1 Tquilt done!

Finished Molly's T-Shirt Quilt

I embroidered the name free-motion with a wide, zig-zag stitch in burgundy thread

I used the background fabric to applique "2012" and a raw-edge applique stitch.

For the burgundy parts of the quilt I used a HEARTS quilt motif.

The light blue areas I used a paisley stitch

In the blue areas I did an echo motif.

I couldn't get a good photo of the black areas. . but I used pebbles in those areas.

I put a little feather in this area. . SO CUTE!

Happy Birthday to me ;c)

It's mah birthday!

And what will I be doing today?!

I've been working on a T-shirt quilt for a customer. These quilts are made up of some GORGEOUS t-shirts . . so the quilts will be awesome.

The blank areas of the quilt I filled in with some fancy quilting. There were two plain white areas I added to this quilt. In one area I appliqued "2012" with raw-edge applique. In the other I free-motion embroidered the girl's name "Molly" with a wide, zig-zag stitch.

The school colors are Burgundy and White. I'm using burgundy as the backing fabric and right now I am planning on binding in black. Just because I think black will look much better than white. ;c)

Project Quilting - Architectural Elements

(Photo courtesy of Florian Besnard)

Has anyone seen this? This kind of thing totally excites me! It's like taking a free art class.

It's like project runway except for quilting. Head on over to Kim's Crafty Apple for all the details.

Basically you have one week to make a quilt based on specifications or a certain theme. Then you share at the end of the week and there's a chance to win prizes even if you DONT win!

The thing I look forward to most is having my work professionally critiqued.

The first challenge theme is "Architectural Elements"

I have repeated these two words over and over in my head since yesterday. I've asked around to different people and asked them what this phrase means to them. Basically everyone came up with the same answer . .

"Things that make a building unique"

I've had some really great ideas thrown my way, but haven't settled on anything quite yet.

The main thing holding me back is.. I don't want to use a photo from the internet. I would rather use something closer to home as inspiration.

Again go to Kim's Crafty Apple to join in the fun.

I'll post more of my progress later in the week. ;c)

Thank you DAD for assembling my new sewing machine!

Here she is! All assembled. My new Quilting machine.

It's a Juki DDL 8700 - industrial strength lockstitch machine.

You may be wondering why I chose this machine of all the machines out there in the world? Well, for starters, it's an AMAZING price! You can't get the speed, accuracy, reliability, and throat plate space for less than 1,000 on a DSM.

I can proudly say I would never have been able to assemble this on my own. Thankfully, my Father is a contractor. He is amazing when it comes to these things and he was able to get it done in a little over 4 hours total. That's impressive folks!

This is my Dad, Keith Hager. When he first arrived at my flat, he said to me "just as long as I don't lose any hair I'll be okay"

He's always the jokester! lol

My Dad's Wife, Donna Hager, is assisting him across the table. She has more patience than I can comprehend. She kindly sits and helps as Dad constructs my sewing machine, table and motor. She would hand him various tools that I don't even recognize by the name.

Dad gets the table and frame together at last!. He has attached the motor to the underside of the table, the bobbin winder, and the foot pedal at this point.

He has the instructions (with photos) on the table.

I will say that the photos don't do much good at all though. They are written in Japanese and then translated.. . . badly. Here are some of the examples of the instructions:

"Tight the pulley" and

"Put the Belt"

We HAD to get a photo of Dad scratching his head. Please let there be a few hairs left!!

Here he is tightening the belt. Isn't that attached lamp awesome?!


By George I think we've got it!

A photo of all the boxes the whole package came in...

This photo is of all the "extra" parts! hahahaha

I know . . SCARY right?!

I took this shot sideways to show you the WHOLE machine.

My new Jukibaby. She runs like a dream! She is kind of hard to thread, but once you get her threaded she goes and goes. This machine has a "servo" motor, as opposed to a "clutch" motor. It's supposed to be more quiet than regular industrial motors. I was skeptical. BUT, once I got her humming along. . she IS INDEED quiet!! As a matter of fact, quieter than my little Janome home sewing machine that I USED to do all my FMQ on!!!

I still have to get a high-shank darning foot for this machine. I'll let you know how my free-motion quilting goes once I do. I'm SOOOOO excited!

It's NO longarm. . but I think this badboy machine will last me for QUITE a few years until I can afford one.

Thank you SOOOOO much to my mom, Terrie Bowen for my Christmas present.

This was NOT a cheap machine to purchase as a gift and I am so appreciative.

Thank you to my Dad for buying the table and installing it for me for my birthday. I am so VERY blessed and grateful to you both!

