On My Design Wall - Halloween

Good Evening Everyone

How are you doing the day before Halloween? Are you doing anything special? Some family and friends are meeting at my house and then we will be taking the kids around the neighbourhood. My Hubby decorated more than previous years. The kids are so excited.

I tried to post a picture of my family dressed for a costume party to this post but I wasn't able to, so I put it in another post.  We had so much fun and some of the costumes were so amazing.  I couldn't beleive some of them.

I'm trying to get a Halloween wall hanging finished by tomorrow.  Here is it on my design wall:

I had to decide if I was going to applique the pieces with my domestic machine or my longarm.  I decided I wanted a satin stitch not a straight stitch so I will be using my domestic.  As soon as I get this posted, back to my machine I go.

Have you made anything for Halloween this year?

Have a great crafty day!
Vicky K



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Halloween Party last Saturday

Quick post to show a picture of my family dressed for a Halloween Party last week.  We had such a blast.

posted from Bloggeroid

Playing on Millie today

After months of having my millenium long arm set up I will be able to work my machine. The first thing I put on machine was a practice sandwich and I pinned it on. It took me a long time to figure out how to do that. I've only been taught with leader grips.

I purchased leader grips for my machine at the end of July and I'm finally attaching them to my canvas rollers. It took me three times to fold over the csnvas to make a casing for the leader grips. I have successfully completed attaching the leadergrips to one of my rollers. Working on the second one and it will definitely go faster then the first one.

I folded over 1 inch on the canvas and I sewed a quarter inch seam allowance using my hopping foot for a guide. Here is a picture showing how i'm sewing my casing.



I used the clips on the side of my table to hold my canvas place while i sewed down the roller.



It was hard to find information on the web showing how to make the casing for the leader grips. I was quite nervous but then I realised I just had to use my seam ripper if i made a mistake. Lol. Took a lot of the fear away. Do you get anxious about the next step in a project and hold off taking that step? I seem to do that a lot and I know it would just be faster to jump in then to keep stressing about it.

I purchased a new pantograph for my machine last week as I took 3 charity tops to quilt for my guild. I will also use the same pantograph on a quilt for a friend. I told her by the time I do her quilt I'll be a pro.

What are you working on this sunday afternoon?

Have a great day!
Vicky K

posted from Bloggeroid

My New Toy FINALLY!

Good Day All

Hope you have been enjoying your summer so far. Its been very nice in my neck of the woods, which translates to not much time spent doing crafty things.
But I think I will be playing more than usual as I finally got my Millie. Its been over a year since I decided on a Millenium. It took that long to get hubby on board and even then, I ordered it without the basement being ready. I put a deadline of either the dollar being at $0.95 or my 40th birthday. We hit my birthday before the dollar came up.

I received my boxes last Wednesday. Sadly some of the boxes were damaged. I had an appointment for installation scheduled for this Wednesday in case we had problems and couldn't figure it out ourselves. With the damages to the boxes and some pieces, I didn't feel comfortable putting the table and machine together so I waited for the appointment. I thought I would go crazy with the waiting but I did pretty good. We were able to put together my longarm as it seems like almost all the damage is cosmetic. Now I just have to figure out with APQS, the best course of action from here. They have been so nice and helpful with these issues. Great company.








I finally got a chance to play on the longarm around 9:30 last night. I think it was around 1:30 when I had all three pieces loaded correctly and it threaded and bobbin in. At that time of night, I wasn't sure if I should go to bed or try to play. I decided to baste down my edges and subdivide my fabric for playing. I finally dragged myself up last night at 3:30. Surprising, I'm not really tired today (Yet LOL)

I ordered leadergrips but they haven't come in yet, which meant I had to pin my layers on. I have only ever used leadergrips when longarming, so it was a lot of research and trial and error. I think I had to repin at least 3 times. :) Usually I would miss placing the canvas over or under a roller. I think I had a huge smile on my face when I finally it all attached.

This afternoon, I finally played a bit with free-motion. I started off doing curls but ended up doing clamshells (think that's what its called). I think they look pretty good. Any time I've tried doing them on paper, I would get caught in corners. There are only a few places where I don't like what I did, but overall, I'm pretty excited with my results.





I enrolled in Angela Walters Dot-to-Dot Quilting class on Craftsy. I might spend some time today making the quilt top she designed for the class. Its a rainy day, which means I let my kids have a TV day. They haven't had one since school let out.

Have a great day!
Vicky K



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I Spy Comfort Quilt

Good Morning All

It is very late as I'm writing this. Thought I should get it out before heading to bed to see if you will have any insight or suggestions.

