2016 New quilters blog

This year I am participating in the 2016 New quilters blog hop.  They divided us into little groups called hives and I am in the Hive Sewciety.  Our hosts are Cheryl at www.Meadowmistdesigns.com , Yvonne at www.quiltingjetgirl.com, and Stephanie over at www.latenightquilter.com. This has been a lot of fun as I have learned a lot about blogging.  The first part of the hop involved dividing us into groups of 4 or 5 and critiquing each others blogs.  This was fun.  I am grateful that I have a daughter who was willing to help me put different things on my blog.  So, now we are into the hop and we visit each others blogs.

They have asked us to do an intro about ourselves.  

I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and raised in a small town named Grantsville.  I learned to sew in 4h, with my mom as my first teacher and then later with another lady in town.  I had fun and really enjoyed sewing.  As I was growing up, my mother would quilt and we would play under the quilting frames, and push the needle back through for her.  My favorite classes in jr. high and high school were the home economics ones.  I also did summer home economics.  

  After getting married, and having my first child, I decided I wanted to do some sewing.  I made him a coat one winter, and also made him a quilt.  It was a transportation quilt and involved a lot of applique which I like.  It was fun to do and I don't know what ever happened to it.  I can't find it anywhere.  I decided I enjoyed quilting that my next quilt was an amish one.  It had a lot of little pieces and I was cutting them all by hand.  I gave up on it, and I think by mistake it got thrown away during a move.

Eventually I wanted to make another quilt.  This time I was able to get a rotary cutter and mat, and wow, what a difference that makes.  It is so much easier to cut now.  I love quilting and I am more the traditional type, but there are some modern ones that appeal to me. You can read more about me by going here.

I don't know why I decided I wanted to blog, but I love it as a way to have a record of my work.  If I try to keep a hand written journal, they get lost.  I needed a name.  I liked using my first name, but when I googled Kathy quilts or Kathy's quilts, there were too many that showed up.  I decided to use the "k" and that is how I came up with Kathy's Kwilts and the more came because I wanted to focus on quilts and sewing.

They asked us to share some of our favorite quilts that we have done.

This is a quilt that I did for a lady in 2013.  I designed the pattern.  This one was quilted with an overall quilting design on my husqvarna lily 550 sewing machine.  It is a twin size.

This is another one done in the same pattern, and I quilted it in the same way.  

Earlier this year, I ran across a blog by the same ladies hosting this blog hop, who did a blog series on writing quilting patterns.  I decided that I wanted to try developing a pattern, so I took my notes from making these and put it together, and it is the quilt that is the quilt along on my page.

This quilt was made for one of my friends first grandson.  it was fun to do and this one was hand quilted.  In every other block there is a heart in there.  Then I outline quilted around some of the frogs.  

This quilt was made for my first granddaughter born in 2010.  I did this one on my machine.  I love doing a 4 patch as they go very fast.  I put hearts in all the plain squares and then quilted in the ditch on the 4 patch.  The border was done with a stencil, that I traced on, and then carefully followed the lines.  

In May 2015 I got my first machine quilting frame.  Things go so much easier now.  I use a grace pro frame, can do up to king size and a juki tl98q machine for quilting.  I love it.  

They asked for a quilting tip and one that has helped me is to make sure that when you are sewing your blocks, take the time to press.  They look much neater and it just makes the whole quilt turn out better.

As for blogging, I link up to different link ups each week.  Sometimes I may do a blog post before the links are open and then forget to link.  I now put it on the calendar in my phone, along with the link.  Just a couple of clicks and it is done.

As for favorite books, I love the classics. One I am reading right now is Education of a wandering man by Louis L'Amour.

As for a dream vacation, how about Hawaii. That would be sure fun. But, I found another dream the other day. There is a gorgeous home for sale in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Viginia. It has been a bad and breakfast. The best thing, there are 4 dining rooms. How about turning 1 into a quilting Studio and maybe selling quilting supplies and another 1 into a classroom for quilt retreats, and let's take a 3rd and turn it into a football room. It would be decorated with Indiana Colts quilts and pillows and of course, BYU. That would make 2 guys very happy.

Question: is there something in the way of quilting you would like to try? I have 2. One is the Mariners compass quilt and the other is I would love to be good enough at quilting and quilt projects for designers as they get ready to go to quilt market.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting my blog. I love comments and would appreciate hearing from you. I would love you to visit my friends who are joining me in this adventure as well.
Shannon @ shannonfraserdesigns.ca
Tami @ sewmuchforfreetime.blogspot.com
Suzi @ websterquilt.blogspot.com
Olusuyi  @ alicesamuelsquiltco.wordpress.com