not get around to doing the backing for Cassie’s bed quilt so that certainly didn’t get basted. Things got a little crazy this month with school, Cassie’s birthday and an unexpected death in our family. My father-in-law passed away last Friday (3/25) and hubby had to go out to California the same week the kids had Spring Break. This meant I was tasked to distract the kids for the week. 🙂

I may not have gotten enough quilting done, but I did get a TON of cross stitch done! First up is the Table of Elements SAL that I’m participating in. Finished part 3 with a week to spare! I’m really liking how it’s looking and I’m really glad to be done with the yellow sections! Part 4 was released today and I have it on my tablet to start working on today. Not as much to do this time, hopefully I’ll get it done quickly so I can work on my other projects.

Next up is the Heartfelt SAL from Fat Quarter Shop. When I saw the finished piece on their blog I knew I had to do it too. The column was month 2, but I had to go back and finish up all the borders from month 1 – got a little behind on that part last month! Now it’s all ready for month 3 (2nd column) that will be released on April 1st (hope it’s not an April Fool’s joke!)

Since I finished both of the SAL and had time left before the next sections would come out, I started working on Quilt-o-graphy from Fat Quarter Shop. They are doing it as a SAL, but I’m not following that I’m just doing it on my own. There’s a companion cross stitch piece that I’m going to do as well, Stitch-o-graphy. I love the colors, the design and I plan to finish it the way they did on the website. So far this is a pretty easy stitch, I think I’m about 15-20% done with it already after only a couple of evenings of work.

I’ve also been pretty busy this month with orders, it’s time for everyone to start buying graduation gifts and Class of key fobs are my biggest seller every year. I need to find out how many kids are in my son’s 5th grade class, I’d like to make one for each of them and donate them to the school. I’ll have to check on that soon so I can start working on them.

I should be back soon with a finish – that quilt will be bound soon!

March OMG Projects

I finished last months projects pretty quickly and started working on quilting the pentagon quilt. I just have the border left to quilt and then get binding on it.

That was the easy project this month! I also want to get the backing made for my daughter’s bed quilt and get it basted. I’m hoping to get more done than that – but I will consider my goal met if I can do the backing and basting. It’s larger than the pentagon quilt so it will take longer to quilt. I also have a little girl’s birthday to get ready for, which means party bags and possibly a few presents if I have time to make them. She’s turning 8 this month and is now into Harry Potter which makes mama’s heart sing!

Off to work on a hat order so I can get to quilting! Linking up to Elm Street Quilts OMG.

February OMG Results

I knew I’d be able to finish these small projects this month, but I didn’t think I’d finish them so quickly! The first one is a runner for my sister’s makeup table and since there were extra pieces we didn’t need for the runner length, I made a small pillow for her that matches. I even put a zipper in the side – first time for me! – and the pillow insert is a little small, but that’s ok, I think she’ll like it anyway.

The other project was the Valentine’s runner for my island. I’ve made Cathedral Window things before, using the Missouri Star method. The first one I ever made was using 2.5″ squares and that was difficult. It’s pretty easy when you use charm packs. I have 3 more of these runners to make with holiday fabrics, we’ll see if I can fit them in soon.

Since I finished these projects, I basted and started quilting another project, I posted about that last week. House is empty today, I only have a few household chores to do, so I’m hoping to get a lot of the quilting done today. It’s 2/22/22 and my little 2nd grader was so excited to wear 2 different shoes, a tie and I did 2 braids in her hair today. It’s so cool the things they do at school to celebrate these special days during the school year.

I’m determined to get things off my UFO list this year, no matter how small they are! Linking up to OMG finishes at Elm Creek Quilts.

Pentagon EPP Quilt Update

I finished this quilt top last month and wasn’t planning on quilting this this month. But since I’ve finished my OMG projects for the month (post to come soon) I decided I needed to work on something. I just spent the last couple of hours cutting the batting – of course that had to be done twice because the first time I wasn’t thinking and had it folded in half when I cut for the width and only had half of what I needed! – and then doing the basting with the Free Fuse Powder that I talked about in my last post.

