Final February Book Review

February 27, 2014 Cowtown Quilts1 Comment

I have 2 books to share today, Strip Savvy by Kate Henderson and Candy Store and More by Kay Connors and Karen Earlywine.

When I first looked through Strip Savvy by Kate Henderson, the quilts made me think of Modern Quilts. I don’t consider myself a modern quilter (although you might not agree when you look at some of my quilting), but this book made me “look again.” Kate uses jelly roll strips, those 2 1/2 inch strips, for all the quilts in this book. Well, isn’t that a new take on Modern? Personally, of all the pre-cut fabric out there, I like jelly rolls the best and have not seen them used in the way Kate uses them. One of my favorite parts of her book, I hate to admit, is how she “collects” 2 1/2 inch strips – no, I’m not going to tell you… you’ll have to read the book to find out! And, she tells how she stores her strips and small scraps that she gets from… yes, jelly roll strips!

Personally, I love Log Cabin blocks, so her “Ocean Waves” quilt was my favorite.

Her Butterfly quilt is cute.

And, here’s the back cover to get more of an idea of what’s inside.

To find out more about Kate Henderson, check out her blog at http://neverenoughhours.blogspot.com/. You can buy this book here.

Candy Store and More by Kay Connors and Karen Earlywine is the other book on the Fourth and Final February review…

As I perused the pictures of this book before really looking, I thought the quilts all looked so authentic, like they had actually come from another time period, the 1930s and 40s. I knew the fabrics were re-creations, but the patterns made me feel like I was in a time warps. As I looked further, I realized these ladies had actually done a LOT of research for this book. Their patterns are from old newspaper clippings that they have scattered throughout this book and from vintage quilts that they have collected. They use the same color strategies, but twist them and turn them around a bit.

There is a quilt with embroidered butterflies on it. Not only do they provide several different butterflies to choose from when embroidering your block, but they show you how to embroider the stitches.

I hate to admit this, but as a quilter, one of the most fascinating things I found in this book was how to actually quilt the quilt. Instead of “quilt as desired” when you are done with the quilts, they provide examples of motifs to use on the entire quilt for these quilts. Do you know how hard it is to find examples for quilting vintage quilts? Our customers may pick up these vintage quilt tops and hope we can do them justice with our quilting, but if we don’t have a quilting design that looks vintage (even though we are quilting it on our machines instead of by hand), then I feel like we haven’t given the quilt the personality it needs.

If you are interested in purchasing this book, you can find it here.

Photographs provided by Martingale, courtesy of their photographer Brent Kane

P.S. This weekend’s post will be about Ibby’s quilt. Wait til you see it! I don’t think my quilting did her quilt the justice it deserves, but wait until you see it. I doubt you pay much attention to my quilting, because she did a bang up job on it! It’s gorgeous!

Kitchen Stitches

February 17, 2014February 18, 2014 Cowtown QuiltsLeave a comment

Last week I reviewed Martingale’s Cute Quilts for Kids. This week I will be showing you some of Kitchen Stitches, which was compiled by Karen M. Burns.

I don’t know about you, but where I live the quilters here get together to sew and socialize a lot, and it seems to revolve around food. So, when Martingale asked me to review this book, I thought this would be a good book for all of us to have in our own libraries.

The cover shows the French Farmhouse Chef patterns to carry bread, a pattern to wrap your bread to keep it warm after you’ve cut it, and an apron that resembles a feed sack. Take all that to this bistro table (below) with the cute tablecloth and matching fork napkins and you’ve got yourself an Italian Dinner. Mouth watering yet?

This tea cozy with matching place mats would be so cute when you’re all gathered around the kitchen, taking a break from quilting, don’t you think?

And, look at this coupon keeper. It looks like you could also get ideas for making your own purse with this pattern. An added bonus with this book…

As I looked through this book, my eyes widened with oohs and ahhs and the satisfaction that somebody finally thought of this! Not only did I find cute pot holders, pan handle holders, place mats, napkins, and coasters, I also found cozies for tea, casseroles and a crock pot. Aside from the apron on the cover, there is one made from an up-cycled shirt – cool! And, there are kitchen decor items to spice up your kitchen. I’m so glad it is part of my library now!

You can get your own copy of Kitchen Stitches at Martingale’s website here or at for your Kindle at Amazon.

spell it with fabric…MODA blog hop…coming soon!

February 16, 2014 Cowtown QuiltsLeave a comment

Moda Blog Hop coming up!

Stitch Every Day with Lisa Bongean

Hey All…I want to give you a heads up on a new blog hop starting next week…You will not want to miss this…quilt patterns, giveaways, finished quilt ideas and more!!!

It feels so good to be home…just waiting for Nick to make it home now…

FEBRUARY 17…
American Jane – http://modafabrics.blogspot.com/
Aneela Hoey – http://comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk
Bunny Hill – http://bunnyhillblog.com/
Cotton Way – http://cottonway.blogspot.com/

FEBRUARY 18…
Piecing Directions – http://modafabrics.blogspot.com/
Deb Strain – http://debstrain.blogspot.com/
Kathy Schmitz – http://kathyschmitzstudio.blogspot.com/
Fig Tree and Co. – http://figtreequilts.typepad.com/my_weblog/

FEBRUARY 19…
French General – http://frenchgeneral.blogspot.com/
Janet Clare – http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/
Basic Grey – http://blog.basicgrey.com/

FEBRUARY 20…
Lauren + Jessi Jung – http://laurenandjessiblog.com/
Kansas Troubles – http://kansastroublesquilters-lynne.blogspot.com/
Laundry Basket Quilts – http://www.laundrybasketquilts.com/blog/index.php
Lily Ashbury – http://lilyashbury.com/blog/

FEBRUARY 21…
Me and My Sister Designs – http://meandmysisterdesigns.com/blog/
Kate Spain – http://katespaindesigns.blogspot.com/
Jan Patek – http://janpatek.blogspot.com/
Pat Sloan – http://blog.patsloan.com/

FEBRUARY 24…
Primitive Gatherings – http://lisabongean.wordpress.com/
Minick and Simpson – http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/

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Blessings Come in All Shapes and Sizes

February 14, 2014 Cowtown Quilts8 Comments

This was posted on Facebook, and I have found it to be truer than ever at this point in my life. Right now I am feeling very blessed. I love what I do for a living! I am not making very much money at all, but I am so happy right now. I get to be creative at my work, and I am surrounded by many creative people. I believe that we are who our friends are. If we hang around gang members, they will rub off on us, and we will be like them. The same thing is true for creative and talented people. If you surround yourself with creative and talented people, you will become like them. That is one of the reasons I belong to a particular quilt guild. There are so many talented quilters who create beautiful, stunning quilts. And, guess what? I’m one of the lucky quilters who gets to draw with thread onto their scraps of fabric!

My latest venture has been working on Wilma’s quilt. I swear, she has a natural talent for putting together fabrics. You can tell she fussy-cut these pieces for the Dresden Plates. Don’t they look great?

Here’s a shot of all the Dresden Plates.

She was worried about the white backdrop, but, really… what other color could you have used and make the colors pop like they do?

Here’s a shot of the whole thing. The white backdrop is quilted with cross-hatching, the “petals” of the Dresden Plates are quilted with swirls, the centers of the Dresden Plates are quilted with pebbles, bugs, and cross-hatching, while the green squares are just echoed straight-line stitching around the Dresden Plates.

Would you believe she only has 3 borders? The green border was quilted with piano keys. The red strip has little swirls, and the “other” border that looks like it is many borders has big and small swirls.

And, if you really want to see the quilting, here are 2 shots of the back.

I had so much fun quilting this, and Wilma is so forgiving of my mistakes. I truly feel blessed. Wait til you see the next one that is on my frame now. It’s Ibby’s quilt and is a beauty as well!

Cute Quilts for Kids

February 11, 2014February 11, 2014 Cowtown Quilts2 Comments

Martingale has asked me to review a few books for them, so I will be doing a series of book reviews in the near future. This first review is for a book by Kristin Roylance called Cute Quilts for Kids.

I don’t have any little kids at home anymore and no grandkids to make these for, but as a former teacher, I can tell you that this book of kids quilts will tickle your fingers. Kristin not only does a good job of spelling out simple directions for beginning quilt makers, but she also adds cute 3-D touchy-feely things to the quilts that little kids will love. But, not to worry… the added embellishments are sewn down very well OR they are meant to be removed and reattached with Velcro. Check out this butterfly quilt with the ruffled butterfly wings. Can’t you imagine a little girl sucking her fingers on one hand and the other hand fiddling with the ruffled wings while she sleepy-eyed cuddles with this quilt?

Or this quilt… I can even imagine it sitting on a table or used for a picnic.

Check this one out for little boys… too cute!

For a list of quilts inside, the table of contents will give you a clue.

And, check out more of the quilts on the back cover.

If you’ve ever wondered how to make Prairie Points, she shows you how in the dinosaur quilt. Personally, I think the sailboat quilt is my favorite. I love the rick rack and the chenille fabric (for waves) she used around the borders and the 3-D flags on the boats.

Many thanks to Martingale and their photographer, Brent Kane, for the pictures above and the book to review – LOTS of fun in this book! You can buy this book directly from Martingale here or you can get an autographed copy of her Kristin’s book at her website here.

Best Laid Plans… to be continued

February 8, 2014February 8, 2014 Cowtown Quilts2 Comments

The past 2 weeks have been crazy. I even checked this past week to see if there was a full moon, but it’s not until Valentine’s Day. Two weeks ago I was working on a client’s quilt and also working on a pattern to make a purse. I was asked to teach how to make a quilted purse, so I came up with a pattern and then needed to make it up so I could tell how easy or difficult it would be for the students.

Then, one of my husband’s 2 favorite aunts died. My husband was to be a Pall Bearer, so we needed to drive to Ft. Worth, Texas for the funeral… a 10 hour trip on a good day. We hurriedly packed up and drove down to temperatures in the 70s. I thought weather changes were pretty dramatic in Kansas City and Denver, but we found that it is so much more dramatic in northern Texas and Oklahoma. We came back home Sunday. We knew the drive home would be “iffy” when it came to the weather, but we figured we had it planned between snow and ice fronts. Well, we were wrong – that was between 2 weather fronts in the Kansas City area. Sunday morning before we headed back home, we checked the weather and the road conditions and chose the highway that looked like it was in better weather and traffic conditions. What a long day that turned out to be! There were cars, buses, and trucks off in the ditch and paralyzed on the highway pretty much the whole way through Oklahoma. I guess they don’t “expect” snow and ice??? Because they sure weren’t prepared for it!

Anyhow, to make a long story short, this was the beginning of the “wrench” put into my best laid plans of getting customer quilts done. And, that’s the way it seems to go for me – my life is either feast or famine (crazy busy or nothing going on). Aside from our Snowmagedden here in Kansas City this week, and my husband being home from work because of it until Thursday, the phone’s been ringing off the wall this week. Everyone seems to have an issue that needs my help.

But, enough about that… I was determined to put a big dent in this quilt yesterday – it’s been on my quilting frame for almost 2 weeks now. I am almost done. I just need to do some work on the borders and then go back and do a once over check. I will take another picture of it full length after I finish it and will post it later.

Oh… one more thing. My friend, Trisch Price has a new book that just came out through My Stars, the modern division of the Kansas City Star Quilts books.

If you go to this site http://mystarsblog.com/2014/02/06/qa-and-book-giveaway-accentuate-the-negative/ you can see one of her quilts that I quilted for her. It’s one of 18 quilts that are in her book.

Also, they are having a give away. If you leave a comment on their blog, you just might win her book! So, please go check it out!

Cowtown Quilts

Creating tomorrow's heirlooms

Month: February 2014