Making Progress

I hope you all are enjoying the blog book tour for Scrap-Basket Sensations!! Go see Kim and say hi - she's so excited to have you all know about her wonderful book. It's been a busy weekend for me (social obligations), so not a lot of quality time sewing, but..... I do have the top together - WooHoo!!! My Tipsy Baskets are not so tipsy, so I've named this Winding Baskets, as each row of baskets follows from one direction the next. The colors in the Martinique collection are so subtle and beautiful. I'm hoping to be able to have this quilted by the time it's my turn, but remember, I do have a full time job outside my home!!I'm also working on the burning question...... what do you do with all those little triangles??? LOL!! Here I am trimming them up.

I press open the seam and trim them to 1 3/4". Stay tuned, there's more to come on this too.

Don't forget the blog book tour.
Sherri at A Quilting Life - February 10th
Mary at Quilt Hollow - February 11th
Stephanie at Loft Creations - February 12th
Nicole at Sister's Choice Quilts - February 13th

Today is Millie's day!!!! Check out her wonderful blog and leave a comment to win a copy of Kim's great new book!

Millie at Millie's Quilting - February 14th
Sinta at Pink Pincushion - February 15th
Darlene at Quilting Daze - February 16th

Ooohhh, my day is coming soon - yay!!
Karen at Nana Girl Quilts - February 17th
Sue at Quilt Times - February 18th
Carol at Brown Quilts - February 19th

Have a Happy Valentine's Day.
-Karen

Sneak Peek...

In case you haven't heard...... there's a blog book tour going on!! Scrap-Basket Sensations is finally here!! Today is Mary's day over at Quilt Hollow. Be sure to check it out. My day is coming up next week, and so in the meantime, I've been working hard on having some new show and tell for you. Here's a sneak peak of my version of the pattern "Tipsy Baskets". I'm using a jelly roll of Martinique by 3 Sisters. I haven't worked with jelly rolls that much in the past, I work mostly with fabric from my stash when doing scrap quilts. So this project has presented some challenges for me. I had trouble getting enough value difference for the basket pattern to show up. I found a few "taupey" fabrics in my stash that seemed to blend in (see the stripe bottom left hand corner). I'm considering a different set from the one in the book.... we'll see :). Not sure if I'll have the whole quilt finished by next week or not- I'm still busy sewing. I hope you all are enjoying the blog book tour so far and are getting to know the author, Kim Brackett, a little better. Here's the schedule:

Sherri at A Quilting Life - February 10th
Mary at Quilt Hollow - February 11th
Stephanie at Loft Creations - February 12th
Nicole at Sister's Choice Quilts - February 13th
Millie at Millie's Quilting - February 14th
Sinta at Pink Pincushion - February 15th
Darlene at Quilting Daze - February 16th
Karen at Nana Girl Quilts - February 17th
Sue at Quilt Times - February 18th
Carol at Brown Quilts - February 19th

Hope you're all having a great day!

Until next time,

-Karen

The Fireplace Collection

It was rainy and cold last weekend, but I took all my quilts outside and took pictures anyway. Here is my whole collection (at this point). I'm thinking it's time to add to the collection, so I'm starting to look for inspiration. I shared the story of my Fireplace Quilts here.
Over the last few years, these quilts have brought me much joy as I change them out when the seasons change. Here's the one that started it all - the winter quilt. It is machine pieced and machine quilted.

Here is spring - nothing says spring like a basket of flowers :). This quilt is hand appliqued and hand quilted.

Next is summer. This quilt was picked by Madame Samm to be a part of her very first banner when she took over Stash Manicure. I was very excited and honored!! This quilt is machine appliqued and machine quilted.

Next is the fall quilt. I still cannot quite capture the colors in this. In person, this quilt is gorgeous (at least to me). It is paper pieced and machine quilted.

Here's a close-up of one of the blocks - love those New York Beauty blocks!!

Last is my Christmas Quilt. This quilt actually doesn't hang on my fireplace during Christmas as that's where I put my wreath. But it hangs in my hallway and can be seen from the living room.

