Drum Roll Please!

Presenting Scrappy Kelly!

Scrappy Kelly has found a new home hanging over the back of a chair in our den. In a distance the many colors surrounded by green and cream sashing shine. I love walking down the upstairs hall way seeing all the colorful 2 inch squares pop out.  

The quilting design is sections of squares with a floral motif inside each. Since it wasn't a continuous design it took much longer to free motion quilt it. Next quilt I will be choosing a continuous quilting design! Scrappy Kelly washed nicely and now has that  wonderful crinkly look. The Shout Color Catcher did its job too. The color catchers as you can imagine picked up a lot of green dye.

The backing is made up of the same green fabric used in the sashing and binding.

Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!

Linking up with Quilting is more fun than housework - Oh! Scrap

Quilt Retreat Fun, Accomplishments and More

Hello! So happy you have stopped by. Messages have been sporadic but at least I have been blogging once a month. Summer is past and Fall has arrived, children (not mine) are back in school and the weather has slightly cooled, but not much in Charlotte. Where has the time gone?

Fortunately, my work schedule slowed in September making it possible to go to a much looking forward Quilt Retreat with quilting friends. Some of us only see each once a year, others more often as they live close. We came from Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and North Carolina. There were 9 of us. Our quilt retreat was held in Mt. Washington, Kentucky where we stayed in a home that was designed for quilt retreats.

Some of us drove and some came by airfare. We are a diverse group, but the one thing we have in common is we love to make quilts. As different as we are in personality so are our quilting styles and preferences. Our show and tell was amazing seeing the display of quilts and other quilty items. Creativity and quilt making experience in this group abounds. We learn so much from each other.


Did I mention that we had fun! Laughter rang out often! I can't remember laughing so much! And of course we sewed, quilted, ate very well (chocolate was plentiful), and visited local quilt shops.








Yes, though we did many other things like talking, eating and shopping I did finish everything that I had intended to complete. The funny side of this is I took what I had planned to finish at last year's quilt retreat to this year's retreat. Nothing exciting, but I am thrilled that I made progress. I was proud of myself keeping to my focus on completing started projects. That being said, I pieced two quilt backs - one was 82" x 82 " and the other was 84" x 78" large bed size quilts.

And!! the bindings to go along with those quilt backs! Yes! I am pleased. Not only did I complete those quilt backs, I completed marking up a quilt for free motion quilting. That took up most of my time. I used 5 EZ International blue washable marking pens and a stencil that I had on hand. Using the stencil will help me not to quilt so densely, a tendency of mine. Less quilting makes a quilt more cuddly, softer and easier to snuggle under.

Today I could pick up quilting the "Kelly Scrappy Quilt" without stopping to mark up the next block.

Quilt back #1 doesn't show all the piecing on the top and bottom. It has  3 inch yellow strips top and bottom. The fabric was leftover from the quilt blocks used in the quilt top. It took many pieces and segments to get the size needed. Lot of math happened in order to make it work. The sun was positioned low that it gave an interesting shadow of the tree on the fabric.

Quilt Back 2

Quilt back #2 is made up of 2 shades of pink. The sun was such that I had a difficult time capturing the light pink. It is a bit darker than what shows in this picture. I had plenty of fabric length so this quilt back went together rather quickly as compared to the other one.

So what is a quilt retreat with out visiting the local quilt shoppes?  I did buy a couple of things. . .  not much as I am trying to limit the number of new projects. But how could I resist? Ellen shared a Mini quilt pattern which was perfect to make with some of the leftover time. As it would be I was too tired to start a block with 64 pieces for a 12" block. Once home, I took the pattern and recreated it on Electric Quilt so I could make it as a paper piece project to work on while watching tv with my husband. I am using Moda Winter's Song Charms and Mini Charms. The red fabric with stars is a pretty Christmas fabric which is not part of the Winter's Song line.

At one of the quilt shoppes we visited I saw this Christmas tree made up. It was love at first sight and I had to have it. It is almost ceiling to floor in length. . .  a big tree. Hopefully, I will get it made up and it will be our Christmas tree in our bonus room. It has miniquilt blocks for decorations, each hanging on a red button. So cute!













The quilt retreat was 5 days including traveling days! My husband and sweet Cassie missed me! The following morning preparing to run errands Miss Cassie saw that I had shoes on my feet and my shoulder bag began continuously and adamantly barking in a very husky tone letting me know she wasn't happy about my leaving. I had to take her with me. Hope you enjoyed reading about my quilt retreat escapades.




Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!

And How Does Your Garden Grow While Quilting?

Impatiens have always done well in my shade garden, receiving enough dancing sunlight during the day to bloom. I enjoy watching them grow until they mound and fall out of the basket. Hummingbirds are tantalized by the bright fuchsia pink flowers.

I love this woven like cement basket planter. The moss growing unevenly on it gives the appearance of antiquity and adds character. I found this gem at the local flea market for a song.

Expecting another year of rabbit invasion I raised all planters, but there has been fewer of those pesky rascals this year.

























If you look closely at the bottom of this photo this stacked planter has been raised by sitting on 4 stepping stones, another means to safeguard my precious flowers from those darn plant eating rabbits.



My clay pot is chipping away in pieces. I am not sure as to why layers are falling off.

   

Can you tell the effects of warring with the rabbits last year has had on my garden design?   

This year the struggle has been drought. I have lost an apple tree, a holly bush and 2 large size elm trees due to the extreme hot weather. 

How do you like my blue bottle arrangement?

That is a rosemary branch that is hiding the pedestal planter. All one needs to do is brush beside the rosemary to take in the fresh aroma of the herb.

My friend and shadow enjoys taking in the scenery and watching the critters. Fortunately the critter population doesn't include rabbits. Cassie would attempt to chase after them, but she doesn't move as fast as she once did having gone through meniscus surgery on her leg.

 Every garden needs a bird bath!

 So while my garden grows, and if  time is available, or I am not too tired I quilt. My tendency is to quilt heavily but not on the Scrappy Kelly Quilt. The quilting design is a dogwood flower.

 
Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!

Scrappy Kelly Quilt Off the Wall

Scrappy Kelly is off she wall and now ready to be quilted!! Happy Dance!!

I began piecing Scrappy Kelly last November, and here it is 7 months later finally ready to be quilted.  I didn't even have a plan as how I was going to put these blocks together. All I knew was I needed to do something with all these leftover 2 inch squares.

In March I designed a couple of quilt designs using Electric Quilt. Go here to see the two designs.
My favorite was the on-point version but nixed that idea since I would have to diagonally cut blocks in half for the edges.

These are the leftover 2 inch square pieces. It seems as they are growing rather than lessening. The fabric is some that have been in my stash for many many years.

How many different quilt designs can be made from these 2 inch squares. Any ideas?

Maybe in a couple more years I will give some thought to it as for now I have 5 bed size quilts waiting to be quilted.

Even with chain stitching the squares onto the strips the blocks still took a good bit of time to complete.

 









 So this is what I have been up to lately quilting wise when finding time. Work life has taken up more of my time in the last year or so, all for great causes. One is administrating a large size grant that assists pregnancy centers in North Carolina. The other client sends out missionaries that took on an orphanage in Ecuador that has generated more work. If you want to more about the orphanage you can visit their website at La Casa deFe. 


 Miss all of my online quilting friends!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than housework.

Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!

Calendar Quilt - A Long time UFO

Not exactly a picture for Spring is it? What you see are two quilt blocks of a calendar quilt. Pictured are October and November blocks to be exact. The Spring blocks are further towards the top.

It feels so good to be working towards finishing this quilt. The blocks were made by twelve participants, each participant making 12 blocks for a particular month. I was the August gal.

I can't wait to show you December block with free motion quilted swirling snow.

You can see the corner of the August block. It was determined that lime green was the neutral color at that time. I may have over done the lime green in my block. When you see the entire quilt the lime green illuminates.

When not free motion quilting the calendar quilt I have been making blocks from my scraps - 2 inch left over squares. While all the blocks are not completed I have been thinking about how to put them together. I know I want to sash the blocks. . . .

so I purchased 6 yards of this fabric called Dots Right by Faye Burgos  (Marcus Fabrics) at Thousand Bolts for the sash. Prices are also great for many popular fabric lines. They are not necessarily the newest fabrics on the market. They have a great website where you can find fabric that matches colors in a particular swatch.  I love the color but now wondering if it isn't dark enough.

So what do you think?










I have designed two different quilts designs. My blocks have 25 color squares with off white sashing rather than 9 squares.

  


I rather like the on-point. Notice I am using the actual fabric in the design. I scanned it and uploaded it to Electric Quilt.


Oh now I have  to decide on what colors and design to use.

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Quilting is more fun than housework





Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!