 Fab Farm Baby Quilt After the Hanover Country Life quilt was finished I learned that we were having a new baby in the family. I had plenty of leftover fabric to make a baby quilt for the new baby. This baby is my cousin's second grandson. I made a teddy bear for the first grandson (older brother of the new one) and it was made from my cousin's baby quilt. It was fun to make another Fab Farm quilt with the leftover fabrics from the big version. the pattern is Fab Farm by Elizabeth Hartman.   When I make family quilts, especially for babies, I like to use some elements from my Great Grandmother's stash of unfinished quilt blocks. All I have left to work with are these 8-point stars that are crazy wonky and the centers are very bulky. These stars would have been made in the 1960's. They aren't usable the way they are. I decided to take a couple of stars apart and re-cut new diamonds so they would all be the same shape. I think the diamond chain shows off the fabrics much better than the stars and gives it a little more modern look. I printed the label with a diamond frame so that I could piece it into the chain. Adding a separate label off in the corner would have disturbed the design of the back. I feel like it's a legitimate two-sided quilt.  It's quilted with a pantograph called Happy Times. This is a good one for baby quilts to keep them soft and cuddly. Mom did the binding so we can present it as a joint gift. We will deliver it Saturday and my cousin promises that the mother will love it.
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 I didn't post yesterday because I didn't want to show yet another photo of this quilt in process. I decided to wait a day until the whole top was done. I got the borders and sashing done yesterday. I think the family will love it. Now I need to work on the back.  Because the baby receiving this is a family member, I want to incorporate one of the blocks made by my Great Grandmother on the back. My original was simply to have one star floating on the back. The problem is that these blocks are incredibly wonky and the centers are very, very thick. Each diamond is foundation pieced so there are, at minimum, 16 layers in the center. With that on the back of the longarm I'm guaranteed to break a needle and get the machine out of timing. So I'm giving myself a day to ponder other ideas of how to use one or more of these blocks but I feel like it's got to mean that I'm taking them apart. We'll see.  I also got all of my dyed fabrics processed and ironed. These are the veterans quilt backs.  These are the parfait dyed fat quarters. Three fabrics are dyed in one container so I did 4 groups. The basic process is to put a fabric in the bottom of the container, add dye, then soda ash solution, then layer in the second fabric, dye, soda ash, and then the third fabric, dye and soda ash. I usually wait 10 - 15 minutes between adding dye and soda ash.
In these sets, the fabric on the left was the first fabric, the middle is the second and the right one is the third. In the case of the blue I used a navy for the top fabric and that just over took all 3 fabrics. I still got some nice textures and I really needed some golds, oranges and browns for the stash. I like to do this technique when I have leftover or old dyes. It's always a nice surprise.  This baby quilt is coming along nicely. I got the pig and sheep done yesterday.  The last 2 blocks are cut out and ready for me to sew today. I might even get the whole top together.
We're expecting snow today so, if the power holds, I might get the back made tomorrow and get this thing ready to quilt for the weekend. That would be awesome.  It wasn't much I needed some blue quilt backs for veterans quilts so I decided to spend part of yesterday dyeing some fabric. I hadn't done any dyeing since December so it took a few minutes to get myself organized. After I dyed 4 quilt backs I decided to use some of my leftover dyes to parfait dye some fat quarters. Each container has 3 fat quarters in layers with each layer dyed a different color. I always look forward to the surprise results. I've been using so many of my fat quarters in quilts that I need to restock some of my color fat quarter stashes.  Back in the sewing room I added a bee to my farm baby quilt. There are 4 blocks left to make: pig, sheep and 2 sunflowers.  I got the pink cut out and it's pinker than it looks in this photo. For most of the blocks I have been able to use leftover fabrics from the original quilt. But for the pig I had to find new fabrics in my stash. As I finish each block I'm finally putting away the leftover fabrics from the original quilt. Today I will get the pig and sheep made and maybe get the sunflowers cut out.
Working on this quilt and dyed fabric today is getting me thinking about what my next project night be. I'd like to do something that will require me to dye a bunch of fabrics. I'll start looking through my patterns and web inspiration.  It was rainy all weekend so it was a good time to be sewing. I now have 4 farm blocks made and should have the top together by the weekend. The horse and cow are the most complex blocks so I tackled them first.  I also got the two veterans quilts quilted. This one was made by Peg and I know that she had 4 more tops ready for us to quilt. It's rare for Brenda and I to run out of quilts to quilt!  Both quilts (Peg's and mine) are quilted with a wavy crosshatch. I default to that almost every time I receive a square based quilt. It's fast and always looks nice. I'll show my whole quilt once I get it bound.
