Quilting News!

Okay so I have entered Brandi’s “Daddy & Me” quilt in a blogger quilt show for a possibility to win a prize!  It is more bragging rights than the prize that has me excited though… you know me you know I don’t brag much but I think that quilt with all OUR work in it really ROCKS!  Read more about this quilt on my post here….

So check out this blog to read all about the Blogger’s Quilt Festival!  Get inspired for your first quilt or your 100th quilt… but you are very likely to find inspiration.

My quilt is registered under throws here… 🙂  

I hope you check it out and register your quilt to… leave me a message if you do so I can go check yours out! lol

Looking forward to June and our quilt along… I am currently making blocks so I will be ready to teach you how to make a double pinwheel block easy peasy like this!

So tell me… what do you wanna learn?

How to quilt??? How to piece??? How to make a quilt sandwich effectively… what is your roadblock to quilting or having too many UFO’s???

I quilt one at a time for now… I am doing okay with precise piecing but just can’t wait to be quilting on this quilt… I am not a huge fan of pin basting but I like it better than basting with thread! lol

My fave new find is a 2 pack of 45 mm Olfa cutting blades for my rotary trimmer at Walmart via site to store here for $9.00 plus tax… pick it up at your local walmart in a few days 🙂  And for that $9.00 remember you get 2 blades … Yipee!  No more dull cutting blades!

Hope you have a blessed day!

Kathi

Advertisement

Daddy & Me quilt revealed!

The quilt for my daughter Brandi is complete… check out this video for help with binding your quilt!  It is very easy with this vid 🙂

I say it took a while but in looking at my blog posts…
Connie and Keely started the design of the quilt here… on April 4th’s post

Connie mailed me the appliqued quilt top here…on April 22nd’s post

I put the sandwich together, pinned and started quilting here… on April 25th’s post

I finished the quilt and presented it to my daughter May 15, 2013 🙂

So the total on this great quilt from start to finish is…just over a month!  Yahoo!!!  I am just so excited!!!

The quilt is machine pieced, hand and machine appliqued, pin basted then hand quilted in the ditch and decoratively quilted with waves all around the dolphins.  The dolphins were appliqued with interfacing applique but she used non fusible interfacing super light so as not to add bulk to the quilt… it was nice to stitch around in the pretend ditch and add decorative stitching to the tail and body!  The binding is machine sewn to the front and hand stitched to the back.  In is 61″ x 62″ in final dimensions.

If you have time and would like the story of the quilt read on…if you just wanna enjoy the eye candy and move on feel free…

We found out my daughter Brandi had a brain tumor called a pituitary tumor in March of this year.  She got a concussion in a school accident and had to have a CT.  It showed up about the size of a marble.  The good news is that this is a common tumor we know now and can be treated medically to shrink it and make it easier to remove… it is also typically a slow grower… so my daughter will start growth hormones this summer to help her bone age of 8 catch up to her age… almost 15.  Amazing what tests can tell us these days I think!  Then she will have the surgery this fall or next spring to remove the tumor.

Once I heard about her need for possibly imminent surgery…  Connie, Brandi, and I started planning her quilt for comfort during her treatments and hospital stay during surgery.  Brandi’s quilt came out just the way SHE wanted it… black and green with the coolest dolphin’s appliqued on it I have ever seen (thanks to Connie’s daughter Keely for that artwork).  And a pretty cute label too… Connie’s design but my hand just made smaller in size for the quilt proportions.

This month marks 5 years that Brandi’s father and my husband has been dead.  He died quickly when he was only 48.  Brandi wanted her quilt to have a daddy dolphin and a baby dolphin on it swimming with each other on the black and green background.  We wanted the signature block to mark the importance and love that went into this quilt for her at such a fast pace!  Brandi was told it had to be named and she dubbed it said “Daddy and Me”!  For her it is a momento of her daddy 🙂

She loves the waves … they were so worth it… if you handquilt you will be seeing this type of technique again in another way 🙂

I am entering this quilt in the bloggers quilt festival here!

