I went and visited my cousin in DeKalb, Illinois, and dragged her into a quilt shop. As it turned out, she found an applique pattern that she fell in love with and bought. She's started on the tracing of the fusible web, and is in the process of gathering the perfect fabrics! :) Me on the other hand, I bought some fabric (Spirit by Lila Tueller for Moda, and a few coordinates).





And then a "patternlet" by The Wooden Bear Quilt Designs. It's a penguin on a hand towel. I couldn't resist going through my stash when I got home and making one! He's super easy and super cute!!! And it helps that I found a great place for hand towels and the white flour towels as well! I love his beady little eyes.....

Look for another blog soon! I'm headed to New York City this coming Tuesday and Wednesday and have plans to visit the City Quilter!!! :)

Shop hopping in Illinois!

Well, I HAD to go to Illinois the last couple days. A couple of friends were getting married...the ones I made the black, white and red quilt for! :) Their wedding was beautiful! I thought Northern Illinois was ALL corn. As it turns out, I'm 99.9% right, but at Starved Rock it was beautiful caves, cliffs, and tons of trees!!! I highly recommend hiking there if you are trying to kill time! :)

Anyhow, before the wedding I had an entire day to kill! The ceremony was at 4:30, so I took myself up to Rockford, IL to a few quilt shops, and as it turns out they were having a shop hop! Fantastic!!! So...here's what I ended up buying....
I bought some random Kansas Troubles fabric for a log cabin that I'm collecting for. A few patterns, including a Christmas tree one, a watermelon log cabin, and a Mexican star pattern. A few other random yards of stuff, and then a kit (in the plastic kit bag) for a neat ice skating table runner by Atkinson Design.

What have you bought lately? :)

WI Quilt Expo

Well, today my friend Kate and I went over to Madison to the Wisconsin Quilt Expo....and boy did we have a good time! We got through the whole expo in about 3 hours, and saw lots of quilts with itty bitty pieces! We thought of Jen the whole time, lots of crazy small paper piecing with one inch squares, or 1/2 inch strips and using salvage edges!

Here's a few pictures of some of the quilts we saw and how tiny the pieces actually were!!!


I put my hand up near the quilt, we weren't actually allowed to touch them, so my hand looks slightly bigger than it should be compared to the pieces, but it's pretty accurate! :)


The highlight of my day was this lady, Rebecca Barker, paints pictures of nature scenes, but that also tie in to a quilt block! For example, Ocean Waves has a scene of a shoreline, but faintly in the sand you can see the Ocean Waves quilt block pattern!!! I ended up buying the Alaska, Lilies, and Delectable Mt's. along with a few of her cards!

Check out her website!!!
http://www.barkerquiltscapes.com/

Fruits of my boredom

When I'm bored I tend to rifle through my patterns, pet my fabric and tinker with my notions. Usually I take everything out, look at it, think "wow this stuff is neat! I can't wait to use it!" And then I put it all away. Well, every once in a while I end up making something completely random. Like a purse or a belt! :)

I used Moda Blush for the purse.....

And I added another small pocket (on left) for my cell phone. I hate it when my cell phone rolls around unsupervised in my purse. And then I'm going to put a button hole on the top side of the big pocket to clip my badge for work or my keys on. That way they're not rolling around either!

I had to have some of this fabric! It's from the Windham Shelburne Circus line. I thought it'd be cool to have a ton of people around my waist! And I've been meaning to make a belt forever....so this was a good 10 minute project that I embarked on last night just before I went to sleep!

I also bought some kiwi fabric to make a belt out of. It's really neat! Great to wear with a pair of jeans! A nice pop of color!

So tell me, what do you want around your waist???




Not bad for the fruits of my boredom eh? :)

Two of two...DONE!

Ah ha! The second wedding quilt for the summer is finished! I thought about doing a "scrappy" binding, but I'm really glad I went with the red. I have a triangle pantograph quilted on the front in gray thread, and the back is in red thread. It's even ahead of schedule! Their wedding is September 17th.


I picked this kind of eye confusing backing because they have cats. A black one and a red and orange one. Hopefully the colors and patterns will hide the cat hair! :)

One down, one more to go!

