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From an image point of view, this has to be the most boring post ever. There's a lot of white space in this post but we'll move on and see if I can answer all the questions I received on last week's post about making your own fusible batting tape. I think that the pre-packaged batting tape it wonderfully convenient but also insanely expensive. Depending on the number of pieces of batting, you could quickly go through $10 worth of tape to make one new batting. That's still less expensive than a new batt but making your own costs half as much. One question was about the kind of fusible I buy. I get a knit fusible because they fuse at lower temperatures. You do not want to press your batting with a super high heat iron. When Joann has their interfacings on sale half off you can't go wrong with Pellon Easy Knit. Pellon also has Fusi-Knit and that works fine too. Get whatever is least expensive.  For this little demo I'm using black and white batting so you can easily see the two pieces of batting. I start by overlapping the two batting edges a bit. I need to get these edges so that they will butt together flush.  Cut through both layers where they overlap and you will have a nice clean edge to fuse. The cut doesn't have to be perfectly straight. It can be slightly wavy. Pull out the two trimmed edges and add those to the "pet bed stuffing" bag.  The batting strips don't need to be any wider than 1.5". Feel both sides of the interfacing. The bumpy side is the glue side. Those are glue beads. Put that side against the batting. You will do this wrong at least once and then you will get to clean your iron. I set my iron on the Poly Blend setting and I leave the steam on. These knit interfacings don't need high heat. A high heat iron will melt the interfacing and your poly blend batting and then you can clean your iron again. Use very little pressure. Just let the steam do the work. Hold the iron over a section for 5 - 10 seconds and then move to the next section. When you hold the fused piece up you will quickly see any sections that need to be touched up.  That's all there is to it!  When I'm working on a big piece I just do it in sections. I cut and fuse whatever fits on the ironing board and make sure that the part that's hanging over has some overlap. Then I just roll up the fused section and finish if off.  Fifteen minutes of work and I had a whole new (free) batting for 2 more veterans quilts!  I need all the free batting I can get because my closet is full of veterans quilts to be quilted!  Then there are 2 rail fence quilts that I started at sewing this weekend. I'll get the strips pressed and cut this month and will get these tops put together next month.
Before I get into today's post I just wanted to mention that I got a lot of questions about the fusible batting tape. I will be doing a longer post to answer all of those questions in a couple of days when I can pull some batting sample out to show just how I use it. I sort of feel like I didn't get much done this weekend but as I think back on it I was sure busy! Friday and Saturday were sewing days. I worked on one of my veterans quilt kits but, honestly, none of us got much done. We were distracted by preparations for a quilt exhibit coming up this week. Our county has a new museum and they had a couple of months that were unscheduled and they desperately needed something. Our sponsor at the Parks and Rec department suggested a quilt exhibit. Three of our members have done an amazing job with the coordinator to pull it together in about 2 weeks! That has to be some sort of record. We will get a preview of it Thursday and I'll try to get some photos.  I also spent a lot of time trying different configurations for the ornament storage. I think I have it all worked out but I had to pick everything up to do my fabric ironing yesterday. I'll get this all back out this afternoon (after my physical appointment). I've told myself that I can't buy any yarn or fabric or any other craft supply until the ornaments are delivered to my SIL.  It was also a football weekend so that means mostly crochet and this is why I'm cheering in the title of this post. The cheer outfit for Ella is done! These are to colors of her cheer outfit. I used this pattern.  I like that pattern because it has all the accessories including shoes! I'm sure I was reading her shoe pattern wrong because I couldn't get it to work but I found a shoe video tutorial on YouTube that I followed for the stitches and used the pattern for the color placement.  The pattern even includes a scrunchie and pompons! This small stuff is hard to crochet! I didn't do a perfect job of it but I think it will be good enough. Now I'm going back to blankets for a while! Blankets are much easier.
 Letting Go by Joanna Mack 24W x 34.5H This week's inspiration is this beautifully textured art quilt by Joanna Mack. You can read about the creation of this quilt on her blog. She combined Spoonflower printed fabric, her own hand dyes with Gray Skies and Blue Sky gradients.
For sharing, Joanna 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 don't have any good project photos for today. Yesterday was spent doing a lot of chores (laundry, washing out fabrics) and making soup. I did get 2 quilting repairs done on the postage stamp and I removed it from the zippers last night. I'll get it trimmed and start the binding process soon. So for today I have a little tip to share about batting scraps. When I quilt the veterans quilts there's always about a 10 - 15" piece left over at the end of the batting. I save those. If I put 8 or so of them together I get 2 more veterans quilts quilted for "free". But sewing the scraps together takes a lot of time. I like the idea of the fusible batting tape but I'd need 2 packages for one pieced batting. Even at the Joann sale price that would be over $10 for each large batting piece that I make. I saw that tape and realized that it was just fusible knit interfacing cut into strips.  Recently Joann had interfacing on sale and I was able to get a bolt (10 yards) of Easy Knit for less than $30, including shipping. That seemed like a good option.  I took the interfacing off the bolt and folded it up so that I could cut it in 10 yard strips. I got 12 strips out of that $30 bolt! That would be the equivalent of 12 packages at $5.59 (if I could get it that cheap) for a total of 67.08, before tax and shipping. Cutting the bolt saves over $37!
