I knew if I would just focus some time that I could get this top done quickly and I set aside yesterday for that and for preparing food for a long, hot hike that we are on today. I started by deciding on which of the ice dyed squares I wanted in the border and how I wanted them arranged. I decided on the dark purple blocks for the border. They were trimmed to 12.5" That's a yummy pile of trimmings! There was some math to figure out the sashing sizes. The border around the center medallion is 3" finished, the sashing between the blocks on the sides is 3 5/8". The outer border is 4" for a finished size of 97" square. I think I will dye a dark blue (like in the center) for the binding and I think I will dye a gradient for the backing. I really love how this turned out! I have over a dozen blocks left over for another project or maybe an upcoming giveaway. In other news, we have a new clutch of bluebirds! I think they had just been fed when I checked on them because they were pretty lethargic and their bellies are pretty plump. Look at the Don King hairdo on that one on the left!
This is a week when several finishes came together. During the past couple of months I had 3 crochet projects going and they all wrapped up within a week or so of each other. I really liked doing the multiple project approach because it gives my hands and my interest some change. When the blanket got too heavy I could work on the baby blanket or this top. When this top got boring (and it did) I could work on either of the blankets. Now the top is finished! There were 2 starts to this project as I learned how to use changes in hook size to manage the sizing of the garment. The pattern is the Perfect T-Shirt by Originally Lovely and it's very well written. I used Lion Brand Coboo yarn as the pattern called for but any 3 weight would do fine. In fact, my biggest issue with this is that it's heavy! But it does fit. I honestly don't think I will wear it much because it's just too warm for summer but I might be able to get away with wearing it in Maine or in the fall with light sweater or jacket. It's white so I'm doomed to stain it and I expect it will eventually get dyed. Being cotton and rayon it should dye beautifully. I used a G hook for the body but switched to an F hook at the waist to bring it in a bit and I think that worked really well. The whole sweater is done in moss stitch and the sleeve, such as it is, is only 6 rows of moss stitch followed by a finishing SC, slip stitch row. I added the first sleeve and felt that it flared too much so I took it out and did it again with the F hook and I like it much better. I also did the neckline with the F hook and added 2 extra rows. I needed to narrow the neck opening so that my bra straps wouldn't show.
All in all I'm very happy that I made the top whether I wear it or not. I learned a lot about how crochet garments are designed and made and I'm no longer afraid to tackle one. In another post I'll introduce the 3 new projects that I started: another garment, a baby blanket and another brother blanket. Last year I made this blanket for Chris. I loved the yarn so much that I bought enough for several more blankets. It's a clearance yarn now at Webs so the price was good. Occasionally Webs runs an additional sale on clearance yarn so I waited for that and seriously stocked up. Now I'm planning to make blankets for everyone! I'm starting with my brothers and working on them in age order. This is the first one and it's for Eddie. The blanket I made for Chris was 58 x 76. It's huge because crochet also stretches. I decided that the rest of the blankets can be a little smaller. This one is still a great size at 46 x 64. I just love how this yarn works with the color transitions. It's beautiful. I know from Chris' blanket that this yarn washes and dries well so it should last many years. I'm ready to start Tim's blanket in the color Cheyenne (browns) and still pondering if I will use this pattern or pick something different. Here are all the details:
Here are all the details because I will make this one again: Cascade Cartwheel Yarn, 7 balls, it's labeled color 18 but that color number doesn't exist. I think it's color 10 - Nashville. Pattern from BagODay Crochet, pattern repeat is 8 stitches plus 3 I used a K hook and chained 147 stitches (with an L hook) I got busy Friday making more kits. I started by starching these fabrics because I knew I was going to be cutting a lot of bias edges. This will make 2 quilts and the cutting was really fast with the Go cutter. There are lots of extra blocks in case I want to play around with the layout. This took the future quilt count to 14. This was a satisfying sight and, no, I did not save them! I didn't have any other planned quilts so I started looking through the pre-cut scrap bins and realized that I had enough 4 1/2" hand dyed HST pieces for a whole quilt. In the backing scrap bag I found enough gray scraps to cut for the other half of the quilt. This will be some really easy chain piecing. This gave me future quilt 15. Finally I had a bin of 2 1/2" strips of various blues and patriotic fabrics. This isn't a complete kit but I think I probably have enough pieces in here for 2 quilts and there will be more quilt back scraps coming to eventually cut the setting triangles. When I pull this one out I'll just star piecing 9-patch blocks and see where it gets me. This could be future quilts 16 or 17. I know that this all seemed a bit crazy but it was very satisfying. This is my away-from-home sewing shelf. Aside from the pressing ham, this is my travel notions case and all of the kits that I've put together. I expect that I'm good for a couple of years of veterans quilts and easy getaways. Even better, I have some breathing room. My two pre-cut scrap bins are at least half emptied and there are easily a few more quilts lurking in here. This bag was stuffed to overflowing with scrap backing and now all of that will be in new quilts. All-in-all it was 4 days well spent. I didn't have as much sewing time Saturday and Sunday as I anticipated because we got to have friends visit as a better activity. But I did get the center of Groovy 3 together and I love it! I'm doing some math to figure out the size of the border blocks and sashing but will get started on that this week. This quilt should come together really quickly now. The lime green sashing makes me very happy.
Today's inspiration is an art quilt by Linda Webster. She used the Dunes Stash Pack for her detail applique work and borders.