Well, I did it. One wedding quilt down and one more to go! I finished Storybook Farm (the name of the collection of blocks) late Thursday night before I had to leave Friday morning for the wedding rehearsal! My fiance Scott is holding up the finished product! I forgot to take pictures of the back though. I used some wedding word fabric for the sleeves! Everyone at the rehearsal dinner loved it! Especially the quilting ladies in the crowd! :)




This block of the horse and the rooster is my favorite!




On this block I put a clothesline on there with some clothes and a teeny tiny quilt! :) It's even 3D!

Pretty cute, eh?

What are your thoughts? It was my first McKenna Ryan and I had it quilted at the quilt shop rather than doing it myself around each piece.

I need to light a fire under my butt!

You know that quilt that I told you about two weeks ago? The one that I need to bind and put a hanging sleeve on yet?!?!? It's still sitting on my living room floor, and the binding....well I can't remember where I put it, but I still have to sew the strips together.....and I leave for her wedding in 2 days. Tonight I work at the quilt shop, so not much sewing will happen tonight, and then tomorrow it's time to light a fire under my butt and get a move on. :) Wish me luck!

It's go time baby!

The moose that I created with the Bigfork Bay Cotton Co. pattern was a huge hit with my friends! I gave it to them as a wedding present last month and they didn't waste any time in hanging it in their living room! :) I'm so happy for them and glad that they like it so much!

Ok....now that it's about two and a half weeks 'til my friends wedding, it's about time I finish the project that I started back in September of 2009 for her! :) The binding is waiting to be sewn together and put on.

Two months and counting....I have another project for ANOTHER friends' wedding in the middle of September. Needless to say I ironed the fabric, but nothing has been cut. It's go time.

On the wedding front, it's also go time. Wedding update: I'm Catholic. Baptized and confirmed. Can I get married in the Catholic church in Ashland, Wisconsin?!?!? Nope. Not unless I or a blood relative are members of that particular parish. Dumb. I attended church there when I went to college and Scott taught boy scouts how to fly fish in that church. We still can't be married there. Can we become a member from a distance?!?!? Nope again. That's it. The Lutheran church agreed to marry us, problem solved. Ugh! Ok. Now it's out of my system. Thank you for letting me vent and hopefully I didn't ruffle anyone's feathers with the religion ranting.

I promise, the next post will have pictures of the finished quilt that's "due" in a couple weeks! :)

The summer quilting slump!

Well, I have figured out that I'm one of those people who does things in spurts! For about two months I'll be a hard-core quilter. Then I'll slow down on quilting and read a book or two. After reading books I'll end up doing something else. Well, now that it's nice outside, I'm not doing much of any of those! And I suppose wedding planning has been taking up a bit of my time! :)

Even though I have to make a few quilts as gifts, I still just haven't felt the "push" that I need to begin. Eventually, probably two weeks before I NEED to have it done, I'll start cutting fabric for it. Oh well. I blame my lack of studiousness on the nice weather!

I'm ENGAGED!!!

It's official, I am engaged! :) May 16th (Sunday) my boyfriend Scott proposed while on a walk down by the Monomonee River! I still can't believe it!!! Let the planning begin.....



So the other day I set off to Barnes and Noble to find a wedding planner! I found one, but it's "punch you in the face" pink! So I had some fabric that I used to make a cover for it. And I had some vinyl laying around, so I made a pocket on the front to put a 4x6 picture in there. Pretty good for winging it eh? :)

Clean.....not even CLOSE!

Scott lit a fire under my butt to get cleaning tonight. While I was going through everything I was reminded that a few people wanted to see where I keep everything. Here's a couple pictures that don't even include my sewing table (it's too much of a mess to make digital proof of it) and my notion boxes on my ironing board (which you can't even see at the moment). So, here you go everyone that asked me about where I put everything. Remember, you asked for it! And if you didn't, maybe it's wise to quit reading while you're ahead! :)

We'll start with my kit cubby. I keep all of my thread on the top. There's really no other place in the apartment to put it! :)


People ask me what I do with all of my fabric and kits when I'm not working on them! For the most part with my fabric, every once in a while I "pet" it. All you quilters know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. To everyone else I just sound crazy. Hey, some people have lots of cats, some have lots of fabric! Choose fabric, it's more hygienic, and PETA doesn't come after you.