Have a blessed day and thanks for visiting with me so long!

Kathi

Celebrate Hand Quilting Blog Hop

Hi! I am Kathi and I am a hand quilting addict… I only do the other parts of quilting to get to the hand quilting 🙂 

Welcome to my blog… I love to blog about quilting, crafts, and home renovation projects we do here and there… we recently moved to Florida from Tennessee and love the relocation… it has bloomed my creative spirit…

This is a sneak peek at the fourth quilted project I have done… this one is overall design by my daughter Brandi who is almost 15 years old… it was then graphically designed by Keely… Connie’s art major daughter, machine pieced by Connie (a very accomplished quilter who loves to piece quilts but not quilt them!!!), and quilted and bound by ME!

Hand quilting is by far my favorite part of quilting… I even enjoy hand sewing the back binding in place over machine 🙂  For this quilt I quilted with black thread in the ditch with my fave John James 8 needle and used white around and in the dolphins.  Then I stitched waves across each row with swells and waves with perle 12 light grey DMC thread and a between needle for the larger eye 🙂

My friend Connie that did the quilt top used interfacing applique to get the great shape on the dolphins and then stitched it to the quilt top so with the 2 layers there the black and green shouldn’t show through after washing 🙂  She plans to share her exact technique with me when she visits in a few weeks!

So finally a show of the whole quilt waiting to be bound…

The final measurements await but it is about 60″ x 64″…

And here is the signature block that is on it’s way in the mail to me now from Connie!

The names are kind of like a bracelet Connie said and the hand is mine made a little smaller to show the wording!

EXTRA!!! EXTRA!!! READ ALL ABOUT IT!  Binding has begun

Now take a look at this beauty!

This aloe vera was at our home when we bought it this past December sitting in a corner outside and looking sad… we repotted it in a pot my honey had made for me the previous year and added some cactus soil… then after some tlc it has started to bloom!

The bloom or blooms in this case can be yellow, orange, or red and attract hummingbirds… doing research online we found out only happy and more mature aloe vera’s bloom.  This one ooks like it will be orange but we shall see… This plant sits right outside my blogging area … so I watch it every day and smile 🙂  Hope it smells nice when it blooms! lol

Finally, let me show you something unique my honey made… read more about it here… but check this out!  Great father’s day gift idea… made from clockworks and an old saw blade that wasn’t usable anymore 🙂

Hope you have enjoyed this blog hop… now keep on going and see what other hand sewn goodness you can find.  Also you can find ME here and my facebook page “Patchwork Friends” here that is for all kinds of quilters!  Just request an invite so our projects aren’t public 🙂  In June we are having a quilt party!  Come join the fun!

Have a blessed day!

Kathi

What we are up to!

Yahoo!  I have 8 of the 16 rows of this quilt “waved”.  I am using a thicker thread to quilt the waves to give it a cool texture… what do you think so far???

I think it adds fun and whimsy… speaking of whimsical look at this cute cut out my bff Pam stamped and my daughter played with as we had lunch together yesterday!

You see Brandi had a doctor’s appointment with a pediatric specialist for her upcoming surgery.  The surgery has been put off for now and we are gonna treat her issues to help the tumor she has shrink and not do so much more damage.  Also…. at 14 years old (15 in July) my daughter is only 4’8″ so this summer she will start growth hormones… so she can ease growing pains with this quilt I am finishing for her!  Yay!

We went to visit an art exhibit in our City Hall and found that my daughter had artwork on display for all to see!

It is a show sponsored by a local art house and is aptly named “ArtHaus” and has german owners… pretty snazzy!

Here was our fave out of the 20 drawings/artwork pieces on display in the City Hall…

This is all stipple art… there was other types of art displayed there but these two just happened to be our faves 🙂

While I am quilting my honey is “piddling” making a clock from an old 12″ saw blade that has seen better days… so we took this clock that didn’t match our decor at all anymore…

And mounted the workings to the back of the saw blade…

Including the pendulum mechanism and chime speaker… to make this amazing clock!

