 I don't have a lot to report today except that I got 2 veterans quilts quilted and, as soon as I finish this post, I'll load the next 2. I'm not sure who made this large tumbler quilt but I do recognize more of the Benartex fabric that was donated to us a few years ago. I think we might be coming near the end of that fabric.  I know that Glenda (Mom) made this one. the arcs are from her Grandmother's UFO box. This is the 3rd quilt she's made with these arcs and there's a 4th in my closet ready to be quilted. You can see the quilting best on this quilt. I used the Square Spiral pantograph. It's one of my favorites.
I hope to spend most of today and Saturday quilting more veterans quilts. Sunday I'll be hanging out with a friend, and former coworker, who is visiting from London. It promises to be a fun day. I hope you have a great weekend. This cold (or whatever) has been supremely annoying and the most annoying part has been my low energy level. Chris (and even my doctor) has had the same complaint. But that all changed yesterday. While I still have a little sinus symptoms left my energy is back. For the first time in 2 weeks I did my full exercise routine yesterday and I didn't even want a nap afterwards.  Then I got busy dyeing fabric. After that I did some laundry and still had some energy left.  So I went outside and stacked wood. I still have more to do but Chris has to replace some supports for the next row. Otherwise, I would have finished that last little bit. In this area we fill 4 rows and this one is row #2.  After dinner I started quilting the veterans quilts that I loaded Tuesday. I'm using the square spiral pantograph because that's the one that was on the machine and it's a fast one. I have about 10 veterans quilts to quilt so they are all going to get some sort of fast treatment. After I finish those I have a baby quilt for Mom, the fireman quilt, a large fundraiser quilt for quilt club, Mom's big quilt that's half done and the big Judy Neimeyer quilt that I pieced last year. There's a big backlog so I'm going to try to focus on quilting for a while and get through a lot of these quilts.
Today I'll try to finish this pair and get the next ones loaded before I head off to have drinks with two friends. It's a beautiful sunny day here so I'm going to plan to go out and get a little vitamin D around noon. Now that's I'm mostly over my cold funk, it seemed like a great idea to start some new projects. This time crochet projects.  I like to have multiple crochet projects going using different size hooks. I find it less stressful on my hands if I work with different hooks each day. After finishing 2 projects at the beach, I only had this one big blanket project to work on. Now that my head is clear and I can do simple math again, it was time to start a couple of new projects.  The first one is this tunic using a 3 weight yarn. The pattern called for a J hook but a G hook is what I am using to get the proper gauge. My top will be shorter but it's still going to take a while. Maybe it will be done by the end of summer to wear next year.  The third project needed to be something pretty simple so that meant a baby quilt in worsted weight yarn. I picked this stripe blanket from Daisy Farm Crafts. Now I'm all set for my crochet projects for several weeks.  Last night was our quilt club meeting and I brought home 8 more quilt tops to quilt! I now have 14 ready to be quilted.
Time to get busy!  Chris and I are feeling lots better after our colds. Based on other's experiences, we expect the runny noses and coughing to last a while and we can deal with that. It's good to have our energy back although I wasn't exactly motivated to sew this weekend. Instead I decided to start catching up on some veterans quilt preps and quilting. I started by dyeing some quilt backs, enough for 11 quilts. Half of the backing fabric we buy is white so I can dyed it.  The other half we buy is print in blue and tan. I cut the rest of 2 bolts so we should be set for veterans quilt backs for a couple of months.  I also needed to cut some batting. The last time I purchased for the group I got 4 rolls of batting. Each roll supplies 30 quilts.  Now I have lots of batts pre-cut and ready for quilting. Our quilt club buys the batting and backing for all of the veterans quilts. That way we are able to make even more quilts for our veterans.  I finished off the day Sunday by loading a pair of quilts ready to quilt this week.  I even got to spend a few hours outside yesterday tending the woodpile and putting away the leftover wood from this season and then cleaning the basement around the woodstove. There's still lots to clean up after fire season but I got a good start on it. I finally stopped all of my activities for a few minutes to go outside and appreciate the beautiful afternoon. Everything has greened up significantly this week.
