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.
Yesterday was "dyeing day" so not much else happened until the evening. 5 of these bins are beach towels for gifts and that's the last of my Christmas making, except for one batch of cookies. I also dyed a backing for one of my own quilts. I finished the quilt top in 2022 and I need to get it quilted in 2024. I finally got my hexie cardigan back out and I'm determined to finish it soon. I've gotten the sleeve sean sewn. That took a lot longer to dread doing than the actual doing. Next I'll widen and seam the back. Then my brother called and decided that I needed to go blind and he's going to accomplish that by make me crochet a black hat for him. I'm appreciating a very bright light right now!
Today is a big day of visiting with friends so I don't expect to have anything to share tomorrow unless it's another crochet update. This weekend Chris and I will have "Christmas dinner" on Saturday but, otherwise, I should be able to get some things accomplished between watching football games. I had some plans but those plans had to be changed. I was going to quilt 2 more veterans quilts but I needed to exchange the 2 I was going to do with Brenda, the other quilter, so quilting didn't happen. Then I decided to sit down with the Sashiko machine. I got a bobbin wound and, after 4 tries, got it loaded properly. (There's a specific set of steps to get the machine set to sew). Then I decided that I'd do some stitching on postcards since I need to get a birthday card out this week. Look how cool those stitches were looking? Then there was a loud, unnatural noise and now the machine is stuck. I can't even turn the wheel to bring the hook up and release teh card. I'll be taking the machine to the shop this week for repair. Anne knows all about it and isn't worked up by it at all. She told me to leave it until she gets back but I had plans of things I wanted to make! Instead of my original plans, I switched to crochet and finished this shawl. I was waiting for this finish before I take a bunch of items to From The Heart later this week. The yarn is Mandala Ombre that I got on a big sale. I have enough in other colorways to make about 3 more shawls. I even got the leftover yarn added to my scrappy blanket. I hate scrap yarn so I go ahead and add it to a scrappy blanket to use it all up. This will be either a wheelchair blanket or a pet blanket. I'll donate it and let the organization decide where it's needed....once I finish it. I have one of these for each yarn weight (4, 5 and 6) and add whatever I'm working on to the appropriate blanket after every project. There was a lot of football this weekend so lots of good crocheting time and I also made some progress on the last of the big blankets. This one is for Chris' best friend and I'm about half done.
I also started some new birthday cards because my SIL has a birthday this Friday. I'll have those done to share tomorrow. Kim and I had a great week at the river with Anne and Weesie. We all made a lot of progress on our projects and I think we wore Weesie out. Anne said she slept the whole day after I left. One of the projects that I worked on was this crochet cape. I finished it Sunday while I was watching football and I started another one. From The Heart put out a call for wheelchair capes. I had one already finished, this one is the second and I'll try to get one more finished before I deliver in a couple of weeks. This cape works up really quick. This is a "pattern" that I made from combining some other patterns and the directions are here. The yarn is Lion Brand Mandala Ombre and I think it makes a pretty cape. I accomplished all of the stitching on the postcards that I could while at the river and I did some of the finishing this weekend. I had to stitch the berries at home because I didn't take any red metallic threads with me. The color I used here is kind of a copper color. I wish I had used a more textured background with these but it's too late for that! This is the stitching that I got done on the other two designs. The trees will get some crystal but I'll add those after I stitch the edges. I got the birds outlined and the ribbon added. Yesterday my birds got painted eyes and what a difference that makes! Now I'm ready to fuse the backs and serge the edges. The end is in sight! I also brought home a little toy to play with for the next few months. Anne bought this Sashiko machine secondhand in the Spring. She will be out of town for a few months so she let me bring it home to play with until she returns. It's a really interesting machine. There's no top thread, only a bobbin. It may look like a sewing machine but it doesn't work like one at all. This is what the stitching looks like. You can adjust the size of the stitches and spaces separately. I'm not allowing myself to play with it until the Christmas postcards are all in the mail.
This week I will get the cards finished and I want to get 4 veterans quilts quilted. The past couple of months I was totally focused on the baby blankets and hats for my niece and baby. It got me off my normal crochet habits but now it's time to get back to my routine. I like having 3 different projects going at a time so I can alternate each day. The first project is the big blanket. This is the last of the "dude" blankets and this one is for a friend of Chris'. I'm on my 3rd ball and have 4 left to go. This is perfect for watching football because I can almost do it blind. It might be done by the end of December. I like to have at least one donation project going and this is another wheelchair shawl. I'm using this pattern. I'm going to make a delivery to From The Heart in a couple of weeks and I feel like I can get this done before that. The third project is a cardigan that I started for myself months ago and it has languished while I worked on the baby things. It's sweater season and it's time that I get this wrapped up! Today, Chris will make my Thanksgiving dinner (because I can't eat the foods that everyone else eats due to my allergies) and we will go to my brother's tomorrow to celebrate with family and friends. I'll be doing some dyeing this morning and I might get the next 2 veterans quilts loaded and read for quilting this weekend. I'll not post tomorrow but will be back Friday with whatever bit of anything that I might accomplish.
