Quilts for St. V's

The last few years I have been honored to help out the Wood County 4H program by making small quilts for St. V's Hospital.  It's nice to know that some premature baby will feel the warmth of love even though they're not at home with their parents.

On this quilt I used my wavy ruler and chalked out my wavy line for the feathered border.  I also chalked out a top line and bottom line so when I'm free motioning in the feathers,  I would know how big to make them.  It also helps me make them more uniform.  I did one side of feathers at a time.   It was fun to do this type of border and now I've had practice!

I had a little trouble with "bird's nests"  on the back of this quilt.  I'm not sure what the problem was, but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has had this problem!


Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne


Update--See the post below for the bird's nest cure!

Quilting The Spring Table Runner and Tips On Free Motion Quilting with a Janome 1600P

I finally have my Spring Table Runner all finished!

I was so excited about quilting the feathers on the table runner that I quilted the white background last!  Now every good quilting teacher would tell you to start in the middle and work your way out of the center.  I guess I have to be different.  Below is a picture of  an unquilted flower block.  It did get quilted without any puckers!  I used basting spray and safety pins to sandwich it together.

Quilting with my Janome 1600P has been a learning experience.  Below are a few tips that I have learned with my 1600P and may work on your model of sewing machine.

Make sure the pressure on the pressure foot is set on zero.

I set the stitch length on zero.

Set the needle up/down feature on down and I choose to go at turtle speed.

I used a high quality thread.  Pictured above is So Fine thread by Superior Threads and the other thread I used was Maxi-Lock thread.  I really love the color of the Maxi-Lock thread, but I had problems with little birds' nests on the back of my quilt.  I solved that problem by using the So Fine thread in the bobbin.  If you use two different threads, I think it is wise to use cotton with cotton and polyester with polyester.  I also used some rubber kitchen shelf liner underneath my cone thread so they stay put in one place.

I've also learned that tension in the 1600P has a lot of play.  There are so many new threads out there to explore and I'm always playing with my tension.  A new trick I have found on this machine is to tighten the tension as tight as I can get it.  Then I back off on the tension on my practice quilting until I get a perfect stitch.  If you are having trouble with skipped stitches, use a topstitch needle.  If you are still having skipped stitches, go to a bigger size needle.  Superior threads has the right size needle clearly printed on the bottom of the cone and I've found that their suggestions are always correct.  

So now my Janome and I are quilting in perfect harmony :)

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne 

We Have Winners!---Friday Night Sew In Results---Blessings

My random number generator, my husband, has picked out three numbers!

No--you read it right. I have three winners instead of two.  I had enough time to finish three potholders!

Shez from Enjoying Life blog
Gra from Chez Gra blog
Needled Mom from Needled Mom blog
Please take time to check out their blogs--you won't be disappointed!

The real winner is me.  Your friendship and sharing has been wonderful.  I've made friends that the miles may divide, but our quilting interests bring us all together.  Thank you all for your friendship.

I've had a very busy weekend.  My quilt club had a donation quilt retreat.  We started sewing early Friday afternoon and sewed late into the night and early again Saturday morning.  

I machine quilted this quilt at the retreat.  My quilt club didn't even know that they were participating in the Friday Night Sew In!
You may want to click and enlarge the picture below.  The heart fabric seems to pop out at you because I didn't quilt it and the purple fabric seems to recede back because it is heavily quilted.  I liked the effect and decide to leave the heart fabric unquilted.

 This is Linda's first quilt!  She has done a wonderful job putting it together.
Great job Linda!

Here is a shy quilter, but she sure isn't shy in donating it.
I just love all the colors!  It will certainly bring a smile on some babies face.
 It's been a weekend full of fellowship and sewing!

Things around the farm have been greening up.

I had posted that we had some flooding.  This wheat field was under water for several days.

Just look at how green our winter wheat is.  I think our prayers have been answered--what a blessing!

Things are busy on the farm.  My husband worked on getting flood debris off of our wheat while I was gone.  The picture above tells me why he was so tired in the evening.  He raked it all by hand.

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

Blog Anniversary Giveaway & Reflections--Updated Pictures

I just looked at the calendar and realized that it is my blog anniversary and I want to celebrate!

The enjoyment that I have received from all my quilting friends has been a real blessing!  This week I want to show my appreciation to all my followers.

Above are 2 potholders that I am working on this week to finish.  So the pressure is on to get them done!  I will be posting the finished potholders at the end of the week--so check back late in the week.  There will be two winners.

What to do to enter:

#1  Leave a comment = 1 entry

#2  Become a follower or be a follower and tell me = 1 entry

#3  Join us in the I Spy Swap and tell me you did

#4  Post about this giveaway and link back to my blog (please tell me in your comment)

I will post a winner next Sunday, March 20th.  Entry deadline is midnight Saturday, March 19th.

Update--they're finished!!!

Above is the first potholder and below is the second potholder.

Don't forget the Friday Night Sew In!

 

As I sit at my sewing room window I reflect on some of the happenings of this crazy week and count my many blessings.  My husband and I went to a big farming banquet Monday night.  We both were looking forward to seeing friends and enjoying a wonderful dinner that the local grain elevator puts on every year.  The turn of events that happened that night has changed me forever.  

The evening started out with great conversation and pleasant surprises.  A gentleman, Dave, and his wife sat down beside us.  We introduced ourselves and the conversation turned over to where we farm and who we know.  Dave figure out who I was and he knew my aunts, uncles, parents, and one of my sisters.  

One minute he was with us--the next he wasn't.  

Dave had a sudden heart attack at age 67 right in front of us and later died.  

The rest of the night was a blur and we were both pretty shook up. 

Life's short and we all need to count our blessings and reflect on what's really important in life--people!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

A Spring Table Runner, I'm A One World One Heart Winner, & Our Wheat Field

I am in the mood for spring!  Since the flowers are not close to blooming, I'm working on a table runner.

I broke down and bought a Sizzix Big Shot cutter.  When I first seen them on the market, I told myself I would not buy one!  The dies were on sale at Nancy's Notions and I found the cutter for a great price on Ebay.

So I've been experimenting with my Big Shot, which got me experimenting with my Cricut paper cutter.  The Cricut does just an okay job cutting fabric.  I'm just in the experimental stages.  The flowers on my spring table runner are the results of my Cricut cutter and the leaves are from the Big Shot.

I'm also a winner from the One World One Heart.  Jody from Tumbleweed Trails sent me some really neat stuff pictured below.

Jody I want to thank you for having such a wonderful  giveaway.  My smiling bee will be hanging around my sewing room!

When it warms up too fast on our farm and there's a lot of snow on the ground with some rain, we have some flooding.  It's not the dangerous flash type flooding.  It's the slow creeping type.  We are well blessed because our house is built on the highest spot on the farm and we've never had flood water get in our home or well which is a great blessing.

This week our house has been facing a lake, which is our winter wheat field.  We've had wheat underwater before so it's a wait and see if the water has killed it or not.  This is just a part of our farm that we live with.  Dean may be planting beans in this field this spring--time will tell.

Even though it doesn't look like farmers are doing anything this time of year, there's many things going on.  Paperwork, paying taxes, machine maintenance, field planning, buying seed, selling grain, and hauling grain are some of the things that are going on at our farm this time of year.   I'm looking forward to warmer weather!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne 

My Friend Sandi Has A Sweet Doll Quilt Giveaway!

My Quilting Friend, Sandi, is giving this sweet doll quilt away!  Hurry over to Sew in Peace and enter before 9:00 p.m. Friday, March 4th.  Thank you Sandi for such a neat giveaway!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne