 If you have been following my blog longer than 3 years you might remember that I sometimes make these beaded Christmas ornaments. They are from Cracker Box Kits and I made the first one in 1992. How do I know that? Meticulous record keeping, of course! Like many hobbies, this one has run it's course. I've made about 120 of them and I'm over it but I have 3 kits left. These kits are expensive so I will finish them. That's why I've added them to my UFO list. They aren't quilts but they are unfinished projects that are hanging over my head and I'm determined to get them done this year.  This is how the instructions look. They are very detailed and there's a very detailed drawing of the finished ornament.  I also have the color photo from the catalog for reference. The one I'm working on now is called Discovery and I made some good progress this weekend. I'm splitting my football watching activities between these and my applique. If all goes well I'll finish the applique and the 3 ornament kits before the Super Bowl.  Here are all of the completed ones stored. They store best hanging up. My college roommate tells me that if the FBI ever needs information to profile me she will just show them this closet.
Patricia Caldwell is back this week with 2 great new pieces. You can always check out her Facebook page where she shared details of of her art pieces in process.  Sunrise Silhouette at Devil's Bridge by Patricia Caldwell Sunrise Silhouette at Devil's Bridge is made using a custom gradient.  In this detail shot you can see how she uses thread color and stitch pattern to bring her pieces to life.  Chrysocalla Tree by Patricia Caldwell Chrysocalla Tree is made using an ice dyed Crystal fabric.  Patricia adds beads to a lot of her work and with this one introduced copper wire wrapping. The tree was added after the quilting was done. There's a short of video of this one in progress on her Facebook page.
Do you have a project that you have made with my hand dyed fabric? Please consider submitting it to the Customer Gallery. In return you will receive a 20% discount that's good for 3 months!  A month or so ago I was at Virginia Longarm and noticed that they had these rolls of grosgrain ribbon for sale. Only $10 for a whole roll! I immediately knew what I wanted to make with them and finally got started this week.  Woven placemats of course! I've only gotten one prototype made so far but I should be back next week with all of the detail of how I made them.
Tomorrow I'm teaching at Virginia Longarm and the rest of the weekend is to be dedicated to quilting the Paula quilts.  I think it's been over a month since I stitched on this but football season started this past weekend and that's my excuse to sit and stitch for hours. The are the 2 most recent blossoms completed.  I start in the middle and work my way to each end. I only have one more blossom to do on this half and then I'll start back on the other side. I've completed 15 of 44 blossoms so my borders are 34% complete. That actually sounds pretty impressive.
 They keep showing up with bags of empty wine bottles. They were piled on a bench in the hall and yesterday was the day I finally got tired of looking at them. In between laundry and baking bread (the easy gluten-free kind) I finally got the labels removed from these. I have another bin this full in the basement.
It's time to get the kiln fired up and it's time for my friends to put their bottles in the recycle bin. In other news, I now have both of my Payla Nadelstern tops done and I'll get them loaded and start quilting Thursday. Tomorrow is "dyeing day"!  Egyptian Blue Shades Pack - 20% off! The fabric of the week this week is the Egyptian Blue Shades Pack and it's on sale 20% off through Thursday! Shades Packs are dyed when ordered so there's no limit to what you can buy. If you order multiple quantities it comes as one cut. For example, order 2 quantities for 1/2 yard cuts. Orders received by Wednesday morning (EST) will be shipped September 18. Ordered placed after Wednesday morning will be shipped September 25. There are also 3 gradients back in stock.  Meadow Sunrise  Summer Sunset  Paradise Here are 3 great projects made with these gradients.  Art quilt made by Candace West using Meadow Sunrise  Red Sky At Night by Rene Iannarelli using Summer Sunset  Lap quilt by Donaleen Kohn using Paradise, Meadow Sunrise and Thrive Gradients.  Some day I will stop making crumb blocks from leftover fabrics. At least, I hope that I will! But all those fabric bits are still "good" and it pains me to toss them out. These blocks were made from the leftovers of the Fractured Fragments Quilt that I made in 2015. That quilt was made from the leftovers of a king sized Fractured quilt that I made in 2013. These crumb blocks have been laying around for a while.  After I finished the postage stamp quilt top in July I needed another project for sewing weekend with my quilt club. We meet once a month on Friday and Saturday to sew all day and I like to have a separate project that I can keep packed and ready to go there. These crumb blocks were next in line. I even had some yellow and purple fabrics in my stash to go with them.  I started with this design but when I got to sewing Friday morning I soon realized that I didn't have enough purple fabric.  So I changed the design to this. Where this quilt is going this smaller size will work just fine.  After lunch I had all of the cutting done and started making star points. I made 8 blocks before I realized that I was bored out of my mind. I decided to quit for the day and head home and finish up my Paula Nadelstern quilt top. While working on my sample quilt I realized that I did not want this crumb block quilt to take 2 months. My next sewing weekend quilt will be the Maine quilt made from my sun prints and I'd really like to get on with it. I came up with a much simpler plan and even with a ton of new cutting, mis-cuts, patching blocks back together I finished the top.  It's not going to win any awards but I kind of like it! Most importantly it's done and ready for quilting and I can start my Maine quilt next month.