We haven't exactly eradicated this nonsense from the house yet but I did make it through Tuesday without taking a nap. I really wanted one but I held on in the hopes of a really good night's sleep. I had a teleconference with my doctor yesterday, on another matter, and she had the same thing and went through pretty much the same symptoms and duration as us. She's 20 year younger so I have a little better attitude about the whole thing. The weather here has turned beautiful and the pollen is flying. I want to be over the illness soon so I can distinguish virus from allergy in the coming days. I did sit out in the sun for a while yesterday and it felt great!  While I was out I walked up to the bird box and discovered that we have our first clutch of Bluebird eggs! That's something fun to look forward to in the coming weeks.  Back in the sick ward, I haven't had the energy to do much of anything except for a very little crochet. I had a ball of yarn leftover from the last baby blanket so I used it to make some newborn hats. These two are made from the free Vintage Vibes Baby Beanie pattern. They are easy and fast.  Another great free pattern for a newborn hat is the Vintage Pearl Baby Hat. The pattern calls for pearls to be sewn in after the fact but I'm not doing that. I feel sure it would be rejected as unsafe. These 4 hats used up the rest of the baby blanket yarn.  The 4 hats were clearly feminine so I thought I should do at least one little boy hat and I used a BagoDay YouTube tutorial to make this one. I think it turned out a little big so I may need to adjust the pattern a little for my tension.  Finally I went back to a giant ball of Feels Like Butta yarn that I'm working through making men's slouchy chemo hats. I think I can get 2 more from this ball of yarn. This is the Avery Brimless Beanie and it's a purchase pattern.
That's it. That's 5 days of accomplishments! If all goes well today I'll get 2 rooms vacuumed and maybe make some cookies. I want to get back to the dye studio very soon. I miss it! This post is about the only think I've accomplished since last Tuesday. The day I returned from my lovely beach vacation Chris returned from a short trip to Florida. He came home with a horrendous cold that he promptly shared with me. Activities kicked off Tuesday evening with symptoms that I was sure were allergies. 24 hours later I knew it was Chris' lurgy. I've been slow moving ever since. It is probably just a cold but I suppose it could be the Omicron fungilitis. At this point the symptoms are the same and it doesn't really matter. I've done a little bit of crochet but that's about it. I'm glad I have my March summary post to put up today. Even with the last week kind of ruined, it was a fine month of accomplishments. I got 2 quilt tops made. The firefighter one is one that I consider a major accomplishment because I've had the fabric over a year and a half. I quilted two special quilts. One I did for Becky and it's for her great-nephew. The other is the special baby quilt that Mom made. I finished 4 little cuddle quilts for donations and that's about all the quilting accomplishments for the month. Probably the biggest news from March are these 3 crochet projects that I finished. The hexi sweater has been languishing for months and I'm glad to have finally finished it. I used up 8 balls of yarn this month and that doesn't offset the 22 balls that I bought that the Hobby Lobby clearance. I should be back to "neutral" inventory in a couple of months. Of course, the major accomplishment for the month was the heirloom bear for my cousin's new grandbaby. I made one test bunny out of Ultrasuede (not a genius move) before making the final version from an heirloom baby quilt.
I'm not even going to look at my goal list for March since I totally lost a whole week of productivity that I had planned for last week. Current stats: Veterans quilts made - 7 Donation lap quilts - 12 Veterans quilts quilted - 7 Quilted for others - 2 Crochet blankets - 3 Crochet shawls - 1 Crochet/loom knit hats and scarves - 12 Doll outfits - 2 Placemats - 12 Other Donated items - 74 Balls of yarn used - 8 Other items - 3 My goals for April are: - make some birthday postcards - make a set of placemats - finish quilting Mom's quilt - quilt some veterans quilts - make a new hiking backpack - get rid of this cold! |
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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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