Being Thankful and Sewing Room Tip of the Day

I have been missing in action on my blog lately.

Life has been so busy and so many circumstances have prevented me from having time to post.

We did get through harvest, which seemed to go on forever this year.

I am very thankful that our family and other farming families in our area had a safe harvest.

The long hours and working with big machinery is a recipe for a farm accident, but we try our best to be safety minded.  

There have been some health issues with a family member that has made our family extremely thankful for all the wonderful relationships that we have nurtured through the years.

 I have a new job!

I am a sewing machine mechanic and quilting teacher!

It has been an adjustment, but it works perfectly with my schedule.

 

Last winter I was working on a Christmas quilt.  I am hoping to have it on my bed by Christmas!

We will see what happens :)

 

I also started another quilt because I couldn't wait!  

Have you ever brought a book home and couldn't wait to get the project started even though you know you shouldn't.

Oh well--I guess that is where the term UFO's comes from in the quilting world.

Here is another sewing room tip:

Organize your quilting books by category.

It saves time and frustration trying to find a book that you need.

Thanks Mom for the tip of the day :) 

Hope everyone has had a Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

Quilts, Harvest, Sewing Room Tip, and Baby Logan

Several weeks ago my quilt club had a mini quilt show at a local barn tour.

I thought it was neat the way they had it set up with all the traditional quilts on right side and the more modern quilt on the left.  The Grandmother's Fan on the left is my quilt. 

Check out the neat barn quilt!

Barn quilts seem to be getting popular in Ohio. 
The barn quilts seem to make the farm/city a warmer and more welcoming place.

Harvest has been going on in Ohio and last weekend we had a lot of rain, but we're all back in the fields harvesting this weekend.  Rain is in the forecast so farmers are rushing to get their beans harvested before it rains again.

Here is my sewing room tip:

I put all my used needles in an old pill bottle.

This way you can safely dispose of your needles and it keeps them away from curious pets and kids.

I would like you to meet Baby Logan.

I am his Great Aunt and we will have to make a trip down south to see him.

There is a baby quilt on the way to keep him warm during the winter months.

Sorry I was in such a big hurry to ship it that I forgot to take a picture, but this picture is just as sweet as can be.
Welcome to the world Logan!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

 

Rail Fence Quilt Top & A Sewing Room Tip

This is a quilt top that now with a special long-arm quilter that will hopefully be ready sometime in November.  My neighbor asked me if I could make his wife a quilt for their 25th Anniversary.  I hope they will be pleased with it when it is finished.

Have you ever had a problem finding a quilt book?

This is one shelf of my Mom's quilt books and she has them organized with file folders.  

What a neat way to organize quilt books!

Summer is now turning into fall.

Here is a picture of my butterfly bush a few weeks ago.

Happy Quilting,

Kay Lynne

Free Motion Potholder & Storing Used Sewing Machine Needles

This week I am going to teach a class on making a potholder.

We are going to do a little free motion quilting.
Zentangle doodling and free motion quilting seems to go hand in hand!
What better way to experiment with doodling with my sewing machine needle than on a back of a potholder.
I used one layer Insul-Bright  for the front of my potholder and 2 layers of 100% cotton batting for the back.
They were quilted separately without a backing fabric like you would a quilt and bound with homemade bias tape with the wrong sides (batting sides) together.
This way there are three layers of batting, the top, and the back.
If I run out of Insul-Bright, I have used two layers of 100% cotton batting for the top of the potholder.
Insul-Bright cannot be doubled because there is a problem with needle breakage.
I have not had any problems FMQ without a backing fabric.
The best things about potholders are they wear out quickly and they do not have to be perfect :)
Thank you Pat for the pattern!
Pat is from Connected Threadz an online quilt club and if you are a long arm quilter,
Pat has a wonderful online shop at http://www.urbanelementz.com/

I am also teaching a mini class on sewing room organization.

Here my tip of the week:

When I change needles and the needle is still good, I put it in my old tomato pincushion.

If you click on the picture, you will see that I have all the sizes and different kinds in their designated area.  I wrote the areas with a fine tip pigma pen.

For many years I put them back into the original box, but I like this method better because the tomato reminds me that "this needle has been used".

Stay tuned for more tips as time goes on.

I am always looking for more organizational tips--please share :)

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

Where Did All the Time Go?

Life has been so busy since wheat harvest.  As soon as wheat harvest was finished I taught two classes at the Quilt Foundry.  My students were wonderful!  

I hope they had as much fun as I did!

We did a class on thread painting and FMQ quilting feathers.

The following week I went with a quilting friend to the west side of Chicago for six days.

We brought our sewing machines and had lots of fun!

 

Zeke came to visit!

 

We had seen the Cleveland Indians lose to the Detroit Tigers.

 We went camping, hiking, canoeing, and 

horseback riding.

Honey was my horse.  Isn't she a sweetie!

This was my first ride!

We camped in a tent and enjoyed family time together.

Toasting marshmallows and using a pie iron to make pizza pies brought back lots of memories.

This was the first time I ever melted a pie iron!  I guess the fire was too hot!

 

It was a great vacation!

Maybe I will have some time to sew!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

4H Quilt of all Wood County Ohio Barn Quilts and Farming is Interesting

All these blocks in this quilt are real barn quilts in Wood County Ohio!  My Mom volunteered to make the blocks and made sure that all the colors were exactly as they were painted.

Wood County 4H groups painted the barn quilts.

What a neat way to get people aware of Ohio farms and quilting!

Dean and I went to the park in town for a walk.

The ducks were snacking on crab apples.

 

The wheat was ready the 4th of July, but it kept on raining.

Last week we had a violent wind storm that caused some damage to our corn.  The picture above was what it looked like right after the storm.  We were blessed because the corn looks much better now and has straightened up.

