Kelly's Kwilts

Happy New Year!

Wow! What a year we’ve had! I so did not get much sewing accomplished this year! Tons of camping, fun with the kids, the oldest is now in Kindergarten, we got a puppy the beginning of December…I could go on and on!

I only made one Christmas present this year, with the help of my sister and kids (just a little) we made our mother a memory quilt. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the finished quilt, I’ll have to try to remember next time I’m at their house. I was working on the binding on Christmas Eve, washed it and wrapped it as soon as it was out of the dryer. So taking a picture totally slipped my mind!

My etsy business is doing ok, I’ve had lots of views of the shop and items, just not many purchases. Only a total of 7 for 2016. I’ve recently created a Facebook page for the business, not sure if that’s helping yet or not. I have 4 commission quilts that need to be done in 2017, the first 2 tops are already done and ready for basting which I hope to be doing tomorrow or Monday.

Our quilt guild is doing a UFO Challenge for 2017 – I’m running it! I have 27 items on my list. I know I don’t have a chance of finishing them all, but I’ll do anything to get that push to finish them. Most of them just need quilted and bound, I just don’t know what I’m waiting for!

I don’t have any other pictures to show in this post, so I’ll just add 2, my little munchkins with Santa and a picture of our new baby, Raven Skye.

Have a wonderful New Year and be safe!!

It’s Been Awhile…Again

*sigh* I always have the best intentions when it comes to blogging, and then I get busy with non-quilty things and it’s almost 2 months since my last post! So let’s see if I can catch up on the last month and a half!
raffle-baskets-100816 Our Guild Quilt Show was wonderful! We had over 150 quilts hanging and it was great to see all the people enjoy the show. I had a good time setting up Thursday and then working Saturday and Sunday. To my surprise when I showed up Sunday to help with tear down, at least 5 ladies told me I won 2 of the raffle baskets! I was majorly surprised and couldn’t believe my luck! I also tried to get a full length shot of my Mario Quilt – unfortunately it didn’t work very well and I had to take 2 pictures and stitch them together, so it doesn’t line up very well. I still love it and it’s been on our bed since it was finished. full-sized-mario-quilt-100816

After the quilt show, we celebrated Alex’s birthday. I still can’t believe he’s 6 now! We had a wonderful party weekend with tons of friends and family. There were a few camping trips thrown in there, and we always have fun with that!

birthday-gifts-110816 Next up was my birthday in the beginning of November. My wonderful husband picked a bunch of items off my wish list, all of them crafting related! I’ve wanted to try Cascade 220 yarn for a while, and I now have 2 skeins to play with! I know what I’m making with one of them, I need some ear warmers for the cold walk down the driveway to the bus! Unfortunately I can’t start it yet as all my needles are in use. If I have time tomorrow I might stop at Joann’s and see if I can use a coupon to get another set of needles with cables so I can start it. I don’t think it will take long to make.

I made my sister yet another ladybug decoration for her birthday. I actually made 2, but I didn’t get a picture of the blanket before I gave it to her. I need to get her some command hooks that she can use to hang this up next time I’m at Walmart. The blanket is a Cuddle Kit that I bought at Lolly’s when we were there in August. We saw them in the store and I told her I’d buy it and make it for her birthday. The fabrics are SO soft, I love them, but I don’t like sewing them. Every time you make a cut it sheds all over the place. I didn’t find them easy to work with. I have a small amount of leftover fabrics that at some point I’ll use to make her a pillow, but it won’t be anytime soon!

Ok, I have some more to catch-up on, but I’ll do another post with all my hexie updates in the next day or two.

Finished Quilt!

I started this quilt on March 31st and finished it yesterday including putting it on our bed with brand new sheets. It’s now finished with a week to spare and entry in our guild quilt show (I will get a better picture when it’s hanging for the quilt show). This was my first time doing quilt as you go, and I’m not 100% happy with the way they blocks were put together. If this quilt were ever judged I’d get a lot of bad remarks because of the lack of batting in the sashing, but since this is a for “us” quilt I don’t care! 🙂 I love how it turned out and I’m happy to be sleeping under a quilt that I made. Now to work on some projects for Xmas, consignment quilts and some guild stuff I need to get done.

So I finally decided what I wanted to buy with my Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate, just looked at tracking and it should be here tomorrow, I can’t wait!

Linked to My Quilt Infatuation, NTT.

OMG and a FINISH!

I enter giveaways all the time and rarely do I ever win. Well Tuesday I received an email from Fat Quarter Shop (one of my favorite shops!) that I won a $50 gift certificate from one of their giveaways! I have NO clue what I’m going to get with it though! I looked awhile the other day and there’s just so much good stuff I can’t decide!

I have been diligently working on the Super Mario quilt, partly because I want it done, but also because I submitted it for our quilt show next month. I’m happy to say that it’s done being quilted! I had finished quilting all the squares, and did all the hand stitching on the back for the sashing strips and then had no clue what to do next! I did some searching and found a great tutorial for how to put borders on a quilt as you go center. It took me awhile to get all 4 sides on, but yesterday I got it all finished. Today is trimming it up and then getting the binding ready. I have about 2 weeks to get the binding on for our quilt show!

