Recovering, a time for planning

One of my biggest plans is to participate more... Number one will be the

The hugs and kisses blog hop.  It is sponsored by the people who brought me the Dr. Who QAL!

I LOVE THE DOCTOR...

So, while my hand is healing, I am planning.  This is the first of many things I want to participate in!

All for now, I will say more as...

Carpal Tunnel Surgery

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday. I am having Carpal tunnel surgery this coming Monday and will likely be out of the blog business for at least a few weeks. Just wishing you all the best and hope all your holiday dreams come true!

My camera is broken

Well, it really isn't broken just can't find the charger thing for the battery. I have been in a low mood lately and haven't posted much. I know that someone out there wants me to post so here I am. I need to find my camera thingy because I actually have a lot to show everyone. Love Leah Day. She has helped me to solve some of my FMQ issues. More on that when I can get my camera going. Later, love always, K

Monday Monday

So, I finally finished my Christmas gift to my daughter Andee. It is the largest quilt I have ever done, a King size 100 X 110″! I am really proud of it. She loves dogs and she loves blue so this is the perfect combination, and there are just a ton of little squares of dog pictures on the quilt. The thing you can’t see is that I sent it out for quilting because it is so big… The quilting is an overall dog pawprint. Fun!!!

Matching pillowcases too!

Andee's dog Odhinn loves the quilt, actually he has a quilt of his own.  A smaller quilt I had made for her earlier is the one he has to have to sleep on or he won't go to sleep.  It has to be dragged from room to room for him to get a rest.  And, he is an older fellow so he always gets his way!

 Well, onward and upward. Need to get working. Have a couple of quilts I absolutely need to get done in the near future. Haven’t started one….. Kay

Finished Friday, MSBHQAL

I did it, in record time once I started to put it together.  I had it all cut except for the sashing and border so it was chain piecing to begin and then finish them up one by one.  I loved making this quilt and it is so bright and cheery that my husband says, "it just makes me smile."  So, without further ado, the unveiling of the Molli Sparkles Broken Herringbone Quilt Along, also known as #MSBHQAL.

Isn't it fun?

I know, I hung it sideways but I couldn't fit it all otherwise.

Up close and personal...  I love the fabric and the colors.

Now I need to linky or post to flikr or something.  But, I will figure that out.  Have to put it up first and then do it, so here it goes!  Love always, K

my second entry, the wedding quilt

Bloggers Quilt Festival is going on and I decided to enter another quilt, this time in the lap quilt category.  See the festival entries at www.amyscreativeside.com/bloggers-quilt-festival/

I want to win a Babylock Melody

I cannot do a good job of quilting with my current machine.  No matter what I do, it just pulls and tugs and locks up and does not work.

I know the Babylock Melody will be wonderful for me.  I just entered the Quilt Bloggers Festival, I didn't think I had anything to enter because I forgot all about the really cute "monster cuddle" I made for my grandson.  Wish me luck.  The link to the festival is http://amyscreativeside.com/bloggers-quilt-festival/

http://amyscreativeside.com/bloggers-quilt-festival/

It's My Birthday!

Yes, I have to admit, I am now 60 years old.  That does sound really old, doesn't it?  Well, I am working on a MSBHQAL and I have all the blocks done and I just need to put them together.  Yay, me!!!!

So, I am going to spend the afternoon doing just that.  I will be ready for the grand QAL reveal...  And, I am having pumpkin pie tonight!

No showing it until I get it done, so, it's a secret...  Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me.....

Missing my baby Sheela...

Stash Share with Pile O Fabric

This week I am actually going to show you Alyssa's at www.pileofabric.com Stash Share that I am trying to match for a side by side (or top and bottom) comparison.  Her colors are Wisteria, Artichoke, Eggshell and Evening...  I think I came really close.  And thanks Alyssa for only doing four this week....

My Stash, isn't it pretty?

And below is Alyssa's stash colors:

Pile O Fabric Stash Share for this week!

I came really close, didn't I?  One of the things I am working on is using up a lot of my stash.  I am going to do the next Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt which is starting now to help me do that.  I think it will be fun.  I will show you the stash I pulled for that next week.  Have a great weekend!  love always, k

WIP Wednesday

Has it been a whole week?  I cannot believe it!  I got caught up on my Sugar Block Club from last Wednesday and started a couple of new things, well, not really so new.  I actually got back to the Molli Sparkles Qu
ilt Along...  Molli is putting it all together and I am still making blocks, but shshshshshsh....  no telling anyone.  I will catch up.  I do when I put my mind to it.  So, here is my WIP Wednesday.

Okay, it is just my reds in pairs, but I am working on them.

I love these colors, don't you?  I can't wait to see it done.

And, I made myself into an Avatar.  Actually, I did this a while ago, but this is me.  Don't I look like I would be a lot of fun?  Well, I am, don't listen to anyone else.

Bye for now, I am going to see what
kind of trouble I can get into.  (LOL)
love always, k

Sugar Block Club Blocks WIP Wednesday

Hello, it is Wednesday and time for another WIP, or work in progress if you are not a quilter.  This week I have been focusing on catch up.  And that means that I have been diligently working on my Sugar Block Club blocks, on Monday I was done with block 3, which of course meant that since it is the tenth month, I was several months behind.  I am now happy to say, that I have only one block to go to get to ten, so I am ready to make a parade of the blocks I have finished.

Aren't they pretty?  I think they are turning out beautifully if I say so myself.  I am kind of excited to see how they all go together.

Well, one more to go, then two months.  I should be able to keep up the last two months I think.  Anyway, it's link up time with WIP Wednesday.