 Winter Fields by Joanna Mack Oooh, look what I have for you this weekend! Winter Fields is the latest landscape quilt from Joanna Mack, aka The Snarky Quilter. Joanna created Winter Fields based on photos she took at Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia. She is one quilt for each season. She used Groundhog Day for the sky, a Pebbles and Rocks Stash pack with other commercial and hand dyed fabrics. She free motion quilted it, and accentuated the clouds with Paintstick. She used Groundhog Day just as I envisioned it for a winter sky. You can see more detail photos in this post on her blog.  Groundhog Day  Pebbles and Rocks Stash Pack We've all had those days and yesterday was mine.  Yesterday I got inspired for a second Paula Nadelstern quilt for this year. I've never made 2 quilts before but the first one was so simple and I was still entranced by the fabric that I decided to make another. I picked this Lone Star block from EQ and sized it for 36"  When I make a symmetry quilt I follow the method that I was taught by Paula. I draw the finished shape on to gridded plastic and then add seam allowance on the plastic and then cut out the template.  Soooo, I thought I was so clever to use EQ and print the rotary instructions and I got these measurements for my diamonds. I drew the shape on the plastic and ADDED 1/4" seam allowance! Then I cut out the whole quilt and sewed half of the star segments together.  Last night with my audiobook on I did this and re-cit all of the star pieces.  Here's your official sneak peek at Paula's new fabric line.
Everything is re-cut and I'm ready to start sewing again. This should go together really quickly and I should be quilting both quilts next week. Those of you who have followed me for more than a year know that I've been making sample quilts for Paula Nadelstern for a few years. I don't get paid. I do it because I love working with her fabrics and I love the challenge of having to create a quilt in a few weeks with a very limited fabric palette. September is always the time that I work on this and I can't share what I do until Quilt Market is over at the end of October. You can see my previous quilts in my Symmetry Gallery. My favorite of all of the quilts so far is the Zombie Ball Quilt. This year I might be making 2 quilts for no reason other than inspiration.  She always has a fabric of printed mandalas like this one from a couple of years ago. There are also some great texture fabrics. I've never used the mandalas so this year I set a challenge to use the mandala fabric for my quilt.  I can't show you the actual block but this is one of the prototype blocks that I made using last year's fabric. I've always loved the Moon Over The Mountain block and have wanted to make a quilt with it. These mandalas are perfect for it.
I'm formulating an idea for a second quilt (and I can do that because they are only 36" square) so will be working on that the rest of this week and next week. then I will need to get both quilted and bound. They are due mid-October but my self-imposed deadline is September 30. I'll take some breaks to do some other things but if I miss a few days posting over the next 3 weeks it's because I'm working on these quilts....and having a grand time doing it. |
FeedsTo subscribe click the RSS Feed button and copy the URL of that page into your blog reader.
In Bloglovin you need to search "Colorways By Vicki Welsh" to find the blog. About Vicki
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
All
Archives
December 2024
|
RSS Feed
