 Yesterday I got the binding stitched to the front of the weeding quilt and now I'm doing the hand stitching. I decided to hand stitch this binding since it's a wedding gift. The wedding isn't until June so I can work on it a little each day. When I get near the end of a project I start to get excited about starting something. Often that's multiple somethings. This weekend I'm starting quilting and crochet projects I think.  Since we are going to Paducah in 2 weekends I don't want to start anything really involved. I hope to get inspired there for a new "big" project. I'm thinking that I'd like to do a new foundation pieced project. Meanwhile I'm going to focus on a couple of simple projects. First is Groovy 3. I'm thinking I'll dye purple for the sashing of this one.  This weekend I think I'm going to cut a bunch of light gray HSTs to sew with these. I don't have a set plan yet, I'm just going to cut and sew. There might be a big quilt in here or there might be a veterans quilt or two. Who knows. It will be fun to do whatever it becomes. Where the startitis is really kicking in is on the crochet front.  I have 2 projects underway. One is this t-shirt top. I've been holding back on it because I'm worried that it's not going to fit. I had to have a little chat with myself and remind myself that sometimes we have to make a pattern a couple of times to get it right and it's OK if I end up unwinding all of this. I'll try it on in a couple more rows to get an idea. If it fits I just have a lot of boring linen stitch ahead of me. That would make it a good travel project for Paducah.  I also have the Moogly CAL blocks underway. This will be block 11. These blocks are kind of hard so I can't work on them non-stop. I do a couple and them put it away for a week. I've got no plans for these blocks so I'm in no hurry. But I really want to start a new blanket. I pulled out 2 options.
You might remember this blanket that I made in December for Chris. I liked it and the yarn so much that I bought yarn to make a blanket for each of my 3 brothers. I want to get started on a new one but I'm a little worried that I might get hot working on it. That thought led me to think about a baby blanket.  Option 2 is this yarn that I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby last summer. I saw a very pretty baby blanket pattern on YouTube and worked up a little swatch to test 2 different hook sizes. This one would also be a good travel project. The pattern is mindless once you get going. Actually, aside from the Moogly blocks, all of these projects are mostly mindless, just how I like my crochet.
I like bot of these projects and I've decided to go for it and start both. I'll work on whatever project moves me at the time. I've got lots of options of things to do this weekend!  Things have been really busy around here so far this week. I've spread a couple truckloads of mulch, we had quilt club meeting, I have a ton of dyeing to do and lots of other random things. But I did get to the basement and get the wedding quilt quilted! The goal is to get it bound this weekend and then I jsut have to make a label.  The only other thing I've done is getting a chemo hat made. I started this at the club meeting Tuesday and finished it when I got home. I love working with the Lion Brand Feels Like Butta yarn for these hats. It makes them soooo soft. The pattern is the Amazing Grace hat and I love it.
 Wheelchair Blanket, 38x46 Back in February I finished this wheelchair blanket using corner-to-corner. I had almost 3 skeins of the yarn leftover that I wanted to use up in another wheelchair blanket. I got the yarn (Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn) on clearance at Hobby Lobby last year and I think this color/pattern is good for masculine blankets. I wanted to use the rest to make a second blanket.  I knew I needed more yarn and, based on the last blanket, I estimated that I needed the equivalent of one more skein. I had 3 balls of Dollar Tree Just Yarn (which is really Premier Basix* and is a very good yarn). I decided to add a border to each end with 5 rows of black, 5 rows of print and 3 more rows of black. This black is Black Tweed.  I got near the middle of the blanket and realized that I wasn't going to have enough yarn. I wasn't going to take it apart so I just added a black band in the middle. I didn't have any more black tweed so I had to use plain black.  The drama wasn't over! I got to the other end and ran out of print yarn on the row before the border was supposed to start. I had some solid gray that I was going to use but remembered that I had some 3 weight yarn left over from a baby blanket. I held one gray strand and one white strand together to finish off the blanket. This turned out to be a true scrap blanket but from a little distance it doesn't actually look like a scrap blanket.  Here it is folded up and all of the different yarns look fine together. I can't say that this was the result of bad math. This was actually the result of no math! I just started hooking and addressed the problems as I encountered each one.
* FYI Dollar Tree Just Yarn is the same as Premier Basix and it's less expensive to buy Basix on a per yard basis. The Dollar Tree version is great if you only need a small amount of a color like for Amigurumi. I didn't realize it until I uploaded these photos but everything I worked on this weekend was blue and gray!  hand dyed fabric vicki welsh The biggest accomplishment of the weekend was getting these two quilt tops put together while I was sewing with Country School Quilters on Friday and Saturday. Before I went I laid out the strips for the border on my design wall. I had them organized and ready to sew on Friday. I got all the strippy borders together Friday and Sewed the three borders to the panels Saturday. I made two of these quilts a couple of years ago and I'm glad I found more of the panel to make 2 more. I like this one a lot. I probably won't quilt these until May.  Back at home I got the backing sewing together for the wedding quilt and got it loaded on the longarm. This photo was taken before I finished basting. As of this morning I've started quilting and want to get this one wrapped up this week.
