Kappa Quilt
 

This is really more of a UVM quilt than a Kappa quilt but there are a couple of KKG designs as well as many owls perching and flying around the border.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tbMXvrgoy3...00/UVM+big.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tbMXvrgoy3...uvm+border.jpg

^^^^^

Very nice KKG quilt. :)

One of these good days I'll learn how to quilt. It seems fun and relaxing. I just don't have the space for it now.

It is quite relaxing. You don't need tons of equipment and fabric especially if you hand-piece and hand-quilt (which I did for about 10 years before getting a machine). A rotary cutter, a mat, and a 36" quilting ruler will get you started.

I think I want to try hand piecing it first. A good friend of mine starting quilting in grad school. She made a couple of baby quilts. Maybe I can start there - small!

I really like the bold patterns of Amish quilts.

For now I am swamped under a bunch of needlepoint canvases that I have to finish!!

I started out doing needlepoint as well. It's much more portable.

It is. I think that is one reason why it has stuck with me. I've been doing it for 12 - 13 years now. I mostly stitch smaller canvases that are easy to hold in your hand.

But, I'm slow to actually have all of them finished into ornaments, magnets, and framed.

Hey! Maybe I can make a quilt out of some of my stitched canvases. Of course, it won't have a consistent theme. :o

I learned how to do needlepoint (beyond the tent stitch I mean) and bargello when I was about 10. Picked up cross-stitch and quilting as a SAHM when we were living at Ft Knox. I block my own canvases and have finished them as ornaments or framed pictures.

Cross-stitched items can easily be incorporated into a quilt if you put an interfacing on the back so the batting won't escape through the aida cloth holes. At West Point, we made a beautiful quilt for our department head's wife that had cross-stitched designs of various buildings (including her house) and other USMA symbols. I have added small needlepoint appliques to several of my quilts

HAHAHAHA!!!

My needle arts history is almost similar!


My mom taught me how to crochet when I was like 7-8, but it really did not stick. I think I made something that was suppose to be a doily, but that was it.

Then in college, my junior year, I picked up cross stitch as a sham ;). I was walking around Michaels looking for cute cheap stuff to decorate my dorm room and there was this cross stitch kit on a display. It was small, maybe 4 x 4 inch square, potpourri sachet that had red hearts on it. I thought it was simple and that I could figure out how to do it, and I did. So I cross stitched off and on over the years.

Then, when I was a volunteer for this org, one project they had was to needlepoint Christmas tree ornaments. I thought that since I was "sooooo good" at cross stitch that needlepoint would be a breeze to do. I was a bit wrong. I did not know when I started that needlepoint had so many different stitches and threads you could use. I made it through my first ornament, really enjoyed learning all the different stitches, and wanted to know more.

I walked into one of the other needlepoint shops we have here in Houston and a very kind lady asked me if I wanted to sit in on her class. I said yes, and she has been my needlepoint guru ever since. Seriously, if she lived on top of a mountain I'd climb it whenever I needed her instruction and advice on which stitches and threads I should use for a project.

Then later in grad school I was trying to finish up some experiments. I was pulling 12 - 15 hour days. One night, I was waiting on a gel to finish running and I thought, "hey, why don't I start knitting too". So, I bought a 'teach yourself how to knit in one day' book. It took me a while to figure out how to do a simple knit stitch, took longer to figure out the purl stitch, but I figured that out too. So I do knit too, but nothing more than k1p1, and the like.

So, now I also want to learn how to quilt. I think for this I'm going to start with formal classes.

Lots of great quilting teachers, shops, and guilds in Houston. Go to the International Quilt Festival that is held in Houston in October every year.

I'll check out some local shops. I *think* Leisure Learning offers some quilting classes too.