Now to change a few things to spiff it up a bit with some John Deere yellow paint we had…

and the John Deere emblem on the pendulum!  My honey rocks it!

Soooo excited about all that is going on with us!

Hope you have a great weekend… as for me I will be working to finish this quilt to post and present to my dd… and who knows what my honey and kids will get into this weekend! lol

Kathi

The quilt base is complete!

Can you believe that in just about 9 days I received a quilt top ready to quilt and beautifully appliqued…

Made my quilt sandwich

Basted it together with safety pins…

And completely quilted all the background blocks and the dolphins 🙂

To get this result… I quilted in the ditch as you can see above.  That means I quilted all of the seams where they joined and all around the appliqued dolphins… I also added some texture to the dolphins with decorative stitching… take a look!

And with all this part of the quilting complete a full pic looks more like this…

Notice that my batting and backing fabric are LARGER than my quilt top… that is how yours should look too… gives your quilt room to move a little as you quilt… and it will if you don’t pin it well! lol

Now I am using a thicker decorative thread called perle cotton in a size 12.  Some hand quilters use as big as a size 8… but I couldn’t find any that size and I think this size suits my needs perfectly.  I chose a light gray to coordinate with the gray embroidery on the dolphins 🙂

Waves!  My daughters design!

This is my template… I used a piece of cardboard from my doctors office… He was gonna it away so I explained why I needed it and he laughed and asked to see the quilt when I finished it! lol

Hope you come join me over at Patchwork Friends on facebook!  I would love to chat with you more candidly about quilting 🙂

Have a blessed day!

Kathi

God moments….

Have you ever worked on a project and every road block opened as you hit it???  Those for me are God moments… a time God shines through and perseveres in our place!

I had 2 of those so far on this quilt and wanted to share them with you… here they are!

I went on a quest for John James quilting needles in a short size 8 and they had 1 pack left!   Yay 🙂  I couldn’t find the desired size 8 perle cotton thread but they had a size 12 which is a bit smaller and easier to manage.  They said they didn’t have the color I wanted but when I got there and dug around I found the perfect matching color to the embroidery already on the quilt!  Yay 🙂

Finally I went to another store looking for crewel needles in which to stitch this larger thread with … sure enough they had them and for super cheap so I indulged by using a 40% off coupon to get my first quilting mag!  I chose Love of Quilting and the first major article in it is on hand quilting… Super yay!  What a bunch of God moments there…

Finally I went to see my dr and he used his last prescription pad sheet for me… I asked if I could have the cardboard back to make a template for the quilt waves and he said yes!

So now I just have to wait for this sample to be approved and I can cut it out and start adding waves to the quilt once I am done stitching in the ditch.

Tell me about a God moment in your life… I would love to hear about your successes!

My bff Pam had God moments in designing and making these cool 3D canvases….

The one on the left is completely done… and the one on the right is still in the working stages… the one in the middle she wants to add just a bit too… aren’t they priceless works of art for a grandmother to give her daughter of her kids??? I think they ROCK!

Have a blessed day!

Kathi

The quilt in progress.. and a secret!

Well… at the bequest of the graphic designer of the dolphins on this quilt I am hand quilting… I took a pic of the dolphins already quilted… check them out!

I have been watching lots of vids while I quilt…

I have learned how to make homemade glimmer mists, texturing paste and how to incorporate the 3d effect in paper crafting.  Here is a tutorial to get you on the right track if you are interested in Swirlydoo’s and a recipe for texture paste with a project!

Is there a topic you would like to know more about or a question you have I can research and post about??? Leave me a comment and I will feature YOUR QUESTION/TOPIC on my blog 🙂

Quilting is slow but sure… Currently I have quilted all the dolphins and some of the blocks are stitched… there are about 140 blocks to stitch “in the ditch” style all over the quilt base.  I am about 1/4 done with it and have worked on it quite a bit.

