I only have one photo today but it's a big one! I have 2 blocks of the Goldfinch done.
I took a break Monday and Tuesday from this project to make a new hiking backpack. I'll be giving it a test run today. I made it from an old pair of hiking pants. Hopefully, I'll have a report on it's construction and performance tomorrow. Today we are off to Charlottesville for a 6 - 7 mile hike. Most of my sewing time this weekend was at quilt club and I was able to finish these 2 veterans quilt tops. I've been working on them at sewing days since April. I'm really happy with them and for now they will hang in the to-be-quilted closet. But once they are quilted they will get red binding. I also got 2 more veterans quilts quilted. This makes 6 for the month and that was my goal. For the next few weeks I'll work on some other projects on the longarm and give the veterans quilts a rest. Betsy made both of these quilts. She loves little pieces, red and reproduction fabrics and her quilts are always very graphic. This one is a double 4-patch. The Woven Wind pantograph is a really easy and fast one. This one is also Betsy's. This is the third one I quilted for her. She's very prolific! This one is unique because the block is rectangular. I also got in a little time on the Goldfinch quilt. This type of pattern isn't for everyone but I'm enjoying it so far.
But I'm taking another detour the next day or so. I'm going to try to get a hiking backpack made before we go on a long hike Wednesday. I'm making it from an old pair of hiking pants. I have a vague idea of what I want it to be but I have a lot of details to work out. This week's inspiration comes from leslie McNeil of MarveLes Art Studio. She is well known for her floral collage art quilts and patterns. This was a custom piece that she made using her pattern Paris Gibson Garden. She used a gradient that is now retired but this collage process would look great on many gradient options.
For sharing, Leslie 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 got the three additional fabrics dyed, washed and ironed and I'm ready to start this project. Let me show you a little about these these patterns work. The blocks are rectangular and the goldfinch has 16 blocks. This is block A1 (row A, block 1). The sheet on the right is the construction guide. Block A1 consists of 7 foundation sections and the guide sheet tells you exactly what order to do things in. The other two sheets are the foundation sections. In this photo I had already constructed 2 of the sections. These foundation pieced patterns are designed a little differently from the fondation patterns we are used to but it only takes a few minutes to figure it out and it's actually quite logical. The complicating factor in this quilt is keeping track of all of the difference fabrics...over 50! I figure that it's going to take me about 3 weeks to put this all together so I decided to just lay out all of the fabrics in the living room floor. If we actually used this room on a regular basis that hideous carpet and sofa would be long gone. But frankly, this room is really just a dining room a couple of times a year and a sewing annex the rest of the time so I haven't been able to muster any energy for redecorating. Laying out the fabrics here will make it much easier for me to keep track of, and find, the fabrics that I need for each block. I can bring in the pieces that I need for each section to the sewing room so I don't get confused by too much clutter. On the guide sheet the bold dotted lines delineate the sections. A1 is the block and the lower case letter is the section. So I've sewn A1b and A1c. The circled numbers on the block indicate the order of piecing. Here they are sewn together. In case you were wondering, those little bits are part of the goldfinch head. Blocks A3, A4 and B4 are going to be fast and easy!
If all goes to plan, you will be seeing a lot of this project over the next few weeks. Today and tomorrow, though, are sewing with my quilt club. I hope to get two veterans quilt tops done that I worked on for the last 2 months. I needed 3 more fabrics for the Goldfinch quilt and got them dyed Tuesday. While they were processing I didn't want to start something new so I decided to work on my goal to quilt 6 veterans quilts this month. Here are numbers 3 and 4. This one was made by peg and she used a lot of scrappy blues for the pinwheel blocks. There's even a fabric with a shark print in there somewhere. I don't remember who made this one but I like it. It's a great way to use some scrappy 16-patch blocks. I quilted them with white thread mostly because I wanted to bring some white into the dark blue borders of the 16-patch quilt.
I have 2 more loaded and ready to quilt today. Tomorrow is our monthly quilt club sewing days so I want to have these done to return to people for binding. By Sunday I'll be working on the Goldfinch. I think I should be over the hardest part of the Goldfinch quilt now. All of the fabrics are selected! This was not easy but it was kind of fun. I think you can imagine the mess I made all over my sewing room floor. In the end I identified 3 fabrics that I need to dye and I did that yesterday. Even though my dyeing day is today, I wanted these to be ready to start sewing tomorrow. While I was in the dye studio dyeing my own fabrics, I decided to play around a little. I'm going to dye some maternity tops for my nephew's wife and I want to do one in an ombre effect. I've never actually done real dip dyed ombre so I did a couple of experiments with a couple of tshirts. I was able to rig up this chain that worked great for keeping the shirt at specific levels. I'll show you how they turned out tomorrow.
