And the race is on... Kentucky Derby Quilt Finish!

They're coming down the back stretch it's Odin's Hammer with Grease Lightning and Southern Drawl right on his tail...Now Odin's Hammer and Southern Drawl are neck and neck, but wait here comes Lucky Charm out of nowhere it looks like it could be a photo finish folks... and the winner is Lucky Charm!

Ok, thank you for the crazy introduction.  As you can tell I'm so excited that I finished my Kentucky Derby Quilt.  It's been a long journey (you can read about how I messed up my math here).  I've had this quilt ready to be bound for nearly six months.  It was a quilt without a deadline and the math errors still haunt me, in a good way.  I measure six times and then cut once these days.

It is by no means a perfect quilt, but I am so grateful for the lessons that it has taught me.
1. There's no harm in trying something even if you don't have a pattern!
2. Measure twice (at least!)
3. Enjoy the process

My grandparents grew up in a small town and every year there is a family reunion that includes a trip to the County Horse Races.  My grandfather gloats about how my grandmother was the Dairy District Derby Queen.  We also place quarter bets on the horses and (much to the chagrin of my mother) win "a bunch of money." This is according to my then five year old sister who announced this at church one Sunday.

Quilt features the horse panel print from Joann's that was found in the remnant section and with the rest of the fabrics coming from my stash

Quilt measures: 56" x 56"
Pattern: Classic Star Block with an additional inside border.

Sewvivor - Quarter Mile Quilts - Kate Gunther

Hello, All! I've decided to audition for Sewvivor hosted by Family Ever After!  As many of you can imagine, it was hard to pick a project for my audition. Drumroll, please :)

My Happy-Go-Lucky Baby Quilt:

I decided to choose one that highlights a few of my favorite things:

1. The Color BLUE.

I am hopelessly addicted to the color blue.  I joke that even my husband's eyes are blue!

(See full post dedicated to the 12 Step Program for Color Addicts - QMQ style!)

2. Favorite Fabrics. 

Highlights one of my favorite fabric collections: Happy Go Lucky from Bonnie & Camille with Moda. 

3. Hand-quilting

I love hand quilting and the effect it gives a quilt.  To help the "beads" shine, I choose to keep the hand-quilting simple and outline each of the beads in a simple straight stitch.  The pieced border also has a bit of hand-quilting along the edge.

4. Giving Away Quilts

I love giving away my quilts and this was no exception.  I was thrilled to hear my best friend was expecting and so a beautiful baby girl named Grace is the happy recipient of this quilt.

Pattern: Squares and hour-glass blocks created this beaded design.  The piano key / squares border was a late addition after seeing: Pixels to Patchwork's project here. She did a fabulous job! 

Machined pieced and hand quilted by yours truly.  Binding was hand sewn using the backing folded over and hand-sewn.  Finished quilt measures roughly 38" x 46".

Interested in auditioning, too?  Jump over to Family Ever After for all the information! 

V and Co's Modern Miss: QMQ Results

As soon as I saw Vanessa Christenson's post about her Modern Miss pattern I knew that I wanted it.  Do you ever have that sudden impulse that you NEED to make a certain quilt or pattern?  This impulse was pretty strong.  I went out the same day (Thursday) and bought the magazine. Then on Saturday I bought the background yardage jumped in Saturday evening.

And behold, a finished quilt top by Sunday afternoon!

It is truly a quick and easy quilt pattern.  If you're a beginner quilter, you should have this on your to-do list.  It has flying geese, half square triangles and squares, with great instructions on how to create each.

Since Sewing Summit last year, I've been holding on to some bright pinks and purples. 

I'm still a little intimidated by the pinks and so chose to use the purples for this project.  I am fairly happy with the results, but think my color choices could have been a bit better.

The nice thing is that I can re-create this project fairly easily and without a whole lot of heartache since it comes together so quickly.  This pattern has me thinking about opening a shop to sell quilts in this pattern... but maybe not.  I could write a whole series on my internal debate on selling quilts.

Thank you, Vanessa for an amazing pattern!

Now, I have to decide how to quilt it...

