 We had a lovely time at the river last week for Thanksgiving and I got to spend a lot of time with my favorite buddy, Ginger.  Every evening we had a beautiful sunset just like this one from the first night. This sight never grows old.  Anne and I had a little bit of craft time. I took some things to cut out for my second set of Christmas postcards (and didn't take any photos) and I decided to take crochet for my other projects. But I had to consider Ginger and her hair. I didn't want dog hair in Chris' blanket or any "solidish" project. So for my first project I tool this scrap blanket. Every time I finish a project I add the leftover yarn to this blanket. I figure that eventually I'll donate this as a pet blanket so a little Ginger hair wouldn't matter. I got aught up on my scrap yarns so this one is in a rest until I make more scraps.  I remembered this yarn and took it with me too. Ginger's hair would blend in perfectly. I bought this to try it out for a wheelchair shawl. It was on deep discount when I bought it and it came in a pack of 3. I did finish a shawl but it's blocking right now so I'll share it with all the pattern info in another post.  But here's the news flash. When I finished the shawl this is all the yarn that was left in one ball! I should have rushed out and purchased some lottery tickets!  Since coming home I've been working in the Christmas postcards and, in the evenings, Chris' blanket. I just started the 4th ball and there's a long way to go! It's about 55" wide and I have 7 more balls to go. This is going to be my winter project and I absolutely love it. The colors in the blanket are much more vibrant than the photo. The camera really washed it out.
Today we will start putting up Christmas decorations and this year that's going to take a lot less time without the beaded ornaments! 
 Lap Quilt by Gene Black
It's the last day of the Giving Thanks Giveaway and if you have been following me for a while you know that the last day of giveaways are my most treasured fabrics - my "waste fabrics". These are fabrics that I use as part of my gradient dyeing process. They are strips of muslin that are about 7" wide by full width of fabric. I never sell these and only share them during giveaway weeks. The quilt as left is one that Gene Black made with some waste fabrics that he won. They are my favorite fabrics to use in my own quilts and you can see them in Catena and The Big Green Quilt.
The image above is just a sampling of some of the fabrics that the winner will receive. Enter in the Raffllecopter box below. Newsletter subscribers and customers get multiple entries but everyone, including casual visitors, gets 1 entry. The drawing is open through November 29 and the winner will be announced November 30. 
Welcome to Day 5 of the Giving Thanks Giveaway! Yesterday I told you about my "dye end" fabrics. At the end of a dyeing session I will often have dyes left over and I don't like to waste them so I get 2 yards of fabric and pour on the dye. I get some beautiful fabrics from these and they all go straight into my own stash. But it's time to share some of them.
Today I have 1 2-yard piece in red/orange/gold and another 2-yard piece in brown/gold/purple. I'll tell you know that neither of these fabrics have even been ironed yet and that's likely the way that they will ship! I love the beautiful textures in both of these fabrics. Enter in the Raffllecopter box below. Newsletter subscribers and customers get multiple entries but everyone, including casual visitors, gets 1 entry. The drawing is open through November 29 and the winner will be announced November 30. 
Welcome to Day 4 of the Giving Thanks Giveaway! These fabrics (and tomorrow's) are what I call "dye ends". At the end of a dyeing session I will often have dyes left over and I don't like to waste them so I get 2 yards of fabric and pour on the dye. I get some beautiful fabrics from these and they all go straight into my own stash. But it's time to share some of them. I have 2 today and 2 for tomorrow.
Today I have 1 2-yard piece in a beautiful pale gray and another 2-yard piece in pale purple and pink. I could see both of these in the same quilt. Enter in the Raffllecopter box below. Newsletter subscribers and customers get multiple entries but everyone, including casual visitors, gets 1 entry. The drawing is open through November 29 and the winner will be announced November 30. 
Welcome to day 3 of the Giving Thanks Giveaway!
Sometimes when I dye Stars fabrics (1 yard cuts) the photographs of them just do not turn out right. It's especially tricky with greens and turquoise shades. I always intend to re-photograph them but I never seem to get around to it! These 4 fabrics are all 1 yard cuts that didn't photograph right for me. They are still beautiful colors, my camera simply didn't like them on that day. Now they can belong to one of you! Enter in the Raffllecopter box below. Newsletter subscribers and customers get multiple entries but everyone, including casual visitors, gets 1 entry. The drawing is open through November 29 and the winner will be announced November 30. 
Welcome to day 2 of the Giving Thanks Giveaway! Today's prize is one of my Crystal mandala panels that set aside for myself a few months ago. I envisioned some amazing quilting or applique in the center but I just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe one of you will! This mandala is about 42" square. Included with it is TWO yards of a coordinating Reflections fabric.
