This week's inspiration comes from Marcy George. The background pleated dyed fabric that she purchased a few years ago was here starting point. Marcy is a friend of mine and loves getting bags of thread ends from me. I save them when I'm ironing and packaging fabric. She used lots of those, some Shibori fabrics and fabrics from her own stash. She added surface design with paint and quilted with cotton and silk threads.
For sharing, Marcy 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. The 4th of July quilt top is done! You can click the link to the pattern but this one is discontinued.....that's how long I've had the pattern! The fabrics are all leftover from the display in my booth last year at the Virginia Beach AQS show so there was no planned color palette. The "vision" for this was to finally use the pattern and use up some of those sample fabrics. I used golds and greens for all of the big spikes, blues for the short inner spikes and orange/pink/purple for everything else. The colors are most accurate in this photo and it also shows off my favorite part, the background. I pulled every super dark fabric from my stash. Next I need to figure out where it will go to live. That will determine what kind of quilting that it will get. If it's going to be a sofa quilt I'll likely do a pantograph. The most it will get is light custom. I don't love it enough to spend a ton of time quilting it. Don't get me wrong, I do like it but I don't have any special attachment to it. This weekend I'm going to get the cat quilt top together. The original plan called for more cats but I was afraid that from a distance (in a booth at a quilt show) that the small cats would look like little blobs. I decided to make the cats a little bigger so they will be seen easier. I'll get the templates made tonight and get it made this weekend at the Country School Quilters sewing weekend. It would be nice to get it on the longarm next week.
One more border is done! I'll have this finished tomorrow and then I can start agonizing over how I'll quilt it. I spent most of yesterday evening working on plans for the second Paula Nadelstern sample quilt. I had one plan before the fabrics arrived but quickly realized that it was not going to work! This fabric is in a blue palette and has lots of silver sparkle so it will be perfect for holiday/winter projects. I've settled on this layout but it's going to look different with the "real" fabrics. I made one sample block and quickly realized that I needed more of one of the fabrics. It's on the way so in the mean time I'll work on the cats this weekend.
Yesterday I got all of my Paula Nadelstern fabric washed and ironed. I shouldn't say "washed" because I actually soaked it for 24 hours changing the water once. Yes, it did bleed. I also soaked some batiks that I bought for a later project and it bled too. Now I can use all of the fabrics knowing that they won't cause any trouble later. After I finish dyeing fabric today I'll get into EQ and finalize my plans for the sample quilts. I also had a few minutes to add another border to the 4th of July quilt. This is a cute little baby quilt that Mom made and I had to get it quilted yesterday too. We had quilt club last night and I wanted to get it to her. The colors in this photo are WAY off and I know that because she used my Color Wheel Stash Packs. She used a pack each of Light, Medium and Dark. I took the photos really quick last night before I left for the meeting and didn't do the white balance setting on the camera but this photo has the colors a little more accurate. I love this Happy Times panto for baby quilts. Quilting with Minky for the backing was no problem at all and I think the new parents will love it!
Today I'm dyeing lots of fabric and will spend the evening relaxing with Electric Quilt doing some planning for my sample quilts. But maybe I can squeeze in one more border. Gradients Back in StockA two week vacation is a wonderful thing and I'm lucky that I am able to take that much time. I highly recommend a 2 week break even if it's a "staycation". That extra week allows you to really mentally escape and relax. But the downside is that it takes a week to get myself back in gear! I think I'm now mostly caught up including restocking these 2 popular gradients.
All Gradients on sale!To celebrate the shop being open again all gradients are 20% off this week! Use coupon code GRADIENT20 at checkout for the discount to be applied. Discount applies to in stock Gradients and the sale ends Sunday. Get your favorites while they are in stock!
This past weekend was the first weekend of football so I didn't get a lot done. "My" Eagles pulled out a win in the end. I didn't work on the cat quilt at all. I need to get serious on that project this week. Between games I did get my dyed fabric washed and made a little progress on 4th of July. I arranged the border blocks. And got the blocks sewn to one side.
