We had our quilt club meeting Tuesday night and I sped through Tuesday to get 2 more veterans quilts done so I could deliver them back to the quilt maker, Sharon, at the meeting. This pattern has a couple of names but I know it as chandelier. She actually made 4 quilts in this pattern and they are all beautiful. The other 2 are next up on the longarm, hopefully today. This is the Dwirling pattern that I learned from The Pajama Quilter. When I first got my longarm years ago I found her beginner quilting videos and learned lots of fun easy quilting patterns. I'm sure someone else had a tutorial for this type of quilting. It's fun and fast. I brought home a lot of new tops to quilt and have 14 more ready for quilting! I better get busy!
I had a little backlog of veterans quilts while I was quilting Red Sunset. I decided to focus on them and get as many done as I could before our meeting last night. Here are the first 4 for 2024. This one was pieced by Clara. She's been a top-making machine lately! There's such a huge need and we will never keep up with the need at the VA hospital. But every quilt helps! This looks like a "Betsy quilt" so I'm assuming that she made it. This one and the next one, both, came from Estelle. I believe that one of these was an unquilted top that was in a donation bag and I think she made one. This one is super soft flannel. Someone is going to love it. All of these are quilted with this fan motif. I needed to quilt them fast and this is one of my fastest pantographs.
There are still more left to do! When I finish Red Sunset, hopefully on Friday, I will need to get busy on a bunch of veterans quilts. I have 9 here ready for quilting and I know I'll get mre Tuesday at the meeting. Yesterday I didn't have time between some schedule chores and meetings to do my regular dyeing but I could do some things to get ready for starting quilting veterans quilts this weekend. I cut a roll of batting and we are not stocked to quilt 30 more quilts. After we get through these I will need to order more. I get out batting and backing fabric from Marshall Dry Goods. They have great deals on bulk purchases. I cut the last bolt of blue fabric to add to the existing small stash of quilt backs. As you would expect, we use a lot of blue and tan so I buy about have of the backing fabric in tan and blue. I buy the rest in white so I can dye other colors to match up with quilts. I use quite a lot of dyed gray and gold and some grayer blues. I needed some orange backs for some of the current quilts so I dyed the whole last bolt of white. This is enough for 15 more quilts.
Today my friend is taking me shopping to help me find a new funeral/wedding outfit. What I have now is over 10 years old. She pre-shopped Tuesday so I'm hoping it won't be too painful. I hate shopping more than anything. Hopefully, I'll have time to do some quilting on Red Sunset to recover from shopping. We have friends who spend every winter in Tucson and they have been raving about the place for years. I'm not a huge desert landscape fan but this year we were ready to escape the Virginia winter and go anywhere warm. It was time to give Tucson a try and boy was it worth it! The Sonoran Desert is spectacular and it's particularly spectacular in this region where they actually get some regular rain. I am now totally fascinated by the saguaro cactus and I really love that we don't know a lot about them. Supposedly, if they have arms they are over 100 years old, but they don't know for sure. There are no tree rings to count. Before I get into the vacation week I want to tell you about my two celebrity sightings! The first was when we left Richmond on a 6am flight. We were standing in the Delta check in line and we saw a man and woman get in the Sky Priority line. The man looked like an aging rapper and I didn't recognize him at first but as soon as I heard his voice I knew it was David Bromstad from HGTVs My Lottery Dream Home. No one bothered him and he seemed as nice as he is on TV. I assume he was in Richmond filming. The next one was at Tanque Verde Ranch. We went horseback riding one evening and our friends were showing us around the ranch before our ride. I was surprised to see that there was some sort of quilting event going on there. As we walked through one area there were 2 men sitting at table talking with some of the quilters. It was Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably! I had not paid to be at the conference so I didn't feel it was appropriate to speak to them but I thought it was funny since I had just finished the blue quilt top that was from one of his books. In case you are interested, the retreat was sponsored my Madeline Island School or the Arts. They have retreats in Arizona, Minnesota and Maine. Back to the trip. We had 4 absolutely fabulous sunny days with temperatures in the upper 70's and we took full advantage hiking every day. There are so many hiking opportunities in that area. We hiked in the Ventana Canyon, Sabino Canyon and East and West Saguaro National Park. This photo was in Ventana Canyon. That was out longest hike of about 6 miles, straight up and straight down. It was a great workout. The last 2 days were cooler but still lovely and a nice break from gray Virginia. Today, though, Virginia is bright and sunny and almost 60. We went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and got to see the raptor show. There's a hummingbird exhibit there too but we saw more hummingbirds at our friend's condo than we saw in the Museum enclosure. I expect that we were there at the wrong time of day. At the Tanque Verde Ranch we went horseback riding. I haven't been on a horse since I was about 9 at 4H camp so I was a little unsure. I had a chat with Cimarron beforehand to explain that the ride was all on him and that I was just going to focus on not falling off. Laurie had Elvis and he was a little more of a handful so I was grateful for Cimarron. He's very comfortable leading ignormat riders around. It was a beautiful ride and I got over my apprehension very quickly. By the end I was hardly paying attention to the horse and just enjoying the great views. That was the day we saw Kaffe Fassett. During the down times we played a lot of tug with our new