Thread Painted Warbler

I wanted to do something special for my sister, Jenny, for Christmas.  She has hinted around about wanting a thread painted bird from me.  I wanted to a little bird that fitted her personality and I picked out a Warbler, which is an Ohio bird.

I used water soluble stabilizer on the top and bottom of my quilted wall hanging.  I was so surprised at how this prevented the puckering so I didn't have to use a hoop.  Its fun to see how a little colored thread and a sewing machine can make a little bird come to life. 

I want to thank

Vic Murayama
for giving me permission to thread paint his picture.
  Vic made a trip to Ohio this year and took some wonderful pictures of Ohio birds.

Hope you are enjoying the Holiday Season where the birth of forgiveness started a long time ago.

Happy Quilting!


Kay Lynne

Circle Quilt is Finished!

It's finally all quilted!

I'm happy with the mixture of feathers, circles, and leaves.  The random circles with the small meandering really make the circles come forward in the border.

There's no boring back to this quilt.  I had too many blocks so I added them to the back.

The kids loved their Christmas present and I'm so happy :)  They asked me if I wanted to keep it for a while so I could show it at a quilt show--I said no.  It was made just for them to enjoy!

We had a wonderful time together this week.  I even had both my sons together at the same time even if it was a brief time.  (The time was so brief that I didn't get a picture of all of us together.)

 My sister, Jenny, and Rob even came over for a visit.  We don't live too far apart, but between her job and mine it's hard to get together.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Come back after Christmas--I will be posting about some more adventures in Thread Painting!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

A Starry Christmas Night

Since I shared some of my Christmas wall hangings last week, I decided to share a banner that a friend of mine and I were asked to do for a local church.  My friend, Audrey, and I were asked to come up with a Christmas banner that was blue to match the other decorations in the church.  Audrey is a wonderful artist and hand drew the shepherd, stars, and wording for me.  I picked out the fabric and done all the quilting with silver metallic thread.

I added buildings and palm trees.

The Shepard needed some sheep to watch. 

The finishing touch was the beads that were added to the stars.  Time passes by so quickly--I think this was done about eight years ago.

I will be joining the Free-Motion Quilting Challenge in January.

If you're interested in Free Motion Quilting, sign-up and join me!

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas Season.

Happy Quilting

Kay Lynne

Our Quilty Christmas Decor

Over the years I've made a few Christmas items that I've actually kept.  Above is a stocking that our quilt club made together last month.  It's fun to make a simple project with friends.

These wall hangings have spent a lot of Christmas's with our family.  I made them many years ago and you probably can date them by the fabric.  The ceramic Santa sitting on the floor is over 30 years old.  He was painted by me during my painting phase.  Now I paint with thread, which I enjoy much more and it's not as messy!  The Santa wall hanging below was embellished with vintage buttons and a vintage belt buckle from my great grandmother's buttons.

In my family the girls quilt and my Dad loves to make scroll saw items.  

Below are the wonderful results of his work.  

Thanks Dad!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

Quilting Circles & Being Thankful

In my spare time this week I've been quilting circles.  One of my quilt club friends had given me an idea...

She has an embroidery machine and she uses Glad Press'n Seal as a stabilizer and tears it away when finished.  I wondered in my mind if it would work in free motion quilting.  The wrap is tacky and patterns can be traced through with a fine tip pen without a light box.  So I tried it and it works great!  The plastic stayed in place while I quilted and tore away just fine.  (Please keep in mind my free motion stitches are close together and it may not work for you if you stitch farther apart.)  Any remaining plastic easily was removed with my fingernail.

 I also just chalked in my circles, which worked just fine, but I think with intricate patterns this technique would work great!  I still like to free motion quilt with very little marking.

I've had some time to think about all the blessings my husband and I share and it makes me very thankful for all the family and friends that I have. 
I'm also thankful for You--my quilting friends. 
You all have enriched my quilting experience and you've made the quilting world a whole lot smaller. 
I think this crazy world would be a lot better place if more people would share their love like quilters do through donation quilts. 
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

November Friday Night Sew In

I spent my Friday night Free Motion Quilting a lap quilt for several hours.  The type of quilting I do doesn't happen overnight, but the results are worth it.  I hope to finish in time for Christmas.

