Day of Silence for Remembrance & Prayer

Day of Silence for Remembrance & Prayer

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 07:51 AM PST

Tuesday, December 18th, there will be a blogger day of silence. If possible, please try to not post anything other than the above button (feel free to right click and save the above image if you want to upload it to your own blog).

Money is also being raised that will go to an organization in the memory of this tragedy. The organization is called The Newtown Family Youth and Family Services. Here is the official description of the support service being donated to:

"Newtown Youth and Family Services, Inc. is a licensed, non-profit, mental health clinic and youth services bureau dedicated to helping children and families achieve their highest potential. NYFS provides programs, services, activities, counseling, support groups and education throughout the Greater Newtown area.

ANY DONATIONS MADE TO NEWTOWN YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES WILL BE DONATED DIRECTLY TO THOSE EFFECTED BY THE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING."

Please visit THIS PAGE to make your donation.

And please feel free to copy and share - I did!!!

Love and Blessings

Kate

Time is Flying by!!

Wow, I cant believe how fast time is flying by and it is almost Christmas!! It has just seriously snuck up on me this year. 

This quilt is the Yellow Brick Road pattern and I used Terrain by Kate Spain. I made it as a gift for the wonderful manager at Starbucks who always makes sure I have my frappachinos , Even during all my hospital stays, I always had one. I do not think she even realizes how much her kindness meant to me.  I hope this , in some small way, showed her that her kindness mattered and was appreciated more than she knew. 

The funny thing about this pattern is that as long as I worked on it and looked at it, I could never make sense of the pattern.  It had no rhyme or reason to me!  LOL I had to follow the layout exactly.

I did an all over stipple design for the quilting because it seemed so busy to me as it was.

This is my kitty Connah, He is a long haired Scottish Fold and a huge ham!! He posed in every position he could think of on the quilt. He just didn't want to get off it!

I think I am going to need to make him one of his own :)

So, how are you all doing getting ready for Christmas? Are you ready? Do you think you will have all your projects done in time?

Have a great and blessed day! I will be back in a few days to post my Christmas wallhangings ( in the works since last year :)  )
Hugs
Kate

Fall in New Hampshire

I had said awhile ago that I was going to post some foliage pictures and I am finally getting around to doing it! One thing on the plus side, it is still fall even though all the leaves have fallen off the trees. :)

 I hope you enjoy these pictures or better yet, come to New Hampshire in the fall and visit for yourself!!

Old New England Farmhouse

Thanksgiving dinner :)

Awesome old covered bridge

Mt. Washington Auto Road 

Mt. Washington has the worlds worst weather at the top. You never know what it will be like. They have a weather observatory at the top I always wanted to spend a night in.  This auto road they use to actually race cars to the top! Seriously LOL and this was back in the 40s !

This is the road up the mountain.

2000 feet

about 3000 feet

at 4000 feet they closed the road as the weather was getting so bad so we couldn't go all the way up. It was so windy the car was rocking like a boat in a bad storm and it was snowing and starting to sleet so it was time to head back down.

lobster traps

This is not a fall picture but a picture I ran across of the Bounty when it was in port in Portsmouth NH. This is the ship that sank of the coast of NC during Hurricane Sandy

She was a beauty.

Well. this is pretty picture intense so I will stop now. Will do another posting of my area in the near future. I have so many pictures but I am not going to bore you with them all :) 

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!!!

hugs and blessings

Kate

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Hi and welcome!!!  

This is my second time entering the Blogger's Quilt Festival at AmysCreativeSide.  I think it is a wonderful chance for quilters of all levels to participate in an online quilt show. Also it is alot of fun and so inspirational to check out everyone's entries.

My entry this time is a quilt I made in honor of my 7 year old grandson doing his first Walk for a cure walk. I am so very proud of him and didn't think just donating money was enough so I made this quilt for them to raffle off. I actually surprised myself on so many levels making this!  The free motion quilting in the center is something I never even dared to try much less with no pattern. If you have followed any of my postings you will know that I am new to machine quilting. I do it on my home machine and just started this past spring. I got this idea in my head for a design and how I managed to make it still totally amazes me!  LOL I did manage to do it though, and am pretty proud of it.

details of center of  quilt

at the walk

They were pleased with it and made alot more money on it than I thought possible so all went well.

My daughter, Melissa and grandson , Noah at the walk. Noah was the second highest earner on his team!! Yay Noah!!!

