Cross Stitch – Page 5 – Kelly's Kwilts

Another Cross Stitch Finish

I’ve put the hexagon quilt on hold for a little while. I started working on the border and was causing some wrist pain while I was holding the pieces together for stitching. So I’ve decided to work on some of my huge backlog of cross stitch projects.

I don’t even remember when I started this one, probably some time after my grandfather died in 1998. I know how I’d like to frame it, with a heart shaped mat, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to find one. Getting one custom cut will most likely be expensive. I’ll have to see what I find. Next I’ve decided to work on one for my husband for his office at work. It’s Darth Vader from Dork Stitch. It looks like it will be a nice quick stitch. Not 100% sure how much time I’ll have to work on it in the next few days, our favorite baker is coming to spend a couple of days with us. We are hoping to go to the zoo while she’s here.

Hopefully I’ll have a new update soon!!

A Finish!

Well, a finish times 4! I finished Dream, Hope, Believe and Imagine last night. Boy were those beads a pain! They do look awesome though! Somehow I managed to have a least 1 bead on each piece in the wrong spot, but I don’t think it’s very noticable. Just need to find 4 matching frames and decide where to put them. Now I can concentrate on the hexi quilt, only 2 rows left to complete then I can work on the border!

It’s been awhile

I know, I haven’t been around lately. I’ve been busy! We now have an 18 month old, and man is he active. He never stops! I mentioned last time that I joined a SAL on Facebook. I have all 4 words done, just have to do all the beading which is totally new for me. I think I need to get a beading needle, I found some that might work, I just need to try them. If not I’ll go to Joann’s after Alex’s 18 month Dr appt and get some. I don’t have pictures yet, I hope to have some this week as I finish the beading.

I now have all of my Dear Jane Siggie Swap blocks done, I just need to stamp and sign them all. Had to make 50 blocks!! When I get a chance I’ll have to start designing the layout, I should have them all back sometime in the beginning of May because they are due to the coordinator by May 1st.

While I was finishing up my siggie swap blocks today I was looking at the pile of 2.5″ squares on my sewing table. I have a basket of colors and was going to buy another basket for the white/lights. I also have a basket for 1.5″ strips and 2.5″ strips. I decided today that since I never use the 2.5″ strips and might not ever, I’d rather use my 2.5″ square die for my Go and cut them all into squares. Since I’m working on the Hexagon quilt using the 2.5″ squares, this will give me some more variety. I actually threw some strips away, I don’t know where they came from and the fabric was just so thin I didn’t like how it felt. I got everything ironed and waiting on the cutting table, hopefully I can get it all cut up in the next day or so.

I’m working on adding the next row to the hexagon quilt, hoping to have that done tonight so I can get a picture. I have the next row of flowers done, just need to get some white squares prepped, I’ll have lots of papers for them once I get the row added.

See you soon!

Odds and Ends

I haven’t been able to post lately, because I haven’t had anything to write about! I finally got the next row on my hexagon quilt, I’m up to 5 rows and have 3 left to do. I finally got some more Thimble-It stick on thimbles, so I can start working on that again.

I joined a group on Facebook that is doing a SAL (stitch a long). The chart is Joan Elliott’s Dream – 1 of a set of 4. I’ve been keeping up quite well and decided that since I could get the book at the library I’d do all 4 of them. I’m using a 28 ct Jobelan called Summer Sky. I’ve got Hope caught up to match Dream and I’ve started Believe. I can’t believe how fast these are working up, even on 28 ct fabric! I’ve always worked on regular aida and using anything else has been harder since I’m doing 2 over 2. I really do like how they are turning out though!

I got my package from Nicole at Just Keep Stitching today. The lavender smells wonderful, but it’s so strong I had to put it in another ziploc bag and get it out of my office. I’m thinking of planting in my flower beds, anyone know if it will spread?? She also sent along a pack of flower seeds, can’t wait to get those in the flower beds too! Thanks Nicole!

