Valentine Wall hanging

I recently finished a small wall hanging for my Mom to hang outside their apartment. She was so excited and it looks so good with their red door.  There is such joy in making something that brings joy to others.  It’s based on a picture I found several years ago. 

Karen

Office Art - Courthouse Steps

My office art is officially hung!!  I've been working for 6 months and I never thought it would take this long.  (Remember I had a hard time finding a border fabric, and then I couldn't decide on a final quilting design).  But the wait is over.

I had 2 bare walls in my new office, this is the smaller one.

The one by my desk is the larger one, the one most people will see. This is also the wall I look at 95% of the time, as I mostly do work on the computer.

Several months ago I brought in a bunch of quilts I already had and auditioned them.  This one worked perfectly.  It was made for a guild challenge a few years ago.  I love the quirky nature of the blue leaves and the asymmetry of the square in a square blocks.  It's always been one of my favorites and I'm thrilled I get to see it hanging.

We moved the bookcase to the corner, and it looks perfect.

I initially thought I would make a tumbler quilt for the big wall, but when I auditioned it, I didn't really like it.  So I decided on the Courthouse Steps, I was working for an attorney after all LOL.  There is a wool rug in my office that gave me the palette for the colors.  The neutrals look great with the wall color.

It is just wonderful that I can look at this all day long.

I get to look at the quilting as the shadows cross it - too bad it never photographs as well as it looks in person.  No surprise that I put the kitty where I could see it up close :).  It's at the top of the middle block.

And here's the kitty in the small piece - so fun

 

This is the view from my desk of the huge downtown metropolis of Pensacola!!  I'm on the 7th floor which gives me this great view.  The building on the left is the Courthouse -

and hidden behind that bush are the............ Courthouse Steps!!  How cool is that?

Even better than getting to look at my quilts all day, is the fact that my boss is totally on board with this.  He has mentioned several times that he really likes the way the quilts look. He was not really familiar with "wall art quilts" and I think it was a pretty big stretch for him to agree.  So it makes me even happier that what makes me happy also got a big thumbs up from him.

Have a great day,

Karen

Almost Done

It almost seems silly that I've spent so much time debating about the quilting on this wallhanging, but that's behind me now and I'm almost done.  Yay!!!  I'm sewing the binding down, then I'll add a hanging sleeve and finally take it to my office.  I do love the way the corners have turned out with this striped border.  Exactly what I was hoping for.

After finishing the row of feathers, I stalled.  This has been draped over a quilt stand as I have stared at it for weeks - willing it to tell me what to do!  I tried several different ideas and ripped them out.  Last week I was walking thru the garage and saw a roll of 1" blue painters tape sitting there and that was it.  I decided to use the tape as a guide and sew 1" diagonal rows in the 4 corners and be done with it!

It looks "just fine".  Not sure what I was hoping for, but this isn't an heirloom piece.  I guess I wanted to do the best I could as I do think clients will see it when they first walk in the office and I wanted my boss to be pleased.

So the next pictures of this will be when it's hanging in my office :).  After all the angst I hope I like it.  Oh well, I still have the tumbler quilt as a back up if I don't!

Have a great day,

Karen

Hand Quilting

I have finally started some hand quilting projects again, I'm a happy camper.  There is nothing like it :).  Here's my Civil War wallhanging, just really getting started.

Even though outlining applique is not my favorite part, it's still fun.

 

Then I got sidetracked.  I have just received our Guild's opportunity quilt back from the quilter's.  It is exactly what I had hoped for.  My friend Sheree did a wonderful job.

I am now starting the hand quilting part.  My job is to quilt the green sashing borders. The center medallion and the vine border will also be hand quilted.  I'm beyond excited about the way it's turned out.

Here's a close up of some of the borders.

There are 5 green sashing borders.  I've got one down (the smallest one) but having so much fun re-visiting all these great Edyta Sitar fabrics.

Today I'm leaving to head west.  I have been asked to teach a workshop for the Sew Happy Quilters Guild in Morgan City, LA on Friday and to present a lecture and trunk show for the GSQA quarterly meeting on Sat.  That's Gulf States Quilting Association (FL,AL,MS,LA) for those of you wondering.  I'm very excited, all packed and ready to go.  I've got my camera, so I'll share when I get back.

Have a great day,

Karen

Road Trip to Mrytle Beach

I know we all do it.  When we're getting ready to go on a trip, we have to make sure we have and hand project ready in case we need it :).  Well, we went to visit our children over Easter/Spring Break a few weeks ago.  In case you're wondering, Mrytle Beach, SC is 711 miles from Pensacola, FL.  It's a long way!  But I took this sweet project along for the ride.

I've been working on it for a few months.  I had all the applique pieces prepped, so it was fun.  And so, after 1400 miles, it's all done!

Remember when I was working on these paper pieced Civil War flying geese?  These are all parts of a wallhanging that I won as a giveaway from Kathie. 

