A Special Quilt for a Special Little Girl

For the past 2 years, I have been working in Appleton as a PRN Radiation Therapist.  While there I met some amazing girls and formed some fantastic relationships.  One of those relationships was with a fellow Radiation Therapist, Jackie.  I loved working with Jackie...she could always put a smile on my face!  But what I really loved, was that she would always ask me how my quilting was going...what I was working on, if I was going on any retreats, etc.

About a year ago she asked me to make a quilt for her little girl Brielle.  It was a complete honor to be asked to make this quilt.  It was not a baby quilt, but a quilt for Brielle's "Big Girl Bed."  She wanted a quilt that Brielle could use for years to come.  She had see a butterfly quilt at a local store and really liked the design, but the quality of the quilt was very poor.  She wondered if I could design a butterfly quilt for Brielle in the colors of purple, pink, and lime green.  She told me that homemade quilts are much more special than store bought ones.  Like I said, I was honored and immediately jumped on board.  I knew that it was going to be hard, since it was going to be all applique, but I was up for the challenge since I knew how loved this quilt would be.

Choosing fabric was so much fun.  There are so many amazing patterns in the colors purple, pink and lime green.  Choosing the fabric was the easy part...then I had to figure out how to design the quilt.  I have never designed a quilt before, so it was a bit of a challenge.  I enlisted the help of my dad who as much experience in the software that I would need to design this quilt.  It was easier than I though to design the quilt, but then I had to figure out how to print it in the size needed.  After much chatting with my dad, we decided to print out the entire thing and tape it together...yes all 74 pages.  It was the only way to get the size I needed to trace for the applique.

The background was easy to put together...12, 20 inch squares using white on white fabric.  Then came the first butterfly.  It was fun to put all the colors together and create a beautiful butterfly.  Then it was time to applique.  Each butterfly took me about 2.5 - 3 hours to complete.  Although they took quite a bit of time, before I knew it, the butterflies were finished.  Next was the flowers.  Each one of those also took about 2 hours to complete.  Just like the butterflies, before I knew it the flowers were done and therefore the top of Brielle's quilt was finished.

I took the quilt to my local quilt store, Patched Works, to have it quilted.  I found a fantastic pattern that had butterflies, flowers and little swirls that matched the background fabric.  It was like it was destiny   Perfect for this quilt.  I must say the staff at Patched Works did a fantastic job quilting Brielle's quilt.  It came together beautifully.

Brielle's Butterfly Quilt!

A close-up of the butterflies.

A close-up of the flowers.

To go along with the quilt, I made my signature gift bag to give the quilt in.  I found some fantastic purple flower fabric for the bag.  I quilted the bag myself, which is a skill that I am slowly building my confidence in, but every little bit I do builds my confidence.

The gift bag for Brielle's quilt.

It was a lot of fun making this quilt for Brielle!  And I think she will enjoy this quilt for years to come!!!  Here is a link of her seeing the quilt for the first time!!!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151093084712030&set=vb.526897029&type=2&theater

Happy Quilting!!! :)

Yikes! Where does the time go!!!

It has been quite a while since I last posted and lots as happened!

First things first...This spring I entered a quilt show for the very first time.  I entered my "Pewaukee Lake Sunset Bargello."  I was not looking to win, I was looking for the experience and the feedback provided.  Overall it was a fun experience and I am looking forward to entering more quilts in the future and hopefully winning some awards!

So proud of all my hard work!

Next, a friend of mine, Tiffany, found out she was having a baby girl.  Her and her husband decided to do the nursery in purples, white and silver.  While combing through my mom's stash one day, I found a bunch of different purple fabrics in all different shades.  She and Granny had used these fabrics for a different quilt, but had quite a bit left over.  I just fell in love with the fabrics and all the different looks they had.  They where not fabrics that I would usually choose when going to a quilt store, but I thought they where perfect for a baby quilt.  I got to work right away, and I must say, the final product is so cute!!!

Olivia's Baby Quilt

Since I stated making quilts to give away, I have decided that I will give them to the recipient in a bag that matches the overall theme of the quilt.  Here is the bag I made for Tiffany and Olivia.