****If you checked in yesterday and saw a blank post, please go back and enter. For some reason the scheduled post posted blank but it's fixed now!**** Enter in the Raffllecopter box below. Newsletter subscribers and customers get multiple entries but everyone, including casual visitors, gets 1 entry. The drawing is open through November 29 and the winner will be announced November 30. 
Welcome to the first day of a week of giveaways! I'm calling it Giving Thanks in celebration of my favorite holiday, the American Thanksgiving. But I also want to recognize how thankful I am for all of you: my blog followers, customers and those of you who actually use my fabric in your creations! It's very humbling. This week I want to give back to 6 of you. I do these giveaways on a regular basis so if you don't win, don't worry there are always more giveaways in the future.
I'm staring off the week with a hand dyed scrap bag. I will stuff a Flat Rate envelope with as many scraps as I can. The fabric sizes vary from approximately charm square size to strips to fat quarter sized chunks. Enter in the Raffllecopter box below. Newsletter subscribers and customers get multiple entries but everyone, including casual visitors, gets 1 entry. The drawing is open through November 29 and the winner will be announced November 30.  Carrie's Land and Sea by Erica Prince, 20" x 30" Today's inspiration is brought to us from Erica Prince. She made this tapestry as a wedding gift for her Goddaughter. She and her partner love the "group of seven," Canadian landscape painters from the 1920's, especially A Y Jackson, so she browsed his paintings and came up with this design in the spirit of his style. Erica used Shibori and Stash Packs for the elements of her tapestry.
For sharing, Erica 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.  Yesterday was dyeing day. I got 5 gradients dyed, including 2 new ones and I had time to dye some socks and tshirts for gifts too. In the evening the serger and I got together and got our Christmas on.  I wanted to make Christmas pillowcases for Ella and her brother, Eli. They also have 2 cousins so I made 4 of each. I felt that I needed to make 2 designs so that they could alternate pillowcases with the laundry cycle and no one would have a meltdown if they didn't have a Christmas pillowcase for a day.
Mom is spending Thanksgiving with their family so I'll send these with her to deliver. Today Mom and I are running errands all day so the only thing I think I'll get done today is to get my stuff together for quilt club this weekend. Today I'm taking a few minutes to catch up on what's been going on with crochet and loom knitting. I don't have photos of hats that I'm working on. I just have a little project bag that I keep ready to go with yarn and hook to make chemo hats and they are coming along just fine.  My big finish is this blanket that I will donate to be a wheelchair blanket. It's about 29 x 38 and could also be a baby blanket but I decided to make this one a lap blanket for a nursing home or assisted living. It's a self striping yarn but I had an extra cake of the matching solid turquoise and I added it in the turquoise sections to give it more length. The annoying dark spots where the pink and turquoise meet are just the way that the yarn came off the cake. You don't really notice it or the awkward striping when it's in your lap.  The yarn is Caron Baby Cakes that I got on clearance in the Spring. I used 2 of the stripe cakes and about half of the solid turquoise. This is a very soft yarn and really nice to crochet with. I used an I (5.5 mm) hook and the Sedge Stitch. It's perfect for TV watching.  Since my hand has gotten better I haven't been loom knitting as much but I found out that the donation place wanted sleeves for dialysis patients. Well, a sleeve is a lot easier than a hat that required decrease. I started with 28 pegs and did 8 rows of 2x2 rib and then did the body in the Beehive Waffle Stitch and finished off with more ribbing. It's a fun stitch to do and very easy to keep up with. I've got a lot fo 5 and 6 weight yarn specifically for the loom so I'll get another sleeve started soon.  I have 2 projects that I'm started to crochet. One is a blanket made with this beautiful yarn. This is Cascade Cartwheel and it's the same yarn that I used in another wheelchair blanket earlier this year. I liked working with it so much that I bought a bunch of it on sale. I'm going to make a big blanket with this and it will likely be for Chris or gifted.  I had two patterns in mind so I did a messy swatch with one pattern on the bottom and a lacier pattern on the top. Chris preferred the bottom one. He doesn't like holes in his blankets. It's this blanket from BagODay.  I think I cast on 171 stitches and am using a J hook. It does go really fast. I really wanted to get this started because I think there's a possibility that I will need more yarn and I want to find that out soon before I can't get it anymore!  I'm also going to start this duster jacket. When the lighting is good I can work on this and when the lighting isn't so good I can work on the blanket.
I'm also considering starting another wheelchair shawl so that I can feel completely overwhelmed (normal) and feed my daily whims about what to work on. |
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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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