Well.... drumroll please, the top is done!! Yay.  I'm ready for the quilting.

It is such a pretty piece.  I didn't substitute any of the fabrics, this is one time I followed all the directions LOL!  So glad I did - it looks wonderful. 

Then is was on to MB and time to be with these sweet people :).

After church we tried to take some Easter pictures on the beach - as you can tell, we pretty much got blown away!

But something is better than nothing.

This is my son's current assignment with CFA (remember he was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa).  They've been in this condo since Jan. 1st, but while we were there we helped them move into a 2 BR apartment.  So glad we had a chance to enjoy this view.

There was plenty of time to play on the beach.  The water was about 55 degrees, so no swimming for us.

Here's my little super hero......

and here are my precious girls :). 

I am blessed.  Have a great weekend,

Karen

Border Time

My Courthouse Steps is done, now for the border decision.  I thought that maybe it wouldn't need a border, but after taking it into the office yesterday, I knew that it definitely does need one.  I keep feeling drawn to brown, something that maybe feels a little like Civil War.  Here are four pieces I had in my stash, I may not have enough of some but wanted to get an opinion on which direction to go.  I also feel like it might need a touch of red somewhere.  Any thoughts?

Here's a close up of one section.... see anything yet??

It's my sweet kitty - hiding in one of the steps. :)  Always love to figure out where I'm going to hide him.

I also finished piecing the Tumbler wallhanging.  Now that it's done, I really like this one too!  It is currently 42 x 55, I'm thinking it needs to be more square, so I may need to make a few more rows.  I don't think I'm going to border this one, I'll wait and see.

This section contains... wait for it.... do you see it....

yes, the kitty hiding in one of the tumblers.  This is a new kitty batik fabric gifted to me by one of my students at the workshop in Gulf Shores, AL back in January.  He makes a very good choice for this piece, and it's so much fun to find new kitty fabric.  Thank you so much for sharing.

I'm going to live with the CS on the design wall and see how it looks later in the day when the sunlight changes.

I'm off to applique the last few berries on "In Full Bloom" - the final pictures coming soon!

Karen

 

Not Much Progress...

We are still in NC enjoying our family, but will head back to Florida tomorrow.  I haven't done much on this trip except for eat, play cards, watch football, eat and play with my grandchildren.  All in all, it's been pretty perfect.

I am slowly making progress on my little project.

I'm done with the machine piecing and have been trying to work on the applique.

I know when this gets done I will love it!! But I've had trouble getting into a groove.

This picture of my mom and me was taken as we were leaving my parents' house in High Point, NC.  We played about 100 games of Skipbo - and I'm not exaggerating :)!!!!  Such fun.

Happy New Year to you all, this year has been such a fun one for me as I've gotten to know some of you so much better.  I've got news that I'll post about in a few days.....

Karen

A Little Gift

Now that this little piece has arrived at its new home, I can share pictures.  I needed a gift for someone and found out she loved all things Mary Engelbreit so I immediately knew I wanted to do a teapot wallhanging.

Years ago I did a ME quilt for my daughter.  I still have scraps left (imagine that LOL) - it was so much fun to re-visit all these cute fabrics.

The thing about ME fabric is that they have such a personality, they are almost like "friends" :).  And they are so quirky that you don't have to stress about what goes with what.  I hand appliqued and hand quilted this little piece.  The border was a little hard to do with the small pieces and seams.  But it was still so much fun.

I just cut little pieces of lots of different scraps.  And then in true ME style, you anchor everything with black.

Don't you love this little face??

The back was just a blue  piece of ME I had.

And of course, the hidden kitty :) - my trademark.

Have a great day,

Karen

Some Sweet Surprises

I did not have time to post about this before we left for the holiday weekend.  I recently received 2 sweet surprises.  The first was this wonderful stack of pure perfection!!

It's the Seasonal Little Gatherings from Primitive Gatherings.  I was helping a friend finish a project and she surprised me with this.  She knows I did not expect anything, but as we all know, fabric IS the perfect gift :)!  I imagine these fabrics will show up in my quilts for years to come.  Thank you sweet friend - your friendship is a treasure in my life.

My next surprise came when I found out I had won the giveaway from Kathie at Inspired by Antique Quilts.  Kathie and I (and a million other quilters) share a love of Civil War quilts and I heart just about everything she makes :).  This is the cutest little wallhanging.

All the fabric to complete the top is included.  Since I'm kind of at a stuck place on my Jubilee quilt, this little project is the perfect thing to distract me while I wait for more inspiration.

After checking out the fabric in the kit, I realized I did not have a single duplicate of anything in my stash. That's always exciting!!  I actually started cutting this morning so maybe I'll have something to show soon.  I haven't made a little quilt like this before, so I'm excited.  Thanks for sharing Kathie.  I can't wait to see this finished.  And since I've been doing so much applique, I'm in the groove :).

Have a great day,

Karen