friend, Jammer. Jammer is an incredibly well-behaved dog. She doesn't beg or counter surf but we learned that she apparently has a jones for ear plugs. I sleep with earplugs and I put them on a little tray by the bed in the mornings. One night I noticed one missing but didn't think anything of it. I assumed it got accidentally thrown out, but just in case, I tried to keep the bedroom door closed. I opened a new pack and then I had 3 earplugs on the tray until the day we came home and all three were gone. I had accidentally left the door open. Then we were pretty sure that Jammer had developed an addiction. I was worried that it would cause her trouble. Bill and Laurie were not. Sure enough, over the next 2 days were were relieved by reports of fluorescent orange poo pellets. While we were there we also visited Biosphere 2. I didn't get any photos, the weather was awful and, frankly, I didn't think about it. The whole Biosphere 2 experiment fascinated me when it was going on and when it all collapsed so I was excited to actually see the place. If you are interested, the Wikipedia article on it is pretty darned entertaining. Today it's owned and managed by the University of Arizona and there's one significant experiment going on there, Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) where they are studying how volcanic rock evolves into fertile soil. All of other experiments referenced in the tour seemed to be halted. You can actually download the Biosphere app and take the tour virtually. What struck me the most about it was the size. It's not nearly as big as I expected and the idea of putting something like a dozen different plant and natural ecosystems inside, in essence, 3 buildings seems ill-advised in hindsight. Of course, we know it didn't really work but I'm sure there were good lessons learned for science anyway. The tour really glosses over the Biosphere experience for the residents and doesn't actually reference any real research that they were doing while living there. I think they were having enough trouble surviving and producing food. It was worth the trip though. I've always wanted to see it. The drive around Oracle was beautiful and we stopped by Catalina State Park. We would like to hike that area someday too. I did get to visit a local quilt shop and a yarn shop. I bought some cactus-themed fabric to make some memento placemats. I forgot to photograph the fabric but I'll get it later this week. During the flights and little down time, I worked on chemo hats. Hats are the perfect travel project and I finished the 4 chemo hats on the front. The dark blue one is a hat I finished a couple of weeks ago when I was at a doctor visit with Mom. All of these are made with a really soft polyester yarn, Feels Like Butta by Lion Brand and whatever the Hobby Lobby equivalent is.
It's good to be back home and to have humidity again! I've never been so constantly thirsty and dry but we really enjoyed it and are looking forward to going back. You can't beat a weekend that's mostly about making and that's exactly what I had this weekend. It kicked off Friday with 2 days of sewing with my quilt club, Country School Quilters. I generally work on veterans quilts there and I took a new kit from the 14 that I cut out over a year ago. This one, as it turned out, has 2 quilts in it. One had a blue background and one has a tan background. I started with the blue one and I got all of the blocks together by the time we left Saturday. I brought it home to lay out the blocks on the design wall and I have everything organized and ready to sew together when I go back in March. I found a medium blue in my stash for the border. I had cut another fabric for the border but decided that I didn't like it. I'll use that fabric the next time I cut a bunch of veterans quilt kits. I only have one left so cutting sessions will have to happen pretty soon. On the quilting front, I finished all the stitch-in-the-ditch for the bottom half of the quilt and I'm working from the middle to the top now. It's going really well but I still don't have a plan for the rest of the quilting. One of the things that's made the SID go fast is that I can do it all with just one ruler. I'm not searching all over the quilt top for a variety of curved and straight rulers. This one has several curves and a straight edge so I've done every inch of it with this Lily Lines ruler from Bethanne Nemesh. During the football games I've been crocheting. I got started on a summer sweater. This is one that will be blocked so don't worry about the wonkiness. I think it's going to come together pretty quickly too. But this week I'm going to focus on getting this one done. It's for Chris's friend and there's a good chance that Chris will see him next weekend. I have a ball and a half left so there is a good chance that I can get it done.
So this week will be about this blanket, the Red Sunset quilt and the blue bow tie blocks. It's going to be cold so it will be good to stay inside. Monday I needed to do some fabric ironing but I decided that I wanted to sew first. My next project was to empty 3 bags of batting scraps into pet beds. Once I started sewing I didn't want to stop so I spent the day (between laundry, stacking wood and vacation planning) making 6 pet beds to give to my friend for Richmond Animal League. Everything for these is free! Periodically someone donates fabric to our quilt club and once or twice a year I can get some free decorator fabric that's perfect for these pet beds. I have a stack of pre-cut pieces that will last me at least 2 years. It makes some pretty pet beds and all of this is kept from the landfill for a little longer. The stuffing is the trimmed batting from the veterans and my own quilts. I think I only made 7 all of last year so this is a good start to 2024. I did my ironing yesterday. I also cleaned the sewing machine, changed the needle and set up to resume the blue bow tie quilt. I can work on that today after I finish my dyeing session. January is starting off pretty good! I do have one more charity sewing project that I want to do and that's seatbelt port pillows. I have a pretty good stash of fiberfill that I've been saving for that. But I would like to get this quilt top together first.