I decided that I was going to join the Dear Jane Siggie Swap this year. I’ve been working on putting together the blocks today, I have 16 ready to be signed and another 20 ready to be put together. We haven’t gotten the final count yet, I’m hoping it’s not much more than 36! 🙂 I’ll post a picture when I get them done. I’m looking forward to putting the quilt together once we get all the blocks, haven’t decided how I want to do it yet though. The block is really easy, it’s just a 3.5″ square for the center in a light fabric so you can write on it and 4 triangles around that. I had a huge stack of 4.5″ squares I cut from scraps with my Go, so I just had to cut them in half. I just had to buy some light fabric for the centers, and I picked up Kona White the other day. One of these days I’m thinking of buying a bolt of Kona white or Moda white solid….course I need some money for that!! 🙂

Hope to post more soon!!

Winner!

I can’t believe it! I won a giveaway at Just Keep Stitching today! I get a Lizzie*Kate chart and a bag of lavender, can’t wait to get the chart, it’s a tooth fairy one and I’ll need to make a tooth fairy pillow in the next couple of years.

I haven’t been doing much sewing lately. I was working so quickly and so much on the hexagon quilt that I tore my finger up pretty good. I’ve been letting it heal and working on cross stitch instead. I joined a SAL (stitch a long) on Facebook and we are working on Joan Elliott’s Dream pattern. It’s one of a series of 4, and I’ve decided I might as well do all of them and hang them together. Just waiting to get the book from the library. Since I finished the first part of the SAL rather quickly I decided to pick up a UFO that has been sitting here for awhile. It’s a kit that I bought on ebay years ago. I finished 1 of the 3 parts last year and just put the whole thing away. In about a week I’ve almost got the 2nd one completed.

I think I’ll be able to start working on the hexagon quilt again soon, I bought some new thimble pads last week, I’m hoping they will help and my finger won’t get all chewed up again.

I’ll be back soon!

sigh

I know, I know….it’s been AGES since I’ve posted anything. This 15 month old little boy takes up all my time! 🙂 I can’t believe how quickly time has passed. He’s 15 months old, walking (and running) and so damn cute it kills me! And smart too! Ok, you didn’t come here for me to gush about my little one, did you?

I’ve been doing some cross stitch, haven’t finished anything since Halloween though. I made this little wall hanging just in time to put up for our Halloween party. You can’t tell in the picture, but some of the thread glows in the dark, boy was that a pain to stitch with!

I haven’t really worked on my hand piecing project lately. I was working on cross stitch and just put that away recently to work on Dear Jane applique blocks. I was talking with some of the ladies at guild and they reminded me that I need to make time to work on my sewing – it’s been MONTHS since I turned it on! In fact I just cleaned it off a week ago! Mended a shirt for Alex that has been sitting here for ages and now it’s ready to work on some quilts! So I’ve decided to start working on Dear Jane again. Finished 2 blocks in the past few weeks and I’ve got another almost done, in fact it should be done tonight since there’s a basketball game to watch!

Saturday the guild is doing a sew-in from 12-4 and I’m thinking that I’m going to go. I really want to sew and this would allow me to do nothing but that! I think that hubby can take care of Alex for 4 hours, especially since he’ll most likely be napping for half of that. So I’m planning on working on Star Crazy. I’m going to get as much prepped as I can before Saturday, I’m hoping I can get the top put together in 4 hours. Heck I’ve already got the center done!

And just because I love posting pictures of my son….

Cross Stitch Update

I’ve been working on lots of cross stitch projects the last year or so. Last summer I finished the second in the Quilts series and got it framed. I kept working an managed to get Autumn and Fall completed as well. Unfortunately I didn’t have the money to get them framed. This summer I saved enough to get them both framed and they are now all hanging on the wall!

I’ve also been working on a picture for my son’s bedroom. I bought it 2 years ago when we started trying to get pregnant but refused to actually work on it until everything worked the way it was supposed to. So, this was started 3/5/10 and completed 8/17/10. I was determined to finish it before the baby shower which is scheduled for this weekend! Now I just have to worry about getting it framed, but I’m really happy with how it turned out.

