KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, BUT IT DOESN'T MAKE MY BLOW DRYER RUN!

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Success!


Here is the project for this week's Curves Camp Course. When I first saw that it would be a Drunkard's Path block, I will say I was not looking forward to it. Especially after last week's wonderful Rainbow Road runner. This was going to have to be accurate!



My first blocked was pinned and while it is not too bad (from far away) it did have ........


 
that little bobble to the right of that little green leaf, see that tiny gray piece of thread? I did not take it out.
 
 
The second block I decided to try no pins, much better and no little bobbles.
 
 
 
You can imagine my delight when this happened? Everything (on this side at least) matched up! Ok full disclosure, the pattern includes a way to square things up so all the little wonky stuff is cut off.
 
 
 
Not bad for my first real try at a Drunkard's Path block.
 
 





The directions have us make 1 pot holder using 2 blocks, one for the front and one for the back. I decided to make 2 potholders and used this perfect gray dot for the back.


 
This one has a thicker binding that I don't like as much as the thinner one.

 
 But I also machine stitched my binding down and that little line around the edge is not exactly even.
Next time hand stitching!

Kelly

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Hill and Valley Log Cabin

 
 
This quilt is in a new book called Hill And Valley Log Cabins by Bob DeCarli. I was working on this last spring, you remember the one that had pieces that were 1/4" x 1/4", yeah that one!
Bob is the only male member of our guild and a really nice guy. He comes up with some amazing quilts, all of them are pretty intricate. To add a little bit more interest, he is color blind, so his wife Kathy has to help him pick out the colors of the fabrics. Together they are the dynamic duo, quilting is a big part of their life.
 

Here are the quilts in the book all spread out.



Aren't these quilts amazing?
 
 
 
I don't remember which one belongs to who...
 
 
 
Okay that's all, if you want to see more you have to buy the book!
 
 
Bob is working on another book..... yes I am making another quilt for him, and yes some of the pieces are very teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy.  More on that to come next year.
Congratulations Bob on your new book.
 
Kelly
 
 

 

Monday, January 28, 2013

Miscellaneous Monday


My Rainbow Road runner is finished! I loved making this and will use the technique again, it was so much fun. For those of you who don't know I am taking a Curves Camp on line course with Rachael of Stitched In Color. It is a 5 week course and every week we have 3 projects to choose from to work on our curves! This week is a little bit more challenging, so stay tuned.



Some close ups of my quilting.....


I chose a lot of quilting because that is what I like and it is going on my kitchen island where it will get a lot of abuse.


I love that little piece that goes along the bottom. I was a filler and adds a lot of interest.



A lot of my time has been taken up working on a quilt that is for a friend's book. There are 18 strips (mostly 1"!) in each block. There are 16 blocks....I feel like I need to finish this before I can move on to my own work. I am almost there!


How is this for a jelly roll? I needed to clean up a spot to work on the pink and green quilt.



So now it is January 28, how many of your resolutions are you still committed to? This is one "goal" (no resolutions for this girl) I had for this year. To make a list every day.
Buy yourself a cute notebook, this one is from Target. Date it every day and write down, 4 or 5 things you want to accomplish that day. Sometimes I put things in there the night before for the next day.



The trick is to make them attainable goals. Carry things over to the next day if necessary. I don't know what it is but I am getting so much done. They say if you write down your goals you will accomplish them. To me there is nothing like a check mark next to a completed chore!

Kelly

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Blogger Bizzaro!


So here is my runner that I made in my Stitched In Color Curves Camp. Isn't it cool? We learned how to sew gentle improv curves. It really was fun and I am happy with the outcome.
I tried to get it quilted and bound today but real life got in the way of my sewing.

If you notice there is not a speck of yellow in this. The color that looks yellow is actually a green. After I sewed ALL of the strips together there was something about it I didn't exactly like. It was the yellow, it just jumped out too much.

After almost of month of not being able to upload any pictures, boom all of a sudden blogger works. I will not question it but?????

Kelly

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Fun!




Today was day to dig through my solids and hand dyeds ( is that a word?)for the runner I am making. I wanted an eclectic look so anything goes for this project.




Here is a part of what I worked on, there are 4 more in the wings. Even though I like yellow, it felt like it was too much so I took every piece out. It looked much better.
Even though this is practice I till want it to be fabrics I like. It makes it more fun to work on and it's not like I am going to run out!
Tomorrow it will be finished, she says confidently......

Kelly

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Happy Birthday Bob!

First I want to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, Bob!
Tonight all the kids, spouses and grand kids are coming over for lasagna on a freezing cold night.



Look what I made today on week 2 of my curves class. A card using some gentle curves. I think if I do another I would make the center a little smaller.




Again this is totally doable and not as hard as I thought it would be. After you trim up the center it is stitched down to the card. Cute!

Thank you for the great comments on my pillow. I just wanted you all to know it is not my design but Rachael's from Stitched in Color.
I cannot wait for tomorrow's project. It is a table runner that I am certain you will like.

Kelly

Monday, January 21, 2013

Ahead Of The Crowd





I am sure by now you have seen this all over blog land. It is the trip round the world pattern by Bonnie Hunter. This past fall I took this workshop with her. I came to the workshop late and as a result did not sew but soaked up the fun and energy in the room.




Once I saw how fast, fun and easy this block was to make I knew this was on the "list". Again my colors don't look correct all that orange you see is red. I have decided to have a little red and black in each block. There is no placement of fabrics, anything goes.
The blocks are also big, 12". I am thinking a bed size quilt.




It works perfectly with jelly rolls....you use 2 1/2" strips.





Or you could work on cleaning off your shelves. Either way it is a stash buster! I am also thinking, soldier quilts, baby quilts ( you could change the size of the strips too) and charity quilts. It's that fast.

Kelly

Friday, January 18, 2013

Purple Pillow




This is the pillow I made to go with the bunting. It was fun to make and it matches the bunting. A little too much purple for me but not for a 5 year old who loves it!




The point of this exercise was to get used to stitching around curves. It was not too hard. The only thing I changed was to make it an envelope closure instead of using a zipper. It was nice to use a palette I don't usually gravitate to, it took me out of my comfort zone.

Sorry the pictures aren't so good. The colors are clear with white not cream as it appears.

The projects for next week are 2 good ones, one simple and the other a little more challenging. Stay tuned!

Kelly

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Clams on the Half Shell




I should have taken this picture earlier when it was a little brighter. It has been gloomy here for the entire week. The colors are greens, purples, blues and purpley blues..




These are my clamshells templates that came with my class. It did take a while to prepare them, there are 27 .





I have never been a fan of Steam A Seam but decided to use the things Rachael (Stitched In Color) suggested in our supply list. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I am wondering how hard it is going to to get the paper backing off. Isn't it going to pull off the fusible too? Hope not.......

The finished project is a pillow I hope to show it to you tomorrow.

Kelly

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Quilt Camp




I started my curves class this week. So far it is good. We are in the beginner part and started with something easy. I decided to go ahead a make this bunting for my sick granddaughter who aspires to a purple bedroom. Purple is not my color.




Here it is all spread out....raining here, not a good day for pictures.




I even centered this fabric.


Back to my little patient........

Kelly

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Ok Here We Go

I am using an iPad to post this and have no idea if it will work or not so please bear with me.......



My husband I went to St Augustine Florida last week.. It is a beautiful city and I want to go back. The weather was in the '70s and no rain.....sounds pretty good? Except that I spent one day in the hospital because of a kidney stone. So above is one of my souvenirs.




We went to a few art galleries and I found some work of a blogger I follow. Her name is Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson. Her blog is http://elizabethsthilairenelson.blogspot.com/ do check it out her work is very cool.




The way her art is made she makes a sketch, paints it and then tears her handmade paper into bits and glues it over the painted part. They are so beautiful! I bought her DVD to watch her process.

Ok so far so good. I don't know how to make a hot link so you will have to cut and paste......but do go look, it translates to quilting. A little like Snippets but much cooler.

Thanks Anna for your help!! I really appreciate it.

Kelly

 

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Hello hello hello is there anybody in there?

If you have been waiting for something to see here I am sorry to disappoint you.
Not only has blogger been a bugger but I was away for a week in St Augustine FL and my computer did not work there either!

I am typing this on an IPad and need to figure out how to upload some pictures. Can anyone tell me? Right now I see a screen to write on, no upload button for pictures. I am sure it is something simple.

Okay just saw the camera button at the bottom......I will be back!

Kelly

Friday, January 4, 2013

Skeletons In The Closet


My skeleton is, I love quilts with curves but have never successfully made one. I came across a post on the blog called Stitched In Color and fell in love with some of her work. She is offering a 5 week online course that looked fun and doable! So I am in, it starts Monday. Check it out if you are interested, she still has some spots open.

Sorry for no pictures, blogger is not letting me upload anything......great way to start the new year?!

Kelly