A bag for Tiffany and Olivia

Another fun thing that has happened since I last posted was the State Wide Wisconsin Shop Hop.  The shop hop was about 3 weeks long.  It was a lot of fun to go to all the different shops and get a stamp on our passport.  However, I wish the shop hop was longer.  It was hard for those of us who work full time to get to all of the shops.  And in some of the sections, shops where so spread out that you could not get to all of them in one day.  It was nice that all the shops had to be open Monday thru Saturday from 10am - 5pm.  That sure helped things!  Here is the picture of the stash I hauled from the shop hop...I have to say I did pretty well!!!

Okay, so maybe I went overboard, but it sure was a lot of fun!!!

Also, because I completed one of the sections in my passport, I was entered in a drawing to win a section prize.  I am happy to say that I WON!!  I was so pumped when I got the phone call...cause let me tell you, I never win anything.  My sister Rachel has all the luck, but that is a different story for a different day.  Here is my prize!

Patterns and Fabric!!!

And the last thing I want to write about...Scrap Fest at my local quilt store, Patched Works.  Twice a year, all of the scraps Patched Works has get put out on tables for people to go though and buy what they want.  Julie, the shop owner gives the scraps a great price to where it works out to about $5 a yard.  Super good deal!!!  I was super excited to find that Julie had a number of batiks that came from kits that where once cut.    Quite a few good size pieces to work with...and I do love my batiks.  Here is a shot of my stash!

So excited to use all of these!!

Also while I was at scrap fest, Julie had a great deal on 1/2 yard cuts.  There was a number of batiks that where just to yummy to pass up!

Yummy batiks!

And finally, I promise this is the last thing!  While I was in the shop a couple of weeks ago, my friend Jen showed me a new book that came into the store.  She knows how crazy I am about English Paper Piecing and hexis, so this book was right up my alley. "Hexa Go-Go" is one of my new favorite books.  There are so may cool ideas in the book for hexis.  I am so excited to try some of them!!!

And with that my update is done!

Hoping some rain comes soon so I can get some quilting done.

Until next time...Happy Quilting!

Kelli

Another Deer Hunting Weekend has come to an End...

This weekend we traveled up north to Shawano for another Deer Hunting Weekend.  Mom and friend Judy headed up on Thursday to open up the house and turn up the heat, and Karen and I were planning on heading up Friday after work.  However, surprise, surprise what the weather man predicted as some flurries, turned into quite the snow storm.  I was worried that morning that Karen and I were not going to be able to travel up to Shawano, but the man upstairs was listening to our prayers and cleared the snow in time for Karen and I to leave.

We arrived in Shawano at 8:30pm and quickly unpacked the car in the chilly temperatures...the temperature had dropped to 4 degrees by this point!

Saturday morning dawned sunny but cold.  Time to get sewing!  I was able to finish sewing together dad's rag quilt on Saturday.  If you remember this was supposed to be a Christmas present and it did not get done in time!  So, he got a bag of fabric for Christmas with the promise I would finished the quilt soon!  While here we are in February and I just go it sewn together.  Now to snip it and wash it so it rags!

After sewing together the rag quilt, I wanted to have some fun.  So I pulled out my red and white fabric and put together this little wall hanging.

I am going to use the twister tool on it, so it is not quite finished yet, but I think it looks so cute already!!

Sunday morning came and there was only a little time to sew.  I had some flowers that needed to be appliqued and so I grabbed 2 of the 4 and did some applique.  They turned out quite cute I think.  Only two more to applique and then I can sew together my wall hanging!

Another successful Deer Hunting weekend has come to a close!  Sad to see it end...too much quilting to do, not enough time to get it all done!  Time to unpack and get things put away!!!

Until the next quilting adventure!!!

EAA Quilt Weekend!

This weekend I joined a bunch of wonderful ladies at the EAA Airman's Lodge for a weekend of quilting and fun!  I have never been to the EAA before, and I must say it was beautiful! 

This is the wonderful place where we quilted and laughed and stayed for 4 days!  It was a blast!  And here is one half of the room where we quilted.

Mom and I drove up on Friday morning and stopped at Yds.  I needed to get some backing fabric for my bargello quilt and LuLu's quilt.  I found some fantastic fabric for both of these and two hours into the weekend I had both backings sewed together!  Now to check my bargello in at my favorite local quilt store, Patched Works!  They do such a fantastic job, so I can't wait to see the finished product.  And then I will have mom quilt LuLu's quilt! 