This would be a great thing for a group of friends to do together. Buy the bolt and share the cost. Because of the veterans quilts I'll go through this pretty quickly, otherwise I'd share with my friends. This is going to save me tons of time. Given how much I spend on my hobbies it's nice to legitimately save money from time to time. I don't consider buying stash fabric and yarn on sale as actually "saving money". It's sewing weekend with my quilt club so I'll be sewing veterans quilt tops this weekend. I'm not sure I'll get much else done. Yesterday was a very long day in the dye studio. I started at noon and didn't finish until after 8 but I got a lot done! Needless to say, I didn't do anything else yesterday. After I was done I looked at my crochet bags but settled on picking up a book....a real book, not an audio one. I finished my latest audiobook while I was dyeing. Today I thought I'd take a moment to catch up on what I've been doing in crochet this past week and some other things I want to do today.  The big blanket is moving along pretty quickly. That's the benefit of bulky yarn (Serenity Premier). I'm on the 5th ball of 10. It's as wide as I want so the rest will be straight up until I get it as long as I want. I'm happy to use this yearn but I'm learning that I don't love bulky yarn. It's really tough on my hands. But, it sure does crochet up fast!  I'm working on a few doll things for Ella. On the right is the top of a cheerleader outfit. The pattern has some shoes too but I couldn't get them to work out for me. So I went to Youtube and found the pattern for the boots. I'm going to alter the boot pattern to make the cheer shoes. I also need a skirt. The purse is for another outfit all together.  My third project is this blanket. It was intended to be a baby quilt but I don't love the colors for a baby quilt. If I use just the 2 cakes of the stripe it will be perfect baby quilt size but I can make it longer by using the matching pale teal to make those stripes much wider. With that it can be a wheelchair blanket. I'll can add more of the pale teal as a border. I do like trying to use all the yarn. I'm really being drawn to making the dialysis and wheelchair blankets. They are about the same size as a baby blanket but there are a ton more color options which makes them more interesting to make.  I plan to finish these blocks today. It should only take about an hour. Then I can start putting together that stack of walker caddies.  I went out Tuesday and got all the stuff I need for the ornament storage boxes so Ill start on these today too.
 The quilting is done on the postage stamp quilt! I took this photo yesterday evening so the lighting is crap. The point is that it's off the quilting frame! I have to inspect the back and make sure I don't need to make any repairs, but otherwise it's ready for binding!  Here's a sneak peep at the back where you can see the quilting texture. The fabric is much darker than it shows in the photo but you can see the miles of continuous curves that I've been working on.
That's all the news that I have for today. I did not get too terribly distracted this weekend and stayed focused on the postage stamp quilt. I'm getting so close now that I'm going to have to start thinking of a name.  Look, you can see the end! You can also see all the chalk that I drew all over this quilt. No worries, this one will get a good soaking when it's done. I made this before I knew how to handle bleeding fabric.  The yellow line marks the last row that I quilted. I thought I might finish it yesterday but football started so I had to come upstairs to watch games and iron.  I also made this hat yesterday. When we had lunch with my cousin recently she mentioned that she walks in the morning so I decided to make a hat for her. The pattern is a combination of a couple of BagODay patterns (Youtube). I'm including the basic pattern for myself. I don't expect anyone else to understand it. Starting with 12 DC in a magic ring or chain loop Round 2: 2 DC in ever stitch (24 DC) Round 3: 1 DC in 1st stitch, 2 DC in next stitch, repeat (36 sts) Round 4: 1 DC, 1 DC, 2DC (48 stis) Round 5: 1DC, 1DC, 1DC, 2DC (60 sts) Round 6: 1 DC in every stitch Round 7: 1SC, 1DC, alternating all around Round 8: 1 DC in the previous SC, 1SC in previous DC Repeat 7 & 8 for 9 rows Next round DC in every stitch FPDC, BPDC in alternating stitches for 2 rows to make a rib FBSC, BPSC in alternating stitches for the last row. The skein of yarn was 115 yards and I had only a few yards left over. Perfect. The hat fits me really well so I might make one for myself.  I know that this hat doesn't look particularly impressive in the first photo but look what happens when light hits it! My cousin walks in the morning when it's dark so I thought a hat made of reflective yarn would be cool to have. It's Lion Brand Basic Stitch Reflective. I don't think it's available anymore but I'm sure someone has a reflective yarn.
(Yes, there is a little spot at the top that doesn't have the reflective fiber around it. ) This week I will get the quilting on the postage stamp quilt done!  Hole In The Sky by Wendy Tuma, 14.5" x 26" Today's inspiration comes from Wendy Tuma. Hole In The Sky is her original design. The trees are raw edge applique, and the constellation is hand-stitched with floss. She used the blue end of On The Horizon gradient for her background.
For sharing, Wendy 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. |
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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
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