Today is computer day so there won't be any sewing going on at all. Just lots of ironing, photographing and bill paying ending on a high note with more football. As I said Tueaday, my goals for September are to wrap up some "easy" projects while I work on my Paula Nadelstern sample quilts. Paula's fabrics arrived Wednesday and they are washed. After making the puppy quilt I decided that the cats need some equal time so I think my first "Paula" quilt will be a Kindle of Kittens. Each kitten will be a different symmetry print and the background is going to be a patterned blue. You'll get to see it in November and don't be surprised if it doesn't really look like this! I've got to play with the layout and block size a little more. I'll work on this on my Brother sewing machine. I have the Juki set up to allow myself a few minutes each day to work on my easy projects and the first up is 4th of July. I'm ready to get it done. I took this project on vacation and I only had these pieces of the border blocks left to make. My friend, Laura, did most of the sewing there but I did get all of these done. I spent a lot of time relaxing and tearing out paper. A lot of people hate this part of foundation piecing but I really don't mind it. I use a very short stitch length which helps the paper tear easier. Tweezers are also very helpful. While I piece these I sometimes use a dab of glue stick to hold a fabric in place. A little paper will sometimes stick to the fabric. I don't worry about that at all. It will soften and disappear in the wash. I did have to do a little vacuuming to clean up paper bits that missed the trash bag. I got all of the blocks done on vacation and this week's goal is to get the top together. Yesterday I got the center together. The colors aren't true. It's a little faded on the upper right because of how I took the photo but I'll get a good one when the quilt is done.
Now to make some kittens! Well, you know how nutty I get about my scraps. Here's yet another example. Sometimes I'm almost embarrassed to share just how weird I am about tiny bits of fabric. But, it's not as if you don't already know me well enough not to be surprised by another story. These are the cut-offs from making the border of the puppy quilt. After I finished the last border and was putting everything away I just could not toss the strips out. It's as if they were screaming "Postcards!" to me. So I made postcards. I didn't want to put too much thought into it so I just started sewing strips to cards with the raw edges exposed. At this point I was thinking that I might applique a flower motif or something on them. Some got applied horizontally and some vertically. Why? Because that's how long my strips were. Next it was time to really think about what to do with them. I found these in my "Postcard Bin of Magical Things". I screen printed them a long time ago and they have just been waiting for a home. What could be more appropriate than some crazy ladies? I fused some Mistyfuse scraps to the backs and cut them out to be fused to the cards. Not bad at all! But they needed a little something else. Like some fabric marker to add a little color. The black edging was a perfect finish to reference the black lines of the :"drawing". This is a screen that I bought a long time ago and I honestly don't remember where I got it. 7 more postcards for my every-growing collection.
When we go to Maine for our vacation it's a 2-day trip there and back so lots of time in the car. When it's just me and Chris going we can take one car and he does all of the driving. That leaves me with a lot of time to be a very annoying rider. I've learned that we have a more pleasant ride if I'm occupied doing something other than watching him. I picked the vintage flower blocks for this trip because the buttonhole stitch is big enough to be able to do in a moving car. It turns out you can get a lot of stitching done driving to and from Maine! I finished 6 blocks each way! I now have 52 blocks done and only 2 left to finish. I'll get those 2 done during the first weekend of football this weekend. Here's a close up of 4 of the blocks. I think of this set that these are my 2 favorites. Do you notice how the original maker fussy cut the petals for the one on the right? She even alternated yellow and red knot petals. Whoever made these really enjoyed playing with all of the fabrics.
The next time I show them I'll have all of them up on the design wall and will start thinking about how I'll finish this one. We're back from our 2 beautiful weeks in Maine and 2 weeks away from blogging or anything that even whiffs of "work". It was a great break but it's now time to play catch up. Usually I post the book reviews on the last day of the month but today's my first day back and I'm a little behind. The highlights this month are all non-fiction. My reading order now mostly relies on when books become available from the library and that meant non-fiction this month. Rasputin, Bad Blood and Benjamin Franklin were all great reads. Bad Blood reads like a novel. You have to remind yourself that this really happened! What good books have you read lately? Bad Blood By John Carryrou, Narrated By Will Damron Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction and that's certainly the truth in this case. This book is about the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos. Theranos was supposed to revolutionize blood testing with the claim that their blood testing process could replace vials of blood with just the blood from a finger prick. The whole thing was a fraud and Elizabeth Holmes will go on trial for criminal charges next July. I was reading some commentary about this case and there's a lot of accusations of white privilege. I actually think it's more if a case of pretty girl privilege. People were so desperate to have some female success/leadership in Silicon Valley that they were willing to believe anything she said. She appealed to a lot of once powerful men (George Schultz, Henry Kissinger, etc.) who were completely enthralled by her. It was George Schultz's grandson who eventually helped bring her down. For me, this is one of the best business-gone-bad books since Anatomy of Greed about the Enron scandal. Will Damron was the perfect narrator. It was fun to go to YouTube to watch referenced interviews as I was reading the book. The Night Ranger By Alex Berenson, Narrated By George Guidall This is the 7th in the John Wells