April 2013 – Kelly's Kwilts

Red, White and Blue Finished!

Well I did it, I finished the top today! I love how it looks and I love that it took me only a hour or so to cut the whole thing out. The possibilities are endless with this block, so many settings. I think I’m going to donate this for community service for our guild, I’m waiting for word on what size they need. That way I can decide if I’m putting a border on it or not. If not, then I’ve also found the backing already. This was totally made from scraps and I’m happy that I have another way to use scraps up – that doesn’t use 2.5″ squares 🙂 I am really glad that I bought my Go and that they are coming out with dies that allow you to cut out more pieces at a time.

Some how when I was cutting out the blue triangles I ended up with an extra one. As I was figuring out where to put it, I thought about the chisel die I have. Guess what, the 3″ finished triangle fits perfectly on the chisel piece! Oh man is my mind churning with ideas! I can see a quilt with all scraps, a 2 color, again the possibilities are ENDLESS!

I need to stop thinking about these for awhile though, I need to design and make the quilt for Alex for the RV, plus I have a few I should get quilted before I start making more tops.

The Red, White and Blue

So I’ve been a busy beaver today! I spent the remaining time of Alex’s nap today to finish cutting out the red, white and blue quilt using the Go. I used all scraps (red and blue) and stash (white) to make this quilt and I’ve now got 3 out of 7 rows put together. I’m pretty sure I can finish putting this quilt together. I haven’t decided about a border yet, but I do have a few ideas for the backing. I also haven’t decided if I I’m going to donate this for community service at guild or if I’m going to keep it. Might make a good quilt for camping. As is without a border it will be around 27″ x 31.5″, I’ll have to see what it looks like when I’ve got the blocks put together. Might have another finished top by tomorrow! Gotta love being able to cut quilts out so fast and accurately!!!

Wiggly Whimsy Finish, New Toys

Yep I did it, I finished my Wiggly Whimsy top! I ended up taking 2 different seams out and reattaching them. Still have a couple of small puckers in one of the seams, but it won’t be noticable once it’s quilted. Now I need to find a backing and get some batting so I can get it quilted.
I mentioned the other day that I had spent a little money to get some Accuquilt Go dies that I’ve been wanting. I got the 3″ finished half-square triangle to go with my signature die and a 2″ finished half-square triangle to go with my 2″ finished squares. Anyway, they arrived today! I’ve already started playing with the 3″ HST and signature block dies. I designed a quilt the other day in 2 colors in EQ and today while driving home from lunch started to think of colors I could use. Top colorway? Red, white and blue! I figured I had enough red and blue scraps for the triangles and I was pretty sure I had white I could use for the signature part of the block. I’ve already got 4 blocks done, took me maybe 10 minutes to cut and sew them together! I LOVE how the dog ears are cut off when you use the dies. Everything fits together so nicely and there is no guessing at all! I think I’ll work on cutting as much of this out as I can today and maybe put it together tomorrow. It will finish around 29″x33″ as it is designed right now, I haven’t thought about a border yet and I can always make more blocks and make it larger. We’ll see what I decide. Oh! I also bought the Lil’ Twister template, I love the look of these quilts and I might be able to use a bunch of scraps to make up some easy quilts. Hope to play with this soon too!

So I’ve talked 5 brave souls at guild to do a block exchange. Because none of the quilt shops in our area have the focus fabric that I wanted to use, I placed an order with Hancocks of Paducah and got enough for everyone (they are paying for their yardage!). I really like the fabric and it’s just enough out of my comfort zone that it will be interesting to see what everyone does with it. Since there are only a total of 6 people (that’s including me) if everyone does 2 12″ finished blocks it will be a decent sized quilt – around 38″ x 50″, if it’s on point it’s around 40″ square. Now I need to go shopping for some additional fabrics and do some designing to figure out what blocks I want to make. I’m thinking one simple and one that is a little more complicated.

Well, I want to get back to playing with my new dies, so I’ll be back soon with an update!

Hexagon Diamonds Update

Well, I FINALLY got the 6th row added onto the main piece last night. Waited until today to get the picture just because it was so late when I got the last piece added. There’s only 7 more rows to add on to this and I’ve already pulled the baggies for the next row. Of course while I was trying to get a picture this morning, Alex wanted to lay on it so I got a picture of him posing. He was crawling all over it finding all the blue pieces of fabric – that’s 1 of 2 colors he can say. He understands what the colors are, he just only says blue and black (this is new in the last week or so).

Hubby and I have been working to get our macs setup the way we want them (he got a new Macbook Pro last week). We’ve been buying things we need for the machines or our network at home so I decided to buy a few things for myself too! I ordered 2 dies for my Accuquilt Go, a 3″ finished half-square triangle and a 2″ finished half-square triangle. The 3″ die is going to be used with my signature die, and the 2″ die is going to work quite nicely with my 2″ finished squares. I have so many designs in my head I’d love to do and having the 2″ finished triangles and squares will take care of MOST of them! I have 2 dies I’d love to have custom made, but they are each just under $100. I wish I could get them done cheaper somewhere else, I just haven’t bothered looking yet to see if that is possible. It’s on my large to-do list!

I fixed the row that was messed up on Wiggly Whimsy, but then realized I had another row that was messed up. I took the stitching out of that row this morning and was hoping to sew it this afternoon, instead I’ve been working on my computer all day. I hope to get it pinned tonight and I’ll probably sew it tomorrow. Once Alex gets up from his nap, my sewing time is gone and he should be getting up in the next 45 minutes or so.

Can’t decide if I want to work on hexagons tonight or hand quilting. Maybe I’ll do both! We were at Home Depot last week and I wanted to see if they had 1/4″ blue painters tape and forgot to look. I’m going to Target this week, maybe I’ll see if I can get some there. Then I wouldn’t have to mark the hand quilting lines when I’m doing 1/4″ in a block. Looks like Alex is up, and I haven’t pinned the pieces togther for Wiggly Whimsy, guess that’s on the list for tomorrow’s nap time!

Design Wall Monday – 04-15-13

I have decided to work on my hand quilting practice piece for awhile this past weekend in an effort to finish it and get my first hexagon quilt basted and in the hoop. I’d like to have it ready to go before we start camping so I can work on it while we are gone. If I can get the hexagon quilt completed this summer I can enter it into our guild quilt show in October! I’ve been expirimenting with different marking pencils/markers and I think I like the disappearing ones best. I don’t think I like all the chalk ones, hopefully they will come out of this since I started this using them.

I spent yesterday working on my Wiggly Whimsy quilt and I got all the rows put together. I’m not posting a picture of it yet because I need to take part of it apart and resew it because I somehow managed to mess it up last night. Hoping to get that taken apart tonight and put it back together tomorrow while Alex naps. I really like how it looks and I’ve decided to finish it for Alex to use in his bed. He’s starting to like sleeping with a blanket and he has to have one from momma!

I also finished up the last 2 diamonds I need for the next row in my hexagon diamonds quilt. Hope to start putting them on in the next few days. I’ve already pulled the baggies for the next row, so I have those to work on as well – prepping them to be sewn together. I am beginning to think I was overly ambitious in wanting this quilt completed for our first camping trip. So when I was out buying things we needed I found a nice blanket for our bed until I can get it completed. I can work on it while we are camping.

While I was putting the Wiggly Whimsy quilt together yesterday I was also working on the scrappy 9 patch quilt and putting the 4 patches together for the border. Since that is a long term project and I’m in no hurry I don’t mind using it as a leader/ender project. Of course while reading blog posts yesterday I saw a quilt on one of them that was all 9 patch blocks and solid squares set on point. I spent a few minutes designing it in EQ and thinking about how I could do it with the fabrics I have. It would look really cool as a 2 color quilt, but would also look nice scrappy. I just have way too many ideas in my head! I was perusing Pinterest today and saw directions on how to do a disappearing 4 patch block. Oh did that look cool! I have a ton of 4.5″ charms I cut from scraps with the value die on my Go that I could use to do this. Maybe with black squares and scrappy squares? I’ll have to see if I can figure out the best way to design it in EQ and play around with colors.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon with pictures of a completed Wiggly Whimsy top!