Here, I'll start from the top and move my way down and explain where I quite literally shove all of my goodies! :)


Shelf #1:
My 505 spray, a container of beads, a mug of miscellaneous....
All of my quilting books and a couple of sketch notebooks
A binder for everything I print off or have rolling around the place here
About half of my patterns!!!



Shelf #2: (this one's a biggy!)
Besides my Retayne, pens, glue, angelina fiber and some steam a seam.....
6 Bali pops
a fat quarter bundle of Eva
About 6 charm packs of Eva
About 10 charm packs of Neptune
4 Neptune honey buns
6 Neptune jelly rolls
A Crazy Eight turnover
2 Arcadia jelly rolls
2 charm packs of Blush


Shelf #3:
All of my Bigfork Bay Cotton Company kits

• Wild Girl (2)
• Wading
• On the Prowl
• Summer Serenity
• Spirit
• Spring Storm (2)
• Tatanka
• Winter Wolf (3)

Plus a kit to make a pinwheel with some fuschia Maywood Studio fabric
A few more McKenna Ryan kits (about 6 or so)
A fat quarter bundle for Holly Taylor Canoe Country
A kit for a rubber ducky baby quilt
Some yardage for Urban Couture, Figgy Pudding, and Neptune
Two plastic containers of scraps from previous quilts


The Bottom Shelf:
A purse pattern
4 Twiggy jelly rolls
A couple of wall hanging kits Scott bought me
McKenna Ryan's Out and About (the complete kit)
McKenna Ryan's When Friends Gather (the complete kit)
McKenna Ryan's In Full Bloom (the complete kit)
A fat quarter bundle for Urban Couture and Crazy Eight
And then there's a few more random kits stuffed behind these too.....


Here's a picture of the pile of stuff I still have to go through. In the bottom tote is huge pieces of fabric, backings, flanel for pants, stuff that I don't use very often.....The light blue tub is where I put some of my quilts when they're not out and about. The other various tubs hold thread, hangers and pieces for my gingerbread cookie men that I make at Christmas. And then of course there's fabric that I haven't put into it's correct "category" in my stash!


Last but not least, here's a picture of my stash. I know. OUT OF HAND!!! You should have seen it before I had the shelving. One day Scott told me to go out and buy shelving for it if I was going to have this much fabric, so I did, and I do! But yikes. Enough already Katie!!! My only saving grace is that I have it organized! On the top first three piles are batiks, then outdoorsy stuff, cartoons, bugs, a few by "things-I-thought-I'd-make-but-am-just-not-getting-around-to", and then holiday is on the bottom! :)


Well, what do you think? Besides the obvious reason that I have too much of everything. What would you do differently? And no mom, I'm not giving it all to you!

She loved it!

Well, my cousin graduated with her master's degree, and I gave her the quilt. She loved it!


It was a little difficult to say goodbye to that quilt, but it's where it's supposed to be! And I know it will be taken care of! I love that quilt!!! Scott didn't really want to part with it either, it's one of his favorite quilts that I've made!

Well, on to the next quilt! Can't stop now! I'm on a roll! Maybe I'll get an applique quilt going....or maybe I'll start on this new table runner pattern that I got in the mail the other day. It's a Judy Niemeyer table runner. I want to do a quilt of hers, but 99% of them have huge curved pieces and I'm not sure if I can hack it. So I'm trying this seasonal table runner first. Yep...that decides it. I'm going to stop at Patched Works and pick out batiks tonight! :)

Keyhole Quilt!

Well, it's finally finished!!! After a whirlwind affair with my sewing machine and this fabric, my little Frankenstein is finally done! The jelly rolls I used were from Island Batik. They worked out pretty well, but there was a few strips that were "bow-ed", and that made for lots of trimming.....