I decided that I needed to get the serger put away to clear some space so that meant that I had to get the drain bag project completed....and I did! Here's 60 more bags, for a total of 102, ready to donate. Here's how I make them. The reason that all the ones I made are either gray or black prints is because the ribbon colors I had were gray and black. Plus, I like to make sure that they aren't too feminine. I know a lot of them go to women getting mastectomies but men need them too. Here's all 102 of them packed up and ready to be delivered soon. After they were done I cleaned the serger and my two sewing machine so I'm ready for something else. Next up will be pet beds to clear out the 3 bags of batting scraps stuffed under my cutting table. Those will not take as long! Then I'll be back on the blue quilt. The other thing I did the weekend, aside from watching the Eagles collapse, was to swatch up samples for 2 possible summer cardigans. I swatched them in the yarn I plan to use. The cream colored one is The Zahora Cardigan. The instructions are well written but I didn't enjoy the stitch so I won't be making that one. I'll pick something else for that yarn. The darker yarn is for the The Summer Fling Cardi. I swatched this one about 4 times because I just couldn't get it to work. Then I looked up the stitch in my stitch dictionary and was able to follow the chart. The stitch calls for chains of 6 3 stitches but I decided that I liked 4 chains over 2 stitches better. That's what's in this swatch and I'll so my sweater this way. It will be a nice little "jacket" to wear over tank tops if I finish it by summer.
This week will be about pet beds and maybe some quilting. I haven't gotten a lot accomplished the past few days because my brother bought my Mom a very cool Christmas gift. I had intended to buy Mom an electronic photo frame for her birthday this year but my brother beat me to it. Saved me some money! All I had to do was load some photos. Being the only girl (with 3 brothers) you can guess that I'm the one with the photo collections. I spent some time each day going through loads of old photos and scanning them into the Aura app for her frame. It's a cool app and it's pretty easy and quick to load a couple hundred photos. Chris and I had fun looking back at some of the old photos. In between I did have some sewing sessions and finished the first batch of the surgery drain bags for donation to From The Heart. I batched them by thread color. I finished all of the ones that required gray thread. This is 42 finished bags! I treaded the serger and sewing machine with black thread and started on the bigger batch. I got all of the first seams done on this group of 59 or 60 bags. Next I'll add the loops and hem the top edge.
I'm trying to work on them an hour or two every day because I also really need to make some pet beds to get rid of 3 bags of batting scraps. Here are my last finishes for 2023 and it's appropriate that they are veterans quilts. These two quilts bring my number of veterans quilts quilted to 41. Add ot that the 15 that I made and it was a very good year. These were clearly my priority for the year and I expect that to continue in 2024. I love quilting and making these important quilts. This quilt was made by Glenda (Mom). She thinks that she going to use up all of the strings in her stash. I think it's a Sisyphean task but it's a very worthy goal. I quilted this one with free form "straight" lines going back and forth across the quilt. I quilted this one with Superior Rainbow's thread and I didn't have one thread break. Then I quilted the next one. This one was made by Peg. I changed to SoFine thread and it gave me fits when moving right to left. I think it might have something to do with the thinness of the thread. But I solved the problem, for now, by only moving left to right. Someone gifted her this traditional African fabric and I think she said she has enough to make a second quilt. I also free-motion quilted on this quilt and, even with the problems, it went pretty quickly. I love how the quilting pattern looks on the back! In other news I took the Sashiko machine to the repair store today. One of the ladies looked at it quickly while I was there and got it un-jammed. More importantly, she showed me how to do it. I wasn't sure if it still needed servicing so she set it up to do some test stitching. She eventually got the technician involved for about 10 minutes and I left with a working machine! The store was All-Brands in Richmond and both ladies were super nice. Unfortunately, they only work on Babylock so I wouldn't be able to take any of my other machines there. But I'm looking forward to playing with this some more.
I had a good day yesterday getting back into my normal groove. I started the day by cutting out a big stack of fabrics for surgery drain bags. I think I have enough for about 100. I also got the grosgrain ribbon cut for the straps. I got started with the stitching but I don't know if I'll get these finished this week or if they will be an early finish for 2024. The serger makes this job go very quickly and using grosgrain ribbon for the straps speeds it up even more. I also got the last 2 veterans quilts of 2023 loaded and I expect to get them finished today or tomorrow. I'm having some thread breakage problems so I walked away yesterday and will try again this evening. The other project that I've been steading working on is my purple sweater. I got the back seamed, one sleeve finished and I'm almost done with the other sleeve. This is intended to be a short sweater. All I'm adding to the bottom is a few inches of ribbing. Then I will just need to do the front edge. The end is in sight.
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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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April 2024
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