When I used to teach beginner longarm quilting I had a saying that I hoped would give the new quilters the confidence to jump in and quilt anything. So many new longarm owners are afraid to quilt once they get their machines so I would say to them over and over: Ugly quilting, done consistently, looks great. Repetition is the secret to "hiding" mistakes or bad designs. Repeat that bad design enough and it looks intention and creates it's own pattern. Well, I got to test that out for myself again this week! On this quilt I wanted to mimic the ribbon design but what I really meant to do was the ribbon meander. Instead I quilted the first pass with large loops and then realized my mistake. You can't ribbon meander a loop! Well, I do not ever take out quilting on veterans quilts. My goal with them is to quilt as many as possible so we can cover more veterans. I decided to ribbon the loops by going outside of each loop. Close up it's kind of a mess but from far away it looks like an intentional pattern. It's not my best work but it's OK. This is what I intended to do on the first one! This one is pieced with squares so that almost always means a wavy cross hatch for me. I quilted this quilt in about an hour. In my quest to finish a lot fof quilts over the next week or so, I'm going to be doing a lot of ribbon meanders!
After a day in the basement dyeing fabric yesterday, I decided I needed a little walk outside in the evening. The first stop was the bird box to see the new batch of baby bluebirds! They hatched Saturday. So cute. They look the same every year but I still get excited to see them. We checked on the iris. There are loads of them in bloom and lots more getting ready. I don't know the story on that last one. I don't know if it's a hybrid that's gone bad but it's not something I planted! We also saw that in just the right light that weeds can look like grass. Now back to our little trip. When Anne and I got to Lancaster Sunday evening we decided to check out one of the outlet malls. I really hate shopping but I seem to do great at shopping when I'm traveling. Otherwise my shopping is almost 100% by mail. I've lost a couple of sizes this year so I'm in desperate need for new clothes. I lucked out and found some shorts, pants and tops and everything was on sale. Don't be diverted by the ugly maroon and orange sweater. That's specifically for cheering on my Hokies during football season! I can't believe that Gap ever thought an orange and maroon sweater was a good idea. It's no surprise that the clearance rack was FULL of them. I even picked up one for my best Hokie buddy. Then I saw the Minnie Mouse fabric! Last week Pixie Fairie offered this shirtwaist dress as a free pattern. I didn't plan on using it but I downloaded it anyway. This fabric is so perfect for it and Ella is going to Disneyworld for the first time this month. Then we went to Ruthie's Tees (next to Log Cabin Quilts) and I saw THIS!! It's supposed to be an adult coin purse. For $6 I could not let it pass. I see the dress with red collar, cuffs and belt with this awesome plaid bag as an accessory. Now, on to a crochet update. I took this yarn with me and made this chemo cap on the trip. I've taken to buying some yarns in single skeins to try out. I've been learning a lot about yarn from a few YouTube channels and have started venturing out a little. I actually like making hats so that's a good way to test out new yarns with single skeins. After making the gingham blanket that I liked so much, I ordered some different brands of yarns (on sale) for 2 more gingham blankets. One set was some Herrschner's yarn and the other was Premier Basix. I didn't like the Herrschner's yarn right out of the box so I'll donate that. The Premier yarn seems nice so I'll make that blanket. But for basic worsted weight acrylic I'm probably going to stick to Hobby Lobby. I like their yarn best of all that I've tried. Red Heart and Herrschner's are definitely out. I still need to try Lion Brand and Premier Anti-Pilling yarns but Hobble Lobby is 15 minutes away and it's always well stocked and they have a sale every other week. The yarn I used on the gray hat is Lion Brand Feels Like Butta and it's pretty much the same as Premier Bundle Up that I used a couple of months ago. I think this yarn is incredibly soft and perfect for chemo hats. But I have a feeling that it might pill a lot. Does anyone have any experience with this yarn? While Anne was at her appointment I did a little retail therapy at the nearby Michael's. One yarn that I've decided that I absolutely love for baby blankets is Caron Baby Cakes (see below) so I bought 3 cakes for one more blanket. I figure this stuff (like Hobby Lobby yarn) is on sale enough that there's really no need to stockpile it. But it was on sale so I picked up 3 cakes. Here are the other yarns that I've bought to try and I started a new hat with the Flecks. That yarn is really soft too! This ball probably has 3 hats in it. I got the Basic Stitch Reflective to make a hat for my brother. He's a cyclist and I thought he might want it for winter rides. It really is very reflective! Meanwhile, here's where I stand on the current project. Once this ball is done I'll add a pink border. This yarn is so soft and squishy.
