I keep a crochet bag with hat materials ready by the front door for any time that I think I'll be out somewhere sitting and waiting. I mostly take it to quilt club meetings and appointments and that's what happened yesterday. I took Mom to an appointment and had a good hour or so to relax, listen to my book and do some crochet. This one will be a chemo hat for a man. In the afternoon I went to the basement and started making some decisions about the quilting on the Red Sunset quilt. I do that by spending hours on the internet looking at the beautiful quilting that other people do and then I take a lot of chalk to the quilt to work out some ideas. In the end I generally revert to the stuff I like doing: feathers, some ruler work and a little free-motion. I think I have the plan set, more or less. Because I've stabilized the quilt with all of the SID quilting, I can start the design quilting anywhere. I decided to start with the areas where I want to use blue thread. I've decided that I want all the spikey areas to really stand out so they will get minimal quilting like this. It's not much, but it's a start. I have officially stopped procrastinating. Since I finished the big blanket project I decided last night that I'd start a new donation baby blanket so I've started swatching.
This weekend we're going to watch football with a friend one day but otherwise I'll be quilting, crocheting, working on the blue quilt and stocking wood. I made the first one of these blankets for Chris is 2021. I loved the yarn and pattern so much that I bought the yarn (on clearance) in almost every color available. This one is for Chris' best friend, Win. I call it "the dude blanket" because, except for one, they have all been made for men in my life. One for Chris, one for each of my 3 brothers and one for my cousin's husband. I decided to break with tradition and give one of them to my doctor, a female, to thank her for everything she's done for me and Chris. The colors of that one were pale grays, purples and a little pink so it definitely had a feminine feel. I have one in the closet yet to gift but I'm sure it will find the perfect home soon. Here's the full view of the last one. It finished to 48" x 66". I'm a little bothered by the solid looking rows at the bottom but that's how the yarn came out of the skein. Win will not notice. Hopefully it will just be his nap blanket. He has a couple of my quilts that he says he likes so hopefully he will like this too.
Here are the details: Cascade Cartwheel Yarn, 7 balls, Pattern from BagODay Crochet, pattern repeat is 8 stitches plus 3 I used a K hook and chained 147 stitches (with an L hook) These were a lot of fun to make and I could do them blind by the end. The patterns works up quickly and has a great texture. I'd happily use it again. I have a few more balls of this yarn but not enough for a big blanket. I expect that I will turn them into a couple of wheelchair lap blankets. But I'm going to rest this yarn for a while and start a new donation baby blanket. In other news, I think I finally have a quilting plan for Red Sunset and hope to get started on it today after I go to craft group at the library. 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. I had some chores that needed to be done yesterday, like filing sales tax, and none of those things happened. Instead I worked a little on several things. I finished all of the blue bow ties. Now I will sew them together in sets of 4 before I assemble the whole top. Then I went to the craft group at the library and I worked on the shawl. I finished the first skein and started a second. I think the whole thing will take 3 skeins. This pattern goes pretty quickly. I finished off the day with about an hour of quilting. I rolled the quilt down a bit and finished the bottom part of the center star (yellow arrow). Next I'll work on the sections with the blue arrow. Today and tomorrow I'll be sewing with my quilt club. I work on veterans quilts there and this is the next kit. I'll sort through it tomorrow but I think there might be 2 quilts in this bag.
At some point I need to file the taxes too. Maybe while I'm watching one of the playoff games. I finished it! This sweater has been hanging over me for a few months. It's the ubiquitous hexagon sweater and I got the two hexagons done months ago. Then the project stalled while I worked out exactly how I wanted to finish it. I was also held up a bit by the baby quilts in September and hats in November. Finally, over Christmas I buckled down and got it done. I made another version of this sweater last Spring and gave that one to Mom. I wanted to make one for myself that was a little shorter and this is the result. I was going to take a photo of it on but my hair was wet and I had my PJs on so you'll have to take this flat photo along with my witness that it fits PERFECTLY! I will wear this one a lot, probably starting this afternoon when I go out to knit group and to run errands. I really like this pattern by LaDria LaVea. There are dozens of hexi cardigans on the web but I liked the bobble detail around the front edge of this one and her tutorial style is entertaining but also really clear and thorough. The yarn is Lion Brand Heartland in the color New River Gorge. I thought that color was appropriate since the NRG is in Virginia and West Virginia. I used a J hook. I usually keep 3 projects going that require different hook sizes. I alternate them each time I sit to crochet and it seems that changing hook sizes helps to alleviate hand fatigue. With the hats and sweater done I only have the big blanket going so it's time to start 2 new projects. I think they will be projects using these yarns. With the pink variegated Mandala Ombre I think I will make another of these blankets for donation. I loved hos that one turned out and I seem to remember that it worked up pretty quickly. With the Noro yarn I'm thinking of making a shrug and will try out this one that I found on Lovecrafts. I'll start it and see how it goes. Remember all the baby blankets that I made in August, September and October? Here's one of them in use. Isn't she so cute?
My main goal for yesterday was to get the second veterans quilt quilted but I seem to be having a little trouble with the longarm. I'm getting thread nests and need to figure out the issue. I might get to that today. Instead, yesterday I worked on the surgery drain bags and my crochet sweater. This is a set of about 40 bags. I have 60 more cut but these all use gray thread. I got the tops hemmed and the loops added. Next it's back to the serger to stitch the other side. I'll work on them a little each day and they should be done in no time. Mostly yesterday I watched football and worked on my sweater. I finished the second sleeve and started the bottom ribbing. I need to add a couple more rows and then do the front and neck edging. There's so much football this weekend that I might have this done before Monday.
I really love how this is coming together. It fits perfectly and I think I will wear it a lot. It's even got me interested in making more crochet garments. That's something I was ready to swear off about half way through this project. I'll have to look through my patterns for something summery. As soon as I finish this I'll first get back to the big blanket and workin gthat a while before I start something new. 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. |
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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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