Author Archives: texasboxerlover

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About texasboxerlover

A guilt maker, longarm quilter and quilt designer. Mother of four children, Al, Mark, Stacey and Christopher, grandmother to Meagan and Madison, a set of twins RJ and Maria, and three step grandchildren, Allie, Jayne and Kevin. Proud mom to four beautiful boxers, Precious, Champ and Caitlin , Sasha, and non-boxer dog Charlie.
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

Mar9

Mug Rugs are sooooo cute!

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bird mug rug Owl mug rug

Well, here are my swap Mug Rugs for the Quilting Gallery.com swap. They are so much fun and so quick to do. I did the owl with hand applique, the Scharon Schamber way with foundation paper; and, the bird with fusible and a small machine blanket stitch. I love them both. I made the blanket stitch super small to reflect the overall size of the design and love the way it came out. These patterns, along with several other really cute designs are available on the Craftsy site. I will spend some time this weekend trying to learn how to upload buttons to make it easier for you to find things.

Wouldn’t this be a really fun guild exchange?

Meanwhile, I found a great thought today and it really fits me…. “if I were more organized I’d be able to keep up with my organizational list!” Trying to catch up this weekend after a great week of quilting with friends, two workshops, and a guild meeting! (not to mentions allergy issues-sigh-got to love Houston!).

BE HAPPY….Karen

Mar8

I WON A FANTASTIC QUILT!

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Winning Quilt close up winning quilt

Wow what a fantastic day Wednesday turned out to be. At the Coastal Prairie Quilt Guild meeting, starring our speaker from Grayslake, Illinois Ebony Love, a guest was introduced and she had a fantastic surprise. She was from the Lake Jackson guild – Plantation Quilt Guild – and had their donation raffle quilt which had been won by one of our members! Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be me. WOW! My day for sure. Isn’t this quilt super and so much fun! I love the colors and will hang it in my house today. I will give it “entry-hall” treatment. So excited. Then, I even won a door prize that night.

I really felt special!

Be Happy, Karen

Mar7

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Sandy Quilt back Sandy quilt blocks Sandy quilt close up Sandy quilt full view

This quilt is finally off to the Hurricane Sandy victims, many of whom are still out of their homes and in need of a “quilty” hug! I had the honor of putting this quilt together and quilting it, however many great kudos go to the ladies who made the blocks and to Michelle of the Quilting Gallery.com who organized the effort. A big thank you goes to Evelyn Boundy of British Columbia, Canada, Rebecca Brown of Utah, Suzanne Cooper of Texas, Jaynie Gamble of Texas, Lisa Page of New Zealand, Merry Kay Strohm of Arizona, and Mary Pat VanSchyndel of Wisconsin.

Off to get it mailed….

BE HAPPY….Karen

Mar3

SANTA GROWS A BEARD

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What great fun we had yesterday putting hair and make-up on our Santa heads. This is really fun and I think I will just have to do another. Can’t wait to build the body and start dressing him. Thanks so much to our teacher, Pat, for all of her patience and guidance.

It has been a great weekend here in the Southwest. Texas is a great state and when we have fantastic weather like we have had the last couple of days you just can’t beat it! I successfully completed my quilt project for the Sandy weather mess, finished my two mug rugs for another exchange, and am getting ready to work on some more MY projects. {Pictures to come).

I am attending two workshops this week. On Tuesday I am really looking forward to a Bonnie Hunter workshop (yes, another quilt of MANY pieces) Then on Thursday a session with Ebony Love working on the dye cutter and a Rob Peter To Pay Paul quilt. Lots of prep to do today. Guild Wednesday evening starring Ebony. Busy week but really looking forward to it. Hope everyone else is enjoying beautiful weather today! Perfect Quilting time!

Be Happy…Karen

Feb28

Hints for a great binding and Sandy Quilt donation project

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Great little quilts from this weeks quilting schedule. The fourth picture is not QUITE a quilt yet but is on my list for the upcoming weekend. These are blocks from all over the place. There are 42 total blocks donated by Mary Kay from Arizona, Evelyn from Canada, Jaynie from Texas, Mary Pat from Wisconsin, Rebecca from Utah, and Lisa from New Zealand. I will build these into a wonky quilt pattern and they will be sent to E-Quilter to be distributed to the people who went thru Sandy, the horrible storm on the East coast. So many are still without homes! It really feels good to give back to people in trouble. I hope to piece, quilt and bind this quilt and get it into the mail next week. Watch for a finished picture.

I had a wonderful time at my David Taylor class last weekend. One of the tips I learned, which I think is fantastic, is how David keeps his quilts perfectly square. Get twill tape (1/4″) from your local fabric store. Measure your quilt carefully and pin a piece of twill tape from exact corner to other corner. Do opposing sides as step 1 and 2. Be sure to pin the twill take carefully, ends, then middle, then split the difference as many times as you need to. Sew with a straight line stitch making sure the tape is right along the edge and does not extend into your quilt where the binding will not cover it. Then, measure the other two sides, excluding the first tape, pin as you did the others and stitch. THOSE EDGES AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE ANYMORE AND WILL ALWAYS BE EXACTLY THE SAME! No more uneven edges to bug you or quilt judges!

BE HAPPY…..Karen