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!

2013 New Blogger Blog Hop is Here!

(Wowser...I can't believe I am typing these words.)  Welcome to my stop on the 2013 Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop!  Beth at Plum and June is an amazing supporter of our blog community.  In addition to hosting this annual blog hop that introduces new bloggers, she also hosts a weekly Let's Get Acquainted Monday Linky party and regular Advice and Tech Help for New Bloggers.  Thank you Beth for helping me and so many others!

Welcome to KayakQuilting!  Let me share what I think you might find interesting.  If I have overlooked something that will cause you sleepless nights, please do not hesitate to leave a comment and I will reply!

Who is Kathy?
Take a peek at the above pages "Who's in That Kayak" and "Beyond My Sewing Machine" for more information about the blog author.

(Picture is in front of The Needle Shop in Chicago.  Part of our global quilt store tour.)

There will be a quiz later.

Why KayakQuilting?
Now you know why the name, but why the blog?  I started my blog last October (with a lot of help from my wonderful almost-DIL!) as a way to journal my quilting adventure and create a dialogue with the quilting blog community that had (unknowingly) been teaching me how to quilt.  My first year blog and quilting goals included:

1. Participate in a giveaway.
2. Participate in an on-line quilt festival.
3. Increase number of followers to 50
4. Participate in blog hop
5. Participate in a bee
6. Join a quilting guild
7. Participate in one Block of the Month project

I have a lot more work to do on the blog but honestly I have been focusing on the content.  Isn't it really all about the projects?

Speaking of Projects
I have updated my little blog to include pages above showing some of my finishes since I started quilting last year.   These are some of my favorite quilts:

And some of my fave small projects:

And I do have a thing for interesting backsides:

But it's not all love
To be honest, I don't love all aspects of quilting.  Planning projects, fabric selection, piecing, quilting and hand binding are all wonderful!  Crawling around on the floor to baste the larger projects is just not fun (but I do count it as exercise!).

Fabric Acquisition
I get it.  I completely understand why people hoard  fabric.  Believe me, I have tried to avoid this temptation with very little success.  Instead, I have little piles like this to look at:

I have just discovered Tula Pink and I can't stop adding her fabric to my modest (but growing!) fabric collection.

Which leads me to the discussion of...

My Sewing Room
The blog post that has had the greatest number of views (by far!) in my short blogging history is this one where I reveal my new sewing room.   To summarize, this is the "before" picture:

And this is after the improvements:

Not much has changed in the room since the pictures in the post (except for the continuous addition and usage of fabric!) but I have great plans!  And I can't tell you how much fun I have had in my own little quilt cave!  But I am sure you can imagine...

Teaser
OK, at least I am being honest about it...do come back to visit my blog in a couple of days.  I have something very, very exciting to share with you!

Thanks so much for taking the time to read all this!   I hope you have enjoyed your visit here and you're welcome to stop by anytime!  Here are all the fun stops on the blog hop this week....enjoy!

Gwendellyn @ The Rainbow Revolts

Jessica @ Stitched In Thyme

Amira @ Little Mushroom Cap

Kathy @ Kayak Quilting  <= You are here!

Michelle @ Factotum Of Arts

Kris @ Sew Sunshine

Camilla @ Faffling
Paula @ The Sassy Quilter

Green @ So Sew Green

Thanks!

Kathy

PS  I am heading to Seattle next week for my next stop on my global quilt shop tour a wedding.  Any suggestions for fabric shops in the region are greatly appreciated!  Also, as I will be traveling and spending time with the bride, my response to comments may be a little slower than normal.  But I promise to get back to you!  

WIP Wednesday Odds and Ends

Have I told you how much I dislike basting quilts?

I keep reminding myself that I have to get through this stage to get to my favorite part...the quilting.

Beautiful scraps need to be used.  These are left over from the Sea Glass quilt and are destined to be a small pillow for the bedroom.

And I am thinking about starting a project with these squares:

I love the feel and texture of Essex Linen but it definitely is stiffer than the 100% cotton.  I am curious to see how they play together.

I hope you have a chance to come by and visit again soon!   I am working on a couple of posts that you might find interesting!  In the interim, it is Wednesday:

I am also linking up with Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation linky party.  Kelly is one of the amazing bloggers I have "met" being part of Plum and June's 2013 New Blogger Blog Hop!  More on THAT topic soon!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kathy

Happy First Day of Summer

When it looks like this outside, it is really impossible to be inside and sew.

But I will use this lack of sewing as an excuse to share with you a couple of completed projects from another little favorite activity of mine, cross stitching.  This project literally took years to finish.  Between kids, work, etc. the only time I really worked on this was when traveling.  The miles this project has seen....vacations, business trips, car rides.  The density of the stitching and very frequent floss changes made for slow going.  I debated not finishing it but one day I realized I was beyond the mid-point to completion.  The only photos I have are under glass as I had it framed immediately after that last X was crossed!  Sorry guys, love ya but not taking it out from under the glass.

It really is lovely (including metallic thread in the windows and doors for reflection a la Thomas Kinkade).

And then this wedding sampler on linen as a shower gift for my son and his future wife (also under glass and framed):

This was so much fun to work on and confirmed beyond any doubt that my eyesight is not getting any better!

After these two mega projects, my cross stitching has been limited to small Christmas ornaments and simple patterns.  Almost ready for another challenge...

Hope everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is enjoying this longest day of the year.   It is a beauty here in New England!  Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts!