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My big chore for the weekend is to get the taxes together. For an accountant, I dread this chore a lot more than I should. I stopped doing our taxes years ago when I did the state taxes wrong 3 years in a row (we kept getting a second check) and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Even in college I would complain to the Dean (a restaurant customer of mine) that tax accounting belonged in a whole separate curriculum. I still believe that. It's not accounting. It's completely illogical. Anyway, it's my chore and after that I'm going to immerse myself in penguins and yarn de-stashing.  This week I've been making a little progress on the next baby afghan. This granny square stitch is rally easy and fast. I now know why it's so popular. It would be great for working on a plan or in a car.  This is how much yarn is left. I intend to use every inch of it so I'll splice in those bits of pink and green on the side. I really don't think it will take very long to finish this, it's going really quickly. I've also been trying to figure out how I will quilt the postage stamp quilt. I don't intend to enter this quilt because it will be so huge but I'd like the quilting to be nice. I don't need to be in a hurry though because finding a king size black batting is next to impossible. I've found one place to order it but I'd have to get 2. I found another shop and did place an order but they canceled it a refunded me. I'm now trying to see if a local shop will order it for me. Meanwhile I ponder the quilting.  I printed off a pale copy of the quilt and slide it into a page protector and can do my drawing on the page protector. This is the idea that I've had in my head all along. Spirograph circles floating behind the postage stamps. It didn't take long for me to realize that this is a really bad idea. There's just too much going on and it would take FOREVER to quilt. I'd like this quilt on my bed sometime before I die. So then I started thinking more traditional, focusing on the black spaces.  The first idea was the wreath. I envision it in bright colored thread to stand out on the black. I'm planning to CC the postage stamps and I could carry that in the black to the edge of the wreath. I like that OK but then I thought about using the edge of the black diamond instead and I really like that. I'm thinking I could even do a connecting diamond in the postage stamps too.
This is where I left off with ideas. You are welcome to give my your ideas too! I've got plenty more thinking time before I start this quilt.  Yesterday was dyeing day so I didn't get a whole lot accomplished but I did get all my stuff organized to make the coasters and worked on one for a few minutes. I setting up to do these at the Brother sewing machine and will make them until I run out of fabric or cord. There's really no reason to keep a big stash of cording laying around and I have a pretty good size stash! But I did do a little bit of organizing.  This is my travel sewing kit. I think I bought it at Wal-Mart in the tool department for about $6 and it's really perfect for holding a complete set of sewing notions. But lately it's gotten a little difficult to close so clearly I've added in a few too many things over the past few years of using it. Time to reassess.  For one thing there are way too many markers and seam rippers. A few of these markers have never been used so they can go in the trash. I wouldn't use them at home either.  I sure don't need 2 tape measures, a pin cushion and 2 boxes of pins. Surprisingly that little spool of Wonder Under fusible does come on handy from time to time.  I had 3 times as many hand sewing needles and twice as many machine needles. I don't know how I accumulated so many but downsizing was in order. I do like to have extras in case anyone else needs one but this is at least a 3 year supply.  With a chalk wheel I really don't need any of the other markers but the glue stick and tape really do come in handy. The tape was necessary the day that I broke the spool holder off my machine. It held it until I could get home and apply the duct tape for a "permanent fix".  All organized and ready for another few years.
Now it's time to stop getting distracted and work on the penguins some more. I'm also progressing on the new crochet blanket in the evenings and I"m starting to plan the quilting for the postage stamp quilt. I'm making progress on a lot of fronts. The Quilter's Dream company helped me find a vendor that carried their king size black batting, so that's finally on order.
This cabinet at the end of my pressing station used to be full of beads. I've moved the beads to my button cabinet for now but they are probably on their way to my sister-in-law. She has a group that makes jewelry for a fundraiser for her local library so I think the beads are going there. I bought them years ago when I was experimenting with using beads on quilts. I lost interest in that pretty quickly. I'm keeping the small beads (top shelf on the right). The other bin has all of my hot fix crystals. I use those a lot on postcards. Now I had space to bring my Masterpiece thread upstairs. I've stopped using it for longarm quilting and now use it for piecing so it's closer to my piecing machine. I cleaned out another cabinet this size of fiber art stuff. That cabinet will house my crochet stuff. But I can't clean all day.  I'm slowly working on the penguins. These beaks took a surprising long time. They are very fiddly and I would have done much better if I had made some foundation papers. They are cute though and worth all the effort.  There's a new baby blanket underway. This is the same yarn that I used on my first one. It's Lion Brand Mandala Sparkle. I had one ball left from my first one so I bought 2 more balls to make another blanket. I don't want lots of little balls of yarn hanging around. This blanket will be as big as 3 balls of yarn will allow. I've never been a big fan of the Granny Square but I like this approach of making one giant one. I know why people love them, they go very fast!
I'm also working on the scrappy coasters and more cleaning. I hope it's going to be a productive week. Shipping NoticeBefore I get into the fabric news this month I want to announce the shipping schedules for March. There will be no shipping March 14 - 22. No custom orders accepted after March 4 (tomorrow). Custom orders and shipping will resume March 23. You are welcome to contact me about custom orders at any time but I will not be dyeing again until the week of March 23. Fabric of the Week This week all Stars fabrics are on sale 15% off! Stars are One Yard cuts of fabrics in one color but with lots of texture. There are over 30 to choose from! Use code STARS15 at checkout. New Reflections!Reflections are kind of the hot fabric right now and that's grand by me because I really love making them. I'm starting to expand my color palette beyond water and sky. I hope you like these new fabrics in the collection. You can see all of the Reflections here.
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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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