I didn't get a ton of things done this weekend but I did finish the firefighter quilt! You can see lots of photos and read all about it here.
I tried to spend a lot of time outside this weekend. I did lots of weeding and got some sun on Saturday. On Sunday I went for a long walk and then Chris and I trimmed the edge of our property against the road. We got notice that repaving our private road is happening this week so we needed to cut the jungle back a bit. The weather was just perfect for being outside this weekend. I did not start the Goldfinch quilt because I forgot to dye 3 fabrics that I need. I also didn't get two more veterans quilts loaded but that will happen today or tomorrow. Brenda Dennis brings us our inspiration this week. She made her Sweet Tooth quilt in an online class with Bethanne Nemesch. You've heard me rave many times before about how much I love Bethanne's classes and teaching style. This class focuses on using rulers, a deckle border and feather quilting. The class sample is done in Valentine colors, like the Chocolate Bonbon gradient, but Brenda chose a gradient that reminded her of a Spring sunrise. In this photo you can better see Brenda's beautiful quilting.
For sharing, Brenda 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. When I posted my may summary yesterday and revisited the placemats that I made for beach gifts, I realized that I forgot to share a couple of beach gifts that I received. My friend, Anne, dyed bandanas for everyone and use her Crircut to print them with a beach motif. I think she made about 2 dozen of them and that was a lot of work! Everyone loved them. The bandana blanks come from Dharma Trading so they dye really nice. I keep a bunch in supply. I use them when I'm hiking but I mostly use them as kitchen cleanup cloths. Anne taught me how great these are a kitchen towels. Here's a close up of the sunbathing sloth. Super cute! My youngest brother got a 3D printer for Christmas and has been having a great time playing with it. I had been low-key begging for him to make me something. I'd start the conversation off by negotiating high (a gun) and then I'd hit him up with something I would actually want, like a set of crochet hooks. He said that crochet hooks wouldn't come out smooth enough so he made me and Mom mini trashcans! The wheels even turn. He said it takes about 12 hours to make one blue section. I'm completely enamoured with it and, for now, it will hold my tools next to my sewing machine. But I think, ultimately, it's begging to be a thread catcher. I haven't gotten a lot done this week. My friend, Laura, arrived here the day before we left for the beach and just left this morning so we've been having fun together. She did visit some other friends for a couple of days and I was able to get 2 more veterans quilts quilted. Both of these are patriotic, which the hospital loves. I don't remember who made the first one but I'm pretty sure this one was made by Betsy. White thread and the Ribbon Star pantograph finished these off nicely.
For the weekend I want to get started on the Goldfinch quilt, load 2 more veterans quilts and bind the firefighter quilt. If I can accomplish all that, I'll be a happy camper. May was definitely the month of placemats. I made 18 of them and they were well received at this year's beach gifts. It was my primary goal for the month and I met it. I want to make one more set for my other brother so that will be on the June list. My other goals for May were: - quilt Mom's baby quilt - done - quilt and finish the firefighter quilt - quilted, not yet bound - start the Goldfinch quilt - started pulling fabrics - Mother's Day and birthday postcards - done I also made a ton of soap. It will be ready sometime in late June. In between I worked on some crochet projects but only finished 5 hats for donation. I used up 5 balls of yarn this month. that's not a lot but it's enough. I've been really good about no adding to my stash so any amount out is a positive.
My YTD stats: Veterans quilts made - 8 Donation lap quilts - 12 Veterans quilts quilted - 19 Fabric Postcards - 11 Quilted for others - 3 Crochet blankets - 3 Crochet shawls - 1 Crochet/loom knit hats and scarves - 24 Doll outfits - 2 Placemats - 24 Other Donated items - 74 Garments (sewn and cochet) - 1 Balls of yarn used - 32 Other items - 3 My goals for June are pretty ambitious but, at a minimum, I want to stick to this list of projects: - another set of birthday postcards - make pet beds with all the batting scraps I've accumulated - quilt 6 veterans quilts - finish quilting Mom's floral quilt - bind and label the firefighter quilt - get the Goldfinch quilt top made - placemats for my brother |
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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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