NYE Mystery Quilt Top w/o Borders

This quilt. . was very difficult for me! I think it was just something about the construction method that was not like my usual piecing methods. You can see it was difficult for me because many of the seams don't match up perfectly LOL

Oh well, it's like that song by Cathy Miller. . "you can quilt that out." ;c) Hopefully some intricate machine quilting will bring it to life!

I'm thiinking about doing a few different borders for this. I was thinking about doing a thin-line of blue, and then a wider outer border of brown or burgundy. I have paid projects coming up though, so I'll have to quilt this at a later date.

This quilt was made using all 2.5" strips from a Quiltville Swap. I swapped Neutrals, and Civil War strips. What I noticed alot of is this:

and this:

In the first photo you can see that some of the strips were 1/8" wider or 1/8" smaller than 2.5" As you know this can add up over time. . I trimmed the ones down, and still used the too-small ones.

In the 2nd photo you can see how crooked some of them were cut. This is what I would like to talk about. If you lay out your folded fabric (folded once) on your cutting mat, I really don't know how this problem can happen. You line up your folded edge on the "1" line, and use a clear 6" x 24" ruler to cut. If you cut from the right edge of your fabric, you will have several inches of ruler holding down your fabric in place as you cut.

I believe you need at least an 18" x 24" self-healing cutting mat to effectively cut strips!

I know that some of my friends use a smaller mat, and have to fold the fabric MORE than once. Of course if you are going to have more than one fold in your fabric it would make it THAT much more likely to have curves/lumps in your strips.

And here's the thing, these swapped strips are HALF width-of-fabric. Therefore, you shouldn't have any lumps at all. What you could do if you're swapping half WOF strips is this: FIRST cut your fabric in half at the folded edge. Press smooth WITH STARCH. Then you can fold THAT piece of fabric. This will allow you to JUST be dealing with ONE fold in which you can line up on the "1" marking and cut with a wide acrylic ruler.

I know there are several other reasons why there could be these large curves or lumps in long strips. Sometimes people tend to "iron" their fabric instead of "pressing" it.

My biggest suggestion there is STARCH STARCH STARCH!!!

Press your fabric by lightly pressing down, starting at the folded edge, and then going up the middle of the fabric. Then out toward the edges. If you're using starch, you will see where yo'uve previously pressed.

I know alot of fabric companies now don't pay as much attention to grainline, but if the original cut of fabric isn't cut along the grain line, that could cause stretching and problems too.

This is why, when I get a new cut of fabric, I will unfold it and press it as a whole piece. . then RE-fold it for cutting on the mat.

Sorry for that small rant. Swapping fabrics is a great way to build stash and not spend a "whole" lot of money.

To sum up: Every quilter/fabric swapper SHOULD have a large enough self-healing cutting mat and 6" wide acrylic ruler. If you don't have a large mat, cut at the folded edge first and THEN fold one half at a time to cut your strips.

PRESS your fabrics, don't iron.

STARCH IS YOUR FRIEND!!!

Updated my Facebook and Etsy Shop!

I added a couple new Custom Items to my etsy shop and updated my facebook page.

I know most of my blog readers make quilts on their own. This is for those who would like to have a t-shirt quilt or memory quilt made by me!

Find me on Facebook:

facebook.com/KatiesQuiltsandCrafts

Etsy:
KatiesQuiltsNCrafts.etsy.com (used to be KumQuatMae.etsy.com)

Also find me on PINTEREST!!! I am constantly updating my boards with FREE tutorials for Quilts and Craft patterns!

Pinterest.com/Krati

Ann M Smith New Years Eve Mystery Fabric Strips

I have been at this all day. One would think I would have already started sewing on this already. Or at least pressing or cutting into the fabric!!! Nope, because I believe this is my favorite part! Sorting, organizing and generally playing in my fabric. ;c)

This mystery calls for 3 fabrics and a background.

Fabric #1) (Medium) =Medium Civil War Prints from a swap

Fabric #2) (Pop?) = Dark Civil War Prints from a swap

Fabric #3) (Medium) = Medium Civil War Prints from a swap

Background - Neutrals from a swap.

This quilt is going to be totally, and deliciously, scrappy!

The first thing I had to do was dump out all of my swapped strips onto the table.

Here you have the neutrals on the left, and all the yummy civil war prints on the right.

These are all swaps from quiltville!

The next thing I did was organized the prints into Darkest, Medium, and lightest piles.

Here are the CW prints . . I didn't get a photo of the neutrals. . but those were separated too.

After I seperated them, I grouped them by mystery CLUE.