So anyway :) the details. 

quilt size 60 x 60

pieced and quilte by me :)

machine pieced and quilted on home machine

categories  throw quilt

                  machine quilted on home machine

Thanks so much for stopping and make sure to visit all the quilts !!

hugs and blessings 

Kate

100 Quilts for Kids

Hi ! It has been awhile ..... I have been busy working on my quilts for the 100 Quilts for Kids project  that Katie is sponsoring at Swim, Bike, Quilt . I have a few in the process and I was going to wait to post them at the same time but I am waiting on a new foot for my machine so only posting one.  You still have time to link up for this, it is a wonderful project that will make alot of kids feel good.

I have a problem when I am working on a project, I don't like to show it till everything is done. I have parts to several projects done and I feel funny posting them till the whole thing is complete. Crazy huh?

Anyway, here is my quilt for kids :)   I made it using an assortment of frog prints and white Kona. The backing I bought on Ebay. It is a Free Spirit fabric. The place I got it puts all kinds of fabrics on sale for 1.84 yd. You cant beat that for backing fabric. If anyone wants the name of the place let me know and I will give it to you.

I know it is VERY green!! LOL seems like all the frog prints come in green!!

I am doing a little better on the free motion. I am enjoying it alot too. I really didn't think that I would but I do.  I am not panicking now and that helps :)  Just a matter of lots more practicing.

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall. I am in NH and the leaves are changing and the night are cool and the air so fresh and crisp. I think it has to be my favorite season.  We are going leave peeping in a the next week or so when it reaches peak and I will post some pictures for you. Running up the coastline with the foliage on one side and the ocean on the other is just so beautiful.  This is the time of year when I miss being able to just walk around and do what I want. blah.... I would be in the kitchen cooking up a storm, fresh apple crisps, home made soups from all the harvests. The house use to smell so good with the cooking. I don't know what it is about fall that makes me want to cook!!  I am also hoping to get down to Salem Mass to all the witch houses. When it gets closer to Halloween it is fantastic there. So much going on. I will take pictures of that for you too.  Hopefully I will develop some better camera skills over the next month :)  I miss my old simple to use camera. It was easy, no adjusting all the time and took fantastic pictures. Why do they have to complicate everything?

Well I hope you all have a great day and pleasant sewing experiences !!

hugs and blessings

Kate

Fun Tutorials

I don't know how many of you watch Jenny at the Missouri Star Quilt Shop, she makes the best video tutorials I have seen.  I thought it would be fun today to share some of my favorites with you.
These are all beginner ones with some great ideas. I hope you enjoy!!
Have a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!!
Kate

 

 

Half Square Triangles

 



 

Tube Tutorial

Hour glass block

 

Dresden plate

 

Panels !!

I meant to post this right after the last post but I have had several down days and am now finally getting to it, Sheesh, I hate feeling like I am running so behind!

I really like panels. I know alot of people consider them cheating but I think they can really add alot to your quilts. It gives you alot more options as far as showing scenes. I have a few projects coming up to share with you done with panels.

This quilt was made from the Sea of Dreams collection by South Sea Imports. My youngest grandson picked it out for his quilt when the fabric first came out.  When they came to visit a few weeks ago, his little face just lit up and he was MINE! That one is mine! I was surprised he remembered it but he did. He carried it all over and insisted to sleep with it. I hope when he goes home he remembers that is is full of love and hugs every time he uses it.

The back 

The quilting  free motion is getting a bit easier )

Nathan with his quilt :)

So, what do you all think of panels? Do you use them? I did add several borders too it but he was just in love with all the animals in the ark

Many blessings and have a wonderful week!!

Kate

I'm back =)

The red, the white and the blue.....done!

Hi ! I didn't mean to stay away so long but life happens as we all know. My grandsons came to visit last week and I had promised to make them both quilts. They both picked out just what they wanted and several months ago I got started. For some reason the deadline was getting close to them coming and they were no where near ready. Noah ( the oldest one ) wanted a red , white and blue quilt and even picked the pattern. For some reason this quilt would not cooperate with me at all!! I ripped it out and ripped it out till I had to stop before there was no fabric left :)  As you can see the stars didn't turn out to be stars.

I used a Superior Rainbow thread in red, white and blue to do the quilting. This is my first actual free motion quilt where it is done start to finish with nothing other than the free motion. (May I add ... the next time I try to stuff a full size quilt through my sewing machine to quilt it when I don't know what I am doing ... hit me in the head, PLEASE!!! )

the back has the Pledge of Allegiance 

with blue borders

of course I filled it with lots of hiding hearts and his name!

There are a lot of jigs and jags in my quilting as you can see. At first I ripped them out every time and finally I gave in and acknowledged there is a learning curve and it will take time to make it all nice. In the end he was thrilled with it. He had it with him everywhere in the house and slept with it, hugged it, and told me how much he loved it a dozen or so times :) He never even noticed the jigs! That made it all worth it!

