Cross Stitch – Page 3 – Kelly's Kwilts

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!

Design Wall Monday – 2/11/13

I’ve been working hard the last week to get more put together on Hexagon Diamonds. I officially have 3 rows completed and I’ve started working on the fourth row. All the pieces I need are basted and ready to be sewn into diamonds. I’m hoping to have this fourth row completed by mid week, just so I can get started on the next one! There are 13 rows in the quilt and if my calculations are correct from the EQ yardage sheet, 2,477 hexagons.

I ordered a few things from 123 Stitch last week, some more of my thimble pads, some thread heaven, ultra thimble and a book of cross stitch ornaments. I’m thinking they might be nice to work on while we are camping. I like to have multiple projects when we go on vacation, mainly because after awhile you want to work on something different. I thought these might be good for Xmas presents this year. If I don’t get them done, it’s ok there’s always next year! The tracking shows that it is delivered, which means it’s in the mailbox. So hubby will bring it in when he gets home from work, I have to wait until 6! I might take a walk with Alex when he gets up from his nap to get the mail, we’ll see how cold and windy it is when he gets up.

I need to get working on the order for my sister’s preschool/day care, I’ll be back soon!

Cavs Cross Stitch Update

Well I did it, I finished the first page! As I think I said before I’m putting this aside for a little while to work on my hexagon diamonds. I’ve been kitting more diamonds and I really like some of the combinations I have setup. So back to the cross stitch, I only have 14 pages left to do, lets hope they go as fast as this one did! The back looks terrible with all the confetti, but that’s ok since no one will see it once it’s framed!

Ironing Station

Well, my order from Joann’s showed up late last week and I got the cubes put together. Need hubby’s help to put the casters on and we need to see if we have a piece of plywood we can use for the top or if we need to buy one. I’m really hoping we have a piece that we can use and that I can get hubby to help me get this finished. I have lots of left over batting and I need to pick some fabric to use. I think I’ll use some of my brown equinox fabric – not a lot of things I use it on since it’s a weird brownish color. No pictures yet, everything is spread out in my office. I’ll get some as soon as it’s all together though!

No sewing or stitching was done this weekend, it was such a nice weekend weather-wise that we took Alex to the park on Saturday morning. He loved playing on the equipment, looking at the geese and then we went walking on a bridle trail. He did not want to turn around and go back to the car! Needless to say he slept quite well that afternoon! I think the fact the he likes the outdoors is a big plus because we bought an RV yesterday! Spent 6 hours at the RV show and decided on one that has 4 bunk beds! Have to wait 6-8 weeks for them to build it and we cannot wait to go camping! Never thought I’d say it though! My idea of camping is A/C, heat, kitchen, bathroom – not tents!!! Oh and now I need to make a queen sized quilt for our bed!!!

I hope to have an update on the Cavs cross stitch soon, I’m working on filling in the white letters now.

New BAP Cross Stitch

Last summer someone had posted on a Facebook group an awesome NFL logo cross stitch that they had received as a gift (the pattern) and said that she got it from ncaasportsoutlet.com (site is now down). This site had NFL, NBA, etc charts for all the teams. I bought Miami Heat, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Cavaliers charts. So I kitted up the Cleveland Cavs one and had to wait for months to start it because I needed to get Christmas presents done first. So December 29th I started working on it. I’ve been taking pictures every night that I work on it because it’s really cool to see the changes from day to day. I’m currently just about done with the first page (actually page 8 since it’s in the middle). You can see the pictures larger if you click on them.

Stats:

Started 12/29/2012
62,208 total stitches (288 x 216)
16″ x 12″
18 count white aida (cut 22″ x 18″)
15 pages in the chart
45 colors

12-30-12

12-31-12

01-01-13

01-03-13

01-07-13

Christmas Presents

I can finally post about the Christmas presents I made this year! Unfortunately I am missing a picture of the table runner I made my mom, I’ll have to get one next time I’m over their house. I had bought a charm pack years ago (don’t even remember how long ago it was) when we were shopping and the colors were perfect for her living room. It sat here for a long time because I couldn’t decide what pattern to use. I was going to use my small tumbler die to make it, but I wasn’t going to have enough charms to make it big enough and of course it is now discontinued. Once I found out the dimensions of her table (thanks to a call to dad) I designed it in EQ to be 9 squares across and 4 rows. I just needed a little extra on the sides. After a few web searches I found a shop in Ohio that had yardage of one of the fabrics in the pack. I ordered enough to use for the pieces on the front, the backing and the binding. It only took me a couple of days to get it all done and she loves it.