This week we are on watch for a blizzard Wednesday or Thursday. We were supposed to get new siding and gutter on our house this week but that's been appropriately postponed. I think I'm going to take some time this week to plan an extra beach trip this Spring and to plan our 2026 winter vacation. That will keep my spirits up! I did get out and walk around yesterday and saw that all those daffodils that I planted in the fall are starting too come up.Maybe the general weather will start warming once this week's storm is over.  The weather has warmed up a bit and I could/should have gone outside some but I decided to stay inside and sew. I started on the baby quilt and got the horse block made.  I have the goat cut out and ready to sew today.  I also got my and Peg's veterans quilts loaded and ready to quilt. I have the machine threaded and ready to start quilting, maybe this evening.
I am going to try to watch the Eagles parade today if I can find it on the web. Then I'm going to visit Mom and run a couple of errands. If I don't get these quilts quilted today they will definately be done Saturday.  Hanover Country Life, 75" x 77" It's done and delivered! The Fab Farm quilt (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman) is finished and has been delivered to the Montpelier Center for the Arts and Education. This will be their 2025 raffle quilt.
My quilt club meets there 3 times a month and part of our rent includes providing a raffle quilt. I had been looking at this pattern but didn't have anyone to make it for. Once we moved to MCAE for our meetings I knew that this quilt would be perfect to represent our rural county. I named it Hanover Country Life. If you want to see a lit of detail photos you can look at the quilt page here. In other news, I've been busy packing for our trip Tuesday. So far I've gotten my crochet projects packed, run my pre-trip errands and started on clothes.  I went into my sewing room yesterday to make a post and got totally sidetracked and never got to the computer. In the end, it worked out because Mom and I were gone all day yesterday and I wouldn't have had anything to post today. We went to Farmville, about an hour and a half away, to meet up with two cousins and some friends. It was a really nice day. The one thing I accomplished a couple of days ago is getting Fabr Farm quilted and trimmed. It's ready for binding but that will have to wait until I get home from my trip. I'm thinking about a medium/dark green for the binding like one of the leaf greens. What do you think?  The back is a gradient. It's a pattern that I used to have in the shop called Thrive and I really like it with the theme of the quilt.
About my trip. I'm leaving Monday to ride with a friend from Richmond to Denver. She spends the winter in Colorado skiing and I'm just going along to keep her company for the trip. I don't stay to ski because, well, I have altitude sickness and absolutely no interest in skiing. The trip is going to be a lot of fun with stops in
I will not have my computer with me so I will not be blogging. I think I'll have 3 posts scheduled while I'm gone but I'll have a full report when I return. I have a crochet project to take along to work on in the van while we are on the road. I'll be busy packing this weekend so I won't have anything meaningful to post. I'll have book reviews on Tuesday, my December summary Wednesday and one last Christmas project Thursday. Have a great New Year!  and finished the Fab Farm quilt top this weekend. I really just don't love doing sashing and borders so I always procrastinate finishing a quilt. It was time to buckle down and get this one done. I absolutely love the quilt and now I need to think about dyeing a quilt back.  With the quilt top done I could put up the veterans quilt blocks on the design wall. This is going to be a fine veterans quilt but, I have to admit that it's not one of my best quilts. There's not enough value difference in some of the blocks. Once it's quilted with some stars and ribbons, it will be improved. I'll look at the arrangement for a couple of days. I won't be sewing again until the weekend, after Mom and I get back from our little adventure.  The truth about my weekend is that I was more interested in crochet than sewing. After finishing the blue blanket I needed to start a new blanket. I have way too much yarn, all of it purchased on sale, so I have a lot of options. I decided to do this pink yarn because I already had a pattern picked out. I made this blanket 3 years ago with the same yarn in blue. It's a pretty and easy pattern, perfect for watching TV. During Saturday football I got this started.  During Sunday football I worked on the hat yarn that I pulled out a couple of weeks ago. These are made from 6 weight yarn and I had enough for 3 hats. This is the pattern that I used with an L hook. It only takes about an hour to make one of these hats but I won't buy 6 weight yarn again but these will be toasty warm for someone.  Next I will work on emptying this bin of 5 weight yarn. The pattern is basically the same, just written for 5 weight yarn. I think I might get 8 - 10 hats from this bin.
Today I might have time to put the veterans quilt together. We leave for Asheville Tuesday so if I don't post tomorrow, I will not post again until Saturday.  Yesterday I had the first of 3 training classes for working the voting precinct. Yesterday's class was about working the early voting center. I still have a class on opening and closing the precinct poll book (the database of registered voters) and a class on security and situational awareness. You would be shocked at the number of forms and audit steps that we go through in a voting precinct. Back in the sewing room, Fab Farm is now in two halves. I have to add that center sashing and the border and it will be all together!  Progress on Fab Farm is probably stalled until Friday because today and tomorrow are sewing days with my quilt club. That's where I work on my veterans quilts and I'll start this one today.
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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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