I had the PERFECT amount of CW strips for a LAP-sized quilt. I wanted to use just the dark and medium neutrals for this quilt and save the lightest ones for Orca Bay.

This worked out pretty perfectly too. I'm going to need to cut about 4 more 2.5" strips from my stash of neutrals. . but I think it is worth it to save all the pretty Xtra LIGHT neutrals for another mystery.

Here are my leftover Xtra light neutrals ;c)

It's midnight now so I'm headed to bed and will start pressing and cutting for this quilt in the morning. Anyone else doing Ann Smith's NYE mystery?

Purses - Ann Smith mystery

I just finished a couple purses/totes. I tried to add them to my dECEMBER list but unfortunately could not finish them until today.

Oh well I still had a very successful december.

Here they are made with scrap civil war prints:

Now, in keeping with the birthday theme. . and until I get some definite orders. . I'm going to be making "me" stuff. It's my birthday month!!!

So I'm now starting the mystery by Ann M Smith in the fabricaholics anonymous yahoo group.

Fabrics I'm using? surprise surprise. . CIVIL WAR PRINTS! lol

I can't help it I love them and just thing they are delicious!

So here they all are . .. Civil War 2.5" strips and Neutral 2.5" strips from a Quiltville swap. I've been itching to use them together in a quilt. This mystery is the perfect opportunity.

In case you're wondering about me and Orca Bay.. I'm waiting just a bit to start that one. I want to wait until I receive my strips from a brown swap on quiltville. which should be at the end of this month. I don't have many blacks and would prefer to use dark brown for that color.

Besides brown IS my favorite color!

Merry Christmas!! -JUKI DDL 8700

I think I got everything I asked for, for Christmas and more. I am truly blessed. . TRULY blessed!!! Christmas morning I woke up with that song in my head by the Gaithers "Greatly Blessed, Highly Favored, Imperfect but Forgiven Child of God!"

It's been such an amazing year for me. So SO many quilts finished. . and what more could a quilter ask for?!

For Christmas this year. . I got . . . THIS:

It's a Juki DDL 8700 - Not sure how to assemble it. . and I can't even LIFT the thing by myself. It weighs 80lbs!!!! I know these machines go really good on a table/frame but I'm just using it as a sit-down machine. . I'm trying to find the perfect sturdy table to put it on right now. Because once it gets situated I canNOT move it!

Can't wait for DH to get home and help me with it!!! He also had to help me with my new iphone. . still not quite sure how to use that either. something tells me that I'll have more luck with the sewing machine than the phone though. . LOL

Here's some other QUILTY things I got for Christmas:

3 large spools of cotton quilting thread from C&C

One package of Neutral thread from Connecting Threads

Fiskers rotary cutter and blades (I'll probably stick to my original olfa cutter though LOL)

Colored and white chalk pencils

A blue quilt marker

A SQUARE quilt ruler. . YAY!!!

and some bobbins for my new Juki!!!

Some white and darkbrown/burgundy fabric yardage!

And look at what my sister did for me!!!!

She has ALL these old magazines . . I kept hinting to her that I really could use the subscription cards out of the magazines for my English Paper Piecing projects. . .

Well I never expected this. . . I get the box and she says to me. . "this gift took the most time for me" LOL. . . . I open it up and she has pulled out ALLL of the index cards out of her magazines for me!!1 Is that not the most thoughtful, sweet, awesome gift ever?! My sister is awesome!

So yes, it's been an amazing Christmas for me. .

Has anyone used this machine before? I can't wait to get'r going!

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December was a super busy month for me. . I finished more projects this month than ever before.

Here are all of my finishes for December, 2011 -

4 memory quilts - these were made with their father's clothes and photos - I embroidered sayings in the borders. This was such a special project to be a part of, and when they sent me this photo of them with their quilts, I cried!!

A memory quilts for my moms secret sister at Church Joyce Jimison.

A memory quilts for a lady in NY's daughter. We used her daughters photos and really BRIGHT colors. . this was a super fun quilt to make!!

A tote with contrasting pockets made with Kate Spain fabric for my friend Megan Howard's sister.

I didn't get a pic of the finished and bound quilt. . but here is one with the quilting finished. This is a lonestar I made for my friend Jaime's mom for Christmas.

I also made a round table cloth for my mom.

So all of these were finished in the month of December. Can you believe it??

Needless to say I am now finally catching up on my sleep. But there is NOTHING in the world I would rather have done with my time. What a great month and a great feeling!

I hope everyone had a successfull and Merry Christmas!!!

Looking forward to another great year full of sewing and Quilting!!