In the next day or two I will post about the little ones quilt :)

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Kate

And the winner is..........

Welcome to all my new followers! I hope to have alot of good stuff in store for you and many more giveaways in the future. With so many wonderful comments I feel bad that everyone couldn't win. Thank you to all who stopped by and entered.
So anyway the winner of my first giveaway is.........

BonnieJuly 16, 2012 5:10 AM

I am a new follower. Your block is great. After reading through your blog I am inspired by your spirit. Thanks for the chance to win.

I will be emailing you today :)

Red, White and Blue Blog Hop and GIVEAWAY!!!!

                                                             




Welcome everyone to the last day of the blog hop and I am so very happy you are here! I am a pretty new blogger and this is my first hop so I would sincerely like to thank Mdm Samm and Jane from Janes Fabric and Quilts  for letting me be a part of this wonderful hop. It has been 16 days of fabulously creative and inspiring blocks all done in red, white and blue and I have had a great time following all of it.
So, anyway, here we go!!
I only did one block ( and I am seriously jealous after seeing Mdm Samms blocks for today LOL )
Even though I only did 1, I hope you like it.

This was super easy and fun to make. It is a 12 1/2" square. I used 4 white on white fabrics for the center. I cut 2 strips of each color 1 1/2 " x 8 1/2" and sewed them together. I then cut 20 2 1/2" squares of assorted red prints to put around it. I found a star pattern in one of the quilting magazines and used it for the center. This was my first time machine appliqueing and I really liked it. I just did a simple blanket stitch on it. I quilted it using a varigaded blue thread. I don't think I would use this thread again though as I don't like the spacing on the color change.

I am currently working on a red, white and blue patriotic quilt for my 7 year old grandson that he requested, so I turned this into a little hanging he can put on his door.

So, now on to the giveaway. I have 3  1/2 yd cuts of Kona cotton in red, white and blue. You will get 1/2 yd  of each color. That way if you are so inspired to make any of the beautiful blocks in this hop you will be ready to go!

All you need to do to enter is become a follower and leave me a message in comments telling me that you did. That's it ;)  
Here is the line up for today's hop, make sure to stop by to see them all !

July 16th
PolkaDotClassic

Patchouli Moon Studio

little bits quilting  ( you are here )

busy as can be

Madame Samm

Thank you all for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the visit, I just loved having you!!

Kate

update and giveaway

Just popping in to say hi and show that I am still here! I have been busy trying to finish a few projects ,one of which just doesn't want to cooperate. I have remeasured, recut, resewn, ripped out so many times I am surprised the material is still whole. LOL I am determined to get it done though as it is for my grandsons birthday and he picked it out. Funny thing is that it is a simple pattern and I shouldn't be having these problems. I think that is the most frustrating part of all.
I am also working on my red, white and blue block for the blog hop. My day is July 16th so stop by and see it, I think its a cute one.

Here is a great giveaway you can enter at Sew whats cooking. It looks like a really fun one. I won last month and cant wait for it to get here.

2012 Monthly Giveaway – August

By sewwhatscooking | July 8, 2012 - 9:39 am | giveaway

For this month’s giveaway, I’m digging into my stash for a big grab bag of kid & critter prints. Some are smaller pieces, some are 1/4-yards, some 1/2 yards. Note – there are a lot of cat fabrics due to the collection I ended up with after making my kitty loving son’s quilt. There are also quite a few not shown – bees, flowers, more critter, ABC-123. Anyway – it’s a good size bag with a good assortment of kid friendly prints! Along with that I have an older special issue of Quilt It – For Kids. All the patterns are still attached inside and it’s packed with kid & baby quilts to give you loads of ideas!

So jump on over there and enter!

Have a great week and good luck in the contest!!

Kate

Get ready to hop!

Get ready to hop!

The red, white and blue blog hop starts Sunday, July 1,2012

There will be lots of amazing blocks all done in red, white and blue along with give a ways and tutorials. With 100 different stops you should be able to find something you are totally in love with :)  I am sure you will all have a great time!!
My day is July 16th! Hope you all stop by for it.
Let the Hopping begin! Click HERE to see all the participants.

Kate

Progress is fun!

