Our inspiration this week comes from Lauren Furey. Lauren has shared her beautiful bespoke stoles with us before. This was a commissioned clergy stole that they desired spring greens for the background and a highlight of the Kousa Dogwood tree in the front yard of the church. She used the Endive and Color Wheel Green Shades Packs for the Spring vibe of this stole. Check out more photos below.
For sharing, Lauren 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. Chris and I were gone about half the day yesterday for an appointment and errands and then we visited friends yesterday afternoon so I didn't get a whole lot of creative things accomplished yesterday. I am going to get that stack of bags done this weekend to get them out of the way and I'm not cutting any more out! I knocked this one out yesterday afternoon. It will be a great size for gifting a bottle of wine or other spirits. It's made from a fat quarter size ice dyed fabric. It's got one seam in the center back so that I could center the mandala on the front. Another little chore that I accomplished is restocking my supply of pet bed fabrics. A friend helped me acquire a bunch of upholstery and drapery remnants. I worked through the 2 bags of goodies and got everything paired and precut so that I'm ready to go when the batting scrap bin is full again. Chris and I are pretty sure that one of the fabrics is a silk blend so 4 pets are going to get some really fancy bedding! On the loom knitting front I've made a few decisions. I'm only doing the loom to give my hands a break from crochet. I don't love doing it but I do need to keep my hands busy. I developed horrible tendonitis in both hands several months ago and they are just now getting better. Loom knitting is working out to be a pretty perfect substitute for those times when my hands bother me. The Copperfit compressions gloves are helping tremendously! I've been working with the round loom only so far making hats and one knit stitch scarf. I didn't like the scarf because it curled horribly and had to be blocked. Making hats is OK but the yarn tension is pretty tight so there's still some strain on my hands.
I had bought a $5 clearance modular set from Michaels and decided to try out a scarf set up and I started making the scarf on the left. I think I've found my perfect project! The tension on this stitch is quite loose and there's no pressure on my hands at all. When we went out yesterday I took it in the car with me to see if it would be too bulky to work with and it's not! I will be making scarves for the foreseeable future during my crochet breaks. I may eventually make more hats but I don't like them as much as this double knit style scarf. It's actually a really soft and warm scarf. I should be able to get a few made before I drop off donations again in September. One of our errand stops was to Joann where I picked up the ergonomic loom pick on the right. I had to sand off the point a little but it does work better than the pick that came with the loom. I also bought more bulky yarn that I didn't need but it was less than $1.75 a skein after the markdown, clearance discount and military discount all added together. I'll be making loom scarves for the next 10 years if I'm not careful about my purchases! Today my one big goal is to get all of the bags finished and everything put away so I can get back to the worktable cleanup. Tomorrow I'm giving a quilting lesson and then I'll get the big green quilt loaded and start quilting. I have seriously lost my mind but I'm having fun at it. I never thought I'd say this but I need to get back to making doll dresses! Here are the two newest ones and they are made from the very first fabrics that I ever dyed when my best friend made me dye fabric one summer against my will. These were made with glue resist. The one on the left is red on one side and black on the other. I made these bags as big as the fabric allowed. That's why I love these projects. I can finally use my special fabrics and can use the whole piece because size really doesn't matter in this case. Of course that created another project. Here's one of 2 drawers of some of my earliest dyeing. Anne and I did lots of print paste, resist and other special dyeing techniques and created some really cool fabrics. But I don't use the fabrics because I know for a fact that they will all bleed. I've decided that it's finally time to fix that and to soak all of these fabrics so that I'll use them in future projects. In case you didn't think I was being accurate about the bleeding here's the first group that I put through soak cycles. That's only 12 fat quarters! We were following the conventional wisdom of that time so we didn't know better. It took me several years to figure out that I could actually fix bleeding fabric. These fabrics have already been processed and are back in the drawer and ready to be something someday. They will not be drawstring bags, I promise. Because I've already cut all of these fabrics to make into bags in the coming days. Some of these are earmarked for gifts but most are for me.