Here's a close-up of the blocks. They finished at 4", were machine pieced and machine quilted.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Framing quilts is a wonderful way to showcase them.
Until next time, make something beautiful.

-Karen

Angel Quilt Pattern

I wish this quilt was mine, but it's not. I guess it could be if I wanted to make it - I do own the book after all - but this quilt is from ....
"Christmas or Not" by Gerry Kimmel. This book was published in 1991 and has been one of my "go-to" books for many years. So many of the angels in my angel quilt (and others) came from this book.

One of my other "go-to" books is this one (published in 1989), by Gerry Kimmel, Linda Brannock and Jan Patek. (I was pretty much in love with anything Red Wagon back then). This book really changed my quilting life. I'll post about Snowbound soon. But back to the angels.....

If you look closely, you can see many of my angels here.

Here are some pictures of my actual layout. I graph these quilts out completely once I decide on the blocks I want to include. And I do keep these. If I ever wanted to do something similar, I wouldn't have to completely re-invent it all.

My final quilt was very true this this layout. Sometimes I cut out mock blocks the exact size I need and then move them around until I get the layout I want.

This shows one of the flying geese segments I used. What I have learned since I made this quilt in 1997 is that each block should be a multiple of 2". That makes the filler sections so much easier to add. I also date these, you can see the 1997 date in the bottom righthand corner.

Here are some of the stars I used.

Here is my precious Angel Kitty. Love him!!! These are both from "Christmas or Not". I also would love to do this kitty block someday :). Goodness, looking thru these books gives me way too many ideas!! But honestly, how cute are these?? Wouldn't you love a little quilt like this hanging in your studio? Okay, maybe it's just me...

I hope this answers the questions asked regarding my pattern. Patty, I couldn't respond to your email. Several of the angels I actually did draw but my skills are very limited and I relied mostly on the talent of others :).

Until next time, make something beautiful.
-Karen

My Angel Quilt

I realized the other day, that I have not posted my Angel quilt or my Snowbound quilt that I showed in my Christmas collection of quilts. So today, it's the angels :). I started this quilt in 1997 when my youngest child left for college and I had lots of empty hours to fill. I convinced my partner in crime (aka Kim Brackett) that she needed to do one also. So we began to find patterns, draft our own and pull fabric from our stashes. This is the largest angel block and really is a focal point for the whole quilt. I used 1/4" quilters tape to quilt the lines. The whole quilt is hand quilted.
Here is the whole quilt draped over the couch (except for the top which I cut off).

The most fun thing about doing a quilt like this is personalizing the blocks. Notice below is a heart angel and a kitty angel (of course). Remember you saw the kitty angel here.

This block represents me and my sister. Remember you saw these angels here.

These are the joy angels. Doing a Christmas banner of these angels is on my to-do list, maybe this year!

These flying angels Kim and I affectionately named the "Secretary Angels" as they were wearing dresses. We would hand applique these blocks during our lunch hour at the big conference table. The attorneys were quite amused (and I'm sure impressed) by our many talents LOL!

I love the variety of angels and the little filler blocks of friendship stars and flying geese.

Thanks for joining me on a trip down memory lane. I love these old quilts! Neither Kim nor I will ever forget the journey we had making our angel quilts.

Until next time, make something beautiful.
-Karen

How fun is this???

I opened my email the other day, and someone had sent me this picture from the display of Thread Tails and Vapor Trails exhibit at the Road to California quilt show. My quilt "Going Home" is the one on the left. I just cannot begin to tell you thrilling it is for me to think that my little quilt is travelling the country. So thank you Shirlee for sending this to me.
Until next time,
-Karen

A new name

After much contemplation, I have named my little gift from Em. It's called "Beauty Waits". To me, the circle of chores and responsibilities of life are always there - for all of us. Each day as I work at my desk, I can see this little quilt. I think about the end of the day when I will go home. And so, each day, no matter what our individual lives look like, beauty waits and calls for us to come and create.
Have a great Friday.
Until next time, make something beautiful,
-Karen