Sunday Stash and Twins!

Thousands of Bolts has been my favorite online shop for many years now.  I love buying my Moda Bella Solids from them and I've gotten quite a bit of stash enhancements and backing fabrics.  In the last year or two, my purchases from them seem to have gotten a bit more frequent and this week, they sent me an email that I couldn't ignore!  They were selling Camelot Fabrics at crazy low prices-- I just surfed over to take a look at what they had and in the blink of an eye, I filled up my cart with all kinds of goodies!  All of these are Camelot, except for the little floral white print, that is Michael Miller.  I bought 1 yard cuts in the top photo, 4 yards of the grey (I have a plan for using that in a bold modern pattern that is lots of negative space).  And the last photo is a short cut and a fat quarter.  Not too shabby!

Yesterday was muggy and threatening rain.  The sky didn't open up and pour until late at night, but that didn't stop me from holing up in my sewing room and enjoying my Saturday sewing and crafting and ignoring any housework that needs to be done! =O

I joined a Pincushion Swap with Scrappy Girls Club and finished up 2 super adorable pincushions.  I'll hold off sharing photos until I send mine to my partner.

Next up was to work on the pink/grey thousand pyramid quilt that I started a few weeks ago.  I thought I could make two of these and give to separate friends that are having girls.  My plans for this quilt has changed, because I recently found out a different friend is having twin girls!!! How perfect to make this pair for the twins!  (I will need to figure something else out for the other babies!)

Originally I had all the triangles cut for one quilt.  After arranging the two-sies and four-sies on the design wall, it looked like it needed more variety with a bit less of the super light grey/whites.  Not a problem!  I cut triangles for quilt number two and put more emphasis into medium greys and few more black prints. 

Ta-Daaa!  I have a lot of the triangles sewn together.  What I discovered the first time I made this pattern, it helps to not sew up all the triangles, because it is easier to re-arrange for better placement when you have a few loose triangles. Here is my first attempt at a layout.  I'm sure after squinting that some will be move a bit.  I can't wait to zip together these rows and have tops ready to quilt!

xoxo
Kristin

Linking up with Molli Sparkles  Sunday Stash, Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday and Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's be Sewcial.

Flashback Friday Finish - Mosaic Flood

It seems that I'm very good at documenting the start and creation of my quilts, but not so good at recording a finish.  Perhaps because it can be hard to do nice, outdoor photos of big quilts?  Near where I live, I've found some signs and railings that are ok to drape quilts on, but I'm still looking for a perfect location to display the quilt and have a nice background.

This quilt is not really mine, but I'll take some credit for it!  The fabrics are leftover from the quilt I made Sylvie several years ago (and no-- I didn't do a final 'finish' post on that quilt!).  I wanted to use up the fabrics and found this pattern in a magazine.  I brought everything to a retreat a few years ago, but somehow Heather ended up needing something else to work on and she adopted this project.  It turned out FABULOUS!!!

The pattern is very forgiving, because there are zero matched seams.  It's quite heavy, though, because these squares measure something like 1"!! Lots of seams!  I think I helped with some of the quilting and maybe I did the binding?? I think I did?

Start Date - January 2015
Finish Date - August 2015

We gifted it to Kimberly as a throw to use on the couch and she fell in love with it instantly!

Hopefully I will continue with Flasback Friday Finishes for all of the other quilts that never got a final reveal post.  

xoxo

Kristin

linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday!

Finish-A-Long 2017

I've read about the Finish-A-Long for a while now and have followed many people that are participating.  Because I have several quilts that are either finished tops or not too far from finishing, I thought this might help motivate me to bring them to completion.  So-- I'm joining in on 2017 Quarter 2 Finish-A-Long!  Woo-hoo!

The rules are: I post a list of what I want to complete in Q2 to my blog this week and at the end of the quarter, if I've completed any of them, I post a summary and link it up to the Finsh-A-Long hosts.  Every finish qualifies for a prize!  It's worth saying again--Woo-hoo!

Here are my goals:

1- Lion Quilt: it's at the quilter's waiting for its turn.  I would love to get this back and have it bound by the end of the quarter.

2- Charity Chop Quilt:  The top and back are complete (Finally!!).  Can I find the time to quilt and bind this?

3- Pink Grey Triangle Baby Quilt x 2:  There are some babies in my world and I would like to complete 2 Thousand Pyramid quilts in pink/grey/black/white and gift these to friends.

4- Wonky Stars for Lutherdale: I would like to submit this quilt to the August Lutherdale Auction.  Can't do that without completing it!! =O

5- Elephant Parade-- this is where i get ambitious!! This top has been complete for a while.  Do I quilt it myself?  Or have it done by a professional?  It would be lovely to finish this up.

Oops!  I forgot an important top that I want to finish this quarter.  Editing to add the Pink/Purple XO top.

