Nice Week

It has been a nice week so far. I am enjoying having some extra time to spend with my daughter who is home all week and my hubby that took a couple of days off.

Have done a little sewing, a little reading and some errands. This is what I did with those 4 patch blocks...

I bordered them. I then used the twister template and cut them apart and sewed them back together to make this cute little block. Four of these blocks with sashing and borders will make a nice table runner.

No charity quilting accomplished this week but I did get one customer quilt done and have about 3/4 of the next one complete.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - December 26, 2011

Anyone that has read my blog this last week will probably be pretty bored with this picture as it is a picture of the 3rd and last set of these runners (for a total of 6) that I have made in the last week. Figured I would get all I wanted to make done at the same time before I forgot what measurements I used.

Also on the design wall are some 4 patch blocks, can you guess what I am going to make with these?

I have a couple of questions if anyone can help me out. 1) is that I have been tempted to try that iron on tape that you use to join pieces of batting together. If you have tried it please let me know how you like it and also what it is called as I don't remember the name to do a search on it.

2) second has anyone used flannel sheets as a backing for a quilt? We recently got a new bed and we no long have a full sized bed in the house but have a couple sets of flannel sheets that have hardly been used. I know I have been told not to use regular sheets as the thread count is so different and hard to quilt but has anyone tried it with the flannel sheets?

Thanks for any inputs you can give me on either subject.

Kathie

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve everyone. Hope everyone has all their shopping and wrapping done and will be able to enjoy friends and family. Just the three of us here for Christmas so very quiet but nice.

Here is the second set of runners I made the other day. I like the dark fabric with the neon snowflakes on it. I have a third set in process (different fabrics) and once those are done (for a total of 6) I will stop with this pattern and get started on something new.

Getting a few chores done this morning around the house and intend on spending a little time this afternoon in the sewing room before starting our dinner which will be a family recipe for beef strongoff, yummmmmmmm.

Kathie

5th Hospice Quilt

This is the 5th Hospice quilt I have quilted in the last week and a half. It is made out of beautiful donated batik fabrics and I believe pieced by Elsie. I still have a couple more charity tops that have backings that could be quilted but think 5 this month is enough.

I cut and put together 3 kits to make charity quilts out of donated charity fabric earlier today also. I am trying to reduce the number of boxes I have of charity fabric so figure I will cut a couple kits at a time and take them to January guild meetings to hand out.

I think that will be it for charity efforts this week. I need to get back to working on some of my projects and getting my bookwork up to date for tax purposes.

Yesterday I did spend time working on a couple of runners. The blocks are very similar to ones on a present pattern I have and enjoyed tailoring them to be made into runners.

I think this will be a good addition to the patterns I make for craft shows.

Kathie

Another Charity Quilt

This is the 4th charity quilt that I have quilted in a little over a week. This one was pieced by Jan, I love the colors. I have one more partially loaded on the frame that I am going to do and then I am going to spend time starting work on next years craft show items. I did wonderful with the shows this year so in inventory of table runners is down to about nothing so will have lots of fun doing those and coming up with 3 or 4 new patterns for next year.

I am enjoying having my daughter home from school and all her activities. Of course it makes it hard to get as much as usual done but thats ok. I better really enjoy it this year. She will be off to college next fall and though she will be home for Christmas I just think it will kind of feel different as she will then be visiting us and not really living with us anymore.

Wow enough of that or I will start to cry. I am definitely going to have a hard time when she leaves home.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - December 19, 2011

FINALLY have something on my design wall to show. I have been working on this little quilt this week. It is a pattern called BQ (what a stange name) by Maple Island Quilts. Easy piecing and I like the results.

In addition to working on the kitty quilt and finishing up all the wrapping etc. I have been using my break from customer quilts to quilt up some of the hospice quilt tops that I have here. Lots of people in our guild love to make quilt tops and help out making backings, it is just hard to get anyone to take any of them to quilt up so I am trying to play catch up this week.

Since the start of my self declared break I have got 4 of the hospice quilts quilted. This is #3 of the bunch, a simple 4 patch and alternating blocks made from a kit of donated fabrics. Cindy did a great job of putting this one together.

I hope to get one or two more of the tops quilted up this week but also intend on tackling some projects around the house that have gone unattended to for far to long.

Have a wonderful week and a great Christmas.

kathie

Number 19

I have really been enjoying having some free time this week. Finished wrapping packages, ran a few errands and had lunch with a couple of friends. Nice change in routine.

I have also had time to finally do some charity quilting. This is the second hospice quilt I have quilted this week. This quilt I actually made myself a few months ago out of a bunch of State Flowers fabric that had been donated. Nice to quilt one of my own up as I usually don't get many charity quilts pieced as my time is spent quilting them.

This was a pretty boring quilt when I first go the top pieced so cut out the flowers with my accuquilt GO and added them randomly and I think it added a lot to the quilt.

This is the 19th charity quilt I have quilted this year. Not as good as last years total but hopefully I will get a couple more done by the end of the month.

Kathie

On the Frame

I have not had time to quilt any charity quilts in a long time so yesterday I got this little batik quilt on the frame and got it quilted up and off to Jane for binding.

I LOVE these colors or batiks.

Do you decorate with quilts for Christmas. I have a few sprinkled around the house. The crazy quilt on the sofa I made many years (pre-long arm) ago. The quilting is lousy but I love the quilt. Table runner I made last year and little wall hanging I won last year at quilt guild.

The only problem with so many decorations is when I take them down in January the house looks so bare.

I did get my last customer job done yesterday afternoon so today I am going to start tackling some of the things around that house that have slipped through the crack, finish wrapping packages and sit and sew SOMETHING. No clue on what yet, guess I will have to see what speaks to me when I head to the sewing room later.

Kathie

Design Wall Monday - December 12, 2011

I have sure missed participating in Judy's Design Wall monday but I have had nothing on my wall for weeks and have been way to busy with customer quilts to do much of anything else.

Glad to say that I did get a few minutes to sew on saturday and got the borders on this little fused wreath. We have a local fiber arts retreat in April and this will be the workshop I am presenting. Nice to get the top for example #1 finally done.

My last customer project should be going on the frame this afternoon so hopefully I will have lots of time to sew the next couple of weeks. I bought an extra shelving unit yesterday so my first order of business is going to be to clean and reorganize my quilt room a bit.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.

Kathie

Good Deals and Coupons

I LOVE great deals and coupons. I don't have a lot of success with grocery coupons but sometimes hit on some good ones. I love this time of year when you can get special coupons to help the bottom line of Christmas shopping.

I intend on finishing up my shopping today so am going to go armed with my JC Penny and Kohl's $10 off coupons on your purchase and also a buy one get one free coupon for Bath and Body works.

I am also taking advantage of some of the restaurant gift card deals for two restaurants we frequent. Ruby Tuesdays has an on line deal if you purchase $50 in gift cards they send you a $15 off your purchase certificate good for January and February. Since we eat there every month or so I took advantage of that deal. I am just basically paying for our eating out ahead and getting $15 free in the process.

I am just about done with my customer quilting for Christmas!!!!!!!! I usually don't work on customer quilts on weekends, spending about four days a week on them. I decided I wanted to speed up the process so have been quilting just about every day and am getting done with everything about a week early of my goal.

Will be nice to get packages wrapped and mailed and some other things done around here that have been put off.

and............... either today or tomorrow I am going to take the time to put borders on a little wall hanging I started weeks ago. My sewing machine has been calling my name lately but just have not had the time or energy to sit down and work on any projects.

Hope to start having quilting pictures again soon.

kathie

Where Did November GO?

It seems to me definitely like it still should be November, it went by so quickly. I got looking back on my list of customer quilts and realized I did 21 customer jobs in November plus 3 craft shows. Ok, now I know why I have been so tired and also why November zipped by.

This is the total of what I have sewn in the last two weeks.

and no, I didn't make this whole wall hanging. This wall hanging was made in 2000 from a block swap I did with some friends. I would hang the quilt up every year but last year. I used to hang it on one of the hangers that squeezed the quilt between two pieces of wood and no hanging sleeve was needed. I didn't want to put excess nails on the walls in the new house so last year this never got hung up. So my BIG sewing project I accomplished in the last couple of weeks was to make and sew on a hanging sleeve!!! Oh well, it was something.

I did my last craft show saturday and did very well. I am also winding down my customer quilting orders for Christmas so looking forward to taking a nice break real soon.

COLLEGE UPDATE

Mandy found out her first choice college never received her counselor recommendation letter or transcripts so has been trying to get that straightened out at her high school.

She just got a letter in the mail today offering her a $3,500 a year scholarship to Salisbury University. Great job, all her studying so hard is paying off.

Kathie