If you are in the US, I wish you a lovely Thanksgiving. It was a good weekend here in many ways. For one, it was windy so I couldn't do anything in the yard. The wind mostly took care of many of the remaining leaves. The end is in sight for my autumn leaf blowing work. We attended a memorial service for a hunting and fishing buddy of Chris' who was well known as a long-time high school coach in Richmond. He was the high school coach for a current NFL quarterback and he received wonderful tributes from that player and so many other people he touched in his life. It was really lovely. On Sunday we delivered brownies of a couple of friends. For some reason, people really love my gluten-free/vegan brownies. I don't think it's the recipe. It has more to do with the $10 of specialty cocoa that I use in each batch. I love delivering them to people who need a little pickup. The funny thing is that I don't love them as much as everyone else. I prefer chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies. I still had a lot of making time in the weekend and one project I finished is this wheelchair lap blanket that I will donate to From The Heart. You might remember all the blankets that I've been making for the men in my life. They all use Cascade Cartwheel yarn. I don't like having leftover yarn bits so as I finished each blanket I added it to a corner-to-corner blanket project. It actually started with the blue in the upper right corner. That was the first blanket I made with this yarn and it was also a corner-to-corner wheelchair blanket. I used the leftovers to start this blanket. I fell in love with the yarn on that project and then I bought tons of it on sale, and as I've finished each blanket, this blanket has been growing. I thought it was going to be kind of ugly and thought it might end up being a pet blanket. But, now that it's done, I think it's kind of pretty. It's about 27" x 36". I also got all of the pieces for the holly cards cut out. I think I even have the ideas for the 2 other designs. I want to get the pieces cut and fused for all of the cards by Sunday so I can take them to the river and do the stitching next week. Then I did some quilting! Both of these veterans quilts were made by Carla. I really like both of them, especially the bandana fabric. They are quilted with the square spiral pantograph in red thread. Next up is this quilt that my friend Kim made for a friend. Her friend is starting cancer treatment soon so I want to get this one done quickly so she can send it off before treatment starts. I'm almost halfway done and hope that I can finish it before the Eagles game tonight.
This week involves a doctor's appointment (physical) and Thanksgiving at my brother's. All I have to prepare is a batch of cookies. Chris has to make 2 pies. I'm sure the only reason we are invited is for Chris' apple pies! He's famous among our friends and family for his apple pies. Today and tomorrow I want to finish this quilt and work on the postcards. Those are my main goals. Our last day at the beach was chilly and rainy so we enjoyed a day of watching college football and I made more hats. I took my sewing machine but was never really in the mood to sew. I was happy to sit on the porch and crochet. I shared most of these last week but decided to put them all in one post so I could have one place for the links when I want to make more of any of these. On the top row are 3 hats I made for my nephew's wife. She's the expectant mother and she happens to have a small head. She says it's impossible to find hats that fit. I made 3 hoping that they fit and that she will like at least one of them. The blue one is this YouTube tutorial from Spiffy Handmade. I like this pattern a lot. It's also the pattern I used for the purple one below. Kim liked the purple one because it matched her coat so I gifted her that one. For the blue hat I used Lion Brand Jeans yarn and an I hook. The purple one is Lion Brand Vanna's Choice and a J hook. The gray mottled hat is a pattern that I've had printed for a while but it doesn't seem to be available online anymore. It's a standard DC increase rounds and then straight with back post DC. It's a very flattering hat. This one is made with Yarn Bee Velvety Smooth and a J hook. The gray specked cuffed beanie is made with the Crochet Baby James Beanie from Daisy Farm Crafts. The yarn is Lion Brand Vanna's Choice using a I hook. The pom poms for the blue hat and this hat are from Amazon. This is the 5th hat I've made with this pattern. The pink baby hat was made with this Crochet Shell Hat Pattern and the headband was made with the Blueberry Dance Headband pattern. The yarn is Brava Worsted from Knitpicks and I used a I hook. The purple and tan hats are going to be donation hats and they are made with super bulky yarn and a N hook using a BagODay Youtube tutorial. It's a super simple single crochet spiral pattern and it's a very warm and nice looking hat. This week I have got to change my focus to Christmas cards! I also have some veterans quilts to quilt.
Yesterday we expected worsening weather. It was supposed to be cloudy and windy in the afternoon with possible rain. I headed out early for a walk so that I could catch a little sunshine. There weren't any stranded jellyfish today but there were a lot of cute shorebirds. They aren't shy around people at all. One of the cool things about this beach (Emerald Isle, NC) is that most of the houses are still nice, modest homes and not the mega homes of places like the Outer Banks. Both are fine and both have their place but here you can still rent a nice,modest beachfront home. The sun was still shining when I returned so I sat on the back porch and finished crocheting this hat that I started Thursday. This is a super fast hat using only single crochet. The pattern is from BagODay from YouTube. Well the clouds never really came in so I grabbed my chair and headed out to the sand with my audiobook. I decided to set an alarm because I had already spent an hour in the sun on the porch. The alarm was good because I had a great nap on the beach! In the afternoon we had a nice visit from some friends of Kim's. Throughout the day I worked on this hat. It's another pattern from YouTube from maker Spiffy Handmade. I was making this from my niece with the small head but it's going to be too big for her. It fit me but I'll probably add it to the donation pile.
I haven't done any sewing yet. It's easy to crochet on the porch and neither of us has been motivated to sew. We might sew today. We might not. I might keep crocheting. We'll head home tomorrow in the rain. I had a long but rewarding day at the precinct Tuesday. We have an excellent Chief and a great team. That is very helpful for a day that starts at 5 am and ends at 8:30 pm. I was exhausted when I got home but I was up early Wednesday so I could get on the road to the beach. It was about a 4 and a half hour drive and here's where I headed 15 minutes after I unloaded the car. It was a beautiful day and we spent a couple of hours sitting on the beach. I always enjoy watching the shore birds feeding in the retreating waves. Yesterday we were expecting afternoon clouds and a pretty windy day so I got out early to take a long walk. I almost had the beach to myself. In one hour I saw maybe 6 people. There were a lot more beached jellyfish than people. The afternoon actually turned out nicer than forecast and we spent most of the day right here. Kim was reading and I was listening to a book and crocheting. I made a hat and a headband for my Grand Niece who could arrive any day now. The hat was made with this Crochet Shell Hat Pattern and the headband was made with the Blueberry Dance Headband pattern. Then I started a hat for her mother. Ashley has a very small head so she can't buy hats that fit. I'm making a few for her and this one is in a chenille yarn. I ran out of yarn so I'll finish this one when I get home Sunday.
Today we are expecting some rain so I expect we'll finally break out the sewing machines. Or we might not . Mostly, we are just relaxing and enjoying every minutes of it. The weather here was spectacular this weekend so I got a lot of leaf blowing done. We're expecting the wind to kick up today and tomorrow and hoping that it blows a lot of leaves to the edge of the yard for us. It was lovely to be outside but I also spent some quality time inside working on the quilt. It's really close to being done. This is a peek at the back of the floral border. You can't see the quilting at all from the front. Most of the quilting will only be visible on the back and I'll share that when I get it off the frame. This is pretty much the only quilting that will show. I'm pretty proud of those feathers! I'm working on piano keys in the last, wide border. To make sure I'm staying square I draw some square-up guides about every 6 inches. If I get off square it's only a tiny adjustment that isn't noticeable. One long side and 2 corners are done. This one is only a day or so away from completion! I said that the weather was beautiful and I took advantage with a long walk in the neighborhood Saturday. I think I mentioned last week that the red trees (bushes) are the most spectacular this year. They are all bright red but the golds are beautiful too. This lovely bunch was along the road in front of our place. Then I came home and got out the leaf blower. We also watched a lot of football and I finally finished these 4 hats that I've been working on for a while. These might look ugly to you but they are the elementary school colors for my brothers grands. I will gift them at Thanksgiving and I hope they fit! I also hope they like them. The pattern I used is Crochet Baby James Beanie from Daisy Farm Crafts. It says baby but it's for all sizes and is a really nice pattern with video instructions too. The yarn is Herrschners Worsted 8 MVP. It's a 4 weight in school colors. It's not my favorite style of yarn but the school colors I needed were there and it's really nice to work with. I use a 5.5mm (I) hook. Speaking of crochet, my brother made me this yarn bowl on his 3D printer. Pretty cool, huh? Yesterday afternoon we had the windows open and hear a lot of birds. It was a giant flock of grackles migrating through. It was a perfect scene for Halloween week.
Today we are going to vote and then run some errands but I hope to have time to finish the raffle quilt. |
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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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