 This is it. This is the last ironing that I have to do to get ready for the show next week! It may look like a lot to you but it really isn't. If I get off the computer soon I should be able to get this all done today, tomorrow at the latest. Then the rest of my preps involve various printing and computer tasks.  Are you coming to the show next week? If so, get a joke ready and come visit us in Booth 1730.
Mom (Glenda) and my friend, Anne, are going to be there to help me all week and they are working for free. So I need to keep them in good spirits and that's where you come in! I want my social media followers to come by and visit and if you come with a good joke to make Glenda and Anne laugh you will get a small gift. Lame jokes that generate eye rolls also qualify! So please come by to say hello and give us a good laugh! Come early, the number of prizes is limited!
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today I have 3 great projects from artist and pattern designer, Leslie McNeil of Marveles Art Studios.
Leslie quilts on a domestic machine and she quilts beautiful feathered motifs. She loves using Gradients for table runners. The one on the left is Nightfall and the one on the right isn't made anymore but the colors are similar to Shenandoah. You can see (or buy) more of her tablerunners on her Etsy shop.  She is also knows for her floral collage techniques that she used on this autumnal art quilt using Sugar Maple gradient as the background.
For sharing, Leslie received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery. The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount.  You know how it is. You go on vacation and find yourself buying all kinds of vacation-themed things like shell art, antler light fixtures or, more likely for us, regional-themed fabric. It seems like a great idea at the time and then you get it home and wonder what the heck you were thinking. This fabric doesn't belong in any decor of my house! But they are so cute and I wanted to have something made from them.  Yesterday was the day to do something with them. I needed a break from show planning but not so much of a break that would require serious concentration or time. I just needed a diversion and this was perfect. My Potholder Tutorial was the perfect answer. Chris does almost all of the cooking and he loves these potholders.  I selected lobster red thread for all three so I wouldn't have to change thread colors.  I got all three of them done in less than 2 hours and it felt like a vacation to have my mind on something else for a short time.  Chris likes these because they have pockets for hand holds. I had fat quarters of the lobster fabrics and had to add another fabric for the lining. If I hadn't been lazy I might have had enough lobster fabric left to piece the lining but piecing scraps was a bridge too far.
I've made these for Christmas gifts several times and they are always popular. You can set up an assembly line and made a dozen in no time. Get the tutorial here of you want to make some. Now I can enjoy my Maine memories with my tasteful lobster potholders. How am I so sure that these are the last of the flowers for my booth? Because I ran out of HeatNBond and I'm not buying more! After I finished the other flowers I spread them out in the floor with my booth sign to get a general layout and to see what else I needed. I also still wanted to make a flower with a Shades Pack. The layout told me that this flower also needed to be a little smaller.  I really didn't think that a flower with 5 shades would look good but it turned out really cute!  In fact it was so cute that I used the rest of the HeatNBond to make as many as I could. I'm glad I didn't start with these because I might have made nothing but them. They are so cute!
Now I just have to figure out the best way to transport them. With this done I feel like I'm almost ready. The rest of the list is manageable....until I think of something that I hadn't considered before.  Jenny Lake 20% off  Art quilt by Miriam Ahladas The fabric of the week this week is the Jenny Lake gradient! If you want some for your stash get it before it sells out. Through Sunday (or while supplies last) this fabric is 20% off or $7.20/half yard. Here's a beautiful quilt made by Mirian Ahladas that uses the Jenny Lake gradient for the skyline background. Gradients back in stock Barrier Island Gradient  Sun Blossom Pony by Leslie McNeil Leslie McNeil made her Sun Blossom Pony using her collage technique on a background of Barrier Island. You can get her pattern here.  Sunshine and Shadows Gradient  Copper Trails by Patricia Caldwell Patricia Caldwell made Copper Trails using the Sunshine and Shadows gradient. In fact, she designed this gradient specifically for her project and I loved it so much that I added it to the shop permanently.  Woodlands Gradient  Fall Marsh by Rene Iannarelli Rene Iannarelli used Woodlands in her Fall marsh quilt.