I decided I needed to finish the tumbler quilt for Kimmie for Christmas. I had bought 2 of the coordinating fabrics on ebay in 2010 and put the borders on, it just needed to be quilted. The plan was to do it on the frame, but I have a problem with tension on the back that I just didn’t have time to figure out so I used the frame to pin it and then quilted it on my machine in my office. Took me a couple of days to get it quilted, thank goodness for grandparents taking Alex! It allowed me to spend more time working on it. Got the binding sewed on by hand in just 2 days, even took it to my parents to work on it when my great aunt came to town. Kimmie loves it and was super excited when she opened it. She’s only been waiting for 2 years to get it! I forgot to get a picture before I wrapped it or when she opened it, but she posted one on Facebook that I grabbed until I can take a better one.

I started working on some cross stitch pictures for my cousins twins, but I was running out of time and really needed to get the quilt done so I decided to put those on hold and finish them for the twins birthdays in June.

I did make a present for our friend Angela that has a bakery in Wisconsin. I saw the pattern in the 123 Stitch ad and just had to get it. It only took me 13 days to finish it back in September, mostly working on it at night after Alex went to bed. It is almost all backstitch and went really fast. She loved it, I’m not sure if she’s hanging it at home or at the bakery.

Finally Sewing Again!

It’s been so long I almost didn’t know how to use my sewing machine! My birthday was last week and I decided to use some cash I had gotten to buy some dies for my Go. I got the following:

Yesterday I tried cutting a few out using 4.5″ squares I had sitting here. I just put a couple of drunkard’s path blocks and tumblers together to see how well they worked. Today I cut out 198 tumblers for a runner for my breakfast bar for Christmas. Didn’t take me very long and I’ll be putting them together tonight after Alex goes to bed. I’m hoping this will go together quickly, because I need to decide what needs to be added to the Xmas present list.

I have been slowly working on the cross stitch pieces for presents, I have 2 of the 3 completed. I just can’t post them until after they’ve been given as gifts!

I’ll be back once I’ve gotten the runner put together, hopefully that will be later tonight! 🙂

I’m still here!

I haven’t been working on much quilting lately, no time at the sewing machine and the hexagon diamonds have taken a back seat for awhile. I spent most of August and September working on a cross stitch present for my parents 40th anniversary, now that it’s been given to them I can talk about it. Unfortunately I was dumb and didn’t take a picture before I gave it to them! I should be going to their house this week and will see if I can get a picture.

I’ve also been working on some Christmas presents, which I can’t talk about until after the holidays. I have 1 stitched up and I am working on the 2nd, still have 1 to go after that. We just made some decisions yesterday about presents that I am making, boy do I have a lot of work in the next 2 months!

Still looking for a hand quilting class to take. I’m debating seeing if there is someone in the guild that would teach me. I seem to be taking more of an active role in the guild. I am now doing our guild blog. I need to go back and put the newsletters going back to January 2012, but I don’t think there is any hurry. 🙂

Alex is now 2 and I can’t believe how quickly the time goes by! He’s not talking yet, but some words are starting to come out. He’s so smart (I know, every mother says that!) and understands so much! Since I don’t have any cross stitch or quilting pictures, you’ll have to settle for one of Alex’s 2 year pictures.

I’m back!

I know, I’ve been gone for awhile. I wasn’t posting because I didn’t have any updates. I do today! I finished Month by Month last night. It’s stitched on 28 count Zweigart in Pearl Linen. Now I just need to find the right frame and figure out where to hang it. Now on to the next cross stitch project!

Yesterday we went to Amish country. Took my father-in-law to lunch and stopped at Lehman’s. They have an outlet on the other side of hte parking lot and I ran in to see if there was anything interesting. I found a couple of fat quarters for 1.25 and a BUNCH of thread really cheap! I got 2 YLI spools (the big ones) for 2.99 each and 6 spools of Gutermann for 2.95 each. I couldn’t pass up that deal!

I also finished another hexagon diamond and started the next one. Almost time to kit up some more! Still trying to find a hand quilting class so I can start quilting the hexagon quilt, but I’m in no hurry. I have a lot of projects to get done in the next few months, some are Christmas presents I have planned, we’ll see if I get any of them done!

Hope to be back soon with some updates!