SUPER Busy

I have been super duper busy this month. . but I would like to take just a moment and share my latest two quilts. Both of these are memory quilts. The colorful ROYGBV one was for a lady I met through etsy. The photos were 4" x 6" with feather quilting in the colored "framed" areas.

The civil war colored one was for my mom's secret sister at church. The photos in this one are 1.75" finished. In the blocks I used CW strips from a swap I participated in on quiltville. My mom picked out two coordinating strips to use for each block. I cut the strips to 2.25" for the "X"s and the background areas I had to use the companion angle ruler.

The borders were a civil war print we got from WV Quilts in Barboursville, WV and I quilted a large feather in the border FREE HAND. ;c) so I'm very proud of myself for those feathers ;c)

The Motherload

Ya know I have been truly blessed this year!!!!!

I have secured enough quilt orders to make it a great Christmas for my family. I feel so completely blessed that I can do WHAT I LOVE SO MUCH for a LIVING!!! Of course I'm also thankful for my hardworking husband who pays the "real" bills. I am so thankful for him that he goes to work each week and allows me to quilt all day!!

So I am totally booked for the holiday season. I cannot commit to anymore projects until about mid-January. I have actually had to turn a few people away this year, so next year please contact me EARLY if you would like a quilt made before Christmas ;c)

I want to be able to devote enough of my time an energy to each individual project without feeling stressed or pressed for time. I want everyone to walk away with something spectacular.

I ordered the fabric for all my upcoming projects right before Thanksgiving. I think since it was ordered around a holiday it took a little longer to ship. While waiting on this fabric shipment I UFO'd all my current projects and have been anxiously awaiting their arrival! ;c)

But today my first fabric shipment came and I'm very excited to get started.

Look at all the pretty fabrics!!!

Just yesterday I had a friend ask me to make some curtains. This was great because #1) I've never made curtains before and have always wanted to try. #2) I owed her a birthday gift, and #3) It filled up my day before my motherload shipment of fabric arrived!!

She wanted a lighthouse theme and I happened to have some fabric with lighthouses in it already in my stash!

So now I'm going to work on a quilt, and I also have a quilted tote to work on. Next week I'll be working on 4 matching quilts with a blue/white "ford" theme. I'm excited. . but I'm going to be VERY busy in the upcoming weeks!

My First Quilt

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville is hosting a Show-And Tell with theme "My First Quilt." FUN!

This is my very first quilt I ever made. Before I started quilting, I was only a dyer. I started dyeing tee-shirts and then moved to old cotton sheets and then to cotton yardage. I had ALL this fabric leftover from dyeing which prompted me to try my hand at quilting.

It was ALL over from there!!!

The center of this quilt was made with 4 different shades of fuchsia tie-dyed fabric in a rail fence pattern. There is a small tan border around that, then, i cut squares from different shades of blue tie-dyed fabric and use that for the outer border. I think I quilted this extremely minimally. Maybe just a sparse in-the-ditch.

My room was messy when I took this photo. If I had known the significance of my FIRST EVER QUILT PHOTO back then, I probably would have tried a little harder to take a nice photo!!

That's my baby boy Louie the Dachshund on the bed. He is such a hamdog! ;c)

So head on over to QUILTVILLE and join in the show-and-tell!! I'm sure there will be some fun photos to come!

Black Friday!!!

I have never in my life participated in the mad rush of Black Friday Shopping. I do most of my Christmas shopping ONLINE (LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE) hahahahaha.

BUT, a few years ago I stopped into a Jo-Ann's on the weekend after Thanksgiving. My life was forever changed. I realized I could stock up on all of my necessary items for my quilting for the whole year in one weekend. Most everything is on sale for at LEAST 50% off. Then, the store offers an additional 25% off sale items coupon from 6am - Noon. That = dirt cheap quilting supplies!!!

I will be at the Dunbar Joanns tomorrow, and the Barboursville Joanns on Saturday. I have a VERY long list and will also be using a buggy ( a rare thing for me.)

So. . . if you haven't signed up for email coupons I know you can sign up online and also via text. If you sign up via text they will send you their most recent coupons via text immediately. You just show the cashier your phone and will get the savings.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. . I sure did!!

Where will you be shopping tomorrow?

;c)

Finished Minky/Fleece Quilts!

Freshly Washed and Dried Minky Quilts!!!!

For these quilts I PIECED MINKY. . yes it's true! It can be done!!! You can see more details about these quilts in my last few posts. ;c)

Quilt #1

Quilt #2

The backs are both the same. . A plain white fleece backing was used for both of them.