 I wanted a bright Spring-like card for Mother's Day this year and I found this idea while wandering around the web. It's not original. I just love the simplicity of the egg shapes for the birds. My free-motion stitching skills aren't great so I always stitch around at least 2 times to help hide the mishaps.  One of the nice things about sewing fabric postcards is that you don't have to worry about tying off thread. The fused backing fabric holds everything in place.  I made 8 of these cards because I also have a bunch of May and June birthdays. I like my little flocks.
  the 6th "dude blanket", as I've taken to calling them, is about half done. So far all the ones I've made have been given to men so now I've made it some sort of rule. This one is my favorite though, so there's a possibility that I keep it. I will not take this too the beach because it's too big.  I'm madly in love with this baby blanket that I'm making for donation. There are lots of ends to weave in but I do it as I go along so it doesn't bother me. I'll make it long enough to get in 4 of the wide blue stripes and then it will have a white border. The white is really white, not the dull white that shows in this photo. I jsut found out this week that I'm going to be a Great Aunt. I'll show Mom and Dad this photo and see if they might want one like it. We'll know the gender next week, I think. By the way, that Yarn Bee 2nd Chance yarn is really nice. It's 100% recycled and works perfectly with the normal Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn.  I got this far along on the summer top before realizing that I just don't like it. I don't like how it's going to drape. So I'm going to take it apart and start over.  I've narrowed down to one of these 2 projects and I will be taking this to the beach to get my SIL's opinion and assistance.  In the past month between meeting and such, I've finished 2 more chemo hats. These are super soft and made with 100% polyester yarn. The one on the right is a new pattern and looks a little wonky but it actually looks good on.  I started a new hat last week with a new pattern and I don't like it. I'll take it back to the last round of increases and make up a new stitch pattern for it. I'll take my hat bag on vacation because hats are so easy to work on while talking to people. They are quite mindless and don't take up a lot of space.
I don't expect to actually do a lot of crochet next week. I will have 4 friends there along with my family and I'd rather spend time with all of them. But we might have a rainy day or two for some inside activities.  My weekend got off to a great start with my quilt club. We sewed together Friday and Saturday and I worked on my next veterans quilts. Months ago I cut a bunch of kits and this was the one I pulled to work on next. I cut enough for 2 identical quilts. Right now I'm in block mode and am sewing them into rows as I go. I need a total of 8 rows. I have 5 done and 3 more to go and then I can out it all together.  But, for now, it's all packed away until our June sewing days. I may be able to finish both tops that weekend.   The rest of the weekend I made some good progress quilting the firefighter quilt. My original plan was to quilt it in black but I realized that black thread would kind of ruin my gradient black. I switched to red thread and I'm so glad I did. The red looks much better from the back and the front.  I stitched in the ditch all of the borders and all I have left to do is the quilting in the black border and the outside border.  I also have the table runner left to do. it will not fit on the backing I have loaded so I'll find something and get this quilted as soon as the big quilt is done. Might as well bind both at the same time.  Finally, all of the vacation gift placemats are officially done with the dyeing of this napkin to match one of Mom's placemats. They are all packed and ready to take to the beach.
This week I want to finish quilting the firefighter quilt and then I'll spend most of the week getting things ready for the beach. I also have voter precinct training Thursday and I have to buy a new microwave. Ours decided to revert to being just a very large clock.  Yesterday morning, before it got too hot, I got my last truckload of mulch spread and now I'm done! I even hosed all the dirt out of Chris' truck. It was the hardest one to do because it required more shoveling and wheelbarrowing. By the afternoon I was ready for a little nap. But before my nap, I unbasted teh firefighter quilt, oriented it correctly and rebasted it. I got started on the quilting. This is going to be done pretty simply because I want it to be a quilt that they can use so I want it snuggly. I think I can get it quilted in a few days.  Today and tomorrow I'm headed off to sew with my quilt club. I missed last month because of that cold that I had in April. I'm looking forward to being back with the gang and working on my veterans quilts.
