I'm late posting today because I had a lesson this morning followed by lunch with my cousin and some errands. But yesterday I did accomplish one thing after my dyeing session. I got the Maine quilt loaded and basted. I've been pondering how to quilt it with the default plan to be all-over leaves. The problem is that I do tend to quilt densely when left on my own and I want this to be a soft bed quilt. But just as I type this I remember that I have a nice big leave panto and I think I'll do that. So as soon as I finish typing here I'm going to put my audiobook on and get too it. The other thing I'm working on is a little color matching for a customer. This is one of my favorite things to do. These two fabrics are not cotton so the color matching can't be perfect but hopefully this will be close enough for her purposes.
If you need a color matched I can work from a swatch of fabric, a paint swatch from the hardware store or a color you've painted on card stock. It's always best to work from a swatch of anything instead of a photograph. Color on the computer is sometimes not reliable. There's no extra charge from me for color matching. I love doing it. Yesterday I got the rest of everything put away from my trip to Birds of a Feather. For once, I really did put EVERYTHING away and even got this table cleared. (Ignore that wine bottle, it's one someone gave me to slump. I don't drink wine because I'm allergic.) Anyway, the sight of this clean table at 2 in the afternoon got me itching to start a new project (or two). But before I did that I made a list of the current things I'm working on or wanting to work on: Parasol needs a Zentangle label I want to start designing a new Crystal quilt with a design tutorial I want to cut out Antelope Canyon I want to cut out Stars at Sea and I want to quil the Spirograph quilt Sadly, none of these would contribute to a finish for February and I do so want a finish! So I discussed the situation with myself and we decided to sew together a quilt back for the Maine quilt because I can get that quilted and bound before the end of the month. Then I'll quilt a few of the veterans quilts that I picked up last night at the quilt club meeting and THEN I'll get back to the Spirograph quilt. Then I can cut both of these quilts out and have them ready for my monthly sewing days at quilt club. Stars at Sea might only take a day to sew together but no more than 2.
Tonight after my dyeing session I'll get the Maine quilt loaded and maybe even started. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to be listing lots of new Stars fabrics. Stars are one-of-a-kind one yard cuts of beautifully textured fabrics. To make room for the new ones the current inventory is on sale this week for 20% off! Sale ends Sunday but get your favorites before they are gone!
Just use coupon code FEBRUARY to get your discount. I had great plans of posting every day while I was at Birds of a Feather. Ha! Silly me! Not only did I not post, I didn't even take photos. I just found the camera when I was unpacking this morning. It was an incredibly busy few days but also a great deal of fun and I couldn't have done it without my friend, Anne. She volunteered to come help mind the booth while I was in classes and I sure needed the help. I got the booth set up Wednesday with the help of the friends who were visiting us. They had to fly out of Dulles that evening so it worked out perfectly. The even kicked off mid-day Thursday and I stayed consistently on the move from that point forward. We didn't even leave the hotel to go out to dinner. I taught 2 classes each morning on Friday and Saturday so Anne kept the booth and then we spelled each other the rest of the time. I have to say, it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and it was great to see people respond to the fabric and get some instant feedback. I also had great booth neighbors. On one side was Karen Miller with Red Bird Quilt Co. and on the other was David Gilleland with Vector Quilts. Karen is an applique artist and David designs foundation pieced designs. They were great neighbors. In fact, all of the vendors were really nice and watched out for each other if someone needed a break or snack. The vendors were so nice that I had to buy a few things! The new Septaliner and Circleliner Extensions from Sue Heinz. You are going to see a lot of these as I work on the brown Spirograph quilt in the coming weeks (months). What's this?!? A GARMENT pattern? Yes, Anne and I are going to have a tunic sewing day and I picked this pattern and batik rayon from Sew Batik. It will be a great summer top if it fits well. Finally Anne won a GREAT gift basket that included the electric Go! Cutter and a ton of other great prizes. Included was this Swirly Girls pattern that I've decided to make using one of my Color Wheel Fat Quarter Packs.
Hmmm, it didn't seem like a lot of stuff until I had to account for it! But it wasn't too bad. I sold more than I bought so that's the important fact from the weekend. I also got to meet some blog/Facebook followers and that was a real highlight! Now it's time to get things back to normal so that maybe I can do something fun tomorrow. I met Tina Saunders through the Innova new owner training that I teach locally.I don't think I've ever seen a new owner jump into quilting as quickly and fearlessly as Tina. Whatever she wants to learn to do she jumps in and starts practicing. She designed this quilt to learn several techniques: wholecloth design, working with washable markers, hand guided fill quilting and blocking. She used one of the Stars (one yard cuts) fabrics for her base. You can see more of Tina's work at her website. Tina also provides quilting services. Here are some detail shots of her first wholecloth. If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery. In appreciation you will receive a 20% shop coupon that's good for 3 months!
Conveniently, our friends are heading home to England today and it's the same day that I needed to set up my booth at a hotel very near Dulles airport! They didn't have to be at the airport until 6 so I had some great help getting my booth set up this afternoon. We left this morning with the car packed absolutely full. Honestly I was shocked that I got 3 people, out luggage and a booth full of fabric in the car but my little Subaru did great. Here's my little booth mostly set up. We've already identified a couple of mods that I will do in the morning but their help made this a pretty painless process. (If the banner edges don't straighten overnight I can fix them tomorrow with some tape.) Here are the gradients and crystals right out front where they belong! There's a table on each side of the booth with Stash Packs, Shades and lots more fabrics. Fortunately this is a small conference so there's not likely to be big crowds at any time so although it's a little cramped I think there will be enough space to move around.
I'm happy to be here and have all of this set up. Now I can relax a bit! There's no fabric of the week this week as I'm getting ready to leave for the Birds of a Feather conference tomorrow! This means that there's a modified shipping schedule for orders this week: Orders placed after today (Tuesday) will be shipped Monday, February 12 Custom Orders (including most Shades Packs) will be shipped Monday, February 19 If you need something this week, like the brand new Red Alert Stash Pack, get your order in today!! Visit me at Birds of a Feather!If you are in the Northern Virginia area you can come to Birds of a Feather and shop without registering. Come by to visit me any afternoon (Thursday - Saturday) or Sunday Morning. The first 20 people to mention that they are a blog, Facebook or newsletter follower will get a small gift!
Let's be honest, there's only one thing that I care about from this weekend. It was an exciting game and my voice is a little shot today. But I wasn't confident about the game so yesterday while I waited (seemingly) 25 hours for kickoff I decided that I needed to actually accomplish something. I got the Maine quilt out Saturday evening and got one more row of the quilt done and then finished off the last 3 rows yesterday. The Maine quilt top is done! I absolutely love this quilt and I think I will quilt it as soon as I get back from Birds of a Feather. This is going to be the autumn quilt for our bed so it will be quilted with a simple all-over.
Today I'm just trying to come down from my Super Bowl high and there might be a nap at some point. Tomorrow I have to start packing for Birds of a Feather! This week's gem is from Shelly Crosby. The fox is her original design and is raw edge appliqued to the Forest Canopy Gradient. It's the perfect place for her clever fox to live!
If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery. In appreciation you will receive a 20% shop coupon that's good for 3 months! The only person doing any sewing around here is Laura. She's making some extra large hot pads for her friends who have moved into a new home. She's suing Insul-Brite between 2 layers of batting so they can sit hot dishes on them. I was supposed to be getting the rest of my booth inventory ready yesterday but Chris, Ian and I went clay shooting instead and then last night Laura and I met another friend for drinks. Today they are off doing other things so I'll behave and do my work. One of the "work" things is to pack up some hand work project to do in the booth when things are slow or in my room at night. I'll take my applique project to work on at night but I need something smaller for the booth time. I think my shibori stitching exercises will be perfect and it doesn't take up much space. Space is becoming a serious consideration. I've got 3 people and a lot of stuff to pack in my small car!
My carrot for being serious about work today is that if I get done I'm going to allow myself to get the Maine quilt out and work on it. I'm motivated to get the Maine quilt top done because I REALLY want to start cutting the Antelope Canyon quilt. I'm not going to let myself start cutting AC until Maine is done. That's my goal for the weekend...until Sunday when I'll be totally focused on football for the last time until August. |
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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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