For sharing, Linda 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 know that many of you think that this kit-making exercise is a little crazy (or boring or tedious) and I agree a little. But having these kits all cut out and ready makes packing for my sewing days with Country School so much easier. I will only use these when I'm sewing with CSQ each month of if I am taking a short trip and want a sewing project. I have a travel sewing machine and travel notion set so I can be ready to go in about 10 minutes without having to disturb any project that I have underway in the sewing room. Cutting these kits also gets my scrap bin a little more under control for a few months. BY the time I'm done today I'll have enough veterans quilt kits to probably last me through 2023. Here's yesterday's progress. This one is using up more of the pre-cut hand dyed HST stash and some 4.5" scrappy hand dyed squares. The border in the drawing is white but my quilts will have a hand dyed border in that green and brown print (orange dot). One quilt with have tan and the background and one will have blue. These are kits 9 and 10. Kit 11 is alternating 4-patch blocks with solid blocks. The 4-patch blocks are made from pre-cut symmetry scraps and the gold is the leftover from one a couple of veterans quilt backings. The alternating blocks are from a fabric leftover over from the Pleiades Quilt that I made in 2015. These are some tasty leftovers! Then I discovered yet another bin of precut fabrics! That one had 2.5" strips and 4.5" square. All are various shades of blue from leftover veterans quilt backs. There were enough light blue ones for this quilt. The 4-patch blocks are made from hand dyed scrap squares and just enough leftover dotty fabric from one of the other kits. That's 12 kits so far. Today I'm making a couple of patriotic kits like this and I have the bin of 2.5" blue strips to figure out something for.
I've been making great progress on my crochet project too so I'll have something different to share next week. Yesterday was dyeing day so I didn't have a lot of time for cutting kits but I did get a kit for 2 Chandelier quilts cut out. I've been seeing this pattern a lot and have quilted a couple of them. I'm going to do one with a blue border and one with a red border. For all of these kits I also cut the binding at the same time. Also because I have made some cutting errors in the past I include some extra pieces of scraps of fabric too. This brings my future quilt count to 8. Today I have more time for cutting and this one is done except for the background. I'll work on finishing it off today. I pulled a stack of pre-cut squares with scrap backing and another leftover fabric for another kit to cut. There's also all of these patriotic fabrics left too! I've got plenty of options for today and tomorrow.
I have two projects that I want to actively work on this week. Those are cutting out veterans quilt kits and getting started on Groovy 3. I decided to start with veterans quilt kits and since I had to pull out all of this I'm going to focus only on these through Friday and just see how far I get. I have 2 binds of precut scraps and the stack of patriotic fabric that I bought in Paducah. I learned an important lesson with the last group of kits that I made. That lesson is that I need variety. I had way too many patriotic quilts in that stash and I got a little fatigued with them. This time I'm going for only half patriotic so I have more variety. Here's what I got done yesterday. I started by fixing this kit. When I originally cut this one I didn't have a layout plan and when I started trying to fix a layout plan I didn't have enough of a few of the colors. So I went into EQ, worked up a color plan and cut out a couple of additional colors that I needed. I think this one might look pretty cool. This plus the one other leftover kit makes 2 future quilts. I saw this block somewhere and liked it a lot so I cut enough to make 2 quilts for this one. The dotty blue will be the stars and the bold print will be the sashing and border. This brings the future quilt count to 4. One of my favorite quilts from 2021 is the string quilt that I showed in this post. I've cut out two more. One will be in strings left over from my symmetry quilts and one will be another hand dyed one. YOu can see that I positioned the center strip on 2 foundations to remind myself that I have to do half in each direction. I almost got in trouble with that on the last one!
That brings the future quilt count to 6. I have 2 more kits (4 quilts) almost cut out. I'm starching some fabric for the backgrounds. I have so much scrappy backing and blocks that I would be happy enough to get more than 15 or 20 kits cut out by Friday evening. I won't get much done today because it's dyeing day but Thursday should be a good day. I'm wishing all of my fellow US citizens a very happy 4th of July. We actually did our little bit of celebrating yesterday and this morning we're going to the library's annual book sale to see what we can find to take on vacation to read. This weekend I focused my efforts on ironing a ton of fabric (as you will see tomorrow) and quilting 6 veterans quilts. I have 3 more to be quilted but I quilt in pairs and don't have quilts to pair with these 3 yet. Here are the 6 that I got done. How about this bright, happy quilt? I love citrus colors so, of course, I love this quilt. I quilted it with an all over meander because I knew that no quilting motif would show on this quilt. I paired the citrus quilt with this one. This one might be a little feminine for a veterans quilts but we do know that they have a few women coming through the department so I'm sure this one will eventually find the perfect home. I quilted it with an all over leaf pattern to tie all of the floral motifs together. This is the first quilt of the second set. I think that the maker's setting is really interesting and effective. I used the Woven Wind pantograph on this and it's mate (below). I used gold thread so help pop the tars out even more. I actually didn't notice the cool woven effect on this quilt until I stood back to take a photo. I like it a lot. This is a fun scrappy quilt and I love the color palette a lot. The Burning Bush pantograph was a good fit with the motifs on the fabric. I paired the scrappy quilt with this beauty that Becky made. the blocks are from one of Barbara Brackman's quilt-along projects. Becky does some wonderful fussy cutting on her quilt blocks.
That's all of the veterans quilts for a couple of week at least! |
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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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February 2025
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