Panel Quilts

Do you do panel (aka cheater) quilts? People seem to either hate them or love them. I have picked up a few panels at various sales but have not made to many of them up. I put a couple of borders on this one last year and there it sat till last week when I finally got it quilted and bound.

I figured with the economy the way it is I might go ahead and make up the ones I have. When I do the fall craft shows they can be a less expensive alternative to my pieced baby/kids quilts and this will also get them out of my stash once and for all.

Kathie

Shelly's Quilt

I have to give you some history on this quilt. I started quilting a little over ten years ago. Shortly after that I found a group of yahoo quilters and started daily communications on-line. Several of us seemed to click and we broke off and formed our own private club. We not only have discussed quilting but shared our lives. We have been there together through illness, births, deaths and other major life events even though we are spread out from Texas all the way to New Hampshire.

Several years ago, shortly before I was going to have the opportunity to actually visit her in person, we lost one of our members to cancer.

Sue in Texas is going to be involved in a relay for life this spring. She made the center block of this little wall hanging and we each added a simple border to it. I quilted it yesterday and it will be winging its way back to Texas later today. The wall hanging will be sold to help raise funds for relay for life in Shelly's memory.

Here is to you Shelly, we still miss you and think of you often.

Kathie

Christmas Quilt #2

The last few days I have been finishing up the second Christmas quilt top. This is another one made scrappy. I love scrap quilts, my only problem is that I always way over cut the number of strips or pieces I need. I probably have enough squares left over to make another one of these. Guess I will put the squares along with my drawing of the quilt into a bag together so I will remember what I was going to make out of the remaining one.

I also managed to get one backing pieced in the last few days. Not the number I had intended but something about making backings is boring and I tend to put it off. At least I have a couple of quilts with backings now so I will have a choice of what to work on the next time I load something on the frame.

I decided to take a quilting class through my guild early in March. There is a lot of prep work required before the class so I have started cutting the 100 (all different) two inch strips required for the class. Since I have so much Christmas fabric I decided to make this another scrap Christmas quilt so I won't have to purchase any fabric.

Kathie

Happy Quilt #2

Completed the binding on Happy Quilt #2, I loved making these blocks and see more of them in my future but like everyone else have to many other projects going on right now.

This will be donated to Project Linus tomorrow.


Kathie

Hang Ups

What is your hang up

Everyone seems to have one part of the quilting process that is their “hang up.” Some people have a hard time getting started on a new project, others get the main body of a quilt done and then never get it bordered. Some people have many many tops done that never seem to get quilted.

My hang up tends to be backings. Once I get a backing pieced I usually get the quilt done, I just don’t seem to get backings done ahead of time.

So this week instead of making a wish list of what I would like to accomplish I am going to try and spend some time getting backings together. I have already found and cut fabric that will become two backings and have it ready to go in the wash. One of these backings will be for the Christmas Snowball quilt that I recently completed the top and the other is backing for a Heart Linus quilt top I completed several months ago.

My daughter has been home sick the last couple of days so have not accomplished much other than see to her. She might be a teenager but she takes full advantage of being sick and becomes totally helpless. I did sew a few minutes at a time working on the second Christmas quilt. You can't tell it from this picture but it is going to become a poinsettia scrap quilt.



Kathie

Broken Bricks

I have accomplished several things this week that were on my list.

1. Complete broken bricks quilt top - done
2. Quilt at least 1 quilt - Two were quilted
3. Piece a backing - didn't get around to this one, maybe next week.

As one of the two quilts I quilted this week I got the broken bricks quilt quilted, bound and just finished hand stitching down the binding this morning. Now when I watch TV tonight will have a brand new quilt to snuggle under.



Kathie

Do you know

Lori over at Dakota City Quilter blog posted as part of being tagged about five addictions she has and 10 things you don't know about her and challenged readers to do the same. Thought I would give it a shot anyway.

Addictions:

1. Fabric (of course)
2. Coffee - a must have first thing in the morning, my eyes won't open till I smell the coffee.
3. Sleep - I am one of these people that get very cranky if I don't get enough sleep.
4. American Idol. My daughter and I started watching Amreican Idol during season 3 and it is one of the few shows we still enjoy watching together (she is now 14).
5. Dance movies. You know those cheezy dance movies that have hardly any plot to them. My daughter is a dancer so I love to watch any dance movie because I so admire the skill involved.

As for things you dont' know about me:

1. I am an only child.
2. I have two step grandkids older then my daughter.
3. I am originally from Seattle, WA.
4. I made my first quilt in high school and then didn't sew again for 26 years.
5. I moved to the East Coast in 1976
6. I hate to drive at night.
7. My favorite food is anything pasta.
8. I can't stand the heat and humidity in the summer, spring and fall are my favorite times.
9. My favorite color is purple.
10. Like to read murder mysteries.

Kathie