First in a long line!

I realize this is not a quilt. But I have been finishing a lot of yarn projects lately as well. I once saw a picture in a magazine of a bunch of white throws piled together on the end of a couch and thought they looked so neat, with all their various textures. I wanted a similar pile for my couch. Oops, I don't even have a couch. But I will soon be getting rid of a lot of the furniture I have in this house in favor of a daybed that can be used as an extra sleeping place for a guest. So that's what I have in mind. A bunch of white and off-white throws to go on a daybed in my livingroom. I'll finish some quilting project for tomorrow now. Stay tuned! Cindy

Still Trying!

This year, I'm going to focus on finishing as many quilting projects as I can. I am now a writer and as such I need to focus mostly on my writing career, but I still have this hobby taking up a lot of space in my house, if not my head! So I need to finish off these projects once and for all. I already have plans on how I am going to get rid of a few of them. I have one gold charity quilt on my list that I think I need not finish. If I simply give it to our charity group it will get done in some way shape or form. I'm thinking that there might be a few others I can get rid of in that way as well. So that will be one piece of progress that I'll report on after the next guild meeting. I plan to do these things piece mail (so to speak)(GRIN). My goal is to get one major portion of each project done daily after spending the first three hours of each day on my writing career. I will choose one project from the lists at the right and I will set a goal to finish at least one major step in the process of finishing that project. For example: For the Lone Star quilt, I already have the strips cut for the star points, so the next step is to sew each individual point together. I have that job nearly half way finished already so that would make an easy finish. Once that is finished the next step would be to put them together into a star and add the corner squares and triangles. Then the next step would be to cut and attach the borders. My focus at the moment is to finish the piecing of these quilts. So I would stop there and let the quilt sit in the box I have for finished quilt tops. Eventually I intend to match up these quilt tops front to back and machine quilt them, that way I have two-sided quilts. It gets rid of the projects twice as fast. I'm not worried about this method. I already have plenty of quilts for my beds and my family all have a quilt made by me with few exceptions (and I'm taking care of those this year too). So that's the goal! Once these last four lists are all empty and gone, I will start with the machine quilting and binding. Those are my favorite steps so I will enjoy them when they get here later on this year. I will post nightly (I hope) with my progress. Watch as my lists disappear into the cosmos and more finished quilts ready themselves for the 2014 quilt show in Traverse City Michigan. More on that later! Have fun, friends. I know I will! Cindy K.-K.

Recent Finishes, 2012-2013 Retreats

Cat ISpy Quilt. Someone asked how many different cat fabrics are in this quilt. I have no freaking idea! But it's more than 100! There are 500 individual hexagons in this quilt and all are bordered with triangles with little muddy cat paw prints. I ran out of this great print when I did the last few rows that made it long enough. I plan to border it in a black print and paint more bigger muddy cat prints on the borders. If I take it to the next retreat I will easily get it done. It's such a huge quilt that need the table space available at retreats to do it. Can't do it at home, not enough space.

Japanese Circles This was a hand applique quilt. I'm not sure if it's finished. I would have to find the exact right fabric for it if I were to add a border. Not sure it needs it. I am taking opinions!

Haunted Log Cabin Another in my long line of Halloween quilts in my effort to declutter my stash of Halloween fabrics. I am almost there!

Mended Purple Hearts One of the designs from Quiltlynx Designs. I got this quilt finished and set it in shop in order to sell some of the patterns. People started noticing it and wanting a class in this technique. So now we have an on-going Block of the Month class where they make the heart block the first month and then each month after that they machine quilt two or three of the hearts using a different free-motion fill in stitch from Leah Day's Free-motion project blog.

Embroidered Halloween Quilt I found this cute little quilt in a magazine and needed to do it at once. It also used some of the Halloween fabric stash, but the fun part was the hand embroidery using Pearl Cotton number 8. Hadn't done that in ages!

Batik Lady of the Lake Another quilt I've been wanting to do for a long time. This uses those watery colored batiks to perfection. So much fun to make. I now wish I had made it even bigger. I need to add borders to make it into a full sized bed quilt.

Mended Heart of Sandyhook At a gathering of some quilting friends recently we all commented on how deeply we were struck by the tragedy at Sandyhook Elementary. We decided to make this quilt for them. They are going to be using it as a fundraiser for their school.

Zentangle Families "150 Sister" is a tribute to my friend Karen who died of Ovarian Cancer. When she told the nurse who was allowed to come see her in the hospital she told her to just let everyone through because she had 150 Sisters. She meant the 150 members of our Quilt quild! Zentangle Families is another Quiltlynx design available at Interquilten. (See my links at right)

Tangle BOM Last and probably least, is this Thangle Block of the Month. This was the first BOM that we did at the shop. We have learned a little more about it now! I liked this color option so I added some colors of my own to make it more mine. But I got it done! That's the important part.

I will post again as soon as I am able to get pictures taken of what I did in February.--Cindy