 Seascape #2 by Patricia Caldwell, 19.5" x 33.5" This week's inspiration comes to us from Patricia Caldwell. This is how her creative mind works with leftovers! It's made with dyed fabrics, fibers, cheese clothe, tulle, glass beads and drift wood gathered on the Oregon coast. The drift wood was washed, dried and then sprayed with water based polyurethane. Hand stitched with quilting thread, embroidery thread, dyed yarns and machine quilted.
Here are some detail shots so you can see all of the beautiful hand stitching and embellishments.
For sharing, Patricia 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.  A friend and I made some deliveries to From The Heart this week so I focused my crochet over the weekend to finishing this blanket. It finished to about 30 x 34 and used 2 Caron baby Cakes. This color is from a few years ago. The pattern is from the BagODay YouTube Channel and is called Easy Crochet Blanket. It really is easy! My starting chain was 108 and the simple pattern is worked in 3 stitch clusters of one SC and 2 DC. I used a J hook.  I'm making good progress on the next big blanket. Each blanket takes 7 balls of yarn and I've just started the second ball. This one will last into February for sure.  I also need to start a new donation project and I've decided to use up some of the Pound of Love yarn and make a larger blanket that will be donated for someone receiving chemo or dialysis treatments. I'll do a stripe pattern in some sort of simple stitch, maybe like this one.
 I'm so happy to be quilting again and getting back into the quilting groove is always easiest bu doing some veterans quilts. I finished quilting them this weekend and then spent Monday and Tuesday finishing the bindings. This one is a Chandelier Quilt. I found instructions on YouTube from Missouri Star. I worked up mine with smaller blocks that those used in the instructions. I worked up the design in EQ so that I could get the finished quilt to the right size of 48 x 60.  When I cut out these kits I had enough fabric to make 2 of them. I switched the placement of red and blue blocks so that the two quilts are a little different. The blue background fabric is all leftovers from dyed backing fabric used on previous veterans quilts. When I trim up the quilts I always have some chunks of backing fabric leftover. I got through a little of that stash in these 2 quilts.  Here's a little close up so you can see the on-point block.  This is the third quilt that I finished this week. It's also set on point with a simple Friendship Star block. The block finished at 9" square and I think the sashing is 2" finished.  Here's a close up of the blocks where you can see that the star elements are all fussy cut from a symmetry print. These fabrics will be in stores in February or March. They are all designed by Paula Nadelstern and, IMHO, these dotty fabrics are magical.  The last quilt finished this week is this string quilt that I absolutely love. I think I wouldn't mind having one of these in queen size for our bed. It was so easy to make because I designed it to purposely avoid having to match any seams except for the center seam of each block.  Here are 4 blocks. Each block finishes at 8" x 10". I cut foundations about 9 " x 11" and then trimmed them after all of the string piecing was done. The printed fabrics are cut 1.5" wide with a few chunky pieces for corners. The black is cut in a variety of widths from 1.5" to 3". This is the second or 3rd quilt that I've made with a rectangle string block and I have at least 2 more kits cut out using this method.  Next up is a quilt that I'm quilting for Mom. She's been waiting a long time for this one and it's finally time to tackle it. I'll take a few days to play with a few ideas and then I'll jump in.
I'm linking up to Meadow Mist Designs Favorite Finish of the Month  I'm so glad to have the longarm back in action. After all the angst and multiple timings, I think I've determined that half of my problem was the thread! Whatever, I now can time my machine in my sleep. I got busy and quilted all weekend. It was so much fun to catch up on veterans quilts, like this one from Becky.  I don't remember who made this one but all of those starts are EPP pieced. It's my photography that makes it look wonky.  I also quilted 3 of my own veterans quilts and plan to get on with the binding today. I'd like to have them all done before our quilt club meeting tomorrow night so I can take then for show and tell.  I have one more veterans quilt of my own to quilt and then I have a big quilt that Mom made. Based on the status of this bin, I will also need to make some pet beds again soon.
That's pretty much the extent of my weekend. I did some crochet during the football games and am really close to finishing a baby blanket.  I gave my cousin this blanket last week and she sent me this photo that night. It made me very happy and I think Barclay likes his new blanket! It looks like the size is perfect for watching basketball games this winter.  I started the next one. I actually spent about an hour looking for other patterns but in the end I came back to this one. I think it looks great in these yarns. This one isn't designated for anyone yet but it will probably have a home by the time it's done.  I'm pretty close to having this baby quilt done. You can see in the project bag how much yarn is left. The colors in this photo are pretty washed out and the dark spots at the color changes aren't nearly as noticeable as they are in the photo. I have some matching turquoise that I could use as a border but I'll likely leave it the way it is. A friend and I are going to From The Heart Tuesday to deliver some items so I'd like to get this one ready for delivery too.  Over the past couple of weeks I've worked on a few hats and these two are finished and earmarked to be chemo hats. The blue one is made with Loops and Threads Impeccable Flecks using this BagODay pattern on YouTube. The pink one is made with Lion Brand Feels Like Butta yarn using the popular Divine hat using the Fiber Spider tutorial.  Once I finish the baby blanket I'm going to get back on this cardigan and get it wrapped up. I haven't touched it since early November and I need to get it finished. I think the next step is the center back. I'll have to get back to the video for the instructions.