I am taking crochet in short bursts at the moment. I seem to have a bit of tendinitis in my hands. It's getting better so I should be back in full gear in a couple of weeks. Today, after spreading a 4th truckload of mulch, I hope to spend the day quilting veterans quilts. We have quilt club sewing this weekend so I want to have quilts ready to return to the quilters. I won't get them all done but I can make a dent if I just focus and don't overcomplicate the quilting. I missed a couple of blog posts with my end of month book and accounting posts and then I got to take a quick little trip out of town so I have lots to catch up on over the next few days. First, I have to share something that happened on my book review post. For the first time ever an author actually posted about my review of her book! I can't believe that an author took the time to do that. I'm really glad it was a book that I liked! I've been reading about some authors misbehaving on Goodreads. Bizarre. Over the weekend I got lots of serger sewing and kit cutting done that I'll share here. Sunday I left on a whirlwind trip with my best friend. She had an appointment in Connecticut yesterday and invited me along. We hadn't taken a road trip in a very long time. We decided to add a day in Lancaster, PA for some fabric shopping. We left Sunday, spent the night in Lancaster then to Connecticut Monday night and all the way back to Virginia yesterday. It was fast but we packed in a lot of shopping that I'll share tomorrow.
But the pillow cases are so much fun to make because they are so fast. The serger makes such quick work of sewing things like this. It actually made constructing the dresses faster too. When I needed a break from serging I went back to cutting veterans quilt kits. On the left is a kit for 2 quilts that will look exactly like these that I made last year. I liked those quilts a lot and when I visited the fabric shop in White Stone I saw that they still had the panels and I picked up 2 more. On the right is a kit for 2 more veterans quilts in that star layout. One has a pale blue background and one is ivory. But I still have plenty of my patriotic batik fabric left! Some of it is going to be cut with my Go Cutter into 6" HST blocks for a blue and ivory quilt. With the scraps of the scraps I'm thinking about a completely scrappy tumbler block quilt, or a scrappy HST. Last night when we got home from the trip Anne gave me these as a gift so I have one more kit to cut out and then I will be totally set for vacation and quilt club sewing for the rest of the year.
Tomorrow I'll show you what I've been crocheting and all the stull I bought on our trip. Hopefully Friday I will actually have some veterans quilts quilted to share. Today's post is going to be very brief. I had to write it quickly Sunday before I left for a little out of town adventure with my best friend. But I wanted to make sure I got the word out about the new Shibori fabrics in the shop. First up is this Stash Pack with 8 different fat eights of beautifully textured Shibori fabrics. Each one is dyed twice to add more color depth and patterning. If you need a larger piece there are also 3 new half yard pieces available in the shop. Fabric of the WeekSince I won't have access to update the Fabric of the Week, I'm extending Midnight as Fabric of the Week for one more week. I think this gradient is one of the best options to pair up with the Shibori fabrics, maybe as a background for applique blocks. it's my current favorite blue.
This week's inspiration comes from Melinda Johnson. She used a Shibori Stash Pack plus one more piece of Shibori along with Black Yardage for her cute bunnies. What a great way to use the Shibori fabrics! The pattern is Usagi - Debbie Maddy. It was quilted by Christy Mackay. For sharing, Melinda 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 project has to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount.
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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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