Kate Spain blog hop

Howdy Folks,

Have you been following the Kate Spain blog hop put on by Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts? Lots of lovely projects out there using Kate Spain fabrics. And lots of great prizes too.

Today, Alyce is having  a linky party for showing off what you have made with any KS fabrics.

For me, I love her Terrain line. The white print on my diaper bag is my very favorite.

I also made a baby carrier from this print.

Central Park is also a favorite of mine. I had a mini charm pack at one point and made this quilt with it, a mini of Lovely and some stash fabric.

Thanks for the great blog hop Alyce!

 

A couple of finishes...

Yah! My two little quilts are done! I've worked on both these earlier last year. So it's nice to have a few UFO's now finishes.

My butterfly quilt. I made this for a Q&N challenge we did.

Measures around 36"x 29". Perfect for a newborn.

 

 I think it would be perfect on the wall above a little girls crib. Here's an upclose of the quilting and the cute polk a dot binding.

 And the backing. Just used this all over butterfly, with a bright spot for a label.

And here's my Sunshine walk in Central Park. I posted about this quilt when I did my DP16 patch tutorial on Sew We Quilt.

It measures at about 40" x 40".

I quilted it using diagonal lines on either side of the seams. Going thru the blank squares.

 

I love how it turned out!! Here's the back. I used the same butterfly fabric. With a color spot for my label.

Whew, 2 down....a billion to go ;)

Have a great day all.

a New Year Goal

Hello all,
I don't make resolutions. But this year I've decided I REALLY need to make a goal to get some of this quilted!

Look at this stack! It's only about HALF of what I have, that needs to be quilted. How did it get this bad??

Four years ago I joined the Quilt and needle forum. It had just started up, and I followed them from another site that we had all been on together. Jess is the owner of the Q&N. Before I started hanging out with these Gals, I would sew some things here and there. Hand quilt a quilt, and give it to one of my kids, or put it on the bed, or whatever it was for.

After the Q&N started up, I started testing patterns for Jess and her Mom, Connie. Jess and Connie taught me A LOT about quilting. I had been a self learner, getting books from the library and eventually reading things online. But testing for these two gals, showed me different ways and methods of doing things. And I got totally hooked on quilting. Much more so than in the previous 14yrs!!

For the past 4 yrs, I've tested all the mystery quilts Jess has made (that's 4 or 5 a year). I started setting the quilt tops aside, as my hands were starting to hurt me and I didn't know why. Just holding a needle and sewing was very painful though. Then I found out I have fibromyalgia.  I've taken meds for it, but the  numbness in my fingers persisted. The Dr said it's probably my ulna nerve, and I have to have a quick, easy op in order to fix it.

Well, that op hasn't happened yet....And a year or so ago, I started making my own quilt patterns, and piecing my own tops, runners, baby quilts, etc. So that also added to the pile of tops I was making testing patterns....it's easy to see how quickly my pile grew.

So, this is the year of quilting for me! A goal that I need to start doing. I am now teaching myself to machine quilt. And having a lot of fun!!! I know I need to get a walking foot, but I sew on an old treadle, and am not sure if I can find one that fits. I have to start researching. I don't think I will do much FM quilting, unless I get bored with the straight line quilting I am doing now. We shall see.

But I have started on that pile!

I am almost finished with my third baby quilt! Next I want to do a few of my wall hangings. Then maybe I'll be ready to move on to a bigger top. Here's what I've been sewing on lately.

This is my butterfly quilt, I made as a challenge on the Q&N forum. I think it would look soooo cute above a baby girl's crib, hanging on the wall.

And here is my Sunkissed Walk thru Central Park quilt!

 

It just needs a binding and it's all done. I love it!

Looking at these pictures, you can see why I need a walking foot. I know it will help with the bit of puckering here and there.

Wish me luck. lol. It will be nice to see some more of my quilts on the walls and beds by the end of the year.

Toodle-o for now.

 

Guest blogging

 I told you I would 'reveal all' on my DP16 patches today. Here is one of my tops.

 You can read all about it, and a few other DP projects on.....







YES, I am guest blogging at the Stash today!!! WOOHOOO :)
Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

Quilt as you go....quilt

 I have a new tutorial up at the Q&N. It's on making a larger than table runner, quilt as you go project.

 

I made just a small top. Just to do the tutorial. Nice and Springlike though, yes?

 Linking up with H&M today. Thanks so much Heather and Megan, I love this link party!

For those of you looking forward to seeing what I did with these....

Come back on Thursday, and I will reveal all! LOL

Another sneakpeek at it....

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

Sneak peeks and another prize

Hello everybody!

I hope those of you in inclement/bad weather are doing ok. My thoughts and prayers to those in the path of hurricanes.

I shall have to go take some pictures of our Redbud. The flowers are finally starting to open. I just love their color.

For today, I have a look at some lovely fabric I won a month or so ago, in the Pillow talk blog hop. I want to thank Lissa (of Moda Lissa) for the great fabrics!

They came in this adorable light green with chocolate dots (reminds me of my favorite ice cream, mint chocolate chip, lol!) bag.

Fandango, by Kate Spain!! And some Lily and Will from Anne Sutton!!

Fandango has some great colors. These are charm packs, so 42 pieces in all. Some from each of these color ways.

Lilly and Will, so sophisticated! A charm pack too.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now for some sneak peeks of the disappearing 16 patches I've been working on. You'll be able to see the whole things in late June, sorry for the wait :)

The first one used some off-white tone on tones I had in my stash. This was fun design. I just hope that I can write it up well, as it's a little tricky.

This one I was going to use a solid white, or tone on tone white. But then I remembered I had some of this gorgeous gray Sunkissed in my stash!

Perfect!! I think I'll call it A Lovely Sunkissed walk in Central Park, as that's the 3 major fabric lines in this quilt. LOL

 Hope you enjoyed my sneak peeks.

Have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

DP16 progress....and a finish

Good Tuesday morning! You know what that means....






So here is my progress on my DP16 patches. I decided to go with this block.

I have 9 blocks, 2 each of all of them, except this red/blue.

I'll be ordering some solid white this week, to get these blocks in a quilt top.

~~~~~~~~

And now a finish.... This is my FQ bag.

  My Grandma is 88 yrs old. She and her Mother both quilted, crochet and knitted.

 My Grandma has headaches and dizzy spells, her eyes get tired easily....but she still can make her newest Great-Grand DD a quilt! I hope I am still quilting at age 88!!

So she emailed me a few days ago, and asked if I would make her another purse. She loved the one I gave her last year for her birthday, but needs one a bit bigger.

 

 

I hope Grandma likes her new purse!

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

Fabric Tuesday

It's fabric Tuesday again, over at Quilt Story...




Besides finishing another ditty bag and finishing up the mystery quilt from the Q&N, I've been working on my disappearing 16-patches.

                                          
Here are all the colors I'm working with, 4 triangles of each.

I got the inspiration from Melissa, at Happy Quilting. Here is how she did her's. I chose to go with some tone on tone and solid prints, to put together with the petit fours I had of Lovely and Central Park.

I am just trying to figure out how I want to lay mine out. I don't want to do it the same way as Melissa, although that looks lovely. Just not the design I am looking for.

I could put them simply, like this.

 

 

 Or put them like this...with or without borders or sashing. This purple and blue colorways are my favorite, although the yellow and orange color way from Central Park is right up there with them.

 

Pinwheels look neat too.

I want to buy some solid white, so I can play with sashing and borders.

What do you think? Have you done any disappearing 16 patches? I would love to see photos.

Have a great day.

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian