A Sweet Memory - Blogger's Quilt Festival

Welcome to my quilt for Amy's Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Be sure to pop in and see all the great quilts.

 

It all started 2010.  I had discovered Kaffe Fasset and began collecting some of his fabrics and some brights that coordinated with them.  I'd made several "bright" quilts but was still wanting to make one more.  I found a pattern in a magazine and modified to suit me and decided to see what happened.

I prepped some strips for a road trip and was able to cut a bunch of blocks out.

They all looked so pretty.

I was really liking where this was going.  Not sure where I would end up, but I was happy.  The only constant was that each block had the same Kaffe fabric.

I must tell you, making these blocks was addictive.  They grew and grew.....

until I had this many.

 

And then my granddaughter and her family came for a visit.  She brought her own sewing machine and wanted to make a quilt.  She was 7 years old that summer!!

She saw my Kaffe quilt up on the design wall and wanted to make one just like her Nana Girl :).  Of course I couldn't say no.  She went thru my stash and picked all the fabrics herself.  She made her own choices for each block and auditioned them on hew own design wall.  Her instincts were spot on!

Here she is sewing the blocks together - she got really good at that 1/4" seam allowance too.

And then it was time for me to quilt it.

She looks so proud...

 

and here we are together with our matching quilts.

Since then, I have finished my quilt.  It stays over the back of my quilting chair and I get to enjoy it every day. 

Here are the little bright kitties.

I did an overall meandering feather vine.

The journey of this quilt is indeed a sweet memory.

Have a great day,

Karen

All the Little Stitches

I have finally finished the 1 1/2" grid of my jubilee quilt. Yay!!!  So, if I were to be finished at this point, I would say that there are a ton of stitches.  But the fact that the grid quilting is only about half way done is a little mind boggling.

The rows were a little hard to keep straight so I'm really glad I've finished this step.

Now it's on to quilting 1/2" lines.  What a huge difference!  These rows can be marked in my lap as I get to them.  It's a big time savings plus I'm done with the pins.  I've noticed that this part of the quilting is going much faster.

I'm quilting up to the little red leaves in the border.  My plan will be to finish these lines then move on to the border.

You can see in the top left corner where there are still some 1 1/2" areas, what a big difference the 1/2" quilting makes to the design.  I guess I'm close to being almost a quarter of the way done.  Trying to do a little every day and trying not to think about how much is left.  I'm really glad the quilt show is more than five months from now.  Hopefully my hands will hold out!!

Happy stitching,

Karen

Reaching a Leader Ender Goal and Some Apple Pickin'

I found out about Leaders and Enders (Bonnie Hunter) a few years ago.  Last year after a post about all my little HST's, Karen from Log Cabin Quilter emailed me to see if I'd be interested in a bag of lots of little triangles waiting to become HST's.  Of course I said yes.  I got the bag of triangles along with a few blocks already done. And so I started a journey that has taken almost a year to finish.  Not sure what this pattern is called.  Karen started this project, made 5 of these blocks, and then they came to live in Pensacola with me. 

I'm happy to say that all the little triangles are DONE!!  I haven't counted them but trust me, there are lots and lots of them. I'm not going to make the original pattern but I will use all these HST's in lots of  future projects. 

I'm playing around with some ideas using the blocks already done. I added this border and kind of like it.  I'm trying hard not to get too distracted as I still have things to finish.  So thank you Karen, for getting me hooked on leader/enders and for gifting me such a great bag of inspiration :).

Next, I used these blocks as a leader/ender project.  I now have 9 more souvenir blocks for the guild.  I call this block Flower Boxes even though we have had many different themes.  These are red, white and blue and will be sold in the boutique at our quilt show next year.

And since I've become such a fan of leaders/enders, and since I've finished all my HST's, and the souvenir blocks, I needed a new project.  The coolest thing about leaders and enders is that as you're making one quilt, you end up with two!!  This is an oriental style quilt made from Kim Brackett's book, Scrap Basket Beauties.  The pattern is Cross My Heart.  So easy, so fast, so fun, so Kim.  A very welcome relief from all the angst of working on this......

