Holiday Favorites Blog Hop 2019!

Today is the start of the Holiday Favorites Blog Hop 2019! Grab yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy reading about some of my favorite bloggers. I will be here on Saturday, so make sure you stop and say hi! Thank you Lori for getting this party started!

Please stop by and see some amazing holiday decorating with quilts! Dec 9- Lori, https://humblequilts.blogspot.com/ Dec 10 KatyQuilts, katyquilts.net Dec 11  Beth, [https://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com Dec 12 Diane, butterflythreadsquilting.com  Dec 13 - Kyle,  https://kyleredente.blogspot.com/ Dec 14  Kelly,  https://pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com/ Dec 15  Juliann, https://chasingstories.wordpress.com/ Dec 16   Knitty Quilter, https://suehoover.blogspot.com/ Dec 17  Lizzy,  https://gone2thebeach.blogspot.com/ Dec 18 Barb, https://funwithbarbandmary.blogspot.com/ Dec  19 Judy, https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ Dec 20-  Kevin, http://kevinthequilter.blogspot.com/ Enjoy this rainy Monday morning (on the East Coast)!

Kelly

Blog Hop!

Lori from Humble Quilts  had a great idea so........
Next Monday will kick off 12 days of blog hopping to your favorite bloggers. We will be sharing our holiday favorites! I hope you'll hop-along and get some great ideas for your holidays!

Kelly

 

Lots of Quilts!!

Last night my guild, the Penn Oaks Quilt Guild met. We did a mystery quilt starting last winter. The quilt is designed by Diane Knott and her blog is Butterfly Threads Diane calls it Sew Your Stash Along. We decided to make it a mystery quilt!

Each month they made a round in the medallion quilt.

Some of them were easy and some were a bit more challenging. Everyone made their quilt to suit themselves. Love that!

They rose to the challenge and overcame the hard blocks!

I love how everyone put their own spin on these gorgeous quilts.

There was a lot of anxiety about not knowing what the quilts would look like in the end. Picking colors was hard for many of us. In the end it all worked out!

Some even got their top quilted!

How pretty is this made with real feed sacks.

We are so sad to say good-bye to Rob who is moving away. I'll bet this new quilt will find a wonderful spot in her new home. Good luck Rob!

Purple and yellow how very nice!

Some of our newer members jumped right in with both feet!

Once we were finished I sent them Diane's blog so they could read and see more about her new project. Go check it out if you want to do a sew along too. It's called Seeing Stars

Overall this was a fun experience and I think they are ready for another Sew Along! The next one is called Sew Along Sampler......we're talking 6" blocks!!!!! We are a small guild and to have so many finish their quilts was amazing. Great job ladies!!!

Kelly

Very Bad News

Late last fall I posted about our sweet little neighbor Julia, who is almost 3. Some of you have asked how she is doing. We have been holding our breath and thinking she was turning a corner. It is not to be.
Please send the family some much needed prayers, good thoughts or anything else you do, to help this family that is suffering the unimaginable.

Julia


Kelly

Christmas?

I know, it's not even Halloween and we're talking about Christmas.......To start I will show you my current quilt I am sort of working on. It is for my granddaughter Piper, who was born in August. I love the hoola hoop girl.

So the quilt is going to be stars with fussy cut centers. It will probably be about 40" x 40".

I just love the fabric designer, Heather Ross. This is the new collection called Far Far Away 2. These fabrics will work well with the fussy cut center!

How cute are these honey bears???

These are the darker colors in the collection. This is one of those that if you want it, get it now or it will be gone. The little Princess and the Pea fabric is beyond perfect.

I also have another project I can't tell you about yet. I will be making some random blocks. I decided I HAVE to start using up my Kaffe fabrics! I have so many and I think this project will be a perfect use for them.

I am going to be doing a lecture and workshop in November in Cape May for the CAMACO Quilt Guild  We will be doing the hexie quilt. This one is done in Christmas fabrics. That's why I am talking about Christmas!

Not every fabric is Christmas but they definitely have a winter theme.

I bring tons of novelty prints for the students to use and I encourage them to bring some of their own to really make it their own. It's fun to always be on the look out for fabrics to fussy cut. I think they will like these along with the 100+ ones I will bring with me.
Christmas and Halloween are popular so I make sure I have lots of choices for those holidays.

I just had to make this cute little abstract tree. The pattern is in Quiltmaker and the original size was for a coaster. I enlarged it (200%) so it is a mini quilt.

Ok so that's 2 posts within the week.........

Kelly

Long Time Gone!

My Wild Turkey Quilt! I love Thanksgiving, it is my favorite holiday I thought it would be appropriate to make a quilt for the occasion. The  pattern is free and you can find it at Wisconsin Quilting I will warn you now, it is not a beginner pattern. There are no real directions and I made several mistakes before I got the hang of how this went together. I kind of liked the challenge!

I chose to make mine with non traditional colors, and I am glad I did. I love the brightness it will add to my favorite holiday. Some straight line quilting made it go fast and worked with the pattern and did not overpower it.

I really did not want a binding to break the design so I chose to do a faced finish. If you have never tried this I highly recommend it for more "artsy" type of quilts. If you google "facing a quilt" I am sure you will find lots of methods.

My friend, Helen from New Jersey had a workshop at her amazing studio with Lorraine Turner. Lorraine is a fiber artist from Florida. This was our project. I still want to change a few things about mine and do the thread painting.

These are not fused and not glued (I did cheat). I like her techniques and will be happy to get this one done.

Now I will get back to a Christmas/Winter quilt that really hits my vintage and modern buttons! This is very similar to the Santa I did last year. You can see that one HERE.

Last but not least,  little baby Piper is growing fast. She is already 2 months old! I love it when they start to smile. She's getting a little chubby too 😊

I adore this picture so much! Helen gave her this little sweater. Babies in handmade clothes are the cutest ever!

We also have a major renovation going on. My daughter and her family bought a house, are gutting it and making it their own. This shot is looking out from the study into the garage, of course you can see that! I will share pictures as it goes along.
I'm going to make a goal of trying to post once a week. Life has been busy, too many workshops for me! While I love them it adds to the UFO pile.

Kelly

Surprise!!!

Our new grandchild is here! We welcomed Piper Rose Kelly early Wednesday morning! We are so lucky to have a healthy happy mom and baby!

We were surprised and did not know if my daughter was having a boy or a girl. The way they have decided to do it is the kids get to go in first and meet the baby. At that time they find out if they have a brother or a sister and what the name is......nobody knows before they do! I love this tradition and thinks it makes them feel special. Yes we were in the waiting room waiting to go in and find out!!!

My daughter has taken all her children home in this cute little outfit, love that tradition too!

Now they are party of 6!!! Everyone has said how amazing my daughter Caitlin looks. I love seeing the happiness in her smile!

The kids had a crazy night before but were very excited and happy to see little Baby Piper.

Madison and Piper......

Finnegan and Piper....

Brynn and Piper.......

Finn is in love! The first day she was home, he held her for 2 hours! He is such a good big brother.

This picture is from today and she already looks different! They grow so fast! She is such a little sweetheart!

I think it is kind of cool she was born during the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. It's been fun to read about it this week. I was 13 when it happened and only remember the music mostly and hearing about it on TV. Some interesting fun facts I found out:

• Jimmy Hendrix was the highest paid performer------$18,000
• Santana only made $750.00
• The Grateful Dead only made $2,500 and most people slept through their performance!
• Many people missed Jimmy Hendrix play the Star Spangled Banner because he didn't play it until early Monday morning when most people were leaving. 
• Janis Joplin performance at Woodstock is said to have been lacking!
• My own surprise thing was I always thought Bob Dylan was there, but he was not.

I know they were trying to have a Woodstock remake but you just knew it wasn't going to work. Some things just are originals and can never be done again. I think it adds to the magic/angst/craziness of the time. And you know the music would NEVER be as good!!! Just my opinion!!

Kelly