Back soon with pictures!

Update Time!

Ok, I know it’s been awhile. We’ve been busy around here! Lots of camping in various states, and just this week my baby, Alex, started Kindergarten! I still can’t believe he’s old enough to get on the bus and go to school. Tonight was guild night and I managed to finish the blue diamond and get almost all of the pink one completed. Just need a little bit of white and another one goes into the done bin. We had a speaker tonight who does fusible applique and I just had to buy this pattern. She showed table runners, varying sizes of quilts and even mug rugs using the pattern. Not sure what I’ll make, or when, but I had to have it!

I’m busy trying to get the Mario quilt done, I’m working on the borders and now have 3 of them pieced. Hopefully I can get the last one pieced tomorrow and get them layered and quilted this weekend. I entered it into the quilt show, but that’s only if I can get it completed in time – I have 4 weeks until they have to be turned in and I just might be able to do it!

Hopefully be back soon with another update.

Design Wall Monday – July 25, 2016

I know, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything! It’s been a busy couple of months around here! The school year ended and the camping season began. Alex was sick during our Memorial Day camping trip – including a trip to the ER. Turned out he had an ear infection and the start of pneumonia! Our next trip was just the hubby and I on a little long weekend trip for our 17th anniversary. We ended up totally changing the plans due to the transmission going on our truck while on the highway in West Virginia. Took pretty much an entire month to get it fixed and back too! We spent a whole week (including 2 weekends) in Virginia at the MIL’s new house – pretty much spent the whole time in the pool. The kids had a ball playing with their cousins the whole week. July 4th weekend was fun in PA and this past weekend was spent at a KOA with one of my high school friends and her family camping. It’s been non-stop fun!

In between all these camping trips, I managed to finish putting the Mario Quilt blocks together, layer each one and quilt them. I put them together in rows of three and I’m currently working on hand sewing the sashing on the back since I’m doing quilt as you go on these. I have all the pieces cut out for the borders and I’ve started putting them together, but it’s going to take a long time since there’s a lot of pieces! I won’t be able to enter this in any judged shows, it’s the first time I’ve ever done quilt as you go, and there’s not enough batting in between the blocks. I debated adding some additional batting in, but I’m actually very ok with the lack of batting in between blocks. I’ll have to measure a little better for the sashing in between the rows to minimize the issue. IF I can finish it soon I can enter it in our guild quilt show in October though!

Hope to be back soon with a finish! Linking up with Patchwork Times, check out what everyone is up to!

Another Mario Update

In the last few weeks I’ve managed to get 3 more Mario blocks completed. I have 1 left to put together and all the pieces are already cut out. I’m hoping to start putting it together tonight. I’m thinking of doing quilt as you go , hopefully it won’t be too hard since I’ve never done it before!

Gotta run, time to get Cassie up from her nap and start making dinner.

Off the Needles!!!

It took almost an entire year for me to complete my first pair of knitted socks. It took me a long time to finish the ribbing on the second sock. With the small needles I was using doing a k2p2 took such a long time! I haven’t tried them on yet, I want to wash them and let them dry on the blocker boards. I like the second sock (the one on top) a lot better because it’s a bit smaller and looks nicer. I’m trying to decide if I want to start a new pair of socks as a gift or if I want to make another pair for myself to practice the pattern I want to use as the gift. I also have 3 other projects I’m working on, a scarf for Alex (now that winter is over!), a shawl for me and an afghan for my sister that’s been in process for years. I guess I need to decide what project is next, but I’ll do that later I want to go sew right now! 🙂

Head over to Patchwork Times to see what everyone else is up to.

Mario Quilt Update

I’ve been slowly working on the blocks for my Mario Quilt and 3 more have been finished in the last week or so. I have 4 left to make and I will be cutting out and hopefully starting the next one today as I watch the first Cavs playoff game. I’m loving how they are turning out and I’m getting lots of show watching time as I work! I started watching Gilmore Girls from the beginning so I’m ready when the revamp starts, even though it looks like that won’t be until the fall or winter. Be back soon with another update I hope!

Design Wall Monday – April 4, 2016

I’m moving pretty fast on the Super Mario quilt, I have 2 blocks completed and a third almost there. Now that I’m on my third block I’ve got it down to a pretty good rhythm and I’m getting a lot of shows watched while I work. Finished watching CSI, caught up on all my shows that have been recording and now I’m working on catching up on The Quilt Show episodes that I haven’t seen. The blocks measure about 27″ when finished and I don’t know if I will have to trim them with the background to make them fit together or not. I’ll wait until they are all completed before I think about that. I’m loving the way these are coming together and can’t wait to see them all finished. Haven’t decided if this will be for our bed or for the trailer, either way it’s for the hubby and I. He’s really excited about this quilt, and while he appreciates what I make he’s never really excited by them. I’ve put off watching shows with him so I can work on these blocks and we are getting pretty far behind!

I joined a block swap in one of my Facebook groups, but until I finish the Mario quilt I don’t think I’ll work on them yet. If I remember correctly I have until July 1st to get them completed. At least by waiting I’ll know how many people are in the swap and how many I need to make!

Linking up to Patchwork Times, check out what everyone else is up to!