The next project I worked on were my Pineapple Blocks for our monthly exchange.  While these blocks take quite a bit of time to complete, I must say these blocks are quite fun!  I am so glad that I am able to participate in my first block exchange.  Hopefully there will be many more!  Here are the blocks I completed this weekend!

I can't wait to continue this exchange and put all the blocks together in a quilt! :)

Finally I started working on my Granny Squares quilt again.  I stated this quilt about a year ago after I found the pattern in a quilt magazine.  My granny was a very special person to me and when I found a quilt "named after her" I knew I had to make the quilt.  Never mind how difficult it may be...this quilt was for me.  So, about a year ago I put together 6 out of the 36 blocks needed and this weekend I finished another 8!  I don't want to toot my own horn, but this was not an easy accomplishment, as each block takes quite some time to complete.  As the weekend went on, I was able to complete each block quicker than the last.  I am looking forward to putting more of these blocks together and completing my Granny Squares Quilt!  Here are the 8 blocks I finished this weekend!

And here is a close up of one of the blocks!  I am so proud of these blocks!

Over all this weekend was a blast.  I got tons of quilting done, bonded with a group of really wonderful ladies, laughed a lot, learned a lot and ate way too much food! :)  So glad mom introduced me to this group of awesome ladies.  And speaking of my mom, she made me this really awesome hot pad this weekend among other projects she worked on.

Until the next quilting adventure!

The Bargello

Last weekend my mom and I ventured to Shawano, WI for another "Deer Hunting" Weekend.  We go with a bunch of ladies my mom works with and one of the husbands asked where we where going one weekend in November when we first started going.  Jokingly the wife responded Deer Hunting and now no matter what time of year we go we say we are going Deer Hunting! :)

So, on a previous Deer Hunting weekend I stated working on my bargello quilt.  Well I am happy to report that I have finished piecing the main top of the quilt.  There are still two boarders (a 2" and 5" boarder) and some piping that needs to be added and then it has to be machine quilted, but I am so proud of it already that I must show it off!!!  Working on it took about 3 full (about 10-12 hours) days of quilting!  My friend Jen has now told me that I need to enter it in a quilt show in April, so I need to get my rear in gear and get the boarders and piping done so it can be quilted!  Here are some pictures...

Rows 1-8

Rows 1-16

Rows 1-24

Rows 25-39

The Finished Product!

Also on this weekend I was able to put together one of the flannel rag quilts that I gave my sister Rachel and her husband Jay and my dad for Christmas.  It still needs to be snipped so that it rags when I wash it, but I am excited to get at least one of them done!  Now onto the second one!

Rachel and Jay's Rag Quilt

I wish there where more hours it the day to quilt!!!  Now off to prepare the bindings for my bargello!!!

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 has come and gone, and while I had planned to get lots and lots of quilted projects done to give to my family, it just did not happen. Most of my family received stacks of fabric, partially completed, and an explanation as to what it would look like in the end...and then I asked for the fabric back! However, I was able to get two projects completely finished.

The first was a tree skirt for my sister Rachel and her husband Jay. Rachel had been asking for one, and both my mom and I told her that there was no way we could finish before Christmas and she would have to wait until next year. I surprised her and Jay however with a completed tree skirt they could still use this year!

Before I could take a picture of it quilted and bound, Rachel and Jay took it home to put under their tree.  I told Rachel that should could have it of course, but wanted it back before they stored it for next Christmas so that I could take a few more pictures and put the label on! :)


The second gift that I finished was a set of four placemats for my other sister Sarah's boyfriend, Mickey. Mickey loves ducks, so I found a Kim Schaefer placemat patten with ducks on it and decided this was the perfect gift for Mickey. He was so surprised and excited Christmas morning!

So two gifts down and a bunch more to go! :)  I still have to finish two rag quilts (one for my dad and one for Rachel and Jay), a Grinch quilt for my mom and a business sign for my sister Sarah's "Klips By Kate" business!  No one is in a hurry to get these gifts (thank goodness), they where just happy to have home made gifts!  So I will take my time in making them and as soon as I finish these I will be sure to post more pictures! :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

EQ 7

I am so excited...Santa gave me Electric Quilt 7 for Chirstmas!!!!!

I can't wait to use this software and do lots and lots of creating!!!!!!  WAHOO!!!!



http://www.electricquilt.com/shop/eq7/eq7.asp