Hello 2019!!

Happy New Year!

Winter is in full swing in Madison as of New Year's Eve.  We had a pretty good snow storm for most of yesterday afternoon and evening.  It coated the trees with a beautiful heavy, wet snow.

I wish I could be in my sewing room and enjoy the calm outside the windows, but alas, today is my holiday to work. I can at least fit some blogging in during my downtime!

Recently, I've picked back up something I started 1 year ago.  I'm calling it Black X-String --> for now.  This is the 'group project' I'm leading with my Lutherdale January Quilters.  We meet for 5 days every January and work on our own projects.  Two years ago, I thought-- why don't we do something together that we can donate to their August Auction?  Lutherdale gives so much to us, why not give back?  This pattern has always intrigued me, so I roped in all my fellow sewists to help out.  We had about 50 (?) blocks at the end of retreat.  I've sewn about another 15-ish.  The plan is to make it 8 x 10 and have it quilted before this year's retreat... in 15 days!!  Can I do it?  I sure hope so!

Also under my needle this week is my Scrap Happy Sampler.  I wanted to finish the top by today and I got mighty close.  I worked on it at Late Night Sew Night at Blue Bar Quilts and finished my troublesome spinny square block.  It now fits into the spot to which it belongs.  It needed 4 extra rings, so I'm calling this block "So Extra".  

The borders are ready to go on.  I did one at Late Night and decided this would be easier to do with my set in table.  Less wrestling and more support under the weight of the top.  I'm so close!! Can't wait!

And now for the big winner of my first ever give away......drum roll please....AMY!  Amy is a friend from Mad Mod Quilt Guild and a co-hostess with the mostest of Late Night Sew Night.  I did a bit of 'promoting' of my blog at this month's get together.  Here is the grand prize:

And look at my cool new letter board thingy!  What fun! Santa brought it  (and by Santa, I mean I picked it up at TJ Maxx while shopping)  😜

One last thing to share before signing off... I made another pincushion with Amanda Jean/Crazy Mom Quilt's pattern.  She is 'retiring' from her blog and the pattern writing business.  Her style really inspired me and I made all kinds of projects based off her patterns and tutorials.  I will miss her beautiful creations.  

xoxo,

Kristin

ps

Linking up with: Oh Scrap! and Let's Bee Sewcial

Finish! Rainbow String - Peacock Quilt

Happy finish news to report!  I am done with a long time UFO--Hooray!!!

While working on this quilt, I called it the Rainbow String Blocks.  Even though it isn't really a rainbow, because there are only cool colors in it.  While working on the binding, my friend said, "that looks like a peacock!"  I love it!!!  There is a peacock feel to it.  So, now that it is complete, I'll change the name to the Peacock Quilt.

This was an attempt to use up scraps and really, I didn't make a dent.  If anything, I took on other people's scraps in order to have more variety!! =O

In the beginning:

This quilt was part of my goals for Finish-A-Long Q3 and I made it in before the deadline.  Woo-hoo!

Also, it is the time of the year for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I haven't ever participated before, but this year I am!  Visit Amy's Creative Side to find out all the details and view many, many gorgeous quilts.  They are randomly drawing names for prizes (as opposed to having people vote in the past).  I think it is a great idea, because everyone who takes part is on a level field, even if you are a 'small blogger', like me!  😊

I'll leave you with one more pic of my quilt and my little helper, Fannie.  She was being extra cute while I was taking pictures!  ❤

xoxo,

Kristin

ps

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Blogger's Quilt Festival and Finish-A-Long

Sew 15 Minutes - in September

A local friend invited others to join her in finding a minimum of 15 minutes to sew per day in September.  Why not?  I'm giving it a whirl.  It might be just the motivation I need to move my projects along.  Those blocks aren't gonna sew themselves!

I'm going to attempt to add a picture to instagram each day, but there may be days where the 15 minutes aren't too interesting or different from another day.  We shall see.  You can find me as @kristingumdrop on Instagram.

Day 1- I kicked off with adding binding to my rainbow strings quilt.  I want to finish this for Q3 of Finish-A-Long, so I need to get crack-a-lackin'.

Day 2: I set a timer for 15 minutes and when that finished, promptly sewed for an additional 2 hours!  It was lovely!  I had several chores to do, but I let them all fall by the wayside.

I need to get this Wonky Star quilt together.  It has been patiently waiting for progress while pinned to the design wall.  It is amazing what you can accomplish in 15 minutes!

Exciting news-- I was able to apply the partial seam lesson from Mary Fons to this project! Check out the before and after pictures.  This improv setting is going to be possible thanks to partial seams!  So cool!!

Day 3: Hand sewing binding on the string block quilt. (no pictures)

Hopefully I can keep this momentum going all month!

xoxo

Kristin

Quilting progress

For several years now, I've been able to take some time off work at the beginning of August and spend it at my parent's house.  It's become a bit of a tradition that I have a project to work on there.  Four years ago (time flies!!), I refinished my Singer 66 cabinet.  Last year, I refinished a wooden desk I rescued from the curb.  This year I only had a few days.  With Finish-A-Long being a big motivating factor, I brought three quilts to quilt on the long arm.  Due to car issues (stupid oxygen sensor!), my trip was shortened by a day, so I was only able to complete 2 tops.

The first quilt is a 'bonus' quilt made from leftover trimmings. Heather and I took a workshop a few years ago and made whirling star blocks.  She was going to throw her trimmings out and I said, 'STOP--- I'll take them!".  Eventually I pieced the trimmings into rectangles and then the rectangles into strips.  It evolved into a somewhat Chinese Coins pattern in a perfect baby size.  I had the gold fabric in my stash for aaaages and I'm thrilled to use it up. Same with the backing fabric-- it's a light pink calico that I bough a bunch of years ago and it has been used in tons of my quilts.  It felt good to use the majority up in the backing.  Keeping the trend going, I had a long-time-in-my-stash turquoise that goes nicely with the gold that I'm using for the binding.  This quilt will go to Project Linus on behalf of the Mad City Quilt Guild.

Another great thing about these charity quilts-- I was able to zig zag together leftover chunks of batting into usable sizes for both of these quilts.  Hooray!

The second quilt that I worked on was my long in the works Rainbow (really just cool colors) String Block quilt.  As far as I can tell, I started the blocks in January of 2014.  The inspiration came from reading another person's blog (totally don't remember who!) and thinking that it would be a great way to use up scraps.  Well-- I doubt my scraps are too much tamed. =o  I don't know what to use for the binding.  I could do scrappy, just like the quilt.  Or the same fabric as the back?  It's a funky blue/green polka dot.  Once it is complete this will probably go to a local foster child that ages out of the program.

xoxo, 

Kristin

Lutherdale 2017 Gala Quilt

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending time at Lutherdale with the goal of assembling quilt blocks into a top to be auctioned off in August.  The weather was perfect, the food was great and the company was lovely!

I asked the new camp director if we could be given a tour of the gardens, chickens and beehives.  The beehives are scattered around the grounds, but we did get to meet the chickens that provide us with the eggs used in our meals.  They have one handsome rooster, too.

 

In March, I spoke to the folks that attended the Gala Luncheon and explained this year's block.  Then we gave them kits of pre-cut houses and sky.  It's always a challenge to find a pattern that is forgiving for a group to sew and will still be stunning to motivate people to bid high!

On Friday, we were certain we would have this top assembled before going to bed.  Well-- we did assemble most of it pretty quickly, but then things slowed down.  We had all the rows together before bed and held off to put the borders on in the morning.  It was a good thing, too!  Looking at it with fresh eyes, we decided the proportions were a bit off and we needed to add another row to make it longer.  Some of our houses were...ahem... a little short.  We grouped the short houses together into the same rows, so they could get along.  But-- with multiple shorter rows, the length was sacrificed a bit.  No worries!  We zipped out another 14 houses like nobody's business.

Here is our quilt, pre-borders (the borders are simple yellow that matches the background):

And here are some of the people that worked on assembling the top:

L-R: Jim, Janine, Me, Kitty, Yvonne, Heather

I had a inkling that would would be able to finish that top up pretty quickly, so I brought a few other projects with me.  This is the project I started with the other January Quilters.  I want to assemble this into a random, non-traditional layout.  Janine did this arrangement and I started to sash some of the smaller stars together this weekend, but that's all the further it went.  Hopefully I can finish this up in time for the auction?!?

Insted of getting the stars assembled, we focused on getting this string block top together! I started these blocks several years ago. I had a lot of blue and green scraps and thought this would be a good scrap buster.  I don't know about that?!?  Every time I would work on it, the volume of scraps seemed to increase!  For quite some time now, I had the scraps I wanted to use for this in a small bin.  But it was overflowing, so I had to keep it on the closet floor and was starting to be a bother to me.  Now I'm thrilled to report that it is a top!  Of course there are still some scraps left over-- oh well.  Time to find another scrap project to mix them into.  I had about 2/3rds of the blocks done prior to this weekend and several people helped cut, press, and sew. Janet and I sewed the blocks and rows together. I might add a skinny white border and maybe some blue?  Not sure yet...

 xoxo,
Kristin

ps
Happy to have Judy Hansen  at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts take over the Design Wall Monday Reigns from Judy LaQuidara.  Thank you to both Judies!! =)

Slow and steady wins the race?

Things are busier than ever and my free time is so minimal.  I have been able to sneak a few bits of sewing in here and there.  