My little girl has a little friend (4 yrs old) that was just diagnosed with Stomach Cancer. It has been a sad week for us. I haven't told DD of the extent of her little friend being sick in the hospital. I keep putting myself in his Mom's shoes and almost get panic attacks. And then I think, I'm not even her - How is she doing it???? So I've been praying and thinking positive thoughts for the family. I would appreciate if you would also keep them in your thoughts and prayers even though you don't know them.

I knew I wanted to make the little guy a comfort quilt but wasn't sure what to make, posted it on Twitter and almost as soon as I pressed Tweet, I thought of I Spy quilts. I put a request out to my friends IRL and on-line for I Spy squares. I think I was given more than 40 fabrics!! It is great how giving and caring quilters are.

My daughter and I looked though the internet for samples of I Spy quilts and found so many wonderful patterns. I really liked one but realized I don't have the time to make such a complicated one. And a friend suggested do basic with sashing and she is a very smart friend. So I've decided on what type of quilt and the style of quilt, now I need to decide on the colours of the sashing and cornerstones. The little guys favourite colours are red and rainbow.
One thought is grey sashing with red cornerstones (didn't want black as thought too harsh)
I like the look of white sashing but nervous of it showing dirt??
Then my next thought is having each row a different colour following the rainbow colours.

Here are most of my blocks, please tell me what you would do.




Have a good night everyone, great tomorrow and if you have kids, give them an extra squeeze.

Have a Crafty Day
Vicky K


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1st Weekend Class

Good morning All
Today is going to be a busy day so I thought I would show you what I made last weekend.
the NECESSARY Clutch Wallet by Janelle MacKay
www.emmalinebags.com




The class was great and I believe all finished their wallets.
I really like mine.




The inside is very functional.




I can even fit my phone with OtterBox inside the wallet.




Next weekend, I'll be taking the first out of 2 classes for the Mini Professional Tote. Very excited for this class. I made the Professional Tote in December and am looking forward to having a smaller version of it for my purse.
Hope you play today!
Vicky K
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Tip Tuesday

Good Morning! Hope your day is a beautiful day.

Mine started out a little stressful. We have a foster puppy that loves to bark at other dogs. And her bark sounds mean and scary even though she only wants to play. We purchased a citronella dog collar that worked well on a walk but not so much in our truck. This morning I was looking for the collar so that the pup could come with us to school but I could not find it. Hubby put it away. So we went to school without it. And I'm sure you can figure out how quickly I found it when we got home LOL.

After settling my daughter, I came downstairs to work. I have a lot due last week, next week, and in a month. So what do I do, play with my scraps. What is it we are called, ProCraftinators. :)

Lately, my cutting hasn't been as smooth as I like. Last week I changed a blade that I had changed within the last month and normally my blades can last up to 6 months. It did feel better but still not what I like. The mat I'm cutting on is one of my really expensive large mats and I can't buy a replacement one right now. And the sore spot is the place where I cut small pieces. While cutting my scraps this morning, I had the bright idea to use one of my smaller, cheaper mats on top of my large expensive one for scrap cutting. I think this is a good solution and wish I would have thought of it sooner, before I started to damage my mat. Do you have a separate place to cut scraps and large WOF cuts? I'd love to hear if you have had the same issue and what your solution is.

Damaged spot














pink cutting mat for scraps












Hope you get to play today!
Vicky K




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March A Long 2014 Day 1 & 2

Good Evening all

This is going to be a quick post just to tell my achievement for 15 minutes of quilting a day for the March A Long that Scientific Quilter is hosting.

March 1: I worked for only 15 minutes on subcutting my strips for a nine patch exchange through my guild and printing off a mystery quilt pattern to host at same guild.






March 2: I went through some paint chips I picked up for a challenge we are doing this month at my guild. We are to use paint chips whose name starts with the our initials. And we are to make a mini quilt with fabric that matches those colors. I'm working on a sample to take to the guild to show the members.





Sorry for the shadowy pictures.

Have a good night everyone. I will be linking up with the March A Long.

Vicky K




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1st Time Participating in Scrap Basket Sunday

Hello all
Hope you've had a wonderful weekend and are ready to face the new week in a great mood.
I've had a really good day today and am ending it just the way I like. Quilting and Blogging.
This am we worked very effecently as a family cleaning the house. And just as we were finishing, my friend texted me to see if we wanted to hang. She has two boys that are very close in age to my little ones. So feeling good about clean house and knowing it, all of a sudden, got cold out, I invited them over. I even had time before they came to make some cookies. We enjoyed a few hours company and lunch. It was a really nice visit. The kids had lots of fun! Hubby made a great supper! It was just a really nice day!

A few days ago, I was web surfing for some ideas for a row robin that I'm doing with my guild and came across Scrap Basket Sunday hosted by Kim's Big Quilting Adventure. I felt a strong tug to look further into the linkup as scrap quilting is a passion and I feel that I don't spend much time playing as I would like.

So tonight, since its Sunday, I decided to get serious about playing along. Since I haven't had much time to get things organized to work on something big or structured in my scraps, I decided to work on ironing the four patches I've sewn for my Postage Stamp Quilt. I've been sewing the four patches as my leaders and enders in the last few months and am getting quite a pile that need to be ironed.





I figured that would be a great start and create momentum to keep up Scrap Basket Sunday. I'm hoping to be able to dedicate at least 15 minutes every Sunday to my scrap passion and then I might be able to produce something to show my friends and guild. I'm always talking about what I have planned but haven't come up with anything finished. Some people even save their scraps for me.

Hope you all have a wonderful evening!

Vicky K

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Resolutions for 2014

Good Evening All

Yesterday I talked about the things I tried to do during the day that I actually wanted to do all year. Today I thought I would talk about a few specifics.

Fitness Goals:
Run 5K on March 16.
Run 10K in May
Run a half marathon by the time I'm 40. I will be turning 40 on June 24.
To work toward the above goals, I want to walk at least 5K per day. Every second day, I would like to add a learn to run program during my walk.

I purchased a FitBit Flex in the fall that I use to record my steps. I've set my daily goals in FitBit to 10,000 steps, 5 miles, and 30 active minutes.

I also use MyFitnessPal to keep track of everything I eat. The nice thing about these two programs is that they are linked. So my intake calories to output calories are right there in either program.

Home Goals:
To go to bed at reasonable times which will help getting up with kids easier.
To keep home more organized and cleaned.

Work Goals:
To keep on top of paperwork and bookkeeping so that I'm not doing it all at year end.
I would love to be able to work a little bit every day to keep things up, but boy, do days fly.

Family Goals:
To spend more quality time on a daily basis with kids. I started reading the first Harry Potter book to my little guy tonight. He loves stories and I love to read so it should be a good connection.

Financial Goals:
To set up and follow our budget. A few years ago, I set up a budge system that worked very well for my husband and I. We were even able to purchase 3 vehicles without any loans. It was a great feeling. I would love for my husband to retire in 10 years and this will be the only way we will get there.

Blogging Goals:
To blog on a regular basis. I feel like I get on a roll and blog a lot and then go missing in action for long periods of time. I'm letting myself off the hook this year....I've always tried to have pictures for every post. This year not every one is going to have a picture.

Quilting:
To have at least 6 finishes this year.
To go on a fabric diet. I can only make things from my stash. I'm allowed to purchase fabric to finish a quilt. And the majority of the fabric for the item has to come from my stash. I can't buy 4 yards of fabric to use up 1 FQ. LOL
To finish 1 scrap quilt. Very excited for this one. I seem to get hung up on finishing things for the guild and giveaway projects and don't spend any time on the things I'm passionate about.

Cards:
To work on a stamp set every month. If I really like it, I can keep the set, if I don't, its being sold or given away. I think I have more than 500 stamp sets. Way too many to store especially since I don't do parties any more.

Social Goals:
To touch base with long-lost friends that I miss very much. Again time seems to disappear. I'm going to stop thinking that I'll call them tomorrow and just do it today.

I didn't realize how much I wanted to change for the upcoming year until I wrote this post. I'm ok if the goals need to be adjusted but I think this is a good start.

What about you? Have you made any resolutions/goals for the next 12 months? I would love to hear what you think?

Have a great evening
Vicky K



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Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year Everyone.

Just a quick note to touch base. One of the quilting groups I'm a part of on Facebook had a post regarding the New Year. Whatever you are doing on the first day of the new year is what you will do for the rest of the year.


Today I participated in the Resolution Run 2014. A friend and I walked 5KM. It was a great time. We were nervous the weather was going to be too cold but it turned out to be a nice temperature for walking. It was -15C. My goal for this year is to run a half-marathon by the time I'm 40, which is in June.


Later in the afternoon, I got on the computer and cleaned up my emails. I'm always falling behind on cleaning out my inbox. I cleaned out almost 500 emails. Crazy! I would like to be better at that in the new year.

Then I spent a nice afternoon/evening with my family watching Harry Potter with a crackling fire.

I can't believe I'm craving another walk late this evening. But want to work on more things that I would like to accomplish during 2014. Which means I need to get some quilting done!

Have a great evening and a great New Year!!

Vicky K





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