When will I learn?

Ok, first off I need to make a correction to my last post. The “Love” block that I completed is by McKenna Ryan – NOT Ryan McKenna! I don’t know why I didn’t double check that before I posted!

I’ve almost completed the quilt top for the shower, I just need to decide if I’m appliqueing his name or doing it on my embroidery machine. I just can’t make a decision! I’ve got scrappy stars top made, I just need to decide on fabric for the back. It’s going to be a 24″ x 24″ pillow (once I buy the pillow form). I need to do some simple quilting to make it look more like a star before I can put the whole thing together, but it’s another item off my PhD list!

I’m teaching another set of classes at the Amherst Public Library at the end of August. They’ve recently setup a computer lab, so this might become a regular gig for me!

So to better explain todays post title, I was working on putting the borders on the tumbler quilt top and my machine was making some weird noises. So since I needed to refill bobbins anyway I decided to take the plate off and see if something was caught. To my surprise it’s been awhile since I’ve cleaned under the plate!!!! Once I got it all cleaned out and put back together it is running better and sounds wonderful!

I also have a small cross stitch picture that I finished recently for one of my husband’s employees that got married on Friday. I seem to make these for everyone we know that gets married, it’s personal, quick, inexpensive (if you can get the frames on sale) and I love making things for people!

I’ll be back later with another post, I finished the batik lap quilt!!!

Happy New Year!

Well, it’s a new year and I’ve already completed a quilt top! 🙂 I wanted to sew today, but didn’t feel like working on a UFO (Unfinished Object) so I decided to do something new. I found a pattern for a quilter’s sudoku quilt that I had kept from a magazine subscription request that came in the mail and decided it’d be quick and perfect for today! Another plus was that the block size was 4.5″ square and I had that die for my Accuquilt Go! It was so nice and quick to cut the blocks out with the Go – and they are so much more accurate! There was a small pile of waste, but I cut out 81 blocks in less than an hour out of 9 fabrics! It went together pretty quickly, just had to pay close attention to where each block went.

Scraps after using Accuquilt Go to cut out 81 blocks

I can now finally post pictures of all the Xmas presents I made this year. I started working on these in September and was working until a few days before Xmas to get them framed. Luckily my mom helped me get them done (thanks Mom!).

Georgia and Brennan are my niece and nephew in Florida – theirs had to be completed first since they had to be shipped. I couldn’t find a frame the right size, so I had to finish hers differently.

My sister is a teacher at a day care, so hers was an easy choice. The rest are for my cousin’s little girl, my sister’s best friends little girl and my best friends little girl.

I also made some items for my father-in-law and his wife, and when my mom saw the banner, I had to make one for her – along with the hot pad trivet I made her. Oh and I can’t forget the only quilt I made for a present this year for Angela – our friend in Wisconsin that owns a bakery. The white fabric has little cupcakes on it and the backing is all coffee cups.

Happy New Year!

It’s getting closer……

What is getting closer? Christmas! I’m frantically working to finish presents! I have 1 quilt and 1 cross stitch picture left to finish stitching…hopefully they will both be done today because I have a pile of pictures to frame! I haven’t had time to work on my Dear Jane blocks, big surprise there!

Had the ladies from Quilt Club over a few weeks ago, and I gave them all ornaments I made. These weren’t as hard as I thought to make, the machine does 98% of the work! They did turn out beautifully though!

I also can now post the Cross Stitch picture I made for one of my friends for her birthday. We celebrated with her last week even though her birthday isn’t until the 22nd. She loves anything patriotic, can you tell?

Remember when I posted that I entered an online quilt contest? Well it’s time to vote! Please go over to Quilting Gallery and vote for my quilt! It’s under Small Quilts & Projects called Holiday Stitchings. Thanks!!!

Well, I need to get off the computer and get busy on my projects, need to get them done!!! Be back soon, hopefully with some Dear Jane blocks!