series. Wells is now retired from the CIA when he receives a call from his estranged son, Evan. One of Evan's friends has been kidnapped in Somalia while working for an aid organization. Evan asks him to find his friend and the 3 other kidnapped aid workers. This is another series in the vein of Dewey Andreas, jack Ryan, Mitch Rapp and others. It's very fast paced and wonderfully narrated by George Guidall. This has become one of my go-to reliable series when I just need a great adventure. While researching this book I found that Berenson has written a non-fiction book called Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence. It's less than 7 hours but it has almost a perfect 5-star review so you might see it on a future reading list. If you have children or grand-children you might want to check it out. Rasputin By Doglas Smith, Narrated By P. J. Ochlan Thanks to Diane's husband for the recommendation to read this book. This was published on the centenary of Rasputin's death a few years ago. There can't possibly be a more thorough or thoroughly researched history of Rasputin. I know very little about Russian history but I gather that this book corrects many false beliefs about Rasputin, his life and his influence over the royal family. It's a very interesting book but it's 33 hours so there's a LOT of detail. Smith is a Russian historian and has written this for people who are seriously interested in history. I learned a lot of things that I didn't know before but for this casual history lover, it could have been edited by about a third and I would have loved it. I don't regret reading it but by the end it did turn into a bit of a job. Cold Earth By Ann Cleeves, Narrated By Kenny Blyth This is the 7th book in the Shetland murder series. It's a rainly winter in Lerwick and Jimmy Perez is attending the funeral of a local man when a landslide sweeps a small house towards the sea. The house is expected to be uninhabited but they find the body of a beautiful woman in a red silk dress. That starts a new murder investigation. These books are well written but the general plot of this book was almost identical to the last book: multiple murders, locals suspect someone other than the real killer and the killer is introduced in such a different way (he has a different story about the woman) that it's clear who the murderer is. But there's only one more book in this series so I will likely read it just to finish things off. The Limehouse Text By Will Thomas, Narrated By Anthony Ferguson This is the 3rd in the Barker and LLewelyn series. Set in Victorian England, Barker and Llewelyn are very much like Holmes and Watson. In this book Barker finds a pawn ticket among the effects of his late assistant. The pawn shop is in the Chinese district of London, Limehouse and the ticket is for a rare Chinese text. Barker uses his skills as a private enquiry agent to navigate through this dangerous area of London to determine where the book belongs and solve several murders along the way. It's a nice easy read and Barker and Llewelyn are quite likable. If you like Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and the like you will enjoy this series. The Thirteenth Tale By Diane Setterfield, Narrated By Ruthie Henshall and Lynn Redgrave Several months ago I read Once Upon a River and loved it. It's one of my all-time favorite books. The Thirteenth Tale is probably her most well-known book so I was looking forward listening to it. Unfortunately I didn't catch that my library bough the abridged version! I really hate abridged books and that was enforced by the choppiness of this tale. The story is about a reclusive author, Vida Winter and the daughter of a rare bookseller, Margaret Lea. Vida is most well known for a collection of 12 stories and her life story is going to be the thirteenth tale. She's selected Margaret Lea as her biographer because she somehow knows that Margaret has a troubled past beginning with discovering that she was actually a conjoined twin. Vida's story also has a twin aspect to it. I didn't really enjoy this book although Setterfiend's writing is beautiful. But I think the problem was with the abridged version. Had I read the full length book I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more but now that I know the ending I don't think I'd go back and read it. Chances Are.... By Richard Russo, Narrated By Fred Sanders This is the first Russo book that I've ever read and I understand that he's a very popular author. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this book. The story is about Lincoln, Mich and Teddy. They met at a elite Eastern college in the late 60's and all worked serving food at a sorority and became best friends with Jacy Calloway, one of the sisters. Of course, they are all in love with her but she's engaged to a boy of her same social circle. In 1971 they all go to Martha's Vineyard before Mick has to leave to join the Army and go to Vietnam. During that weekend Jacy disappears. No one seems to have ever done any real investigation of her disappearance. It's 45 years later and for some odd reason they are getting back together at the house. They never kept in touch so I still don't know why any of them wanted to reconnect for a 3 day weekend out of the blue. They don't seem to have kept in touch at all in the intervening years. What follows is a bunch of rehashing the past and speculation about what happened to Jacy. I read this on vacation so I kept asking Chris, Ian and Dave if guys would behave in the way the men in this book behave. It just seemed weird. In fact I'd almost say that the book was written with female characters but the editor though it was time for a male soul-searching book and they just tansgendered every character. It wasn't a bad story but it was not quite right. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life By Walter Isaacson, Narrated By Nelson Runger Chris and I picked this book to listen to during our drive to and from Maine. It's over 24 hours long so it's a investment but worth every minute of it. I became an Isaacson fan with his Steve Jobs biography. He writes a great book and Franklin was no exception. Franklin has to be one of the most fascinating people in American history. You don't realize the vast influence he had over forming the new country until you get the entire story in one place. I loved every minute of this book. |
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
April 2024
|