Saturday, October 22, 2011

Fall!


What a beautiful day here in CT! Great weather!

Cori responded so her goodies were sent off...
my house is not perfect, but clean enough so I can spend some time today sewing and going for a bike ride...
Elizabeth is off to a football game doing the whole tailgate thing...
a good day!

And, I am starting an ETSY site soon with some quilts and a few FQ bundles. Should be fun!
I'll let you know when it is up and running!

Happy quilting
Kate

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Giveaway winner- where are you??

Cori- where are you?

Unfortunately, the giveaway winner, Cori, has not sent me her information yet! And since she is a no reply blogger, I can't email her!

So this is a last appeal to Cori to email me! If I don't hear from her by this Sat, then I will draw another name!

On a good note, I have had this week off from work and I have gotten a few projects started, a few almost finished... It feels great!

I was able to put the binding on two quilts for charity and am just sewing down the other side. I think I need to learn how to machine sew (nicely!) the binding on to both sides. Anybody do that? How do you like it?


I also made of wonderful Mei Tai baby carrier using the pattern from Sew Liberated for a woman at work- grandbaby #2 this year!- and it came out so sweet! I love the colors. And the print is a very soft, adorable flannel- yum!

Without a baby, it is hard to show how cute it is- check out the pattern! It is super easy to make.

This grandbaby is a girl, but I wanted to make it so that it would work for a boy in case there are future siblings!



I'm am also starting a quilt- I saw it on Bloomin Workshop. She did a quilt-a-long a while back and I just loved the quilt. Isn't her quilt gorgeous?

It is called Wild Geese... and I must be crazy for starting this!

Here are some of my fabrics that I have for it. I had collected some plaids ages ago, and I recently grabbed a few more while I was out on the shop hop. I got a few FQs for $1! How cool is that?!

I also picked up a soft, buttery yellow to be the background. I am also making mine bigger- 5 x5 blocks, so 25 in all.


I had to decide how to place the geese within the block- there are a lot of options. Such as this:

I call this option "All In"

or this:

I call this option "Straight Line"

or this:

I call this option "All Out".

And I have decided to go "All Out"! I think that is what I will call this quilt- Going All Out!


It helps if you don't sew them together wrong- and this is only the first block! Sigh!

I better get used to it- I am sure it won't be the last time I do that! My seam ripper and I are best friends!





Here is block #1 all done. Pretty little thing!

Only 24 to go, and a whole lot of extra geese for sashings! I think I need 202 extra geese! Wow! I hope I figured that out wrong!



Happy quilting!
Kate

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Giveaway on The Other Side of Me Blog


Check out this great giveaway on Anita's blog!

Eight FQs of Kate Spain's Terrain?



Who can resist? Not me!



Happy quilting!
Kate

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Winner, Winner, Chicken dinner!

Ok- so no one really won a chicken dinner! But we do have a winner of the Frosted Ruler and the mug rug quilt!

Thanks to all who posted- so much fun to hear from everyone.

Drum roll please...
the winner is Cori who wrote" I'd love to try it!".

So Cori, please email me your snail mail address as I don't have your email!
Our email is seamslikeadreamquilts at yahoo dot com.

In other news, my friend Charmion and I made these great asian inspired quilts to donate and we just got them back from the machine quilter. I am going to get them bound today so they can be sent off to their new homes next week.


This is one of the quilts. Isn't it gorgeous?
I know it is hard to see the details...


Here is one of the blocks.
We used a pattern from the book Loose Change
by Claudia Plet and Le Ann Weaver.







And here is another.








The fun part of the story is that the machine quilter, Connie White of Golden Bells Quilting, asked to use the pieced backs we made,(from scraps of the front fabrics) as quilt tops to send to families in Texas who lost their homes in the recent fires. Her daughter is collecting quilts for those families.

So our two quilts suddenly became four! I wish now that I had taken a picture of the backs!

Off to make some binding and gets these quilts to their new homes!


And then this quilt is off to the machine quilter- if I can get Huey off of it! This one is going to go to Texas too!


Thanks again to everyone who posted! I'll do another giveaway soon- I love doing this!

And Cori- don't forget to email me your address!




Happy quilting!
Kate

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Blog Hops and a giveaway

Do you like blog hops? I do! I think they are so much fun.



Miss Daisy Mae Duke, however, seems less than impressed!


I recently popped about on a blog hop sponsored by Pat Sloan about the new frosted Sullivan's Edge ruler. Have you all tried that one yet?


I haven't tried it, but maybe I will win one and then I can test it out. It is supposed to sharpen your rotary cutter as you cut. (I tried to copy a picture to post... but I had some trouble. So pop on over to Pat's site check it out.)


So the Sullivan's Edge rulers are frosted. Some people like the frosted rulers- they say it is easier to see the lines because the fabric does not show through as much. I have not tried a frosted ruler yet. And, I have one! How crazy is that?



I received this ruler at Quilt Market and somehow it got thrown into the ruler drawer and I only just found it recently. Silly me.


So now I am thinking I will let someone else test it out and tell me how they like frosted rulers. I, obviously, am unworthy and do not deserve this ruler as it has languished in my drawer for far too long and deserves a good home.


So leave me a post about whether you have ever tried a frosted ruler, or if you want to try this one, and I will send the ruler to some more deserving person. And since I don't have too many followers at this point, chances are pretty good you will win!


Of course, if you let me know you posted about my giveaway somewhere or encouraged a friend who came to visit here, I will give you 2 chances to win!

Hmm... I guess I will draw a name on Sat Oct. 8th.


I might even include this cute little mug rug.

I made this because my cousin was going to borrow my Audrey sewing machine when she went to NJ for work for a whole week. She did not want to spend an entire week in a hotel room with nothing to do!


Irene really likes to have a mark on the machine for a 1/4" seam- and even though my machine has a quarter inch foot, it is a generous quarter! So I used these red, green and white scraps to come up with a mark for the perfect 1/4" and I marked it blue tape.

But then I had these little scraps and thought it was a shame to throw them out. So I cut them up, added some more strips and viola! A little mug rug was born!

Off to make another little striped knitting bag and then... who knows!

Happy quilting
Kate

10/8/11- comments are now closed! Good Luck!