At the April Country School Quilter's meeting I picked up 14 veterans quilt tops needing quilting. FOURTEEN! Those ladies have been busy because I brought home 16 the month before. I hadn't intended to necessarily quilt any this month because I wanted to finish Lost My Marbles. But this weekend I decided that I didn't like having the closet full of quilt tops that desperately wanted to be finished and delivered to veterans at the local VA hospital. I decided to take Marbles off yesterday and set aside this week to see how many I can get quilted before our meeting next Tuesday. So, if all goes well, all you are going to see from me this week are more veterans quilts. I think you are going to see some great scrap quilts this week. This one will be great for the fall. It's a flannel string quilt that was pieced on a fabric foundation so it's beefy and going to be very warm and cuddly. The 2 black side borders on this on were a little full so I chose a big stipple to help me flatten it all out. It worked really well. Back in January I did a program for the group and introduced 4 easy patterns for veterans quilt and gave out several kits. This one is a kit I prepared using the Blockade pattern. I paired scrappy oranges from a Stash Pack with a single blue fabric and I love the effect. The color on this photo isn't even close to accurate but you can see that I used one of my favorite pantos, Woven Wind. It's easy and fast and looks great. When you want to quilt 13 quilts in one week you need a lot of easy and fast! These 2 quilts have a hand dyed medium blue backing and were quilted together on the same back and using the same blue variegated thread. I had one backing piece that was a bolt end that wasn't wide enough for 2 quilts. It was pale blue and was a good fit for this Elvis quilt. Becky has a large collection of Elvis fabric and has decided to use some of them for a couple of veterans quilts. The quilt couldn't be easier to piece and yet it looks more complicated. She started with this panel of Elvis in uniform. Then she added 4 borders to finish it off. I love the beer bottle fabric and the celebrity Elvis print. It got my other favorite pantograph of stars and ribbons. When I post later this week I'll post the name of the quilt.
I have the next set of quilts loaded and ready to quilt. Kathy Donaway made this beach quilt as a commission. She used the Beach Walk Gradient as her inspiration and centerpiece for her underwater applique. When she submitted this she mentioned that she wish the gradient was available 108" wide. Well, it is! I can dye any gradient on wide backing fabric that's about 108" wide.
For sharing, Kathy 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. More progress on the big marbles this week. The end is in sight! I'm starting to get the hang of the big marbles. I can use 2 or 3 thread colors to make them more interesting. The circles that visually fall behind other circles are the most challenging. I tie off every place where the design ends against the next circle and that takes a bit of time. Trust me that the thread shows up much better in real life! I've had a lot of hand stitching time lately and knocked out 4 new moons pretty quickly. I love studying them as I make them and seeing the interplay between the 2 colors in each moon fabric. About every 8 blocks I like to put them all on the wall to see how they are looking. I LOOOOOVVVVVEEEE these blocks. I have finished 37 and have 35 more prepared to stitch. I haven't decided what I'm going to make with them. I might do a wall hanging or a big queen sized quilt...or both. I've got plenty of shibori fabric to cut more if I want. I could see making tons more of these. Each one takes a little over an hour to stitch so they go pretty quickly. I have to wear a reading magnifiers over my glasses to work on them so there is a bit of eye strain involved and I have to be careful about that and make sure I have good light. But they are certainly like potato chips, you can't stitch just one!
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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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April 2024
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