What I will not be doing is any yard work! I should have gotten lots more done in the past 2 days but we had a big laundry mishap that took us most of Monday to clean up. Several days ago we heard a loud thump, as if something had fallen. We looked (almost) everywhere and couldn't find it. Yesterday when I went to do laundry I discovered the source of the noise. A brand new Costco-sized container of laundry detergent had fallen off the dryer into the laundry basket full of clothes. That wouldn't have been a big problem except that the cap on the bottle cracked on the way down. All of the clothes in the basket were totally soaked in detergent and it ran out of the laundry basket on the floor and some even soaked into the carpet. The clean up was REALLY clean! There was so much soap that I had to take all the laundry outside and use the garden hose to get out as much as possible before I could but them through the wash in small loads with super size amounts of water. I'm so glad I have a traditional washing machine. I'd still be trying to get all the soap out with a HE washer. This story is going to be funny in a couple of week but I can promise you that there isn't a dirty piece of clothing, dirty towel or dirty rug anywhere in my house. Yesterday I got back to my projects.  I got all of the soap unmolded and set out to cure. There's actually another shelf above what's shown in the photo. Not only are my clothes clean, my body will stay clean too!  Then I could get back to the sewing room, plug in my audiobook and finish off the placemats. These are Mom's. She wanted 4 individual placemats instead of a set of 4. I didn't set out to do something seasonal but that's kind of how it worked out. Today I will dye a napkin for the purple one and then these will be ready to be gifted.  Then I got the binding on the last pair that I made for myself. The napkins for this set match in color but not in design. The other one has a lacy edge. It doesn't matter, each one matches and it's a nice new set. So how many placemats do I have?  I store them in this old desk/cabinet that Chris refinished probably 30 years ago. I did a rough count and there are about 100 placemats in here. I think I need to go through and remove the ones that I don't use much anymore. I see a few sets that I probably haven't used in years. Since most of them started as scraps and waste, I think I can relegate a few to the rag bin.  Then I looked over and saw that there were more on the other side! These are the holiday ones. That brings my total to about 120. I think I could go all year and never use one twice.
That's a little crazy. There are lots of photos from this busy weekend. For once, I think I got more done than I planned.  I try to exercise every day and my exercise one day was stacking the front row of wood. It was good exercise for sure. Chris brought home another truckload of logs and he hand split every piece of the wood in these stacks. That was even better exercise that I'm not capable of. I'd say that we are officially ready for next winter and it was nice to get this work done before it gets too hot. Do you think that my stacking methods say anything about my personality?  This is all the soap that I made last Thursday. I think I calculated that it's 10.5 pounds (of oils, it doesn't include the water). They will be ready to remove from the molds today or tomorrow and then will cure for 6 weeks.  I love these silicone molds. They make the unmolding process so easy. I have them in a lot of different shapes and even have this mold that makes 1" squares. I use these little soaps for travel. They are small enough that I don't mind leaving the wet leftovers in the hotel.  Does this look familiar? I quilted one just like it in March. I wrote all about these special quilts in this post. Since the fabrics are heirloom, she decided to make an extra one just in case there's another baby in the family in the future.  I quilted this one exactly the same as the last one. I got it finished late Friday so that I could give it to her when we went to an arts festival on Saturday. Saturday was a perfect weather day to walk around and arts festival. There were lots of beautiful things there but I was able to avoid bringing anything new into my already overstuffed house.  Saturday morning I sewed all of the placemats that I cut out Wednesday and I was able to get them loaded and the quilting started Saturday night. I finished off the quilting Sunday morning and got 8 of them bound and finished by the end of the day. I have 2 more to bind and 1 left to quilt and bind. When I quilt them I don't worry too much about the backing. I try to use up older fabrics from my stash and was very happy to use this metallic printed fabric that's been around for years and that I'll never use in a quilt. My batting is flannel from old sheets. It's just the right "heft" for a placemat but not too fluffy. They don't' draw up as much in the wash either.  The first set I finished is the fish print set. I'm so glad I found these prints and finally did something with them. The shibori fabric has been in the stash for a long time too. These fabrics were clearly meant to be together. I still need to dye napkins for these and will do that this week.  Here are all the sets that are on offer to my family. I decided to let the ladies make the selections and I texted them this photo yesterday. I had their selections within an hour. My oldest brother's wife picked the leaf ones, the youngest brother's wife picked the turquoise birds, my niece picked the pink/purple stripes and my nephew's wife picked the fish print. I knew she would pick one of the fish prints. The other fish fabric ones will go to a friend of Chris' that he deep sea fishes with every year.  I finished 2 of the 3 sets that I cut out for myself. Each of these are sets of 2, limited by the size of the focus fabric that I had to work with. The focus fabric of this set is a glue resist fabric that I dyed the very first time I dyed in 2008 when my friend made me dye fabric. I've always loved this fabric and was "saving" it. I had 2 previously dyed napkins in my stash that worked perfectly with these.  I finished off the weekend with this set made from a fabric dyed using dextrin resist. They are already in use at our kitchen island, where we eat all of our meals.
I have one set left to bind and have one of Mom's left to quilt and bind. Then I realized that I need to make a set for my middle brother. He and his wife don't go to the beach but the still "need" a set. I don't think she would like either of the sets that I have left but I have an idea for some that I think she will like. I'll probably work on those after vacation.  Peony Passion by Charlene Lord, 46" x 59" Today's inspiration is from Charlene Lord. She used two different Shades Packs for the petals, greens from her stash and she hand painted all of the stamins. The quilting on the edge of the petals adds the vital touch to make them all look "real". She says that this one was a one year labor of love.  Peony Passion by Charlene Lord, detail  Peony Passion by Charlene Lord, detail For sharing, Charlene 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 spent most of yesterday in the basement making soap....10.5 pounds of soap! That was 3 big batches and I'll get a photo after I uncover them. They have to be kept insulated for the first 24 hours. But, trust me, it's a lot of soap. I donate about half of it, sell a little and the rest is for me, family, and a couple of friends. After the soap was cleaned up, I made lotion and that was about all my energy for the day. I got a little motivated after dinner and decided to clean off the cutting table from all the placemat fabrics that I pulled yesterday. It only took about an hour and a half and now I have placemat kits and a clean cutting table.  The fishes got paired with a shibori. I even cut the binding for each kit. I have 4 of these and will need to dye matching napkins. I'd like to get this set done before the beach because I think my brother or nephew will want them. But Chris would like them too.  For the rest of these I only had 2 napkins and 1 fat quarter so each set will be only 2 placemats, plenty for me and Chris. The nice thing about "special" fabrics is that you don't need to do much with them. Just add a little accent and enough fabric to get to the target size and they are done.  This is one of my all-time favorite fabrics. It was done with glue resist and dyed at least twice. The top/bottom fabric is a sample that I made for a customer YEARS ago and I'm happy I've found a home for it. I also have 2 more napkins out of the overdyed napkin bin. A friend gave me bags of napkins many years ago that she collected from thrift stores. I often put them in with gradients on the edges of the bin to soak up run-off dye. I've used tons of them but still had an overstuffed bin. I can now, finally, close the lid on that bin.  I know that I dyed this fabric with my friend when we were doing monthly "technique exploration days". We tried everything (shibori, batik, printing, screen printing, stenciling, sun printing.....) and we both ended up with some fun fabrics. This one was done during the dextrin resist exploration. I was lucky to find 3 fabric bits in my stash that would work with it.
All of these are set aside for sewing. It probably won't take an hour to stitch then all. I think I'll look for a backing scrap that's bing enough for all 10 of the so I can load and quilt them on the longarm all at once. What I know for sure is that if I don't get them done before the beach, they will likely wait a while. After the beach I want to get started on the Goldfinch quilt. Today (and maybe this weekend) I'll be quilting the baby quilt for Mom after Chris and I do a little kayaking on the lake. It's going to be a beautiful day to be outside.  This will be the last view of the baby Eastern Bluebirds. They all look healthy and ready to fly out into the world! We are still waiting on the Wrens to hatch but hope to check in on them in the next day or so.  I had a nice, but quick, visit to the river Monday for one night to hang out with my friends (person and dog) and help my friend so some sewing room organizing. We didn't do all that much organizing but we did make some progress. I came home Tuesday afternoon and got this little quilt loaded and started quilting it. It will look familiar to you because Mom made two of them. This is the second one. I hope to have it done by Saturday when I see her. That's very doable because I don't have to go anywhere today or tomorrow. Today I plan to make a lot of soap and lotion and then do some quilting.  In the sewing room, I'm continuing on my placemat frenzy. I asked Mom if she would prefer a set of 4 or 4 different ones. She chose 4 different ones. That gave me the idea to use some of my sun prints since I only have one fat quarter of most of them. I will get these quilted and bound this week and then I'll need to work on napkins. I do have a big bin of overdyed napkins but none of them matched Mom's placemats. As I was going through them I thought I might as well match up some fabrics with them. Three of these photos are napkins in sets of 2 and I found some really early hand dyes (like 2008) to go with them. In the bin I also found these fish prints. I doubt of the pairs will get made before the beach but I'm going to make these fish up because I know my brother would love them. The others I will set aside to work on whenever I need something quick and easy to fill in between projects. These will probably add to my own collections.
Clearly, I've got plenty to keep me occupied for the next few days.  I took a quick little trip out of town Monday and Tuesday but I got these new placemats mostly done before I left town and finished them up last night. That's one more gift set for the family beach trip.  This set started with these 4 overdyed napkins from my big bin of overdyed napkins. I pulled these out and challenged myself to make a set of placemats that would work with them.  When I did my big sun printing extravaganza last summer (read about it here and here), I created quite the stockpile of sun prints and I think I've only used one so far! I started my search for a focus fabric there and found two fat quarters of this big leaf print. That was going to be just enough for 4 placemats. The side pieces are from an overdyed commercial black and white fabric. I had enough of it to use for the back too. That fabric had been in my stash a very long time and I'm glad it hung around just for this project.  I started quilting in the edge borders with this overlapping wavy line and I intended to use it over the whole placemat. But once I saw it, I didn't like it. I was not going to take it out so I did this quilting in all of the edges. You can barely see it anyway.  I thought a grid might be better on the leaf print and I was right. I think it took a little over an hour to quilt all 4 of them.
It's nice to have a focus fabric like this because there's no need for doing a lot of piecing. Let the focus fabric shine and make the rest simple. Next I'll make a set specifically for Mom. She said she would prefer 4 different placemats, rather than a set of 4. That will be a great place to use some of the special sun print fabrics that I have. Most are one-of-a-kind so there will be just enough for one placemat. I'll start those and will get one of Mom's quilts loaded and start quilting tomorrow. |
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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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