Finish It Friday: Marmalade HST Quilt

Over Christmas vacation I took some time to teach my amazing sister in laws how to make half square triangles.  Since we were all traveling to sunny California, I safely packed my Singer Featherweight and two charm packs for the journey.  (One charm pack of Bonnie & Camille's Marmalade line and the other of Bella Solids White)

During my hiatus from blogging, I took some time to bind this beautiful quilt.  The result:

Love how this came together and the bright binding.  I found the border and backing on sale at my local quilt shop (LQS) and am happy that it all works together so well.  Quilting pattern is "Chain of Daisies" from my LQS.  Binding is a Kona green, I think it's "Grass."

This quilt is destined for the next baby girl born on this side of the family.  How awesome would it be to have a quilt that all of your Aunts worked on?

Another finish for Finish it Friday!

What are you working on?  Here's a little encouragement from me: "You can do it!  Finish that quilt!" ;)

Simple & Effective: Wee Wander Quilt

Here is my simple, yet effective Wee Wander Quilt that I made for my 8 year-old niece.

I love the simple design because it alternates between 6" strips of patterned fabric and 2" strips of Kona White. I love how this let's the colors and patterns of the fabric shine.

I hand-quilted this little number with some coral-colored pearl cotton.  It can be pretty tough to hand sew through minky, so quilter beware :)

This quilt is simple in design and effective because of how it lets the fabric be the star of the show.  It was also simple and effective because while making this quilt I needed something simple. 

All in all, the most important thing is that my niece loves it!

Thank you all for your kind comments and emails about my quilting anxiety in the last post.  You've all offered some great advice and I've started to implement a few of your suggestions.  For example, I don't check my blog feed every night (trying the suggestion to just read on Fridays/Saturdays) and I've skimmed back on my participation in blog link parties.

I've slowly started to re-enter blogging and emailing.  If you follow me on Instagram you'll see that I've started quilting/sewing more frequently, usually in small 1/2 hour bursts on the weekends.

Behind the Kate

Lately I've done a lot more thinking about quilting, than actually quilting.

Here's the little sis' holding the quilt requested from the older sis'

So here are my thoughts:

1. I thought about my blog and what I REALLY want from it.

2. Then I thought about my style and how I approach quilting.

3. Then I OVER analyzed my abilities and came up with a list of shortcomings.

4. Then I felt inadequate and subsequently unsure of myself.

5. Then came the loss of my desire to sew.  It was painful to even think about sewing.

I'm not the only one who faces these "quilt mind demons," right?  Why do we let this happen to ourselves?  We need to be critical of our work to improve, right? Why do we let comparison or critics be the thief of our joy?

When you feel burnt out and unconfident, what do you do to rise above the quilting blues?

I took a break from sewing and from my quilt blog reading (I really do love you all, but I needed a complete separation).  Who could concentrate on finding peace when you have all of those wonderful pictures and projects to see and read about?  You all continue to amaze me!

I'm slowly getting back into sewing.  The request from my sister came at a good time and a simple quilt project is what I needed.  I also joined a Friday Night Sew Along group on Instagram (#fridaynightsewalong) and the support from my fellow quilters boosted my sewing confidence.  Thanks Sarah of Sarah Quilts!

Seriously, who doesn't love all the quilters?  We have such a wonderful community and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to get to know everyone.

Handstitching

To hand-quilt or to machine quilt, that is the question...

I find that this is an interesting question to ask quilters.  There are some who enjoy the hand-quilting and believe this to be the best way, while others love the speed and consistency or "look" of the machine quilting.  Some quilters are more passionate than others with their opinions.

For me, I enjoy the hand-quilting, but can only get myself to do it every four quilts or so.  And sometimes I only do it when I have a tight deadline.  Wait, isn't hand-quilting supposed to take longer?  Sometimes yes, but my trusted quilter tends to have a 3-4 turn around and sometimes a girl does not have that scheduled into her timeline. 

This weekend I started hand-quilting an adorable project for my niece.  She is turning eight and in my faith, it's a big milestone.  As a part of this milestone, my sister asked for a quilt...with a short timeline.  The result is a simpler quilt that I'm excited to share, but I'm waiting on finishing the hand-quilting first!

The quilt features some of the Wee Wander fabric along with prints from my stash.  To make the quilt more snuggly, I used a "flamingo" colored minky for the backing.  The coral color lent itself well to some pearl cotton and I'm now off to the races.

By the way, it's a little tougher to hand quilt through minky...just an fyi.

Crossing my fingers I can get this hand-quilted this weekend!