It's a little bit larger than queen sized so it drapes over the edge of the bed at a great level. I didn't have a pattern, so I made one up! Whoever invented graph paper is a genius! Although some of the seams were way off for some reason, and I'm sure Diane must have had a great laugh when she was quilting it! :)

I took the quilt outside and laid in it....I never wanted to get up! The pattern was easy enough to make, so I might have to make another one in the near future - but maybe in a different color scheme. I'm not so keen on making quilts that look identical. It just seems to cheat the first quilt of it's uniqueness.

Applique, McKenna, and Me!

Well, my very first applique project was a whole McKenna Ryan quilt....Storybook Farm. I made the whole thing without an applique pressing sheet - what a nightmare!!! ALWAYS have an applique pressing sheet! Since then I have a small, medium, and an extra extra large! :) This quilt is a wedding present for a friend of mine....I hope she likes it. If she doesn't, I'll keep it!!!

I've completely fallen head over heels for McKenna Ryan designs! This block (Bear up there) belongs to the quilt Calling Me Home. I made one for Scott's parents as a Christmas present, and another for our wall. They're so much fun to make, and a block doesn't take long to quilt at all! Plus, this kind of art is cheaper than prints or paintings!

Last but not least....my moose!!! I love this guy! Bigfork Bay Cotton Company has all sorts of wildlife busts that just suck me in! This one is Summer Serenity. This is also a wedding present for a couple of friends of mine that love the outdoors!!! I hope they like it, but again, if not, I'll keep it! Oh wait, I have another one that I had made for myself....so maybe not! :) This one I had quilted at Patched Works, Inc. here in South Eastern Wisconsin. The one that I made for myself is unquilted at the moment (I plan to quilt it myself) and hanging by pins above my bed.

I always thought that applique - the quilting part itself - was scary and intimidating. As it turns out, it's not! The only way to get over a fear is to jump in and see how it turns out. I'm so glad I jumped! :) Now that's led to me teaching my own McKenna Ryan class at Patched Works! I have so many kits to keep me busy! Some of them include:

McKenna Ryan Kits:
No Trespassing block (from quilt Calling Me Home)
Walrus you a Merry Christmas block (from quilt Once Upon a Star)
In Full Bloom (complete quilt)
When Friends Gather (complete quilt)
Petals of my Heart (complete quilt)
Out and About (complete quilt)
Gingerbread Lane block (from quilt Gingerbread Lane)
Bottoms Up block (from quilt Gingerbread Lane)
Cucina Italiana (complete quilt)
Just Coffee block (from quilt Coffee Classics)
Four Big Shots block (from quilt Coffee Classics)
Fisherman's Bend (a classic quilt)
The Chickadee's (a classic quilt)
Beneath the Boughs (a classic quilt)

Bigfork Bay Cotton Company Kits:
Autumn Eyes
On the Prowl
Spirit
Spring Storm (2)
Summer Serenity (ready to quilt)
Tatanka
Wading
Wild Girl (2)
Winter Wolf (3)

Not to mention the many jelly rolls and honey buns and few fat quarter bundles I have stashed away....I can stop buying fabric and be busy for the next 10 years! And that's without touching my stash!!!

Quick lap quilts

Here's a couple of lap quilts that I made in late 2009, and finished in January, 2010.

This first one is a Moda Arcadia lap quilt! I love the colors, although Scott thinks it looks like 1970's vomit. To each their own I guess! :)

And I don't particularly like just piecing two fabrics together for the back. I'd much rather put some eye-catching piece in there! This was also the first quilt that I bound by hand. It took me a while....I'm not used to sitting in one place hand stitching!

I fell in love with this Nordic lap quil pattern the moment I saw it, and I've loved Figgy Pudding but didn't quite know what to do with it! Fate has a funny hand in things sometimes! I found this pattern at a quilt shop that was going out of business, so it was about 160% off....I couldn't resist!

I know the angle is funny, but the quilt was on the floor while I took pics. I used a tear-away interfacing for the snowflakes. It worked pretty well, but next time I might use something else, just to try it.

Once again, I cannot resist putting something interesting on the back! And this way it helps me know which way is up and down on the quilt! All of my piecing on lap quilts is perpendicular to the direction of the quilt!