Fun Finish

I really enjoyed working on this quilt and completing my second finish. This quilt is also for http://quiltsforkids.org/. This is done in Red Roosters Always Believe fabric. I love the feminine colors of it (I have 2 grandsons so it is nice to get to do girly things now and then ) This is actually a Christmas fabric. I didn't even realize that at first. There are two prints in the line that have tiny little snowmen on them and that's it. The lighting isn't great for these pictures but it is a sweet girly pink in 3 shades light to dark then three baby greens in light to dark. I practiced my straight line machine quilting on this one . ( I really looked for a picture where the lines looked straight but this is about the best of them LOL )

The backing is a larger print from the same line. I  did get alot of puckering on the back so if anyone has any idea what I need to do to stop that , I would appreciate it.  All in all I really enjoyed this one! 

I am working on a set of coasters , place mats etc for a kitchen set that I hope to post tutorials on. Also several quilts in various stages. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs and blessings,

Kate

PS. Have you all voted on your favorites for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival?

Also check out the TONS of giveaways at Sew, Mama, Sew! There are hundreds of them and it runs all week. Have fun!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

A Quilt of Firsts

Amy at Amys Creative Side is hosting the most wonderful Quilt Festival. I love her blog and so much wanted to be a part of this show. If you haven't seen it yet, you should go on over and look at all the hundreds of wonderful quilts entered!

This is my entry into the festival. Though it is simple it is a quilt of many firsts and I am really pleased with myself.

This is my first completed quilt for Quilts for Kids, it is my first straight line machine quilting as well as first machine free motion quilting.It is also my first completed quilt in over 25 years!!  So, I will quickly try to tell you the story of my getting to this point and why I am so pleased with myself.

This is not meant to be a sad story or a story I will repeat, it is just a story of how life happens.

I was a very avid quilter back in the 80s. It was alot different then to say the least. I hand quilted everything. But, as with everything life happens and I ended up having to have carpel tunnel surgery on both hands due to all the damage I did to them crafting all the time. Imagine that, I never would have thought that possible. Anyway after having the surgery and rehabs on both hands, it took a while to get them back up to speed. By this time we moved from NH to TN and life just got busy. After my kids had grown and gone on their own and empty nest settled in, I decided to go back to sewing and quilting. I no sooner got back into it and we had a house fire in 2001 and lost everything. It was devastating to go out one day and find at the end of the day you have no where to go home to and nothing but what is in your possession at the moment. It took a long time to get our bearings and get resettled. This time back in NH near family and friends. By the time we got back up here I began to get ill. I already had been dealing with thyroid disease and narcolepsy for years but this was something worse I could tell. They first diagnosed fibromyalgia and mixed connective tissue disorder and degenerative disk disease in my spine. I was living with alot of pain and went through several medications to try to manage pain along with cortisone injections. But, things got worse and I started to have trouble breathing doing simple things. The mixed connective tissue disease caused pulmonary hypertension , a disease that causes the arteries in the lungs to thicken and makes it hard for the blood to flow through, which in turn forces your heart to work harder to pump the blood and causes it to enlarge and become less effective. So I went from chronic disease to a terminal illness with a 2 1/2 to 5 year life expectancy.Then this past April I was diagnosed with cancer from it and underwent radiation in June. It was my only treatment option due to being too weak for surgery, It seems my days were filled with being sick and weak and many many hospital stays. Last year I was in for almost 4 months over 7 stays!

I felt so useless and unproductive which made me start to feel so depressed. Not about being terminal just about doing nothing all day but being sick!! 

This past fall on a beautiful sunny morning when the sky was a brilliant blue, and the air felt so clean and fresh I realized I was already at the 2 1/2 year mark and I was actually starting to feel a bit stronger! Give an inch and I will take a mile!! Praise God, a little stronger was a milestone. I just needed to decide what to do with myself. THEN  it hit me quilt! Quilting made me happy, fabric, color , made me happy.I needed a plan to motivate myself and feel usefull. I was going to make a quilt for every member of my family and my friends so after  I was gone they would always be able to surround themselves with my love and hugs. It started out slow as I had nothing to work with and a terrible little machine that hated to sew. I also knew I wanted to make Quilts for kids because when I went into the hospital I always brought my blankie and it always comforted me and I want to do the same for them, give them comfort and love. I plan on making quilts for them between all the family quilts.

  So, not having a stash or knowing where to really begin , they sent me a quilt kit which I made into this quilt I am showing. My quilt of firsts because not only am I back quilting and spending my time in joy I have accomplished so many firsts in this quilt. Though it is simple, I hope you enjoy it!!

straight line on the blocks and free motion around the border.



first free motion, this is where I was hanging on like a crazy women with my hair standing straight up!!

Sorry for the blur, this is the backing.

So, my short story has turned way to long so I will end off sending you all

Hugs and blessings

Kate