Monthly Archives: March 2013

Mar28

Landscape Quilt – what a blast!!!

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Landscape 1Well, I really had a great time yesterday playing with my first landscape quilt.  I’ve been wrestling with something to do for a fabric challenge and hated my first project, sew…here is the beginning of my second try.  I have been collecting landscape fabrics for quite some time so now have a big pile to fold and put away again.  The roof of the old house is the challenge fabric.  Lots to do yet, it is only glued together so far.  Trees need foliage (thinking Angelina or snippets), thread painting, quilting, and embellishment.  It has turned out to be a fun project!

I love red and white quilts.  This one belongs to Paula and I just quilted a lovely edge to edge design onto it.  It was a pleasure to quilt, nice and crisp and square!

Paula q paula qt

Hope to get more accomplished on my landscape later today, although I have “the worlds biggest quilt (at least that’s what it feels like) on my table and quilting it.  Sure glad it wasn’t an inch bigger.  Actually it is a bedspread with extra fabric and is about 120” across and five yards – yes 5 – long….sigh!  Pictures later.

BE HAPPY…..Karen

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Mar27

Mug Rugs are Fantastic!

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mug rugs receivedCarol K
I received my mug rugs and have so enjoyed looking at them. I used the owl rug under my morning coffee this morning…what fun. They were made by my new friend, Elaine Rowe or Colorado. She not only does wonderful quilt projects but she is a papercrafter as well. I received a set of hand-made note cards complete with the cutest picture of various styles of high heels…can’t wait to use them! Thanks so much to Elaine.

This really pretty 1600’s quilt belongs to Carol K. who is making it for a wedding present. I quilted it with an Ann Bright pattern with the word Love scrolled all over the quilt with different fonts…great for a casual wedding quilt to drape over the sofa. The quilt was long enough that we quilted the entire thing and Carol plans on making throw pillows to match.

Having a great time today experimenting with a landscape quilt. I need a quick quilt to send up to Kansas for a fabric challenge…this is turning out nicely. Will post a pic as soon as it is more together. Fun though. Never done one of these before!

Meanwhile…BE HAPPY! Karen

Mar25

When your 3rd child turns 40…KEEP BUSY!!/new fusible technique

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Keeley flowers close up keeley flowers

This is a really happy and bright quilt, designed and made by Keeley.  She really should go into pattern making!

This second, soft and cuddley rose quilt was also made by Keeley.  Such a different feel and style to both quilts.  I love them both!

Sure glad I had these to quilt on the day my daughter turned 40…and she thinks she feels old!  We did, however, enjoy a fantastic steak birthday dinner with most of the family at the Texas Road House..great peanuts too!

Another discovery that really looks great – a new, to me anyway, way to fuse without adding the fusible paper to your project.  Check out this tutorial:  http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com.au/2006/04/my-fusing-method.html

I’m heading to Michaels to find some Liquid Thread today!  Worth a try!  BE HAPPY!  Karen

Keeley roses

Mar20

My favorite EVERYTHING cleaner!

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greased lightningBefore I forget this for the 100th time, wanted to let everyone know about “Greased Lightning”.  I have been using it for years for everything.  I keep it in my quilt studio all the time.  It will remove grease spots from fabric and it doesn’t leave a water spot.  It’s great for spots on your laundry and just about everything.  I discovered it many years ago and it has sometimes been hard to find.  I went into Lowe’s yesterday for some brush cleaner and, lo and behold, on the endcap, was a large display of Greased Lightning.  This big container only costs a little over $7….  No connection with the company, just appreciate how many binds it has gotten me out of.

BE HAPPY…Karen

Mar18

Keeping Me Busy!

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I have been working on customer quilts and have a few pictures to show. The first “pile” of yellow dog toysis left over strips of fleece that I braided into pull toys for dogs.  I will give them to family dogs and take the rest to the shelter.  They were just the selvage edges that I cut off before finishing the edges of the blankets for a dance team.  The second picture is a delightful wall hanging, meant to hang on a high wall in a stairwell.  Joyce did a great job of designing this.  The last is a quilt made by Mary.  It has the cutest embroidered blocks.    Back to work for today.  I have a king size quilt on the long arm, 102″ x 96″

BE HAPPY…Karen

Joyce Wall hanging in progressMary A overall qult pic

Mar17

Easter Blessings

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20130317-161852.jpg

I’m teaching a stencil class soon using Shiva paint sticks and making a freezer paper template. It was a fairly easy project and hopefully it will give my students some ideas of just what they can do. I stenciled the background and painted it, added the words with my embroidery machine, then quilted it. Took about a day and a half with lots of distractions.

This was an Easter gift from a talented designer, Esther Alieu  (www.estheraliu.blogspot.com/).  Check out her blog and website.  She does some fantastic work and is truly generous with her talent.  It was given to her readers as a 7 1/2″ applique block.  I blew it up to about 28″ x 28″ in order to produce this wallhanging.  I really like the way it came out.

Hope everyone enjoyed a great National Quilting Day yesterday and that you are having a great time wearing the green (or orange) and partying this St. Paddy’s day!

BE HAPPY…Karen

Mar15

WORKSHOP PROJECT ALMOST DONE!

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Drunkards Path close up

Drunkards Path quilt

This quilt top came from a workshop with Ebony Love and the Coastal Prairie Quilt Guild of Missouri City, Texas. We had the opportunity to work with Ebony and cut out Drunkard’s Path quilt blocks on an Accuquilt Studio machine supplied by Quilters Cottage in Richmond, Tx. It was a lot of fun and I was determined not to let all of the pieces sit in their little zip lock bags as usual. Sew….here is my version of a happy quilt made entirely with Drunkard’s Path blocks. The curved piecing went smoothly and it was great fun arranging, and re-arranging the blocks on my design wall. This will eventually be quilted and become a new table covering for my kitchen table. Bright colors remind me of Spring and Summer approaching.

Mar12

FREE QUILT PATTERN AND SUPER-COOL EGG!!!

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Easter egg free log cabin pattern hanging quilt

Isn’t this just the cutest Easter Egg. Haven’t seen any instructions for it but I sure would love to see how it’s made. Looks like the fold and pin method used for Christmas ornaments – I need to learn how to do that as well! Another bucket list item, But…I sure do love it.

I love log cabin quilts and think this one is spectacular. It is a FREE download project of Maria Umhey’s “Stripes & Stars”. The Quilter Magazine is one of my favorites, take a look. Here is the url for dowloading the free pattern. http://www.thequiltermag.com/onlineproject/index.shtml Wouldn’t this be great in patriotic colors for a very special military person!!!

The last picture is one of my quilt that I won hanging on my wall. Not a good picture since the entry in not large and very difficult to get a picture. What I was aiming for was to show you how perfectly level this quilt is hanging with the Hang-It Dang-It system. Can’t get over how great that was!

Off to Quilting Bee…

BE HAPPY…Karen

Mar11

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quilt hanger

This is the neatest, easiest way to hang a quilt I’ve ever seen.  Too bad I’ve had it in my house for close to two years and never used it.  I wanted to hang my surprise win quilt in my entry way and, of course, had no one to help.  This took about two minutes.  I found a stud and put a nail in the wall.  YES, one nail.  The small rod fits into the pocket and a small magnetic clamp with a nail hole in it clamps, by it’s magnet, thru the quilt and onto the rod.  Just centered it on the rod.  One Nail…it is perfectly level and fantastic!  I highly recommend these things and they are guaranteed for life and they come in various sizes.  www.hangitdangit.com    Again, WOW.  This is one happy customer!

Meanwhile I sure hope everyone had a great and safe day.  I’m still adjusting to the time change.  Did you know that there are 8% more accidents and 10% more heart attacks on the day after a time change?  Maybe we need to rethink the need.

Cleaned my studio today.  Way too many UFO’s!  Oh well…the life of a quilter!

BE HAPPY….Karen

Mar10

Scrap Quilting is an Experience! / Bonnie Hunter is Fantastic!

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bonnie hunter tulip time block

Had a really great time last week at Bonnie Hunter’s workshop in Cypress, Texas. She is the most down to earth, friendly teacher!! What an experience. She will be speaking at the Coastal Prairie Guild in Missouri City, Texas next February. Yeah, I know, way to long to wait. Bonnie is an avid collector of vintage machines as well as a scrap quilt gal. She has a great scrap saving system and you can read about it on her website, http://www.quiltville.com Lots and lots of free patterns as well.

I am not a scrap person and was really unsure about “scraping”. I did her Easy Street mystery over the holidays and had such fun with it that I have attempted to get into scrap mode. Wow, that’s harder than you would think for a non “scraper”. You would not believe the pieces she was confiscating from the trash bin at the workshop! Look on her site for her little bitty “ruler” that has tiny holes in it so that you can check any machine you are sewing on to make sure you have an accurate 1/4 inch seam. I bought one, but it is so tiny I’m not sure I got home with it. I may have to buy another ($3). I highly recommend getting yourself one. So Cool!  The block is my first of many for Bonnie’s Tulip Time quilt.  It is in her new book “String Fling”.

Until Later
BE HAPPY…Karen