I’m planning on quilting around each pentagon after I stitch in the ditch on the sashing. Not sure what I’ll do in the wider border yet, but it will be something simple. Hoping to get as much of it quilted as I can this weekend, but I’m taking Cassie to the gym tomorrow for a makeup session, and then I’ve promised her we can watch the first Harry Potter movie since we finished the book last night. She’s so excited to watch the movie and she loved reading the book together every night before bed. I think we are starting book 2 tonight, I’ll have to check with her and go find it in the basement. Good thing about watching the movie tomorrow is I’ll have extra time for cross stitch, I’m still working on the Table of Elements SAL plus I started the Heartfelt SAL from Fat Quarter Shop. I’m probably going to be behind on that project since I’m almost halfway done on the ToE SAL for the month.

Whew!

I have finally completed the top for Cassie’s bed quilt. I started this February 3, 2019 while we watched the Super Bowl and 3 years later I get the borders added to the top on Super Bowl day! I have a plan for the back, which requires ordering some fabric – which hubby might not be happy about. I wasn’t too thrilled about how much I had to add for borders, 9″ for 3 sides and 18″ on the bottom, just to get it to the right size for her bed. The pattern says it finishes 60″ x 72″ and if I had been paying attention to that I would have added at least 3-4 rows to the EPP part before adding borders. I have been trying to find the designer but it looks like her site is gone, email doesn’t work and she’s not even on Instagram anymore which is where I originally found the pattern. Cassie thought when I put it on her bed that it was totally finished, she’s not very patient and really wants it done!

I’ve been working hard this weekend to get things accomplished, and I just found out about something really cool at guild last week. There is a product called Free Fuse Powder that you can sprinkle on your top/batting/backing and press it all together. It’s easy to quilt through, there’s no basting pins, and it’s so quick! I used it on a runner I was working on yesterday and fell in love with it! Took me a couple of hours to baste the runner (4.5′ long and 1.5′ wide) and then quilt it. Now I need to make some binding and I can get another UFO off my list! I did finish one of my OMG projects, I’ll be writing about that soon, the table runner will be part of that post too.

Time to get dinner ready so we can watch the Super Bowl. I don’t like them, but since it’s an Ohio team we are rooting for Cincinnati this year.

Snow Day!

The kids had a snow day yesterday thanks to Winter Storm Landon. I was pulling fabrics for backings for this month’s OMG projects and borders on Cassie’s quilt and found a bunch of fabrics that were too small to do much with. Scraps from previous projects that just got thrown in the big tub of fabrics that I still need to get put on mini bolts and put away. So I spent some time pressing them and getting them cut into squares – from left to right, 1.5″, 2″, 2.5″. They are now in the tubs and ready to be used in projects instead of buried in a bin.

Hard to really tell from the picture, but we got a bunch of snow. We have a 650′ driveway and I only went out yesterday long enough to drive Alex to his friends house around the corner and pick him back up later. The roads were bad, but I think our driveway is worse 🙂 We are currently waiting for someone to come and plow the driveway, unfortunately the snow blower won’t work very well on this wet snow. Hubby has major issues with the snow blower when it’s wet since it just clogs up everything.

We got the new month’s pattern for the Table of Elements SAL on Monday and I’ve been working hard this week on it. I’m getting about 200 stitches done a day, might get more done this weekend since the kids are going to my sister’s for some fun and we’ll be catching up on some movies that we’ve been meaning to watch. During the day I’m planning on working on some quilting for this months OMG projects.

February OMG Projects

So I have 2 items on my 2022 UFO Challenge list that I want to complete this month. The bottom runner is going to be a Valentine’s cathedral window runner for the island that just needs backing and batting. I will find that somewhere in my stash as I’m not buying any fabric this month! I have a total of 4 of these holiday runners I want to get done this year, this one is made with a white Bella Solids charm pack and a charm pack of Holiday Essentials Love by Stacy Iest Hsu. It will be quilted while I finish putting it together and I’d love to have it done for Valentine’s Day.

The second item is a runner for my sister which includes a pillow since there were some extra pieces that we didn’t need for the length. This has been waiting for a LONG time to be finished and I’m sure at this point she’s forgotten all about it.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal.