Slow Sunday Stitching - Big Finish!

A big finish to announce...

drum roll please...

I finished the hand quilting and binding on my 36 patch scrap quilt, and it has already been gifted to it's new owners. 

Here it is, in it's new environment up in gorgeous cottage country.
Just look at that amazing sky!






I like this photo which shows...
*the scrappy border made from the leftover squares,
*a bit of the white backing 
*the diagonal quilting lines, and 
*the light floral binding.


This was such a fun and happy quilt to "work" on, and I enjoyed every moment. I was amazed at how much I like the finished quilt, since I did not like many of the old (1990's) floral fabrics I used in piecing the blocks and was happy to be using them up. 


I actually felt sad when the quilting was finished and the binding stitched down. The last stitches took way longer than they needed to, as I lingered over each one.  I have some great memories stitched into this quilt! 
Luckily I have another special quilt to enjoy more hand quilting today. 
What are you stitching this week?

Miss Molly on the Mountain Trail

Miss Molly had a photo shoot on the "Mountain Trail"!

Which is more beautiful...
the quilt or the dog? 

It's a toss up in my opinion!

"Show me the treats or I ain't gonna smile"!






"Is this a dog photo shoot with a quilt background, or a quilt photo shoot with a dog in it"?

Miss Molly wants to be (and is) the star of every moment!

"If you don't start giving me the treats, I'm going back to bed!  Hand 'em over"!

"I love this gig! 
I get to wear a spiffy new red bow, get a few treats, and I'm sitting on a quilt...woohoo"!

Molly has done so well with recovering from her surgery in the summer. A large tumour was removed from her left eyelid, and you can't even tell that they resected the eyelid back together...amazing!




Finished Mountain Trail:

*24" x 29"

*Design and instructions by Lori at Humble Quilts 

*Fabric - Vintage Modern with a red Kona path

This is the backing, but you can't see the feather quilting very well.

Maybe you can see it in the photo on the right?

Bottom left corner of the mountain trail.

Thanks for the fun Lori!
Can't wait to see what we're sewing next...
no pressure!

Wicked Blog Hop

Welcome to WICKED day! 

It's my day to share a wicked block with all the blog hoppers.
I loved the musical "Wicked" and so for the wicked blog hop, I wanted to make an Elphaba block. I saw the pattern called "If The Hat Fits" and tracked it down to the Buggy Barn. Their style of piecing blocks is really unique and I wanted to try it out. 
I must admit...it was WICKED hard! 


I thought I'd be showing you a whole quilt today, but I am delighted to have been able to finish one block in time for the hop!
Here is one of the blocks all cut out so you can see how many pieces are in a block.
I had to redraft the entire pattern to make it fit a 12" block size.




Here is my finished block/quilt!
I had a terrible time with the legs and boots. The pattern instructions are adorable 3D legs, but after a few hours of trying to make those, I gave up and just made some using machine applique.  I think she's a perfect Elphaba and seems to have a bit of an attitude, don't you think!??!

If you want to try some of the patterns in this book, just leave a comment and your name will go into the draw to win the pattern book from Buggy Barn called Frightfully Crazy.







Here is the list of other WICKED blogs to visit today!

Angie’s Quilting and Crafting Place

Just Let Me Quilt

Lady Bug Lane

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Creative Obsessions

Kathy's Quilts (that's me!)

Loose Threads

Sew Maybe I Can

That's Sew Julie

Peck's Pieces

Aurea at That Other Blog

And here is one of my favorite songs that Elphaba sings in Wicked - enjoy listening while you hop around to the other Wicked blogs.

A Little Finish

My Summer Stars Quilt Along is finished and hanging on the wall. I quilted with the walking foot in the seam lines, and made chevrons on the setting triangles.
Simple and done!
It is just the cutest little thing! 
A big thanks to the creators of this pattern over at the Temecula Quilt Co. I'm linking up to Connie's Tuesday linky party so hop over and see the other projects creative people are making this week.
Okay...now down to business with the UFO for this month...only one week left in the month?  How did that happen?!?

Dots on Dots Blog Hop - A Dotty Finish!

If you are a new visitor, welcome to the Kathy's Quilts -one of the stops on the Dots to Dots blog hop! 
Grab your dotty mug and some tea or coffee, and enjoy all the blogs on today's hop:

It's Sew Kiki

VroomansQuilts 

Kathy's Quilts

Quilt Doodle Designs

A Quilting Sheep

selinaquilts

Jane's Quilting

Dream Quilt Create

The Peach Patch

I just love love super love all dotty fabrics, and have made many projects over the years with dots. Here are some of the little pin cushions I made a while ago with some dotty scraps, and to see my most recent dotty quilt top called Sweet Treats - click here.

For a long time, I wanted to sew Amber's Scrap Jar Stars. I first saw the blocks on Darlene's post on July 16th showing her beautiful quilt. This was the first dotty star block I sewed. Want to make a blue drink to match your blue dotty mug?!? Don't try this one...you won't like it...it's called Blue Sky. Yuck!
You can check out the other two amazing Scrap Jar Stars quilts that inspired me....Lisa Ann's and Karin's. I started collecting some bright fabrics and planned to combine my favorite Kaffe Fassett Paperweight fabrics with scrappy dots. 

What fun I had searching for polka dot scraps! A big thanks to Janet and  Diane for sending me some extra polka dot fabrics to mix in from their stashes!

I used a slightly varigated yellow Aurifil thread for quilting and enjoyed every minute of the machine quilting with my newly repaired Brother sewing machine.
I pieced a few more paperweights and dotty fabrics for a fun scrappy backing. 
And here is my finished quilt...
"Dotty for Kaffe"!  
I used my favorite yellow paperweight fabric for the large blocks, and the binding...yum!

Thanks again to Madame Samm and Corrie for organizing more blog fun for us quilters...you give us so much inspiration! And thank you to Amber for her great tutorial and pattern for these star blocks, and for giving me permission to use her pattern for this blog hop.
I am going to draw some names from the comments left on this blog post to win a little dotty pillow, so leave a comment and maybe you'll be a lucky winner!
**Draw is closed - the 3 winners drawn are:

**Debbie said...Adorable! Fun colors...fun blocks...all fun together.

**Sara (My Semi-Creative Life) said...

I love how colorful your quilt is! So beautiful!

**Denise :) said...What *fun* dotty projects! Your dotty star quilt is gorgeous--love how bright and colorful it is! Terrific post, Kathy! :)

Congratulations to the winners! Have a great dotty day!

Bowls With Borders Blog Hop and Giveaway

I am so excited to be part of my first official blog hop ever - the Bowls With Borders Blog Hop! If you haven't visited here at Kathy's Quilts before, welcome to my quilting blog! And if you have visited before, welcome back!
I live in Ontario, Canada, and have been blogging about my quilting addiction adventures since 2006. I joined the Bowls blog hop because I enjoy paper piecing, and I loved the pattern that inspired this blog hop.
I had great fun dreaming up creative versions of possible bowl quilts to create, but went with my first thought:
"If life is a BOWL of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" (which is a book written by Erma Bombeck)
Here's are my cherry bowls...

A big thanks to designer Regina Grewe for providing such a fun pattern to sew! And thank you to hop cheerleader Carol and hostess Madame Samm!
Paper piecing is one of my favorite block sewing techniques, but I must admit that I always make a big mess. I do try to contain the bits of fabric and paper but find it impossible to be neat and tidy when paper piecing. Do you have the same problem?
In my attempt to be a little more organized,
I like to precut as many of the pieces as I can to the approximate sizes. I picked out my bowl fabrics and cut a piece from each fabric 5" x 2.5". Then I subcut that into 5" x 1.5" and 5" x 1" for each bowl. I also precut the red strips that go across each bowl at .75"...these pieces are small! Then I was organized and ready to start sewing.

I had a great time piecing the bowls (that was my favorite part) and stacked them 7 high. Then I appliqued the cherries which I fussy cut from "Oh Cherry" fabric and embroidered the stems (no, that was my favorite part).

Then onto the border...

I sewed together small scraps from the flower fabrics in the "Oh Cherry" line, and attached a tiny red rickrack at the beginning of the border.

I hand quilted around the bowls and in each border square (really, that was my favorite part). 

Then I hand beaded the bowl bands in beads to match each bowl (okay, for real, that was my most favorite part).

Can you tell that I enjoyed each step of making my cherry bowls?!? LOL

To celebrate the blog hop, what better way than a draw for a "Oh Cherry" honey bun by Me and My Sister. Just leave me a comment below and let me know what you have enjoyed about the Bowls with Borders blog hop. 
What I enjoyed, aside from seeing all the great quilts, was the number of brave quilters who signed up for the blog hop and were beginner paper piecers, but were willing to try something new...bravo! 
Thanks for visiting my blog and enjoy the rest of the today's bowl blogs:

Rosemary B.

Susan H.

Christel G.

Alice
Peggy S.
Suzanne K.
Books, Hooks, Sticks, etc.
Marla's Crafts
Kathy's Quilts (me!)
Sunshine Quilting
The Learning Curve Quilts and Such
Glitzy Me

July's UFO is finished!

I did a mid month switcheroo when I realized I would not have enough time to finish my regularly scheduled UFO. And in the last two weeks, I was able to baste, quilt and bind the chosen UFO. Phew!
This quilt has a softer colour palette than I usually work with, but I am happy with how it turned out. The fabrics are a combination of my stash and my friend Marion's stash.



This is a photo of the quilt from the back, but it's too dark and you can't really see the quilting. 

This is how the machine quilting looks close up in one of the blocks and in the border.

Did you finish your July UFO? I'm sure you can get at least one binding sewn while you watch the Olympics! 
Hop over to Patchwork Times to see other UFO's that were finished in July.

A Baby Quilt Finish

I forgot how rewarding it is to make a quick baby quilt from a panel, because it's been a really long time since I made one. This panel was purchased by a friend who asked me to quilt it for her niece's baby. It was fun selecting some Aurifil threads to match various areas of the panel. I like quilting with different colours, so I don't mind changing the thread many times.  How many times do you change threads when you're quilting?!? 
Then I had a blast machine quilting different designs...
one star to wish on, 
and lots of hearts in the center and in the surrounding border, 
and the letter 'A' for 'Abbott' in a few of the bubbles printed on the panel.

I was complaining in last Sunday's post about hand appliqueing the baby's name on the bottom of the panel, but it turned out OK. I don't love it, but I can live with it!
I bought the loveliest mint green flannel for the backing from Ye Olde Fabric Shoppe in Stratford (where the panel was purchased). It washed up beautifully and soft, and was a dream to quilt! 
I forced encouraged my friend to learn how to stitch the binding down so she could be part of making the quilt. We had a lovely visit while we stitched at the park. I was secretly hoping she would enjoy the sewing and want to become a quilter, but that didn't happen...at all!



Here's the finished quilt...

all ready to take to the baby shower. So cute!

June UFO Finished!

This month was challenging in terms of finishing  #12 on my UFO wish list, but in the end...it was accomplished by the deadline, and I am very pleased with how it turned out! 
This UFO started the month being a pile of blocks, a couple of which required reconstructive surgery! 
Then I added three borders...two scrappy and one easy. It was a fun part of the creative process of finishing this quilt to challenge myself to use up as many of the scraps as possible in the first two borders.
The machine quilting was fun. I tried a new (to me) free motion idea in the blocks, 4 large melon shapes and 4 small melon shapes. Although it was a lot of stops and starts (32 to be exact!) I enjoyed quilting the block designs.

Here are the quilting designs on the two last borders...all "eyeballed" and free motion. No marking to do, but you must park any OCD tendencies at the door, since it is WAY far from perfect! In my quilting world, completion is preferred over perfection!
This is the yummy orange and yellow plaid on the back of the quilt. I really dislike how the corners of the quilting design on the last border came together. But again I remind myself...completion is preferred over perfection!
And this is one more finished UFO that will be donated to my guild's comfort quilt project. The finished size is 52" x 64".

I really like this photo of the quilt with the sun shining on the quilting and giving it lots of texture. 
Today marks the half way point of 2012, and I am so pleased that I have finished half of the UFO's from my 2012 wish list...I am 6 for 6!
However, #3 is the project number that Judy picked for July, and it's a big quilt (Roll, Roll, Cotton Bowl) so I might break my finishing streak this month.
Hop over to Patchwork Times to see the other #12 UFO projects that were completed this month.

A Mid Month Finish

When I teach a miniature class, I always start with making 9 patch blocks to deal with seam allowance issues right at the beginning. If the students want to donate their test blocks, I sew up a scrappy quilt and give it back to the guild for a raffle or whatever they want to use it for. This mini quilt is made from the Grand Quilt Guild students' blocks. I will always remember this class because it was very challenging for me...I had just got my braces on and was in a lot of pain, and the ladies were so kind, patient and caring.
As you can imagine with little 3" blocks made from so many different sewers, it is a challenge sometimes to get the seams to match up and for the top to lay flat. It is a little wonky in spots, so I decided to do a wobbly line quilting design to distract your eye from the other wobbly parts, and I think it worked just great!

I will soon mail it off to the guild, but for now I am enjoying it hanging on my studio wall. It looks perfect here on my sunny yellow walls!
Want to see what other quilters have accomplished this week? Hop over to Confessions of a Fabric Addict!

UFO Report

May's UFO is finished!

I am very pleased about this finish for many reasons:
1) I loved working with yellow for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge,
2) I was able to finish a project that used up lots of scraps,
3) The hand quilting with perle cotton was very relaxing and I think I am addicted to it now,
4) I tried something new - binding a very irregular edge. I used a straight grain binding for the straight sides, and a bias binding for the zigzag edges and it turned out okay. 

5) I added a few embellishments - a beehive and a few bees.
Now I can't decide if this is a tablerunner or a wallhanging, and whether or not to sew on a hanging sleeve. 
To see other UFO's that were finished this month, hop over to Patchwork Times.