I'm in the process of adding a small pieced border. I've been calling this Pink Pickles - kind of a funny name, but I think it's stuck.  Still thinking about quilting designs - any help from any of you machine quilters will be greatly appreciated.

 And last, but certainly not least, my four babies.  They look a little hot and tired, but they all got together at an apple orchard south of Hendersonville, NC last weekend.  They had fun picking and eating apples - and James found quite a few trees to climb.  Jack is getting so big - I miss them all.  And yes, my DDIL made their shirts.

Happy stitching,

Karen

Having Fun in Madison, Alabama

Last Thursday, I drove to Madison, AL to share my trunk show and lecture with the Madison Station Quilters.  What a talented group of ladies!  Their "show and share" was fabulous.  And this is their raffle quilt (forgot to get the name of this quilt).  It is absolutely gorgeous and even more so in person.  It will go to some lucky winner next month.

The colors, fabrics, applique and quilting are wonderful.  Someone is going to be VERY happy next month.

 

My sister was able to go with me and we had so much fun just getting away.  She snapped a few pictures during the program.  The lighting was not the best for getting pictures, but we had a great time.

Not sure what I was saying here LOL - I can get kind of chatty :).

There were about 55 members there, I think a really good turnout.  She took a few pictures from where she was sitting.

After the meeting, I was showing these girls something, I think I was looking for the kitty.

And then before I knew it,

it was time to pack up.  Thanks MSQ so much for inviting me, I hope our paths cross again.

And now a little drumroll please............... the Pickle Dish blocks are done!!  I've started sewing the rows together.  There were a few times I wasn't sure this point would ever come.

Happy Stitching,

Karen

Broken Dishes and Pickles

I've been meaning to share this mini Broken Dishes that I made a while ago.  It's made with bonus triangles from my quilt Mocha Swirl (from Scrap Basket Surprises).  I made this for the upstairs bathroom.  You can see the pins are still holding it up.........it may be that way for a while LOL.

It looks really good with the black towel bars and the dark brown towels.  The border fabric is the backing of the original quilt.  It would probably look really good without the pins too - must put that on a list :).

I actually thought of this because last week I ordered new dishes and the boxes came yesterday!!  Kind of a late 40th Anniversary present to us.  These are Bobby Flay dishes from Kohl's and they are beautiful!!  This is only our third set of dishes in 40 years so I'll probably have these for a while.  They are my favorite color of brick red, with blue, cheddar yellow, lime green and a turquoise. So updated but still looks like me :).   And when I opened the boxes - there were no Broken Dishes!! (which made me think of the mini quilt)

 

The pickle dish blocks are nearing completion, and I'm realizing that I've made a mistake on the corner squares.  Here you can see how light they are where the four come together. I originally used a variety of all the greys in the quilt, and what it really needs are just the darkest ones.  I wanted a scrappy look, just didn't know it would look so unbalanced.

So, I've been spending time un-sewing.  Not my favorite part, but once it's done I'll be so much happier.  Below I covered over the top 2 squares and you can see what a difference it makes using the darker fabrics. These colors are still not true - it's not quite this annoying!  But it is bright.

Hopefully I'll have something to share soon,  I'm ready to have this thing done!!!  I've been thinking of quilting designs.  Not sure how custom I want to make it. 

Happy stitching time today,

Karen

All the Little Pickle Pieces

I am finally comfortable with my technique.  All the angst has paid off, they seem to go together easily.  I still haven't tried to sew any blocks together so if it doesn't go well at that point, you may hear me crying.

 I have cut all the pieces (except for the some of the small, square corners) and am pretty pleased with the layout.  I take down 2 blocks at a time to piece them so I don't get confused (of course, that is NO guarantee LOL).

This is a glimpse of what it might look like finished.

This is what most of the blocks still look like!

At least I'm making progress.  This is a little "happier" than I thought it would be, but I still think I'm going to like it. 

I'm off to work, have a great day.

Karen

P.S.  Have you seen the big "Karen" out in the Gulf?  Hope she behaves :).  We've been spoiled by having no hurricanes for a while, but Pensacola is in the middle of the models.  I think it's going to be a wet weekend - more time to sew :).