Saturday, March 28, 2009

Unfocused Friday

Unfocused Friday now that has a ring!!! That is how I felt all day yesterday, just couldn't seem to focus on any one thing. I ended up getting a lot of little things done but all morning just felt restless and couldn't sit down to finish any one task.

Guess I got in the groove in the afternoon because I finished loading the Christmas quilt and got it all quilted. I did a simple all over half swirl design and it went quickly as the quilt was only 60 x 60 inches.

I also had a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. I got the Patsy Thompson Designs quilting DVD in the mail, Fast and Free. I just ordered it a couple of days ago and it already arrived. Since my husband was out in the garage last night and my daughter was off bowling I put the DVD in and watched part of it. I already have some ideas for a couple of new quilting designs I want to try and less than half of the video watched so I know it is going to be well worth the money.

If you have not checked out Patsy's videos search for her site and check out her mini videos that give you a preview of what is on her DVDs.

I ordered her Feather video a couple of years ago but it was a little over my head at the time, think I need to pull that one back out and watch again and see if I can get the hang of it.

Kathie

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

More Quilting

I quilted the yellow string quilt yesterday trying something a little different. Patsy Thompson Designs has some free quilting handouts on her website and some great DVDs that you can order. I tried to follow one of her sheets with kind of spikey arcs on it. It doesn't look much like her handout but I really like how it turned out.

Here is a close up of the front trying to show some of the stitching....



and another shot of the backing.



I placed an order for one of her DVDs on freehand quilting and look forward to getting that in the mail soon.

Kathie

Monday, March 23, 2009

Hospice House Quilt #3

I was away all weekend at a quilting retreat, the first weekend one I have been on and had such a great time. I didn't even realize it was National Quilting Day on saturday but we celebrated right!!

I accomplished several things this weekend including piecing a backing for a hospice quilt, sashing blocks to complete another top, made 15 blocks for my guild challenge quilt and worked on my tesselating stars quilt from a recent class.




When I needed to rest my back from all the sewing I would get comfortable and work on the binding on this quilt I pieced last fall and recently quilted. This is all done now with the exception of a label and will be #3 in my collecting of Hospice Quilts.

Kathie

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Summer Sunshine

I finished the summer sunshine quilt top. I wasn’t going to put a picture up until it was done but wanted to show the ladies in the guild that helped make the blocks what the top looks like. I am going to piece a backing for it this weekend and hopefully get it quilted in the next couple of weeks.


I am currently quilting a red/white and blue charity quilt for the guild. Once that’s complete I need to do a couple of customer quilts and then hopefully this one.

I received a call from one of our local quilt shops yesterday. They had heard about the hospice house quilt project through a lady in our guild. Several ladies in the shop overheard and wanted to make quilts for the project so the shop is going to put it in their email newsletter and collect finished quilt and quilt tops at their shop. The shop owner has even volunteered to quilt the tops her customers drop off.

Everyone I have talked to about the project that has had personal contact with Hospice has had a great experience with all the staff and volunteers and can’t imagine how they would have got through such terrible times without their assistance.

Kathie

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Whats on the Frame


I have been quilting on this Happy Heart quilt today. It will become the 3rd Hospice House quilt once it is finished and the binding completed.

I am also working on getting the borders on the yellow centered string quilt that we made the blocks for this weekend. With a bright yellow border it is looking like summer sunshine. I normally don't name quilts but that sounds like a great name for a quilt.

I need to get back to working on some other things tomorrow but enjoyed spending the whole day working on Hospice quilts. If I can do that every week I will be making great progress.

Kathie

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Hospice Quilts Sew In

My one guild had a mini sew in working on blocks for hospice quilts yesterday. We were working on string blocks, a set with yellow center strips and lady colors and another set with blue center strips with guy colors. There were five of us working on the blocks and we got enough blocks done to make a ladies quilt and about 3/4 of the way towards enough blocks for the guy version.

Here are a couple blocks of each version.


In addition Jane donated two finished quilts for the hospice house effort (pictured here) and Regina donated a quilt top, thanks ladies.