 48" x 60" It seems that I got the longarm timed properly! I got 2 quilts quilted this week and one of them was this one that I made. Of course it's a veterans quilt and I got it bound last night to be my first finish of 2023. The quilting is a simple wavy crosshatch.  This is probably the third double 4-patch quilt that I've made as a veterans quilt. The gold fabric is the leftovers from a veterans quilt back. The little squares are cut from leftover symmetry fabrics and the larger pieces are from a Paula Nadelstern fabric from several years ago. It's one of my favorite of all of her fabrics.  I quilt the veterans quails two at a time and this is the other one that I quilted at the same time. Becky made this one as part of one of Barbara Brackman's quilt-alongs.  I got my chandelier quilts basted and they are ready for quilting but that won't happen today. By the time this posts Mom and I will be on a long day trip to Martinsville, VA. It's about 3 1/2 hours each way so it's going to be a long day. Since I won't have any progress on anything today I'll have a crochet update to post about tomorrow. This weekend I hope to get the chandelier quilts quilted and bound. After that I have 3 more veterans quilts waiting for quilting and I expect I'll pick up more of them at the meeting Tuesday.
 I think I shared last week that I had started making a new batch of these surgery drain bags for donation. It was through one of these that my Mom received after surgery that we found our about the From The Heart Stitchers organization. I like making these because they are fast and are a good use of stash fabric. Last year I only made 21 of them because I didn't like making the straps. Then I discovered that I could buy 100 yard rolls of grosgrain ribbon from Home Sew and that really speeds up the process. I got black and gray and will pick my fabrics for the bags to go with the ribbon.  Every item donated through this organization gets a tag like this. This is also where I donate the shawls, blankets and hats that I crochet for donation. I've also made seatbelt port pillows for them. I needed a new sewing project last week and I wasn't in the mood to start a new quilt. This little project was perfect for me.  I made a batch of 33 (because that's how many I could get out of the fabric I pulled).  I still didn't have anything new to start so I cut another batch of 41. I know that they give these to men and women (not just mastectomy patients) so I try to make them unisex but I'll use whatever fabric that I have. Though after making this second batch I thought that using dark fabric might make sense because they probably get a little grungy after a few weeks of bathing.  They are packaged and ready for delivery next week! I like to put my donations into labeled plastic bags to make the sorting easier on the organization. I've been in the office and they get a lot of items coming through each week that they have to sort through.
In other news, I think I have the longarm back in business! I hope to have some quilts to share tomorrow. December was about 2 things: postcards and dyeing shirts and towels for gifts. I made almost 90 postcards in November and December. As best as I can tell, I have been making Christmas postcards for about 15 years and I'm not tired of it yet. Only 9 more months until I stress out about the 2023 designs! My other big accomplishment was doing a lot of dyeing for gifts. I have actually gifted 22 of the 26 tea towels! I'll order more soon so that I can stockpile for future gifts. People seem to like these and I love making them. My next batch will be heavy on tie dyeing because I really love how this batch turned out. Crocheting was good this month too. I made 9 more donation hats, a donation shawl and finished a blanket for my cousin's husband. The evening I gave it to her she sent me a photo of Barclay relaxing in his recliner all snuggled under it. That's a great feeling!  On the sewing/quilting front, I haven't accomplished so much. I got 2 veterans quilt tops sewn but that's about it. I haven't quitled in 2 months for many reasons but the main one is that I'm having some problems with my machine. Thread is shredding and I keep re-timing it and I can't quite solve it. I've made it a lot better but I'm determined to get it resolved this week. I've got 7 veterans quilts to quilt and 4 of them are mine 4 or 5 of them are my own. 2022 in reviewI'm not going to post any sort of collage of my projects for the year because I have this page that has everything I've made on it. But I do have these 2 photos that represent some of my accomplishments. I emptied 14 spools/cones of threads and used 114 balls/skeins of yarn. At the thread usage rate I should be through my thread by my 148th birthday. I'm a little better off with the yarn. My purchases seemed to be getting a little crazy. I only buy yarn on sale but that doesn't mean that I need it. I wanted to see how much I use. At this rate I have about 2 years worth "in stock". I don't feel too bad about that but I need to keep an eye on my purchases. Here are my stats for the year: Quilts - 3 Veterans quilts made - 9 Veterans quilts quilted - 21 Fabric Postcards - 98 Pet Beds - 6 Quilted for others - 2 Crochet blankets - 12 Crochet shawls - 5 Crochet/loom knit hats and scarves - 47 Doll outfits - 1 Placemats - 14 Dyed shirts and towels - 36 Other Donated items - 41 Garments (sewn and cochet) - 4 January GoalsI don't make New Year's resolutions or set big goals. My big goal is the same as always: to spend as much time as possible making things. I'm really glad that I have charity organizations to make things for because my family and friends have all the stuff from me that they need. I'm always ready to make something special but I love being able to make the veterans quilts and and the crochet items for From The Heart.
For January I want to: - get the longarm straightened out and quilt 7 veterans quilts - finish a batch of surgery drain bags for FTH - replace the binding on a vintage family baby quilt |
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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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