Happy Birthday to One of My Biggest Supporters

When did this adorable little boy

become this amazing, strong 27 year old man?

(Photo courtesy of Essex Base Ball Club - 19th Century Vintage Baseball.

Happy Birthday, son.  Thank you for the gift these 27 years with you have been!  I hope you celebrate like it's 1860!

Kerchief Quilt Top and New Toy!

Rainy weather meant that I could finish the quilt top being made from Kasey's "spa" scarves:

My husband and I spent an afternoon working on the layout of this hodge-podge pile of scarves; I think it came together just fine!  Next step is to quilt it...which brings me to a BIG announcement!

Since the beginning of my quilt making adventure last year, I have loved the quilting stage.  This is some of the quilting I have done on my domestic machine.

 Flowers on my first finished quilt.

 Leaves on pillows.

 Snoopy's Flight Path

But it was the FMQ'ing on this queen size quilt that just about did me in.

And I have a growing queue of quilt tops waiting for quilting affection:

 It is time to get serious....say hello to my latest quilting tool.

I am in love.  It is still early in our relationship but the day after we set her up I was working on a quilt (see the final pictures of this wedding gift here).    I have connected with a very active group of folks in Yahoo who have a lot of good suggestions for optimizing the use of these sit down quilting machines.  I have a lot to learn for sure but I am so excited about playing with this machine!

This is the final week of the Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop!  Participating in this blog hop has been such a wonderful experience!  I have learned so much from the other bloggers and met some amazingly talented and fun people!  The hosts this week are:

Vicki @ A Quilter's Mission

RobinSue @ RobinSue Quilts

Elisa Lea @ Lovelea Designs

Elizabeth @ In The Boon Docks

Jenny @ A Note To Follow Sew

Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Sonia @ Fabric & Flowers

Emily @ Sew E.T.

Em @ Sewing by Moonlight

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!  Linking up with crazy mom!

WIP's in a Bag

Celebrating my sons' birthday has taken priority over sewing this week.  One of the twins lives in Chicago and was able to come home for a few days to celebrate with the family.   It is only a few times a year that we are able to get all the children and their other halves together, making these times precious.  In case you missed it, here is their birthday post from last week.

Mr. KayakQuilting and I did manage to decide on a layout for the HST blocks for Kasey's Kerchief Quilt.  I love how involved my other half has been in this project!  Maybe I will get him to stitch a block or two together!

Can you guess the pattern?

We have a little break in the schedule and have moved operations up to the lake.  This is my traveling WIP bag that includes all my good intentions.

 But let's be honest, it is a beautiful morning.  I am heading out for a walk, then some blueberry picking, then my mother- and sister-in-law are visiting (yeah!)....well, I may not get to that bag for a day or two!

Happy Wednesday!

Something Old

Many years ago, my husband's Aunt Arlene gave each member of the family a section of a quilt that had been made by a long ago relative.  At the time, I had no interest in quilting but I found the pieces to be just lovely.  The fabric and the detailed hand sewing really touched me.  I thought about the woman who found odd pieces of fabric, hand sewed them together and then embellished each patch with beautiful handwork.  So, I framed the two pieces we inherited and they are hanging in my living room.

And now that I have started to quilt, I am even more impressed by these two pieces and feel so fortunate to have this family history in our home.

Although this may not be exactly what Karen had in mind, her linky party did remind me about these wonderful quilt pieces and that I should share them with you!  Therefore, I am linking up with:

                                                        

Karen at Quilty Creations Something Old Something New Challenge.  

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Kathy 

A Wedding Gift Finish!

I shared with you in this earlier post my trip to Washington to celebrate the wedding of my best buddy from high school days.  The wedding was amazing and I just could not be happier for this wonderful couple! Now, I can share the wedding gift (warning:  lots of pictures!).