We did lose a field of beans that were flooded and are now an ugly brown color.

Dean is going to plant a ground cover as soon as it dries off.

We did get the wheat harvested this week before it rained again.

Harvest wasn't without problems and the combine was in the fix it shop for a day, but the delay was only one day

Our son came to help and we enjoyed every minute he was there.  

I know we had some wheat loss because it was way past due to be harvested.

When wheat is too ripe, you can just touch the heads and they will shatter so there is wheat loss on the ground instead of being threshed in the combine.

Every farm year is different, but I wouldn't change a thing :)

 

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

Happy 4th of July!

I hung my flags out today and I'm hoping that it won't rain, but the weather radar shows thunder storms are coming this way in a few hours.

The sun is shining and it's neat how it shines through my Ohio flag.

 

Here is a Betsy Ross flag that has seen better days.

Many years ago I rescued it from my church's basement.

They were going to have the Boy Scouts properly dispose of it, but I didn't have the heart to give it up.

It has been hung on our porch on holidays, but she's too weak to hang so she still is carefully laid on my drying rank for display.

I guess I appreciate this flag most of all because there was a lady that made this flag possible.

I can imagine her sewing the first flag by firelight this flag and the sense of accomplishment she had when it was first hung.

I can also imagine her quilting and sewing clothes by hand.

 

I hope everyone has a 

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

A Tiny Donation & Wheat Harvest is Soon!

 Here is a tiny quilt that I promised as a donation for a future premature baby out there.

I want to get it done before I see my sister so she can put it with the other quilts that will be donated.

The little red clips work great!

 The wheat is starting to turn and the fields look beautiful!

 

I just love the look of the bearded wheat!

Harvest should happen soon!

Dean will be getting the combine ready this week so when the moisture is just right in the wheat he will be ready.

 

We've had some rain this week, but thankfully no terrible storms.

Last year on June 29th, we had 80 mile per hour winds that cause a lot of storm damage

 in our area.

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

Life is Busy & Thanks Dad!

Not much has been going on in my sewing room the last several weeks.
I've been painting along with my church family our new addition.
A lot of painting gets done when there are a dozen people with paint rollers!
I did get a chance to enjoy the flowers at my neighbors.

I also want to give my Dad a BIG Thank You!

Dad sacrificed to take care of me, my sisters, and brother while we were growing up.

He shows his love to us kids and grand-kids every chance he gets and he loves my Mom.

Dad is always there--Happy Father's Day!

Also Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

I just love the cute picture above :)

Happy Quilting & Happy Father's Day to all the great Dad's out there!

Kay Lynne

True Cut Review and Rotary Cutter Safety

When we went to the International Quilt Show in Cincinnati, I bought a new ruler and rotary cutter.

I don't know about you, but there are days that my rotary cutting is not as accurate as I would like on cutting long strips.  I have seen the True Cut system before, but never tried it.

 

 I found that this cutter fits my hand perfectly and there is a place for my thumb to rest.

It's perfect for quilters that have joint pain and for beginner adult quilters.

This system has a little lip that the cutter follows--so your cutter does not wander off ever so slightly.  Even the most experienced quilters find themselves squaring up their fabric because of this problem.

Here is a close up my new ruler.  I like the open squares inside this ruler.  I see some future quilt marking possibilities with this ruler.

I also checked this ruler with all my other quilting rulers and the measurements all line up exactly!

I am happy that all my rotary cutting supplies will be cutting in harmony.

 

 

I still will be using my old rulers and cutters, but this is a great addition to my quilting tools.

If you have a wandering rotary cutter or hand pain problem, I would try before you buy at a quilt show and see if this system works for you :)

I will be watching for other neat quilting tool ideas from the True Cut Company.

I have a question for you to think about:

Do you wear shoes when you are using your rotary cutter?

This is just a gentle reminder that if you drop things accidentally like I do--

you don't want to be wasting time in an emergency room!

It hasn't happen to me, but I have heard of it happening!

When you live on the farm, we are always thinking about safety--even in quilting.

I slightly injured my hand on the farm several weeks ago and it is just fine, but I could have broken a bone because I wasn't thinking and didn't take Dean's warnings.

It is too long of story to explain and most of you won't ever be around an old fertilizer wagon, but you are around rotary cutters :)

 

I have some friends that have been visiting my backyard and I finally have a decent picture :)

 I am sending prayers to all of those that have been affected by tornadoes.

There is more possibility of rough weather today in the United States.

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

 

My Potter's Bench and Life on the Farm

There have been other projects that I have been working on besides quilting and farming.

A friend of mine had talked me into joining Pinterest and I have been finding so many neat ideas and I had found potting bench  from Toni from Signature Gardens.

I fell in love with her potting bench and she was generous enough to even have an online tutorial.

I said something to Dean about it and he told me to go out to the barn because there are all kinds of old lumber that should be used up.

So I went on a treasure hunt out in the barn and to my surprise there were plenty of old barn siding and old cedar posts to do the project.

The only items I bought were two shelf brackets and stain.

I made it myself!

 

 Now before you even think about doing a project like this, please be familiar with all the safety rules of using table saws.  They can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

 Also remember to wear eye and hearing protection!

The weather has been warm and I even had a chance to enjoy the birds!

There have been a lot of long hours put into planting season the last two weeks in Northwest Ohio.

We've had a few breakdowns, but nothing major.

Dean is fixing a

hydraulic hose in the pictures below.

 It just had to happen in the last field that he was planting on the farm  :)

It only slowed things down for about 45 minutes.  The old hose had seen better days!

I can't believe all the planning and paperwork that goes into farming.

The only way I can explain it to a non-farm person is it's a lot like planning a wedding.  

When the day comes, you better have all the details planned out or there will be opportunities missed.

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne