Kauffman Designs

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Twilight Echoes

My pattern Twilight Echoes is in the Dec issue of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.

Photos used with permission from Americn Patchwork & Quilting (R) Magazine
(c) 2016 Meredith Corporation All rights reserved

This pattern is paper pieced and used Celestial Dreams fabric from Island Batik. Have to say I love this one!

Friday, October 14, 2016

It's October and it feels like fall. I'm seeing pumpkins everywhere - and the challenge this month for the Island Batik Ambassadors was to make something with a pumpkin theme. I had a nice selection of fabric from the Equinox Island Batik line that I knew would be perfect.

I was pondering what to make when one of my local quilt guilds decided to have a quilt retreat. Wouldn't you know- they decided to make a variety of mug rugs and one of them was a pumpkin! Wonderful! The pattern was by Klee2Strings, and you can get her pattern by clicking on her name and going to her craftsy site.

The Equinox fabrics were perfect and it didn't take much fabric- or time to make this cute little mug rug.

We had a great time at our retreat. Here are some photos of the ladies hard at work (and play).

Several other ladies from the guild made the pumpkin mug rugs. Aren't they lovely!

Lots of other projects were worked on during our retreat and we had a lovely sharing time at the end, seeing what everyone had accomplished.

If you are ever able to attend a quilt retreat - don't hesitate! It's a lovely time of sharing and creating.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Bountiful Table Toppers

The challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors this September was Bountiful Table Toppers. Each Ambassador could create a table topper out of their stash of beautiful Island Batik Fabrics.

This was a busy month for me and I didn't get started on this project until last week. I decided on a table mat from a larger project I'd already designed. I decided to use three fabrics from Island Batik Tradewinds. I love the smokey blue/green/teal with the almost black fabrics.

As I was deciding on which project, I realized that this table topper could easily be quilted with the Westalee/Sew Steady templates! I've mentioned in an earlier email about the Westalee quilting foot that allows you to sew and use templates on your domestic machine. What a time saver this is! No marking and lovely accurate quilting - they are a dream!

These are the three templates I used for the project: The 2" circle, 12" arc and 4" arc. The circle and 4" arc come in the sample packet and the 12" arc came with the foot. I stitched in the ditch with clear around all the shapes and did the other quilting with black thread in the top and bobbin. The project measures 14 1/4" x 14 1/4".

Here are a couple photos of the quilt being quilted:

Photos of the final project - front and back so that you can see all the quilting.

Table mats and runners are quick and easy- great for gift giving. Plenty of time to make a few!

Friday, September 23, 2016

Camp Auction Quilt

I've been working on a quilt for our local church camp. They are having a Festival Oct 1 at Camp Alexander Mack in Milford IN on Oct 1. It is a fun day with lots of activities, food booths and a live and silent auction. Everyone is invited for a fun day. The quilt I made for the auction is called Camp Fire Memories.

I seldom remember to take photos of quilts in progress, but here are a couple of this one.

The above photo shows the process (and mess) of fabric selections.

Here the flames are somewhat decided (notice I took out the gray and silver fabrics), and the browns for the logs are being decided.

Ready for quilting!

Camp Fire Memories Quilt

by Connie Kauffman

Camp Mack Festival Oct 1 Milford Indiana

Live auction 10:30 am

Monday, September 12, 2016

Westalee Ruler Foot for Machine Quilting - Domestic Machines

I am so excited to share with you the Westalee Design Ruler Foot for Domestic Machines. This is a foot that fits on a domestic machine and allows you to use rulers for machine quilting. I have been looking for a foot like this for a long time, and I have to tell you it is WONDERFUL!

This foot is a true 1/2" foot that gives you 1/4" stitching from the needle to the template. on all sides. It works just like you see on a long arm machine. The foot is available for low shank or high shank domestic machines.

Sew Steady is a wonderful company that will be able to help you make sure you have the correct foot for your machine. All you have to do is give them the name of the machine you have and they will be able to tell you if you need a low shank or high shank foot. You can also go to the Westalee Design website and they have diagrams and info on which foot you will need for each machine.

*just a note of clarification - Westalee Design products are designed and made in Australia,. They are partnered with Sew Steady to bring these great tools to the USA.

The foot attaches to your machine just like your other feet. I have a Bernina machine and I did need to purchase a small adaptor shank to put the foot on, and now it attaches like all my other feet. Sew Steady can let you know if you need an adaptor shank- not all machines need this.

My Bernina machine took a low shank foot (almost all Bernina's take a low Shank foot), and this foot also fits on my Gem Gold Machine from Janome because it is also a low shank machine.

I encourage you to go to both the Westalee Design Website and the Sew Steady Website and read all their information and how to order your own ruler foot. You can also start looking at their great variety of templates. They have many wonderful videos on how to use the templates- these are very helpful. You can also find their videos on U Tube.

I'll be sharing about many of their templates in future posts - stay tuned!

Monday, September 5, 2016

Seaside Summer Blog Hop Winner

I hope everyone enjoyed the Island Batik Seaside Summer Blog Hop. The winner from my blog was chosen by Random.org. The winner is: Allison! Your fabrics are on the way.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Seaside Summer Blog Hop

Welcome to the Seaside Summer Blog Hop! I hope you have been following the Island Batik Ambassadors on their daily blog posts Aug 15- Sept 2. Today is my day to share with you.

The Island Batik fabric collection I received to create with for this blog hop is called Equinox.

Aren't these lovely fabrics! They are a great mix of oranges, greens, and browns with a pop of red and burgandy. I had these fabrics for several months before they announced what the theme of the blog hop would be. I had visions of pumpkins and quilts with leaves....and the theme became Seaside Summer! Oh my! Well, I was told I should make anything that showed off the fabrics- even if it didn't match with the theme of the blog hop.

So I finally decided to just go with my first instinct and make a fall themed project. Here is my quilt called Looking At Autumn.

I had a lot of fun using 20 fabrics from this collection - the more colors the better! The colors were wonderful for mixing and matching half square triangles. There is a quick and easy secret to making the inner border that sparkles. This project is much easier than it looks! I used Aurifil 2360 and Superior Fantastico 5131 to piece and quilt with. You can see how well the colors work with the fabrics.

I still felt I needed to make something with a summer theme- even if it wasn't a large quilt. Here is my mini pineapple block- thanks to the free pattern from Red Brolly And only about 11 colors in this one! This was quilted with a 4" arc template from Westalee, and using their foot for quilting on a domestic machine. I will be posting about these fantastic templates in future posts, so stay tuned to my blog.

Pineapple is so refreshing for summer snacks. Since my small block is a pineapple, I thought my recipe should have pineapple in it. This recipe is super quick and easy - great for a hot summer day.

Pistachio Pudding
6 oz pkg cool whip
small can (8 oz) crushed pinapple
Instant pistachio pudding
small marshmellows
Mix everything together and cool
Enjoy!

To enter to win a 5" x 5" Stamp pack of Island Batik London Fog fabrics (they look like summer to me) leave a comment on what is your favorite "summer" color. Make sure that I can reach you by email if you should win.

Enter the rafflecopter below to be entered to win some beautiful Island Batik fabrics.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here is the full schedule for the blog hop- be sure to visit everyone!

Monday Aug 15 - Rain Forest

Kissed Quilts

Tuesday Aug 16 - Red Tide

Free Motion by the River

Mary Mack Made Mine

Wednesday Aug 17 - Sand Dune

Purrfect Spots

KnitBug 2

Tamarinis

Thursday Aug 18 - Seashore

Pamela Quilts

Maria Michael Designs