The facts on this one:
Fabric:  Sew Mama Sew by Sweetwater
Pattern:  Katie's Quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Company
Star pattern on the back:  Tutorial from Owen's Olivia
Quilting:  All over loopy squiggle (how's that for official sounding?)
Size:  Approx.  70" X 58"

I hope they enjoy snuggling together with this quilt!  Linking up with crazy mom's Finish It Up Friday.

Have a lovely weekend!
Kathy

Seems Like Yesterday

...that these adorable little boys were born:

but it was actually 24 years ago today!  And I could not be prouder of the wonderful men they have become!  Love you guys!

In quilting news, I have completed the 60 blocks for Kasey's Kerchief Quilt:

Please remember to stop by this week's bloggers in the 2013 Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop led by the wonderful Beth at Plum and June:

Sew and So Farm

Wombat Quilts

{no} hats in the house

playcrafts

627handworks

Let's Begin Sewing . . .

Quilting Along the Grain

Love by

Quilty Creations

I am sure you will enjoy getting to know some new bloggers!

Happy Wednesday!

 
PS  Did I mention that those "little babies" weighed in at 8 pounds 6 oz and 10 pounds 5 oz.?  Just throwing that fun fact in to see how many of you actually read this far down in my posts!

Summer Day Sewing

Some days the weather is so beautiful, you just have to take your work outside.

Three sides to go in handsewing down the binding.

My super-supportive and observant husband came up with the idea for my next project.  We lost our beautiful dog Kasey about a month ago (blogged about here and here) and have been slowly deciding what to do with all her things.  This is a collection of scarves from her spa days over the years:

Mr. KayakQuilting observed that triangles were a common shape used in quilting and suggested "we" make a quilt...great idea!  A little while later, this random collection of various shaped triangles became this pile:

...on the way to being a Kasey Kerchief Quilt.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Kathy

I'm Back from Washington!

Hi!  My goodness I have missed chatting with you!  I just returned from a week in Roy, Washington (a little town south of Tacoma) celebrating the marriage of my best friend from high school's wedding!  (Check my bio...this was a JUST A FEW years ago!)  It really is a wonderful love story.  Janet and Dave met and dated briefly while we were all in high school.  But then Dave went off to the military, Janet to her career and they lost touch.  Roll the clock forward, they reconnected and married on July 6th.

The view of Mt. Rainier from Janet's street.  Amazing.

Her sisters and I were there for a week and as the "city" of Roy hosts a 4th of July parade, well we just HAD to make a float....more specifically, a wedding cake float!

Here I am driving my very first golf cart/wedding cake float around to the back of the house to hide it from the bride.  My buddy was stealing me away from this secret activity so we could....wait for it...go quilt shop visiting!  Yeah!  The Worldwide Quilt Shop Hop continues!  I love that gal!

Here we are in front of the Quilt Barn in Puyallup (I love to say Puy-allup!).  The very friendly people there gave me a LONG list of quilt shops in Western Washington to help me plan my next visit to see my friend!  From this shop I added these fun pieces to the stash:

Then we stopped at Parkland Parish Quilt Co.:

I had to pick up a little more of my favorite Christmas collection from last year, Dear Mr. Clause:

I just love those whistling Santas!

The morning of the parade we told the couple that they were going to be IN the parade and unveiled our project:

We had family and friends dressed in Boston sports or Boston Strong shirts and marched along to "Sweet Caroline."   So much fun.

It was a wonderful vacation.  In addition to the parade float, I had lots of craft opportunities helping to prepare for the wedding.  Although I was away from my sewing room, I certainly got my craft fix for the week!  But, most importantly, it was a beautiful wedding and my heart is bursting with happiness for my dear friend.

Now that I am back, I need to finish the wedding gift!  The binding is on, time for hand sewing!

Oh and did I mention that my friend Janet is the conference coordinator for the annual Sewing and Stitching Expo in Puyallup?  Although she doesn't sew much herself she certainly knows a lot about the industry!  One of these years, I am going to attend this Expo, it looks amazing.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!