See you at www.freshlypieced.com.  love always, k

Frames, the Back, It is Beautiful

I love my new Frames quilt, a pattern I tested for Aria Lane patterns.  But, I have to admit, I am equally pleased with how the back turned out...

Isn't it just fun?  I used Painter's Canvas in strong purple and the kona white that I used for the Frames top.  I think it turned out incredible.

Since I didn't have quite enough of the purple to go around, I "framed" the entire back in kona white.  It is so pretty.  Now I need to figure out how to quilt it!  love always, k

Frames, a new quilt pattern I have been testing

I was quiet last week, right?  Well,  I have been chosen as a pattern tester for Aria Lane patterns, owned by Alyssa Lichner of Pile O Fabric (www.pileofabric.com).  Last week I got the privilege of testing one of her new patterns, Frames.  It is being published and is now available as a PDF so Alyssa said it was okay for us testers to post our pictures.  It was a lot of fun to do the testing, and she said I even had some helpful things to say! So, TADA, here is my version of Frames:

Frames by Megan Nichols from Aria Lane patterns

I made it with a couple of jelly rolls of Simply Color Ombre and Kona White..  

Frames quilt top in Simply Color Ombre

I love how the Ombre comes out in the Frame, and gives it a depth that would not happen if I used a plain colors.  I was wondering how Frames would look in bright prints as the frames, well maybe one of the other testers did that.  

And of course, I only use 50# Aurifil 2025 for piecing.  It really is the best!

The back is really fun too, but you have to wait until tomorrow to see that!

love always, k

Stash Share with Pile O Fabric

Again it is time for Stash Share with Alyssa at Pileofabric.com.  She picked a tough one this week, but I got it nailed...  Check it out on her website and see if I didn't get really close...

Don't you love the bubbles?  I was at Millie P's Quilt Shop last week with my bff Carol and I have been eyeing them for several weeks...  Aren't they cute?

Well, how did I do?  Love always, k

Book Review - Inferno by Dan Brown

This is unique, I don't typically do book reviews, but this book is mind boggling.  First of all, it is by the author of the Davinci Code and the movie stars Tom Hanks.  Well Tom Hanks makes for a great movie...  Inferno is well written, takes place mostly in Italy and Dante (wrote the Inferno) has a lot of really fun information about Italy, and it is very much the same adventurous fun as the other books by this author.

But, Brown delves into a topic that is current and serious, that of the future exponential growth in population and our limited resources to handle this growth.  He paints a scary picture and I have to admit that I was scared.

If you read the book as a fun entertaining sequel to the Davinci Code, then you won't be disappointed.  But be aware before you pick it up, it might just scare you.
love always, k

Finished Friday, the Wedding Quilt

The wedding quilt had to be done to go to the Iowa wedding on Friday, so I am calling it Finished Friday!  Here are some pictures.  The blocks are paper pieced multi color and the in between is a red and black ginkgo leaves block.  The theme of the wedding was red and black so the ginkgoes fit well while the paper pieced blocks made it much more colorful and bright.

For the paper pieced blocks, I quilted a section to highlight the star, just in the ditch.  On the ginkgo leaves, I did a crossed canoe.  It looked really nice I thought.  (Although hard to see in the picture)

The backing is a more orange red ginkgo with a black border.  I need to say one thing about washing quilts.  I did a lot of line marking to make the crossed canoes.  The quilt needed washing, you can see it kind of puffed up in the pictures.  However, the paper pieced blocks were made with batiks and the black was very black.  I used quilt soap and I put a couple of Shout Color catchers in the wash.

You can see they were well used.  I maybe should have used more than two, but the color of the batik blocks did not dull so I think it was enough.  Clear warning when using dark colors with lights, Color Catchers can make a huge difference on how your quilt looks after washing!

Poor Sadie

One of the things I was busy with last weekend was my poor baby Sadie girl got stung by a bee.  Well, we did not know this at first, but she all of a sudden swelled up in the face like this:

Doesn't she just look so sad and pathetic?  So we rushed her in to the vet at 8:15 on Saturday morning and she got a shot and some allergy pills.  Dr. Hedges said it looked like a bee sting.  Poor baby.

Now $98 and a few days later, she is as good as new.

Thanks Dr. Hedges!  And yes, she is normally all curled up on the sofa.  Her favorite thing to do is snooze, bee sting or no bee sting.  Love always, k

Sunday Stash Share with pileofabric.com, a few days late

Okay, I am a few days late.  Life gets the best of me on the weekends.  Kids and hubby stuff mostly.  But, I have also been working on the quilt for my nephew's wedding this weekend.  Right now I am washing (gently please) out the quilting marks and hopefully all of the fuzz.  Gosh, does black collect fuzz!  Anyway, the quilt is primarily black and red so the fuzz shows everywhere!

Anyway, here is my Sunday Stash share.  Check out Alyssa's at www.pileofabric.com and see how close I came.  I think I did pretty well...

So, how did I do?  Love always, k

WIP Work in Progress Wednesday

It's Wednesday so it is time for WIP!  I have to admit that it seems lik a good idea to kill two birds with one stone and show my Molli Sparkles QAL.

And well, I have been fighting the creeping crud for a while, it has kept me from accomplishing all that I want to.  It now has turned into a sinus infection and pink eye in bith eyes so at least now I have drugs to help cure it!

So, here is my WIP Wednesday

lots and lots of strips cut to make into the broken herringbone blocks for the MSBHQAL (or for you who don't know, the Molli Sparkles Broken Herringbone Quilt Along...  Remember this block?

that's the one...  now let me see if I can get a few more done.  love always, k