Thursday, July 30, 2009

I finished it!

Almost a year later I've finally finished my Flying Geese quilt. This quilt isn't made of really good material. I bought the material from Walmart long before I realized that not all fabric is made the same. I just thought I was getting a really good deal, it was 1$ a yard and I bought a lot of this stuff thinking I could use it in so many ways. After I realized that the fabric was seriously cheap I knew I would be using it for the back as well (an attempt at getting it used up). I still have about 1/2 yard of several of the colors. I figure I'll let my girls use it for their practice blocks that they are planning.


It's not quite long enough for a twin bed, it was supposed to have 18 geese in each row. I only ended up with 16, but didn't want to have more than one color in each row. I did manage to stick 2 purple colors together, but they aren't the exact same shade of purple. The picture makes the 2 colors look identical though. Since the quilt isn't big enough for a twin bed, it will be a quilt the kids can drag to the couch when it's cold and it's gets plenty cold here in Idaho. I feel achomplished! I finished it. I have nothing else started, so YAY! I get to start another project today.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

p.s. i quilt Giveaway

This is kind of fun. I've watched these little giveaways as a lurker, but now I'm participating. So, here's the official cut & paste from p.s.i quilt


okay so how about a giveaway?!?!
the gals at the fat quarter shop saw my last post...
they graciously donated a $50 gift certificate for one of yall!!!
how cool is that?!?!
http://rachel-griffith.blogspot.com/


It would be so cool to win, even if I don't, I still win because I found a new super cool blog to read. Somehow I've got to figure out how to link things better.

Charmed Gift Bag

This is such a cute idea for gift giving. There are so many different things you could do with this cute little bag.

http://bittybitsandpieces.blogspot.com/2009/07/charmed-gift-bag-giveaway.html

With Christmas coming up (if you're making things it's coming up soon). I'm going to be using this gift bag pattern for all my nieces and nephews.

Joining in on all the Fun

Lately I've been hooked on blog reading - quilting blogs to be precise. I used to visit a handful of web sites on everything from diets to family life and to playing computer games, but in the last few months I very rarely spend any time reading anything unless it's a blog on quilting. I've got a long list of favorites that just keeps on growing. I keep reading about these great online quilting bees and some pretty cool giveaways and I want in on all the fun...so here I am, my name is Julie.

I'm really pretty new to quilting. My history started with an 9th grade project, it was a small pillow and I got an A+. After the pillow I took a 30 year hiatus from the world of quilting. Almost 2 years ago my mom heard me complaining about wanting a new quilt for my bed, but was unable to buy the one I wanted. She told me she'd help me make one and quilting reentered my life again. In hindsight I should have picked a small project, instead I jumped with both feet right into making a king size quilt. The pattern was easy, a log cabin, from one of Elenore Burns' books. Due to having a large number of kids at home, being a procrastinator, not having a good sewing machine, not having a dedicated room just for sewing and being one of those folks who are great at starting projects, but not so great at finishing things...it took me 6 months to finish it. Once I finished it I found I didn't really like it. I could see so many flaws, it hadn't turned out like I thought it would, it didn't have that perfectly well crafted look that I had envisioned. I began to think maybe quilting just wasn't one of my talents. The one thing I couldn't seem to keep from doing was buying fabric. I didn't buy a lot, so my stash isn't large, just one large plastic bin - that's completely full.

A few months after finishing my log cabin quilt I decided I'd give it another try. This time I opted for a smaller quilt. A twin size Flying Geese, again using an Eleanore Burns pattern book. I had all the geese made when my old sewing machine died. I had it fixed several times, but the fixes just didn't last. I borrowed a machine from my mom and realized that the reason my first quilt came out wonky was because my machine was fighting me in keeping a good 1/4 seam. The fabric would constantly pull toward the left and gave me a very uneven seam. The Flying Geese blocks had the same issues and mom needed her machine back, so I laid away the idea of quilting until I was able to get a new machine. A couple of months ago I was able to buy an Elna Q6600 machine and I love love love it! I am now back to quilting.

This was my very first attempt at stippling. I love this panel, the colors are so vibrant.
This was my next project, a quilt for my brand new grand daughter.


I struggled to come up with a name for this blog. I finally settled on Kitchen Quilter because I don't have a room that is dedicated to sewing. In the past I've used the kitchen table, continually having to put away my sewing things to feed my family. I disliked having to do that just enough that I didn't sew that often. Once quilting became important to me and I had a good machine I decided that one corner of my kitchen was going to be my spot. So...Kitchen Quilter I am.