 Well, I did finish the last batch of potholders and I promise that I will not be making more when I get home in September. These are the last 13. I use my own pattern that you can find here. My brother said that he hoped that I had enough for him to have a few. LOL!  I gave 3 away before I started these and there are 60 in these stacks so I've made a total of 63. That's just crazy but it was fun. They are a perfect project for when you aren't in the mood for a big project and they use quite a bit of fabric.
I'm all set for Christmas gifts. We leave for our trip tomorrow and it's a 2 day drive. On Friday we will take a detour a few miles in Massachusetts to visit the New England Quilt Museum to see an exhibit of Paula Nadelstern quilts. I'll post again this weekend and try to share some photos from the exhibit. I will be posting on vacation as I work on the farm quilt.
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 This weekend I started thinking about packing for vacation and the first task was to make some more lotion bars. I knew I needed one or 2 for the trip and I was totally out. I used this really easy recipe. Lotion is so easy and inexpensive to make that I never buy it anymore. This took maybe 30 minutes if you include the clean up.  Well, while I was there I figured I might as well make another batch of cream lotion. My lotion doesn't have preservatives so I store it in the refrigerator until I need it. It lasts months in the fridge and it probably costs a couple of dollars for 5 bottles. I was going to move onto something else at that point but I assessed my soap and lotion supplies and realized that I needed to use some oils before they went rancid.  Might as well spend the day in the basement and make some soap. I made 2 big batches and used up all of the most temperamental oils. I usually do 3 batches but 2 was plenty for now. These will be removed from the molds today and then set on a shelf to cure for 6 - 8 weeks. That finished off Saturday. On Sunday I did the routine bug spraying at home and at Mom's and then we visited my brother.  I finally started doing a little packing for the trip and one of my priorities is my chocolate stash for the month.
Over the next two days I'll finish up the potholders (for good) and share the last 2 veterans quilts. We leave Thursday morning.  Yesterday I jumped in to screen the tea towel gifts. I centered the design by marking the towels with lines using washable markers. I matched them up to marks that I put in the sides of the screen frame. You can see that I didn't apply the design centered on the frame. I'll see how well I did in a couple of days.  I dyed the 4 tea towels along with some shirts.  I planned to finish quilting both veterans quilts but I only got through one. I overdid it with my weights in my morning exercise and my shoulder wasn't interested in quilting very long. I'll finish this today.  There was plenty of time left for the last 6 potholders! I think these are my favorites. This give me a total of 47 but I'm thinking of making a few more. I have some time before we leave for vacation and I don't really want to start anything else. It doesn't matter how many I make, it's always good to have a gift stash.  I looked out the front door before dinner and saw that two of the deer have made themselves very comfortable in the front yard.
Today I'll wash out the dyed things, finish the second veterans quilt and maybe plan some tea towels to take to Maine as gifts.  Yesterday I got all of my energy back and was ready to get on with chores and projects. I started the day with laundry and that reminded me that we needed to clear the dryer vent tube. In our house the dryer is almost in the middle of the house and the tube has a couple of angles in it. Periodically we have to disconnect it and blow it out with the leaf blower. It's kind of fun. But this time we discovered the dryer itself was blocked. We unplugged it, pulled it out, removed two back panels and removed a phenomenal amount of lint! I think I could have jam packed a quart jar full of lint. It was a big mess but the dryer works much better now and it didn't cost any money. We've had some expenses pile up lately with a new water heater, new TV and new vacuum cleaner so I really didn't want to buy a new dryer. I was happy to get back to the potholders and I finished these 8. I have 41 finished and 6 more cut out but I could see myself making more. They are just a good project for my current mindspace and I'm using up a good bit of fabric. For the lining and pockets I can use some fabrics that really aren't great for any other projects.  I did do some other things too. I had 2 veterans quilts ready for quilting so I got them loaded.  I got the bobbins wound, tension set and a couple of rows quilted. I'll be back on this today.  Then just before dinner I got an idea for a gift. We're visiting some friends in Beaufort, SC in September and she refers to the place as Skeeter Haven. I decided that I could screen print some tea towels for them (her). I'm going to work on these today too. I think I'm going to use Dye Magnet so I can print before I dye and the image will come out during the dye process.
The Cricut is so much fun for this kind of project. It took me just a few minutes to find that cute mosquito in the library and then add the text. I don't have to go anywhere so I should be able to get on with all of my projects.  Yesterday was a total recovery day. I was tired! It was a good day to just hang out in my quiet sewing room. I had started these potholders (4 of each fabric) last week and I finished them off yesterday. The ditsy flower print is fabric left over from a quilt back. The other is a sunprint that I created specifically for potholders.  This stencil and the chalk pad have really helped. I could quilt these with any variety of "patterns" but the straight lines are easiest....and they are potholder, afterall.  The chalk lines don't rub off easily but they will as people use them.  I got 8 more quilted and pinned and ready to stitch around.
Today I think I'll try to load a couple of veterans quilts. I don't have many to be quilted but I want to get them done before we leave for Maine.  Yesterday I didn't get a lot of sewing done. I had chores and hat to get some x-rays and our friends got their house sale activities done so we actually got to spent some time with them. But after dinner I got 10 more potholders done. I'm over half done with them! I really love these made with the Paula Nadelstern mandalas.
Today I'll be getting ready for Ella's craft camp that starts tomorrow!  I didn't get a ton done yesterday. I had an appointment in the morning and visited a friend in the afternoon. In between I got 10 more potholder kits cut out. the ones made from the mandala fabrics are going to be really cool. I'll cut out some more before I start to do some sewing.  I was thinking about things while I was cutting and I had an epiphany. I've always marked the potholder quilting lines with a ruler and chalk wheel. Then I remembered that I had a set of stencils that would allow me to mark them a lot faster. This is really going to speed up construction.  It's full summer here so I thought it would be fun to do some ice dyeing this weekend. After my appointment I stopped by Walmart to pick up some tshirts to dye and Friday I'll fold some fabrics. One thing I want to dye is quilt back for the houses quilt. I think this will make for a fun weekend.
 I've decided that my friends Christmas gift this year will be potholders. I haven't made them in a while and I have a new HUGE supply of Insulbrite. I really just started making these 4 for my friend. This is my own pattern that you can find here.  Then I looked over to the cutting table and, since I had everything out, I thought I might as well start on Christmas gifts. It will be a great project to work on between now and our trip in August. I don't want to start a quilt and I could come back for vacation with half of my Christmas tasks done.  I've got a lot of Insulbrite cut and this many potholder kits cut out. There are lots more kits to cut and all of the cotton batting.  These are the ones I'm working on now. I think I'll cut straight for a few days and then get going on the sewing. I'm trying to make a wide variety and am taking some fabrics from each of my little (or big) stashes. It's fun to make these little projects. I'm trying to channel my inner Patty and her massive tote-making binge.
 Well, this week I am. This is my brother's logo. In case you are confused about his business, he makes axes and knives. He said a few months ago that he looked into getting some shirts printed with the logo but he was a little shocked by the price. He has a BIG birthday coming up Saturday and I thought it would be a good idea to try to screen print some shirts for him. Little did I know what a huge project it was going to be! MY SIL and niece have a Cricut machine so if I could get the logo file they agreed to cut it in vinyl for me. When I emailed him to get the logo I figured out that he would know why. Fortunately, he had food poisoning that week and wasn't alert enough to figure it out.  For screen printing, the image has to be cut in reverse and this particular one is a total pain to weed and transfer. The tiny triangles in the "A"s and the holes of the "B" helped me practice my profanity vocabulary. I'm trying to learn Spanish and I should have looked up some Spanish profanity for this project to learn new words. I actually weeded 2 of these because I used the first one to practice.  Transferring to the screen is no picnic either. After it's on the screen, you cover the rest of the screen in painter's tape.
My first practice pieces were in black ink on different fabrics. I wanted to see how many prints I can do with one screen and the answer is lots. Here's where I also learned that my ink is old and needed to be thinned out pretty substantially. A close inspection of my practice pieces show that there are some coverage inconsistencies and smudges. It was clear that practicing was needed. Then I decided to start on the shirts. I frequently dye shirts for him. Nothing fancy, he just likes some hand dyed texture in dullish colors. I got a pack of tshirts and dyed all 6 of them. I printed 3 of them and hated how they were looking so I washed out all of the ink, re-washed the shirts and started again.  My problem with the first printing was my print surface. I was using this little ironing board and the cover was too loose and gave me an uneven surface. I got my staple gun out and stapled the cover tight and that solved my problem. I never use this as an ironing board so now I have a new print board!  Because his business is a steel-based business, I wanted the color to be gray. Here are the finished shirts with the logo on the back. The funny thing is that he pulled the shirts out and looked at the front of them and was commenting on the colors. Chris finally told him to check out the back. I think he loved them.  While I was weeding the design, I took the waste piece with his initials and put that on another screen and printed this for his birthday postcard. I was so stressed getting the shirts done last weekend that I forgot to write a birthday note or sign the card! He can hang it in his shop somewhere to remind him how cool I am.
One thing that came out of this project is the recognition that I need a Cricut machine too. I might be getting into that later this summer.  I've had these placemats ready for binding for about 3 weeks. I just didn't have binding fabric. I rectified that last week by dyeing a purple that is a reasonable match. These fabrics are leftover from a veterans quilt (in this post) that was made from scraps that I cut into 4.5" squares. I had leftover from that quilt and I couldn't toss the out. That means placemats! I will most likely use them as 2 sets of 2 and I found some napkins in my dyed collection that work with each set.  They are quilted with all-over leaves.  They aren't my favorite placemats but they will be serviceable and I can always use the back side as the front.
I already have an idea for another set that I absolutely do not need. But this weekend I need to focus on getting 2 veterans quilts quilted. |
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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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