99% of you will already know how to make these but if there are any new sewists reading I have created a tutorial. I've read through the tutorial 3 times and I think I've corrected all of my errors but if you see something let me know, I can easily fix it. This is a quick quilt that I quilted for Mom this week. When she lived in Farmville her neighbor was also a quilter. Rita and John were very nice, very funny and were really kind to Mom. Shortly after Mom moved away Rita died and, of course, left behind a packed sewing room and tons of UFO projects. Mom has taken on a couple of them to finish for the family. This quilt is one of them. Rita was really organized and had her projects packed away with the fabric and pattern together so Mom knew that she planned this pattern for this fabric. Funny story, when she brought the top over we put it up on the design wall and we both commented that it's not one of our favorite quilts. We aren't particularly fond of the fabrics or pattern. But just as we were expressing our opinions Chris walked through, glanced at the quilt and said that he really like it. So there you go, different strokes for different folks. I quilted it with an Urban Elementz pantograph called Carnival and used pink So Fine Thread in the needle and bobbin. It was nice to do something a little feminine for a change.
Next on the longarm is the big green quilt. New! Tapestries/Quilt BacksIt's been a very long time since I've had large tapestries to offer. Just like the Crystals, these are ice dyed and each one takes it's own bin for dyeing. These are all about 104" square and can be used as quilt backs, quilt fronts or hemmed to hang as a tapestry on it's own/ I could even see one made into drapes. There are only 4 of these so if you see one that you need get it soon! Don't forget to check out the New Crystals and Galaxies to see all of the other ice dyed fabrics. New! Salt Marsh GradientI also have a new Gradient for you this week. I hope that the name, Salt Marsh, makes sense to you the way it does for me. I think it represents the sky, water and grasses of a coastal salt marsh. I hope you find some inspiration in it for your next project. Gradients Back in StockFabric of the WeekThe fabric of the week this week is the Anole Shades Pack. It will make wonderful applique leaves for your next garden quilt. Anole is 20% off through Sunday. August Schedule ReminderThis is your weekly reminder that my summer vacation is going to be a really long one this year so I want to give you notice now in case you need something dyed for your next project. We have plenty of time to get it done if we start planning now. I will be away August 6 - September 5 so the shop will basically be closed the entire month of August. If there's fabric that you need please get your orders in by the end of July. The cut off for custom dyed fabric will be July 26.
Sewing with my quilt club each month is always a great start to the weekend. I am using my quilt club sewing days to work on veterans quilts for the next several months. I started this one last month and finished it this weekend. It's ready for quilting but I don't know if it will get quilted before we leave for vacation in August. I have a couple more quilts ahead of this. Back at home my first priority was to finish cutting up ALL of my patriotic fabrics. I decided on 4.5" squares, 2.5" strips and 2.5" squares. Anything smaller than that went in the trash. I also had a stack of fabrics leftover from hand dyed quilt backs for veterans quilts and I cut all of the blue ones in the same sizes. I put them all in a box and this will likely be the last veterans quilt kit that I cut/sew for many months! I think I have 15 - 17 kits cut and ready to sew. This effort cleared one pile off the cutting table. The table is now about half cleaned up so I'm making good progress. On the quilting front I loaded a quilt for Mom last night and got the first row quilted. This is just a weird side story. When I first got into longarming I did the normal thing that people do, I bought TONS of threads. Instead of buying one or 2 cones of a thread that I thought I would like and trying it out, I started collecting just about every line that Superior carried at that time. As expected, over time I've grown to favor some and not others but I'm determined to use even the ones that I don't prefer. They are all good threads but they don't all fit my aesthetic now. I'm no longer a big fan of King Tut but I'm using it on veterans quilts as much as possible. I also bought a lot of Masterpiece thinking that I would use it in the longarm but I don't really like it on the longarm. It wasn't designed for that in the first place. It's not called Masterpiece for nothing! I stopped using it for the longarm and brought it all upstairs to use for piecing and I'm going through it at a pretty good pace. But let's face it, some colors just aren't going to be used for piecing and here are 2 prime examples. But I do hate waste and wanted to still find a use for the bright colors that don't work so well for piecing. I picked the magenta one and started using it to baste quilts and now it's almost all gone! I didn't think I'd ever get through that cone of thread but the veterans quilts are keeping the machine busy. Soon I'll be basting in orange thread. That's the kind of thing that makes me happy.
I'm determined to only buy 1 new cone for every 2 that I empty so that I can reduce the massive inventory that I have. Aside from blue and cream for veterans quilts I shouldn't need to buy any thread for several years and I haven't really bought any new thread for several years. This week I'm determined to get the project/gift bag tutorial done and posted and possible even the ice dyeing tutorial. I'll get Mom's quilt quilted and get the big green quilt loaded. I also want to finish clearing the cutting table and doing some other organizing in my sewing room. Things are generally kind of messy in there and that interferes with my creativity. This week's inspiration comes from Patricia Caldwell. She made this complex quilt overlapping circles and paths. She used Shades Packs for many of the elements and added lots of quilting and yarn couching for her trademark texture.
For sharing, Patricia 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. But first, I'm happy to report that I found the missing socks! They were in the dryer and it seems that I dyed 4 pair, not 3. I'm a little bummed that they are all blue or purple but I do have more plain ones to dye and I can do them the normal way (without ice) so I'll know the colors. I also got a start on cutting up the remaining patriotic fabric. I decided on 4.5" squares and 2.5" squares and strips. I've got a big bag of various light blues from trimmed veterans quilt backs so I'll cut a bunch of that too and eventually make all of this into 4-patch blocks. Note to self: Do not buy more patriotic fabric until 2023. On to crochet, I have a finished project! This is a wheelchair blanket. I bought the yarn for a baby blanket because the photo only showed the pastel blues. When I received the order I knew it could not be a baby blanket, but I only had 3 balls. My options were limited. I checked the donation website and saw that they collect wheelchair blankets and the desired dimensions are 27" x 36". I've been wanting to try corner to corner so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I have been hesitant to try C2C because I didn't think I'd like it but now I see the appeal. It's very easy and very fast and the effect from self-striping yarn is awesome. I t really worked great in this yarn, Cascade Cartwheel. I absolutely LOVE this yarn and already have more in my stash. It was on sale at Webs (yarn.com) so I bought more for a couple of blankets. It's really similar to Premier Puzzle and Universal Major if you have used those. The C2C patterning created wonderful texture and the marled effect of this yarn makes the striping pretty subtle. I used a K hook and 3 balls of Cascade Cartwheel. Now on to the topic of loom knitting. Loom knitting is quite fun and is a great "take a break" activity from crochet. My hands are getting better and better every day. I've bought almost ever kind of brace and glove on the market but the one that seems to be the best is the Copperfit Compression Glove. That's been a big surprise to me, but it does work for me. I can crochet about an hour a day right now and then I pick up the loom knitting. The first set that I started working with is this Boye set and it worked fine but I needed a bigger ring for men's hats. The largest ring in this set will make a hat that's my size. Online I found another set branded as Cousin. It was the cheapest one I could find and that's how I made the decision to get it. While I was waiting I've been watching all sorts of YouTube videos on loom knitting and one was about tips for beginners. One of the tips was "don't buy the Boye looms". I'd been using mine and couldn't figure out what the lady was going on about. Well, there is a difference. Here are the 2 looms together. The green one is Boye and the purple one is Cousin. There's a huge difference! See where the head of the Boye peg has a hook? The yarn gets caught there so it's more work to move the loop down the peg for the next round. Also that tiny slot on the front of the peg makes it more difficult to hook the loop up and over the peg. Within 5 minutes of starting a new project on the Cousin loom I knew that the lady had been right. I don't think it's a stretch to say that the Cousin look is about 50% faster than the Boye loom. The Boye set is packed and ready to be dropped at the thrift store soon. THis scarf is the last thing I finished on the Boye loom. It's 6 feet long and is done in straight knit stitch so it really wants to curl even after I blocked it. I probably won't be making another that way again. The yarn is Premier Serenity and it's incredibly soft. I got it on sale and have several big balls of it. I think it's making a nice scarf and hat set. I'm afraid it will pill but there's nothing I can do about that. The matching hat is the first project on the new loom and it will probably be done by the end of the weekend. I'll be able to make a ton of hats in the car ride to Maine.
Today I'm off to sewing with my quilt club so the weekend is getting off to a great start! Yesterday was "dyeing day" but it was also cleaning day. When the cleaning lady is coming I try to at least get the piles of things off the floor so that she van vacuum the space underneath. While doing my "maid preps", as Chris calls them, I tripped over a pile of things that I dyed last week with the Crystals and Galaxies. When I ice dye I want every inch of the screen covered so I often add whatever dyeable things I can find to the mix. These are 2 sets of napkins. I had 2 boxes of thrift store napkins that a friend gave me. I still have a ton of them left but I always dye a set to go with any new set of placemats. At the moment I have a bin of dyed napkins that need placemats. Maybe my next obsessive sewing weekend can be a placemat weekend. I do use them a lot and have several that are in need of retirement. These will be fun to work with to design matching placemats. I always seem to have a bunch of aprons around and I think I've given some to all my friend and family. I heard about a charity collecting them recently so these might go there. There are some of the leftover golf towels that I dyed for my husband and his high school golf buddies in March. I'll save these in the gift closet. This is the funniest part. I dyed 3 pair of socks but I can only find a pair and a half. Hopefully the others will show up at some point. Then there were some white tshirts left from the ones that I dyed for Eli for his birthday. He'll get these too. Finally, just for me, I dyed some 12" squares. I feel a 3rd Groovy quilt coming on.
Yesterday was a very long dyeing day so in the evening I just sat and did some crochet and loom knitting and listened to a book. I have a finished crochet project and some thoughts on loom knitting that I'll probably share tomorrow. Today I might get a quilt loaded to quilt but first I have a little bit of dyeing to do for a custom order. It's a little complex so fingers crossed that I get the effect that my customer wants. This weekend is sewing weekend with my quilt club so I'll be packing up my veterans quilt sewing tomorrow morning and heading to our meeting place. Yay! This nonsense needs to stop. First, I finished the last of the mini zipper bags. There are 12 here but Mom took one so I made 13 in all. What a great use of this special fabric because I only had small pieces. They were way too stiff for quilts but perfect for these little bags. I think most of these will be Christmas gifts, possibly filled with handmade soaps. Click on this link for the tutorial for these pouches. It probably would have been good if I had stopped there but two other ideas/thoughts came together to make a bigger obsession In the Spring I made some "boy" things and made gift bags with the leftovers. I never really thought about making drawstring bags for myself for anything other than gift bags. I mostly use totes or plastic grocery bags as project bags for my crochet and travel sewing. But I do watch quite a few YouTube crochet channels and they often talk about making/buying drawstring or zippered totes for their crochet projects. That seems to make a lot more sense than open totes because things can't fall out of a closed bag. So that idea has been in the back of my mind recently. Then Monday I told you about cleaning off the cutting table and finding the Spam fabric. I made the pink bag for Anne with her leftover fabric and then I made the mistake of looking thought some of my bins of "special" fabrics and things got crazy from there. I made the National Parks bags first and shared those in Friday's post too. I should have put everything away right at that point and gotten back to my other projects. But I didn't. Yesterday I went absolutely insane. I had 2 fabrics like this that were gifts to me several years ago. I made a large quilt tote from one piece of this fabric. I made 3 of those totes and use them all the time. They are my Show and Tell bags for quilt club meetings and I use then for travel bags for towels and bedding. The other piece has been sitting in my stash waiting for a "special" project. I love this fabric made into project bags! These are big bags that will easily hold everything for a baby blanket crochet project. Then I found this fabric that Anne gave me at Christmas. She carved the bird stamp and printed this hand dyed fabric for me. A gradient scrap was perfect for the cuff of the bag. I love the bird fabric so much and it's going to be great to actually see it from time to time when it has a crochet project in it. There was only about 4" left of that fabric so this was a perfect use. Then I found a piece of fabric that was about 5 feet long and 14" wide. I made it from the leftovers of the Fireworks quilt. I took all of the leftovers, cut them into 2.5" strips and sewed them together kind of like a jelly roll race. It's been in my stash for almost 2 years. It seemed like it would make fun bags too and I was right. I actually made 3 bags with this fabric but one is already in use. Then I thought I should write a tutorial so that I will remember how I made these should I ever need another bag. The tutorial needed to be done on a small bag and that sent me off to another drawer with smaller fabrics. That's right, 3 more bags! The tutorial will probably be ready next week and is done with the metallic and orange bag but I found the sun printed black denim and it was just big enough for a bag for my crochet hook cases (which I can't find at the moment). The little orange bag was made only because I found that little scrap of fabric and had a yellow zipper nearby.
I finished the last bag just before dinner last night and them I put everything away. I am done making bags even though I found at least 10 more fabrics that would make great bags! After dyeing today I'm going to get back to cutting out the last of the patriotic fabrics and get a quilt loaded to quilt. Making doll outfits is even seeming a little more sane at the moment so I might cut out a couple of those too. |
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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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