 But first, a couple of photos from Thanksgiving. The day started off a little rainy and overcast but by the time the mashed potatoes were underway this is the view we were blessed with. It was a lovely day on the Rappahannock River. We always do Thanksgiving as a small group so, for once this year, there was no change for us. As usual we had too much food for too few people! Absolutely perfect.  It's possible that Ginger even got more treats than she was supposed to have. But don't tell anyone that. Sometimes I get in trouble. But she always seems so hungry and does pitiful to perfection.  My one goal of the trip was to get Dale and Chris to hold the quilt up for me to get a full front photo. I didn't have any place where I could do it here. It was a little breezy but we got it done and now Kim's Garden is officially finished! I will now wash it and make the label and get that done soon because I know that Kim is waiting for it.
You can read all about the history and making of this quilt here. Well, here it is off the frame and spread over a queen size bed.  It's really, really big! I'm please with the way it looks on the bed. Kim says that if it's too big for her bed she will buy a new bed. She would actually do that. At this point the zippers are still attached in case I need to do any repairs.  Inspecting the stitching on the back was not easy! I liked this backing when I bought it but I didn't like it much yesterday.  So far the only thing I've discovered is this little pleat which will stay exactly where it is. I don't think I'd ever be able to find it again! Next I'll trim it and start the binding. I'll hand stitch the binding so that might take MONTHS.  Next up for quilting is something simple. This is a quilt that Mom made to give someone who works in her apartment building. It's going to get an easy pantograph. After that I have over 14 veterans quilt tops needing quilting!  Don't forget to check in every day next week for daily giveaways!
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. When I had my big day of post-mulching rest last Thursday I discovered the British Bake Off show on Netflix. That turned into a weekend of binge watching. I don't know why I like that show so much because I can't eat one thing that they make but, for some reason, it's much more fun to watch than the US versions with all of their fake drama.  But the time wasn't a total waste. I finished off a new set of flower applique blocks. I've done so many of these that they go pretty quickly now. I've finished 40 and have 16 left to make.  I often recognize some of the fabrics from reprints that I've seem (or collected) over the years. I'm sure I had a repro of that blue one with the circles on it. I showed this one to Mom and we both think that her Mom had a dress made from this fabric. She made lots of dresses from floral prints just like this one.  I also got the repairs done on Lost My Marbles and decided to quilt a few veterans quilts before I load another quilt from my waiting list. I might get started on these today.
My transition back into a normal schedule is going slowly but that's all OK because it's delayed because we have guests. We had some of Chris' high school friends here last night as they all prepared for a big fishing trip today. Instead of sewing I made brownies and helped Chris get dinner prepared. We had a fun evening telling stories and reminiscing.  I did squeak in a bit of hand sewing so I could finish off this set of moons. Each moon takes about an hour and a half to stitch.  I love all of them but this is my particular favorite of this batch. I love the orange with the black. if I counted right in the last post I now have 41 done and 31 prepared and ready for stitching. Now I'll switch back to the vintage flower blocks for a bit. I probably won't post tomorrow because our guests will still be here but maybe I'll have something to share by Friday.
 I finished up another set of 4 of these flower blocks. I might be watching too much TV but at least I get a little something done.  Because I bought these blocks from the Virginia Quilt Museum I refer to the person who made these as "Virginia". I love studying every block to see how Virginia cut them out. Just look at the tips of each petal in this flower and you can see that the gingham check is centered perfectly on each petal. Virginia and I could have been related!  Here are the 36 completed blocks. I have 18 more to do. The current plan is plain half blocks for the border so the finished size will be about 70 x 90. Unless I decide to do something on borders and let's hope that I don't do that.
It's good to have friends who actually pay attention to interesting things happening. It's only because of my friend, Mitzi, that I knew anything about Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors. Thanks to her, a group of us were able to go to Atlanta this weekend to see the last day of the exhibit. I had not been to Atlanta in years so it was nice to visit again. Super Bowl preparations were going on everywhere but we spent our time at the museum, SCAD FASH, the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coke. It was fun to do touristy things for a change. The Cinematic Couture exhibit at SCAD FASH was excellent and I loved the shark whales and sea lions at the aquarium. Then it got cold and we came home to even more cold!  I didn't do much stitching on the trip but here are another set of 4 vintage flower blocks that I finished recently.  Here are the blue blossoms all together . It seems like a lot but I"m not even close to being done! I'm hoping for a very productive week. I don't have a lot of outside activities this week and should be able to focus on my projects while the kitchen work continues.
I got my Indonesian Batik trees fused last night so I'm ready to start quilting. I cut tons of circles in 5 different sizes. I also decided to cut out the tree trunks instead of painting them. Why did I choose an applique tree over a stenciled tree? It was cold in the basement and I didn't want to go down there to play with paint. I could cut out tree trunks from the comfort of my recliner while watching a football game. That's it, that's how I made that design decision. So these photos show how I built the tree starting with the biggest circles to the smallest. Hopefully I'll get to start quilting this evening.      Fuse it!
Next! I'll look at them again today before I load them on the longarm to see if I need to add more to any of them. I'm determined to do some fast quilting on these.  Five football games watched.....four flowers finished! I'm getting pretty darned fast with these.
 The great thing about having a lot of projects going is that you can usually work on something no matter your mood. My mood the past week has been pretty darned lazy. I had a long to-do list this weekend which really meany Sunday because I was gone all day Saturday. We didn't get home from the game in Blacksburg (that we lost) until after midnight so I was lethargic yesterday. It was a perfect day to sit in the recliner (after exercising in the morning), watch football and stitch. By the end of the Patriots-Packers game last night I had finished the last of this set of flowers. The little bright centers really make a huge difference. I didn't like that block in the lower left corner until I added the center. Now it's perfectly cute, just like all the others.  Here are the 20 that are done already. I really love the effect of the alternating pink and yellow blocks. Given my total disdain of all things pink, this is a miracle. I have 38 blocks left to make so I don't have to even think about setting and quilting for at least a year.
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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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