I have really been inspired by a new (to me anyway) facebook page called especially for hand quilters.  If you want to see some awesome work check out this post!

And the secret is .. do you know what a “humility block” is???

It is an Amish tradition to put in a “mistake” on purpose on a quilt to remember only God is perfect… somewhere when I show a full pic of the quilt you will see a humility block in it.

I have given you hints … happy hunting!

Have a blessed day!

Kathi

Still Quilting!

Here is my stitching…

I am loving this hand quilting stuff!  It is loads of fun seeing a pattern form where there was expanses of flatness now there is hills and valleys from where I have quilted… the pics at this point don’t show so I won’t bore you but if you think quilting might be something you are interested in check out these vids…
Intro to quilting by hand is here
and Intro to quilting by machine is here

Overall I will say having done some of both my passion lies in design and hand quilting… but you get fast overall satisfaction and a very sturdy quilt if you have just a plain sewing machine.

I didn’t use the walking foot they talk about and quilted wonderfully well.

I don’t use a hoop when I hand quilt… I am hoopless! lol

I pin for handquilting instead of hand baste as me and basting just don’t get along… but I pin a LOT!  It is less stable than basting threads!

I pray for those in my home and for those that have requested prayer.

So today I ask you… can I pray for you ???  Please let me know of a prayer request you may have… I have lots of quilting ahead before this project is complete… it keeps getting added to! lol

Have a blessed week and hope I get to pray for you!

Kathi

Wonderings while quilting…

Hello my friends!  Thought I would share my first stitches and some other pics as I work on quilting this quilt for my daughter!

I really enjoyed this youtube vid to refresh me on hand quilting basics… and it is only about 6 minutes long!

I found a needle I really like…

it is small but has a nice eye that I can thread with handquilters thread.  I am using Coats and Clark from JoAnn’s in white and black for the quilting… white first for the dolphins… then black for all the background.

Finally, in about a month I get to put this great binding on it

 and wash it then and present it to my darling daughter!  Hopefully BEFORE her surgery is my goal.

Meanwhile I have been checking out Swirlydoo vids with my bff Pam and look what she made with her newfound knowledge!

I picked out my fave things and she made them all 3 D and stuff… very cool techniques on this canvas and so much dimension and it is secure for a lifetime!!!!

What are you springtime goals? Make some before summer is here! lol

Have a blessed weekend!  I will be quilting and going to visit family this weekend… hopefully with some new pics to share!

Kathi

Let the quilting begin!

I received a very special package yesterday!  The quilt top got here!  Yay… she just mailed it Monday afternoon from TN so I thought it would be here Thursday… but God had other ideas 🙂

She also mailed me suggested quilting lines and binding already sewn and ironed… so all I need to do now it quilt, then quilt, and quilt some more!

First steps first I put the back together with a center seam pressed open with 1/2″ seam allowance.  I matched the prints as much as I could 🙂

Then lay that right side down and top with your batting.

Then add the quilt top… I personally have found the wrinkles in the batting relax if you give them a few minutes of rest time.  So I did and they did too!  Yay

Finally I had my quilt sandwich 🙂

But I must be totally honest… the reason it took me a day to begin the actual quilting on this piece is the extreme artistry Connie put into the quilt top.  I have been in awe of it!

Check out the running stitch around the white dolphin part and the fin on it’s side… and the applique stitches are so small I had to look for them to even see them!

And the little dolphin is so cute… I love the embroidery she added on the noses too!  And the eyes are so expressive being ovals instead of the round I would have made them!

And the overall design that is now pinned together and ready for me to start quilting together is this!

Have a blessed day and if you have a minute send prayers of comfort to this quilt as I want it to provide comfort and safety during my daughter’s surgery 🙂

Thanks!

Kathi