Kathie

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

My Week

It has been a busy week so far with customer quilting. I have two quilts completed and the 3rd on the frame 3/4 done. Of course they are all lap sized quilts but still I feel like I am on a roll. Of course that has not made time for any charity or craft show quilting but I did manage to get the binding finished on this Star within a Star baby quilt. I found the layout for this on quilters cache.



this was a departure from my regular piecing. I usually use creams or at least a tone on tone for backgrounds and used the baby print for the background of this one. It was fun to try something different and I love the results.

Kathie

Monday, March 9, 2009

Monday already?

I was doing great with my blogging last week and then life got so busy I have not blogged or read any of my favorite blogs in days.

Last thursday I met with our local Hospice volunteer coordinator and we were talking about quilts for our counties Hospice House that is expected to be completed in June. I volunteered to coordinate getting 12 lap quilts completed prior to patients being admitted this summer (tentatively July timeframe).

I have been busy sending out emails to people in my various quilting groups and am really pleased with so much positive response. There are not very many people I know thats lives have not been touched by hospice in some way. I even have offers from a couple of people from the Heartstrings internet quilt group and from a friend in New Hampshire to make a quilt to add to our donation.

Our guild has a once a month "sew in" at our local library. Sometimes they have a workshop on a specific technique or project but if you want you can come and work on anything. The project this time is a great bag made with the colorful pet screen but in addition we are also going to combine it with sewing for hospice. I am going to make up a sample string block to show at the guild tonight as our hospice project for this saturday. These blocks are great and easy to make and appropriate for any skill level.

So that I have a picture to show with todays post I will show you what I was up to yesterday. I took a quilting class with Gyleen Fitzgerald on a pattern called "Anything Goes Star Tessellation." I have a long way to go but this is what I accomplished yesterday. The piecing is easy, the hard part is keeping track of all the pieces and what goes where.



Kathie

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Back in School

Well my daughter was back in school today so I am back on a somewhat normal schedule. I did have another partial finish. I got the present blocks all made into 4 runners. Here are two of the tops. I will put them away for awhile and one day use up some of the smaller batting pieces getting these all quilted up.



I also had time this afternoon and got a red/white and blue charity quilt quilted that someone in my guild made. Hopefully I will remember to take a picture of it tomorrow and hopefully I can hand it off to our "binding fairy" this weekend.

Kathie

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Snow Day #2

All the kids in the state are back to school today with the exception of two counties, one is where we live. The main roads are pretty good but a lot of the back roads are covered in ice so I guess it was smart not to get the school buses out on it.

Because of two days without school and a busy rest of the week coming up I have not even formulated any goals for the week. I figure I will get done what I can house and quilting wise and that will have to be good enough.



There is one advantage of being stuck in the house, I did manage another finish. I sat snuggled under the Christmas Candy (snowball and 9 patch) Christmas quilt and finished the binding so this one will be ready to deliver.



Have a great NO SNOW day.

Kathie

Monday, March 2, 2009

SNOW DAY

Ok we are having a snow day here in Southern Maryland. Ten inches of snow on the ground and a few flurries still. All schools in the area are closed and it looks like most people decided to take the day off. This is a picture taken off my back deck.



I do finally have a finish of one of my projects. I made two of these coffee table runners and finally got the binding done on the first one.



Kathie

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Boy the last few days I have been going from one project to another and don't seem to be finishing anything. I have no clue why, just can't seem to focus on any one project. That being said I have still managed to accomplish a fair amount but I have a purse still unfinished, my poinsettia quilt has half of the binding finished, another table runner I have not done the binding on yet and various other projects laying around.

In the midst of this I decided to start on a NEW project. I decided to make some present blocks to make into table runners for fall craft shows. Here are some of them. I got so carried away cutting out pieces I ended up making enough present blocks to make four runners.



They say we will be having a snow storm rolling in tonight so if I am snowed in with no where to go tomorrow maybe I will finish something!!!

Kathie