Aside from my normal dyeing schedule, I don't have a lot of external commitments this week so maybe I can get al lot of thigs done!  Art quilt by Barbara Grandon This week's inspiration comes from Barbara Grandon. She made her art quilt using the Kashmir Gradient (similar to Marrakesh). She made this in an online class with Rachel Derstine.
For sharing, Barbara 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 didn't post yesterday because I didn't have anything fiberlicious to share. Wednesday was "dyeing day" and I had a ton to do. By the time I finished I was too tired to do anything else. But yesterday I was back in action. We have our monthly sewing days at Country School Quilters this weekend so I wanted to get 2 veterans quilts quilted to deliver back for binding.  This quilt was made by Peg and I think she did it as part of one of Barbara Brackman's quilt-alongs.  I love doing the wavy crosshatch on any quilt that has a grid. I can quilt a quilt this size (48 x 60) in less than an hour and a half with this motif.  This one was made by my Mom. It was a kit left by a friend who passed away a few years ago. She doesn't love it but I like it a lot. It was nice to get two green/purple quilts that I could pair up on one green backing.  I quilted this one with a free form Baptist fan-ish motif. This one is really fast too and I love the texture it creates. This is the green backing that I dyed for these quilts. The thread is purple on top and bottom. Next up to quilt is the Antelope Canyon quilt. Now for my special treat!  My friend Becky hand appliques and hand quilts her quilts but we baste them on the longarm to prepare them for loading on her hand quilting frame. She brought over this beauty yesterday morning for basting. Isn't it spectacular? I just love it.
I love the opportunity to see any of her quilts up close. She adds in so many little surprises with fussy cutting her applique elements. What a treat!
Now that I have my sewing room back again and and the Antelope Canyon quilt nearing it's end, I need to think about my next projects. I don't like that feeling of being lost without several projects underway! The past couple of days I spent some time pondering what's next.  I have the Antelope Canyon quilt to quilt along with a few veterans quilts. But once those are done I'll be working on this wall hanging for my nephew. All of the piecing will be done on the longarm and I have plenty of time to get it done by the May 20 deadline. That's when I'll see him at the family beach week. I think this one is going to be fun to make. I have these ice dyed blocks that I've made over a couple of years and I'm feeling like a new Groovy quilt would be a fun new project. I'm thinking of doing one with one of the bigger Crystal fabrics as the center and use these blocks around it. This week I also prepared a veterans quilt kit to work on this weekend at sewing with Country School Quilters. The 2 new quilts are basically a copy of the quilt featured in this post. I bought 2 more of the same panel because I liked this quilt so much.  Then I think I will work on some ideas to use all of these scraps that I cut up in February. I've started playing around in EQ to see if I can come up with some ideas for the HST triangles. I doubt if I'll use any of these but I'll keep playing until I come up with something.
At least now, I have some things to work on. Well fun month is over. Our friends leave today to return home just in time for their second grandchild to be born.  Laura got in some sewing time Friday and a little bit on Sunday and this is where her quilt was before she packed it. I think she got everything cut for the rest of the blocks and I cut all of the sashing sections and binding. So she'll be all set to finish this up when she gets home. I think it's going to be beautiful when it's done. I was going to sew the backing together for the Antelope Canyon quilt. I bought a commercial fabric for the back and when I pre-washed it I noticed that the black ran so it's getting a good soak before I sew it together and start quilting. Instead, today, I'll catch you up on my crochet projects.  I haven't worked on the summer top again but will get it back out this week. Instead I decided to catch up on some of my Moogly CAL blocks. If my math is correct, these are blocks 3 and 4 from 2021 and 2022. I'll just say right now that I will not like a blanket made from these blocks but I never planned to like a blanket made from these blocks. I'm doing them to learn new techniques and on that front it's exceeded my expectations. These blocks are little crochet classes. I learn to read different patterns and I have learned a lot of new stitches and techniques. I feel that some blocks are designed really well and other's aren't. They all seem to require some heavy handed blacking when they are done. These are the 4 I've finished since my last update.  Here are the 8 I have done already. I have 2 more done but they are being blocked and I'll share them later. I'll probably keep making them until I use up this yarn (which I have a ton of) and the blocks will eventually be made into charity blankets. I tend to work on these a few at a time and then I get tired of them and do something else.  The current "something else" is another wheelchair blanket. This yarn is leftover from the last wheelchair blanket and I'm added in black at each edge because I think I might be a little short of yarn. I think it will make a nice masculine blanket.
This week I need to get back into mu routine. I've got a lot to get done this month before Mom and my friend and I head to Paducah at the end of the month! |
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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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