We had some really grey skies earlier this week and also a tornado watch. 
Life has been busy at our house with the holidays just around the corner. 
Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

The Last Round & The Last Leaves

I bet you thought that I was going to post about the last round on a quilt--sorry.  It's the last round my husband is making in our corn field.  It's a round that makes you smile and say it's finally finished!  This has been a rough farming season with all the rain we have had.  We are well blessed by not having the combine or the tractor and wagons get stuck in the mud.  I've heard of some horror stories of farmers getting the combine stuck and the their tractor stuck--what a mess!

I didn't get stuck, but did make some deep tracks.  This happened at night and I'm glad that I didn't stop with two loaded wagons so I would sink.  My husband made sure that I knew he seen the tracks and teased me about them.

Our neighbor gave me a big scare when I thought his combine maybe on fire, but I realized that he was combining beans that had been flooded.  He sure made a big dust cloud the covered the neighborhood!

 We have one last tree that just won't give up her leaves.  This week she just started to turn pretty colors.  Winter's on the way!

 

Maybe I'll be able to quilt soon when all the harvest work is done.  I'm tired, but it's a good kind of tired.  Working with my husband the last few weeks has been a real enjoyable gift!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

Fall Bloggers' Quilt Festival 2011--My Wacky Lap Quilt

Time for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival and I want to share my Wacky Quilt that I made last winter.

This quilt is special to me because my Mom and I had taken a class together for this lap quilt.  Mom had her quilted a long time ago and mine sat in a closet.  Last winter I decided to get it finished and I was practicing Free Motion Quilting.  The quilting wasn't really planned out.  I just started quilting.

Please know that I like to doodle in my sketch book a lot so I did have an idea of what I would like to try.

This was a very fun quilt and it reminds me of all the special times that I've had with my Mom.

This is the back of my quilt.  I do remember quilting from the center out and having a fit because the borders had ripples, of course, I called Mom.  She told me that I had nothing to worry about because the quilting in the center was causing the ripple effect and she was right!

Please put on something comfortable and get a cup of hot chocolate and join us with all the beautiful quilts at the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

A Surprise in My Machine, I Spy Fabrics, A Pink Reminder, & Harvest Update

I bought a used backup sewing machine for a really great price.  I was told by the previous owner's daughter-in-law that it hadn't been used at all.  It sewed perfectly when I received it and I decided to take it to my local Bernina dealer to have it serviced earlier this month.  When I picked it up, my repair person just had to show me what she found inside my machine.  It was thread that had gotten caught on my fly wheel and it must have unwrapped a whole spool of thread!  My guess is the previous owner had two spools of thread on the machine and the one that was not in use had gotten caught in the fly wheel.  I am so happy that I didn't use this machine hard or it could have melted the thread right into the plastic inside of the fly wheel.  I wanted you to be aware that this could happen if you have an extra spool sitting on your machine that isn't in use.

Below are some of my fabrics that are in the I Spy Fabric Swap before giving them to Sandi.  I am collecting I Spy Fabrics now before I need them.  I'm excited to see what fabric I will get from the swap.

I was shopping at Jo Ann Fabrics and found this pink rotary cutter and thought that all of us need a pink reminder to be screened every year.  We all have people that depend on us and we need to take care of ourselves.

About half the trees have lost their leaves, but there is still a little color out there.  Everything this last week has been at the last minute.  There have been last minute visits, last minute surprises, and last minutes running around, but it was a great week!

Even though it's not really fit to be out in the field because it has rained so much, it was decided that we couldn't delay combining corn any longer.  I'm happy that we didn't get stuck in the mud!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

October Friday Night Sew-In Results & Beating the Rain

Actually I have been sewing a few hours every afternoon this week.  It has been gloomy and rainy here since Wednesday.

I've been working on one block at a time.

Here is what the back looks like.  I will have pictures when it's all done.

Early this week there has been a mad rush to beat the rain that was coming.  We did get all the soy beans in the river bottom field all combined before the rain came and flooded the field.

During harvest season it's not unusual for the neighbors to see me driving loaded wagons or following Dean with my four-way flashers.  If you live in farming country where there is slow moving equipment, please leave a few minutes early and be patient with us.  We don't enjoy blocking traffic and being in someone's way--we're just trying to get our crops in.

After all the rain, it will be a while before we're out in the fields.  Every year is different in farming and this year sure is different!

I did have quilt club this week and had a wonderful evening with the girls!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne