Finished

My rug is finished and I love it! It is always interesting to take pictures in the morning around here. This is my rug in natural light, looking more blue.

Here it is under my kitchen lights looking more washed out and more red {to me}. It looks most like the first picture which still is not that good.

I made this runner last year and have some of the turkey fabric leftover. I am thinking of making some mug rugs for Thanksgiving. Do you think I can make 14 in 2 weeks?

Kelly

My Friend Jane

My friend Jane Hamilton spoke at our guild yesterday. I am surrounded by some very talented friends!
She had an interesting idea to make a quilt like the one she is standing in front of......take an index and cut out a 2" square or any shape/size you like. Next move it around a picture, she used a calendar, until you find and interesting design in the lines and curves of that picture. Blow it up and make a quilt! I need to try that idea.

This quilt was hung in the Houston show and has a nice sense of depth....something that eludes me.

She also has a love of antique quilts, the cool, quirky kind! This was a shower curtain.

This old quilt was my favorite with its itsy bitsy teeny tiny pieces. The crazy blocks were either 4" or 6" I can't remember but they were small.

The age of the fabrics ranged from the 1800's to the early 1900's, a real scrap bag quilt.

My friend Stephanie and her husband went to live in China for a few months because of his work. While they were there they traveled around, France being one of their destinations. She brought me back this awesome candle from the Notre Dame Cathedral! I love it and have added it to my collection, thanks again Stephanie!

I loved all the comments about my husband sewing. I told some that he has his own Featherweight. Our guild had a quilt show a few years ago and there was a raffle for a Featherweight. I told him to buy a ticket to support the guild, and he won! I don't think I have to worry about him eyeballing my stash...

Kelly

Sew Easy

I thought you might enjoy an action shot of my husband sewing! He came up stairs to tell me something and sat down and stitched a few pieces of wool down.

He has always had a fascination with sewing machines. He liked the idea of following the lines on the fabric. So easy even he could do it! Do you think I can get him to finish this for me?

I have had some emails to see my sewing room but it is not "picture worthy" yet. My daughter still needs to get her stuff out of my closets! I do promise to show you when it is done. In the mean time here is a shelf that is looking good. I have my smalls organized here.

Kelly

Got Wool?

So as I am cleaning out my sewing room, I came across my stash of wool. I feel like my wool days are over and added it to the pile of things to give to my guild.

This piece of ticking was stuck in with my wool. Then I remembered why I put it there......

I heard of people making rugs using their wool scraps that they sewed on to a piece of ticking, using the lines as a guide. So I cut up some wool approximately 1" x 3". I did not measure just eyeballed it. Threw them in this bin and mixed them up. Next, sew some wool strips all along the outside edge of your rug, the same way you would do a border on a quilt. {no picture}. I used 4" strips. You will use this as a facing to finish the edge and sew it to the back after you make your rug.

To start, working from the top down, take a strip starting in the middle of your rug and work to the right if you are right handed.
Fold the strip in half to find the middle and place it on a ticking stripe {see above}. This sounds way more confusing than it is.
Sew all the way down one ticking stripe and  then.........

fold your first row over and about 1/4" away start your next row. You can use the red or the white stripes it doesn't matter. Not all of mine are exactly 1/4" but you don't want too much space or the ticking will show.
Finish the one side, turn your rug and finish the other side.

Here is mine so far, you can now see the facing strips on the sides. This is a perfect project for a retreat as you don't have to think too much at all.
There is a lot of hand dyed wool in here which adds some nice color, I didn't want a drab dark colored rug.
It is a small throw size, about 26 x 36 ,each stripe took about 20 strips, all types of wool were used. This is very free form so don't stress about the sizes of the strips. The more varied the better it will look.

Kelly

Small Sewing Day

The first finish in my new, but not yet complete sewing room. My granddaughter Maddy didn't have school today so we made a quilt. My friend Cheryl gave this panel to me and it was perfect for a 6 year old.

She did do the stitching and was afraid her hands would go under the presser foot. I had my hands on top of her hands at all times.

She asked if she could pick out the stitches. We ended up doing a zig zag.

She liked using my snips to cut the threads. She looks like she has been doing this for a while!

She also enjoyed taking out the safety pins.

She organized all my pins....

fast forward we are on to the next project....

Remember these?

After a few games of Go Fish and reading some new books it was time for her to leave with her new quilt. She was very proud to show her signature on the back.
We did have one disagreement. She wanted to use a fabric I was saving for another project, for the back of her quilt. When I told her to pick another, she got a little grumpy because "she really liked" that one. When she left she told me she still liked that other fabric better.....I think she is already coveting my stash!

Kelly

Give Away Winner + Some Lost and Found

It's amazing the things you find when you clean out! I remember starting this but had no idea where this block wandered off to......I am going to finish it. It will be perfect for my monthly bee.

I also found these adorable little buttons that I bought in New York on a trip with my Quiltini Bee a few years back. I thought I threw them out because I looked every where they should be and I couldn't find them. Aren't they sweet?

My name badge that again I thought was lost. I made it 20 years ago for the Penn Oaks guild. It's vintage now!

I worked on this at many get away weekends. It is 16 blocks and almost on the verge of me not liking the fabrics. Only 3 blocks to go, got to get this one finished up.

I am ruthless when it comes to getting rid of no longer wanted fabrics. Our Penn Oaks guild is having a silent auction next Monday. Perfect timing for me! I just took like fabrics and bound them together. Hopefully it will bring in some money for the guild. How much would you pay for a bundle of fabric? I estimate there to be about 3-4 yards of fabric in each.
There is more where this came from......

An almost ready to go Christmas Quilt!

My shelves so far....still more to go. I love these industrial shelves. My husband bought them for me years ago, they don't sag or get dusty, like everything else.

The survey says ............the winner of the scraps is Char, who blogs at Cloth Stitched ! Congratulations I will be contacting you with an email.
Thanks for playing along. My husband and I had a discussion about where do people look for information, phone book or internet. Looks like the internet won.

Kelly

HST!

My HST quilt is done! I really enjoyed making this quilt but it did take longer than I thought it would.

I did not add any yellow or orange....

The quilting is a daisy with some loops. Totally omitted this when I posted it yesterday......it was quilted by Susie Racobaldo! She has quilted quilts for me in the past.

Some favorite blocks, the scissors and scooters...

those glasses too.

I love the crinkly look!

It's pretty ugly around here. The great migration upstairs has started. Yesterday my husband and I spent a few hours hauling all my furniture/very heavy things upstairs. It was quite a workout, I was sweating the whole day.

It's amazing how bad your things look outside of your sewing room. I am hoping to get it all back together by next weekend. Just hauling all the fabric upstairs is not a whole lot of fun and takes a lot of time.
The good thing is that I am cleaning stuff out for my guilds' auctions, I feel less guilty about getting rid of it. Some one will use it.
I also am adding to my scrap piles, so if you haven't already, be sure to go and leave me a comment HERE  and you could win a box full of scraps.
Back to work,
Kelly