I really want to finish up the Elephant Parade, but it's crawling along.  I re-made the blue flowers from the old style to the new one.  The scale seemed 'off' and I'm pleased with the results!  I have a few sashing strips sewn on (not pictured here).  The frog and turtle eyes are next up and then I can hopefully have a completed top.

A few years ago, I started making string blocks of green, blue and purple as a way to use up some scraps. The plan is to put them into a twin sized quilt and donate it to Project Linus.  Yesterday I had a mess of green scraps on my cutting table (in addition to orange and pink!!)

It seemed like a good opportunity to sew up some green string blocks!  I made four yesterday, which brings the running total to 12 blue, 12 green and 8 purple. (not the latest group photo and the new blocks are much more vibrant than in this photo!)

Why were my scraps laying out on the cutting table?  Because I emptied the scrap containers to bring for Show and Tell at my guild meeting.  

Why?  Because Amanda Jean was the speaker!!!  Woot!!! So.Much.Fun!!!  I'm a mega fan of her style and it was a fantastic talk and trunk show!  She signed my copy of her book and I treated myself to a few copies of her patterns. 

The last thing I have to share is a cute little basket I made following a tutorial from Hearts and Bees.  It went together very quickly and I'm hoping to make more!

xoxo

-Kristin

Saturday Sewing Solitary Style

Last week, after spending 5 days at retreat sewing with 40 ladies, I took a little time on Saturday to be by myself. It was almost like my own personal retreat, because I didn't really do anything else all day except create.  

The most important project of the day was to prep for a paper piecing demo I am doing on Monday night for the Mad City Quilt Guild.  We are having a 'Schoolhouse' night.  Four people are presenting on different topics.  The members divide into 4 groups and rotate through each presenter's station.  I only have 15 minutes to explain paper piecing!  Gulp!  This is going to be hard!  My plan is to display a string of flying geese at each step of the process.

Over 1 year ago, I made a Circle of Geese mini quilt.  It was done except for having the binding hand stitched.  It's a great sample for my presentation, so I took the time to finish it.  Hmm.  The chalk marks are showing up in this picture?

Next up was to work on using up scraps in Rainbow String Blocks.  My scrap bins are overflowing, so I thought this quilt would help tame them.  Four blue blocks later and there isn't a visible difference. =(  I was thinking I would make 12 diamonds and donate it to charity.

Last up was to work on my Cartwheel quilt.  I got the quadrants complete on block number 10.  Only 2 more blocks after that!  Yay!

And that is when I was too tired to sew any more.  What a great day!

xoxo

Retreat Wrap Up!!!

I'm excited to share stories and projects that I worked on at my annual retreat at Lutherdale Bible Camp in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.  This is my 6th year (I think?) going and I had a great time!

Per usual, I brought a million projects to work on:

(that is only the luggage for projects! no machine/cutting mat/notions/etc)

Not per usual, I feel like I got my fill of sewing!  For the first time, I arrived on Wednesday, instead of Thursday and that made all the difference.  In the past, I felt like by Sunday, I was just hitting my stride and it was time to pack up.  This year, I was sewed out by mid-day on Sunday.  Yay!

The biggest project I worked on was a bed quilt for Sylvie (friend's 10 year old daughter).  This quilt has been taking much longer than I expected and I really wanted to be able to wrap it up.  It still needs borders, but I'm thrilled to have accomplished as much as I did.  I spent half of Thursday and ALL of Friday working on it.  By all, I mean 8 am to 11 pm!!! Yikes!  Here it is:

Quilt retreats are like marathons.  You don't want to start running at full speed.  You need a warm up!  My warm up was to do a few more blocks on my Cartwheels quilt.  I'm up to 9 blocks complete and want to do at least 3 more.

(pardon the instagram filter-- this photo is a bit washed out)

As a bit of  late night diversion, I decided to attempt a fabric bowl.  I started this at midnight on Thursday night!! What was I thinking?? My hand eye coordination wasn't quite there... (it turned out ok)

At some point on Saturday early evening, I started to put my Catvent cats together.  CATVENT! Oh, how I love Catvent.  Maybe when I quilt it, I can tell the story of Catvent. For now, let's suffice to say it is a fun quilt.

Saturday night-- I told myself I would go to bed early (most nights I wasn't in bed until 1 am).  It didn't happen! At 11.30, tons of people were super focused on their sewing.  As Anna described it, "It's like a quilting sweatshop!" =)  I decided to prep some things for Sunday.  One thing led to another and I sewed 2 scrappy string blocks. And then did 6 more on Sunday morning!   My plan is to only use cool colors and make a quilt to donate to a charity.

This is a mighty long post.  I think I've covered the projects I worked on.  In another post, I plan to share some photos of the retreat and other people's projects.

xoxo