I'll be linking up with Jess at Elven Garden Quilts.  Wish me luck!!!

xoxo
Kristin

Sunday Stash + Lodi Quilt Academy + Orange Swap

It's been a very quilty spring for me.  Not a whole lot of sewing, but lots of events!

Last week I attended the Sun Prairie Quilt Show on Monday during the day and at night went to the March meeting of the Mad City Quilt Guild.  On Tuesday, had the Lutherdale Gala Luncheon and yesterday (Saturday) participated in my first Lodi Quilt Academy! What a fun week!

The Quilt Academy was serendipity-- a guild member had an extra ticket and gave it to me.  There were lectures all day, a vendor mall and tons of door prizes.  Below are some of my goodies:

Layer Cake - I was inspired by one of the classes and want to make a simple quilt with this.

Marakech - an alluring pattern and was marked down 50%

Fun Fat Quarters!

Also happening this week: I participated in a 10" swap of oranges through the Scrappy Girls Club.  I love what I got!

Now it is time to get sewing!

xoxo
Kristin

Linking up with Molli Sparkles and Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's be Sewcial.

Spring has Sprung!

March in Wisconsin came in like a lion with a cold, snowy winter storm and most of the month has been chilly, windy and wet.  Yesterday was a much needed change!  It was nearly 60 degrees and mostly sunny-- positively delightful! (We won't mention that today is overcast with 50% chance of rain and the same forecast for a few days...)

I spent the beautiful spring day at Lutherdale attending the Gala Luncheon-- the event they host to thank all of the people that make and donate quilts to the August Quilt Auction fundraiser.  This is the third year I've attended and each time I've spoken to the group (184 people!!!) to explain the block we would like each person to make and send back to the camp.  This year's pattern is a variation of the Village quilt pattern. A few of us will return to camp in May to assemble the top (cannot wait!!)

Here is a picture from the stage:

After lunch (absolutely delicious!), they had a speaker from the Wisconsin Quilt Museum and she brought a trunk show of antique quilts.  The newest was 1945 and the oldest was early 1800's! 

In other news-- I started to hang mini quilts up in my sewing room.  This was part of the plan from day one, it just took a while!  I have a few more to hang but ran out of the command clear cord clip things I use to hang them.

And in sewing news-- I've been making slow progress on a pink/grey thousand pyramid quilt.  All of the triangles are sewed into pairs.  

I'm hoping that March can go out like a lamb.  I really enjoyed that sunny warm weather!

xoxo
Kristin

Linking up with Let's Be Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

National Quilting Day - 2017

Yesterday was National Quilting Day and I celebrated by spending most of the day in my sewing room.  Cleaning and errands be damned--I wanted to sew!!

I'm happy to share that I finished the improv back I've been working on for my Charity Chop Quilt,  I thought I had enough put together, but it needed 2 separate extensions.  I'm happy to report that this is now big enough and is 'done'!  

After finishing that up, I needed to focus on some tidying.  My sewing room was pretty much a disaster and thankfully, is in better shape now.  Along the way, I knocked over the boards that were holding the parts to my Goodnight Irene leader/ender quilt.  What better time to revisit this project than when it is spilled all over the floor?!? I have 36 16 patch blocks and 31 blue x blocks done.  I lined up the remaining blue squares with bright squares and have them next to my machine, ready to sew.  I would love nothing more than to have a finished top by the end of the year!  

A big goal of mine for the past few weeks was to assemble the top of the XO Pink/Purple quilt.  Last weekend, I finished sewing the blocks together and this weekend planned to border the quilt with a thin bit of grey and then a wider bit of pink.  But now that I'm at the point to put another border on, I'm not sure if it needs it.  Or should it be purple?  Borders are not fun, so I'm tempted to call this good and use either of these fabrics as the binding?  I'm open to hearing your opinions!

Lastly-- I can't make this much progress on UFO's without starting something new!  I loved the Green/Grey Thousand Pyramid quilt I did in January.  It was so quick and turned out super cute.  There are more babies being born all around me, so I decided to make another of the same pattern, but use pink instead of green.  Most of my triangles are cut and I'm itching to get this up on the design wall and start stitching!

xoxo

Kristin

ps

linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts and Patchwork Times

XO Progress-- getting there!

I've made great progress on my XO quilt since my last check in! All of the blocks are done and the blocks are sewn into pairs.  Before long, I'll have a top!  My plans for borders (subject to change), are to do a narrow grey followed by a 3" pink.

I snapped this picture as I was working.  I thought it was so cute-- my in progress blocks, my Featherweight, Finn stealing my sewing chair (it's basically his now), Fannie on the ground on her new fleece bed, 2 blocks on the design wall and the Sasquatch lurking to the side. Life is good on Saturdays!

xoxo

Kristin

ps

linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts and Patchwork Times