I know that we are very lucky in the Richmond area that the only impact we had from Florence is gloomy rain and gloomy rain has pretty much defined the past 3 days. I had to get some bright color in my day so I made more flowers for my AQS booth.  I'm trying to make a fabric of a sample of each kind of fabric that I'm going to be selling. This is my shibori flower. The other small flowers that I made have 10 petals but I wanted fewer, but bigger, petals to show off the fabric better. I'm showing all of them flat but when they are hung in the booth the petals will be shaped so they will look a lot better.  The next one was a challenge. I wanted to make a flower to show off the Black Shades pack but I knew that the darkest petals would disappear against the dark backdrop. I had a couple of fat quarters of a pinkish red (I know it shows true red here but it's a very pink red) and decided to line the gray petals. I really love the effect.  This is another Crystal mandala but it was a fat quarter sized one. I had folded this small one and added it to the tray in my last dyeing session. I didn't make it for any specific purpose but I'm glad I had it. It turned into a pretty flower.  Next up was to make a flower from a Gradient. Since I use the Sundance gradient as my logo background I wanted to make a flower from the same gradient. Every part of this flower is from one fabric! I think It's going to look really cool once I shape the petals. The 6 petals in the center will curl in toward the center and the will allow more of the orange at the base of the petals to show.
Next I have to decide how to show off the Shades Packs. that might be a little trickier. I'm hoping all of this rain moves out by tomorrow because I really need to do some ice dyeing Wednesday and that needs to be a outside activity. At the moment the forecast is for 85 and sunny so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  King Quilt by Cheryl Kotecki This king sized quilt was made for Cheryl Kotecki's niece and her husband. They sent her a list of color preferences, and photos of two commercial bedspread as inspiration. She sent them links to some fabrics she thought might give the feeling of the photos and complement the zen feeling they were remodeling their bedroom with. She used a Refections fabric in gray and blue to create the trees and to make a watery border for the wintery trees. and to tie it to a silk kimono fabric they loved that I used in a wall quilt modeled on a Japanese scroll. The kimono fabric had a much warmer blue than is in the trees print. Vicki's fabric has both blues!   Wall hanging by Cheryl Kotecki She also made a wall hanging using a silk kimono that the couple loved. She modeled the wall hanging on a Japanese scroll. The kimono fabric had a much warmer blue than is in the trees print but the Reflections fabric tied them together because it had both blues!
For sharing, Cheryl received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery. The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. I'm still rolling my eyes at myself for starting TWO hand applique projects. Part of me wonders what I was thinking. But the other part of me is happy to have some variety. I tend to do 2 or 3 vintage flowers and then switch and do 2 or 3 moons. Here's where I am on the moons.  Here are the 4 most recent ones.  I finally have enough of them done that you can get an idea of how they will looks with a gradient background effect.
I'm in love! Lots more to do. The AQS Virginia Beach show is coming up quickly and I'm madly trying to finish off my to-do list. One of the big tasks is to finish the booth decorations. I've got some great quilts to hang and display but I'm doing a wall of fabric flowers at the back of the booth. I showed you the first ones here.  The point of these is to simply show off the fabrics. I've made ones using the Color Wheel fabrics and I just finished this one using one of the Crystal mandalas. This one is huge! It's about 36" across and I am THRILLED with how it turned out. The center and the large petals are from one Crystal. I think it's going to really stand out against the booth backdrop of dark blue.
Next up is one made from Shibori, one or two from Gradients, some from Shades packs and something from the Black Shades Pack. My goal is to have them done by the end of the weekend. Wish me luck!  It's football season so you know that I'm spending more time in front of the TV so my handwork projects might see some significant progress. I had 2 of these done before vacation, finished one on vacation and finished the other during football Sunday night.  I have 12 blocks finished so far. Look at all that quilting space that I'm going to have in this quilt.
But I'm no where near quilting time on this one. |
About Vicki
I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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