Kelly

Hand Quilting and More Shopping

So one of the days last weekend while Alex was napping and the hubby was spending time with his friend I decided to watch some TV and work on my hand quilting. I had mentioned earlier in the month that I bought some 1/4″ tape for hand quilting. Oh my do I like it! I still need to work on keeping close to the tape and not veering off. It is SO much easier than drawing all the lines. I really would like to finish this before I start working on my hexagon quilt, but I am willing to set this aside to start working on the other one. Mainly because I put it on my list for the guild quilt show in October, so I need to get working on it!!!

I went to Anna’s this week and got almost all of the fat quarters I need for the fat quarter exchange. I need to get 1 more still, and it’s hard because not everyone has music themed fat quarters! There’s 1 shop close to the house that I can check, but I really don’t like shopping there because of how they make customers feel. I’ve talked with others that have the same opinion of them. No, I will not mention the name of the shop, everyone should make their own decisions!

Gotta run time to clean up toys so I can spend the evening working on hexagons after Alex goes to bed!

Diamond Hexagon Quilt Update

So I’ve been working to try and get the next row of diamonds finished so I can add them to the main piece. I managed to finish the last one in the row today while Alex napped. I’m planning on starting to add them on tonight while we watch tv. The hubby had one of his friends from California come to town over the weekend and I got the 2 half diamonds put together for the next row. Hoping to add those on as well. I love how this quilt is coming along and can’t wait to see it all put together! I need to get a lot more black squares cut out so I can work on more diamonds, plus I need black for filling in at the top and bottom.

Shopping

I know I shouldn’t be spending money on fabric and notions, but sometimes you just can’t help it ya know? I needed batting for a couple of quilts so I went to Joann’s last week. I need some more pins for hexagons, so I can prep more for basting. I think I’ve figured out what blocks I want to do for the guild block exchange and I needed a 3″ finished half square triangle die. Unfortunately I’m a dope and forgot that I already had that die, now I need to take this one back. You know how when you have a 60% off coupon, you HAVE to use it? Well that’s why I bought the jelly roll, absolutely no clue what I’ll do with it, but I loved the pattern!

I’m also participating in the fat quarter exchange at guild and they are due at our next meeting. So Alex and I went the other day to Olla Mae’s, which happens to be closing by the end of June!, and I got almost all of the 26 fat quarters I need. Of course I bought a few things for myself too! The aqua-ish fabric is for the block exchange, I just need a few more fabrics and I can wash it all and start working on blocks! They aren’t due until September, but as the coordinator I want to have them done early.

I’ve spent the last few days working diligently on the final cross stitch project for my cousin’s twins. Now I need to wash them and get the sewed into wall hangings before the party on June 8th. Shouldn’t take too long, so I’m not worried. But that means I can now start working on my hexagons again. Got the first round completed last night on one of them, hopefully I can finish that diamond tonight. Then I’ve only got 1 more and I can add the next row to the mother ship.

Hopefully be back soon with an update on the hexagon diamonds quilt!

Design Wall Monday – May 13, 2013

Well I managed to get 2 more diamonds completed the last few days. I finished the blue one during the guild meeting Tuesday and the pink one last night after we got home from camping. Two more diamonds and I can put the next row together. Unfortunately I need to put this aside for a little while so I can finish a cross stitch piece that is a present. I had started 2 pieces for my cousins twin for Christmas and just ran out of time to complete them. I have 1 more part to finish on the second piece and then I can put them both together.

I passed out the challenge fabric for the block exchange at our guild meeting last week, and now I need to figure out what my 2 blocks are going to be. I can’t get additional fabrics until I pick my blocks though. I also need to go shopping to get some fat quarters for the fat quarter exchange. They are due at our June meeting, so I need to get busy!

I am planning on going to Joann’s tomorrow to get some batting so I can finish some quilts. I’d like to work on the red, white and blue quilt for donation at guild. I also want to get my first hexagon quilt ready to be hand quilted. I’ve committed to putting it in our quilt show in October, so I need to get started working on it! I’ll finish the test piece once the hexagon one is done.

We had a speaker at guild last week that owns a quilt shop, Quilts & Sew Forth. Of course they brought products to sell. I don’t usually find anything that I want to buy, but I saw that they had a charm pack of Fossil Fern. 100 charms for $27!! I could not pass up that deal!!! Don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet, but it’s sitting here and ready to use for something!

Shopping Again

I was blog surfing the other day and found one that was using 1/4″ tape for quilting lines. I had asked where she found it because that is really what I’d like to use for my hand quilting since it’s easier than marking all those lines! My shipment came today from Connecting Threads and of course I had to add some items to the order since the tape was pretty cheap. I ordered 2 packs of 4 different charm packs to try their fabric. Each set should be enough to do hexagons, or triangles, or some size squares with. Not that I’ll be doing anything soon, but at least they are here and ready for me when I have time. Of course what do I see at Walmart today? The same quilters tape!! Oh well, I can always get it there when I run out of the 2 I just got today.

I managed to get another diamond completed and I have the next 4 prepped and ready to go. I’m hoping to get some work done on them this weekend since we’ll be camping and I won’t be able to watch much tv! I really like the colors in this one, I love the orange!!

I need to go and get the fabric for the block exchange split up and ready for the meeting tomorrow. Need to get everyone working on their blocks! I need to go shopping for some coordinating fabrics, plus fat quarters for the exchange, those are due in June.

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!