 I made good progress on my Paula Nadelstern quilts this week. I've finished the first one and have started the second. I can't wait to show you these fabrics in color so you can see how much the background fabrics sparkle. Meanwhile, I can share my latest crochet project in full color.  Sometime last year (I think), Lion Brand put their Ice Cream Cotton Blend yarn on sale at a deep discount. I had heard great things about it so I got some in blue and some in tan to make shawls or wheelchair blankets. This shawl is 3+a little skeins of the blue and can probably be considered a large size. The pattern is this one from Etsy. I do not love the way the colors pool with this yarn but it it great to work with and is going to be a very warm and comfortable shawl. All of the "Ice Cream" line of yarns pool like this and I really don't like it. I will use what I have but will not buy more. But I know this will appeal to someone. I have 3 more skeins of the blue and 6 of tan so I can make 3 more shawls if I want.  The pattern is incredibly easy and fast. It's basically double V stitches. The pattern doesn't specify the yarn, but based on the hook size and image, it's meant for a smaller gauge yarn. I made this size by chaining 75+4. I'm starting the next one with 66+4 for a medium size.  These scallops make a nice finished edge. There's supposed to be one more round but I didn't think it looked good in this heavier weight yarn. This is sufficient for this project.
I started the medium sized one while watching football between meals yesterday.  On Monday Laura, Mom and I took a day trip to Farmville, VA to visit a friend and to hike a bit of the High Bridge Trail. High Bridge Trail is a historic (abandoned) railroad trail that has a lot of history from the Civil War. At the far end of this bridge is the site for Camp Paradise. You can read about Camp Paradise at the link. It's kind of humorous to find out how it got it's name. Because Laura mostly has knitting projects (not sewing), I've been mostly crocheting with her the last 3 weeks. As a result, the David blanket is done!  I'm showing this photo first because the color is most accurate here. It's the same pattern that I've been making for the brother blankets.  I had an extra skein of yarn in this colorway so this blanket, for my youngest brother, is a little larger than the other 2. He's a little larger than the other 2 brothers so that worked out just fine. This one finished 54 x 68, compared to 46 x 64. They are so stretchy that they will grow to whatever size needed.  I know that I say this all the time but I absolutely love this yarn. I love working with it and I love the color blends. It's too bad that it's discontinued but there are lots of other yarns out there, like Premier Puzzle, that have a similar effect.  I have enough of this yarn to make 4 more blankets but only have a recipient identified for the next one. I'm going to make this one for my cousin's husband. He went to University of Richmond and follows their sports avidly. Their colors are red and blue. I'll get this one started this weekend.
Sadly, Laura has to go home tomorrow so we only have today left to visit. She's going to spend some time with a friend while I am dyeing but we will have the evening together and I'm sure Chris will fix us a tasty meal. Yesterday was my monthly meeting with the knit and crochet group at the Ashland library. I only take my donation projects to work on there and I was able to finish this baby blanket. I suppose they could decided to use it for a wheelchair blanket and I trust the ladies at the charity to find the best home for it.  Here are the details: Pattern is Alpenhaus Easy Crochet Throw Yarn is Lion Brand Mandala Ombre in the color Happy, 3 cakes Chained 180 stitches with a J hook, worked pattern with I hook. Finished size approximately 27" x 36" I could have made it a bit bigger because I have one more cake but I'm using it to make a hat and scarf set, also for donation.  This yarn is so soft and squishy. I wish Lion Brand would come out with new colors. This is the second blanket I've made with this yarn and I have another color to make a third. I really like the linen stitch (combination of single crochet and chain 1) and it works really well with the self-striping yarns. This pattern is a keeper too!
So, there's one more finish for the month of October. It might actually be the only finish for the month!  This little project sat dormant for a while but I want to start a new cardigan and needed to get this wrapped up. I left off with the hen hedge and sleeve edges left to do.  The hem finish I used is not the one from the pattern. I like the pattern hem a lot but it used a puff stitch and that proved to be really frustrating with a splitty yarn. The pattern hem was also too long and I needed to come up with something shorter. I settled on 3 rows of SC, 1 row of DC mesh, 1 r0w of alternating DC mesh and DC3 together, 1 row of DC mesh and 3 rows of SC. Next I moved on to the sleeves and did one with a modified version of the pattern. I then tried it on and Chris and I both agreed that it looked better without the extra sleeve. My shoulders are narrow and the cardigan as designed is plenty wide for me.  I have to say that this is a well written pattern and what I loved most about it is that there's no seaming. It starts at the shoulders and works down. Once the back is done you attach the yarn back at the shoulder to work one side of the front and then do the same for the other side. So you seam as you crochet. I liked that a lot.
The pattern is Mimosa Spring Cardigan by Sharon Murphy Lion Brand Coboo yarn (worked great!) Hook size G (4mm) I made this to be a summer cardigan to wear over tank tops and I have some summer shorts that this will match perfectly. Now I'm going to start a hexagon cardigan sweater with Lion Brand Jeans yarn. It will be my third start with that yarn. Hopefully third time really will be the charm.  Groovy III, about 92" square Groovy III is done and I can take it on vacation! Because of my fragrance and bleach allergies I travel with my own linens as much as possible. This quilt will be on our bed every night in Maine. By the title, you will probably know that this is the 3rd in a series of quilts made with ice dyed fabric. You can see all of the Groovy quilts here. This is the first one that I made using the larger Crystal fabrics. I used one on point for the center and anther cut in quarters on the diagonal for the corners.  Here's how it will look on a bed. It's got a nice wide overhang.  It's quilted with Superior Magnifico and SoFine thread using the Star Swirl pantograph.  The back is soft and shiny cotton sateen dyed with the Oasis gradient pattern.
I'm very happy to have this one done!  Yesterday I got 2 more veterans quilts quilted. These are the last two for the month. My quilt top closet is empty! I not only got this one quilted, I got the binding on it too. It's now moved to the finished quilt pile. I really love this quilt. I think it's very happy and it's made totally with leftovers!  Of course, I quilt veterans quilts in pairs so the second one is this one made by Betsy. I think it's a very masculine quilt that's perfect for many veterans.  Both of these were perfect for the quick and simple wavy crosshatch.  With the trimmings and another stack of batting scraps, I was able to get one more big dog bed made to take to my friend this evening.
 Soundwave 45 x 36 I consulted with a couple of my local art quilt friends and we all decided on option 2 for the orientation. I think my nephew is going to like it. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and I even had time to make the label for this and the wedding quilt. You can click on the image to go to the page with the details of this quilt.
To make the labels I downloaded fonts for each and downloaded the music bar image and the duck frame. They were all from sites where I could make donations to "purchase".  I even had some time to work on my scrappy HST veterans quilt.
Today will be all bout baking and packing for the trip. I have to prepare a lot of my foods for travel so that my week will be relaxed. Don't forget to stop here every day next week to enter the Beach Week Giveaways!  I finished the veterans quilts! There are 2 almost identical ones and these are almost identical to 2 I made a couple of years ago. I was in the same fabric store and saw that they still had the panel. I loved those quilts so much that I decided that I wanted to make 2 more. The panel and the 2 narrow borders are commercial prints. The other fabrics are all from my "waste" fabrics and scrap bin.  I think that the Woven Wind pantograph is perfect on these quilts and it's also perfect because it quilts up so fast.  Here's proof that there are two of them! These will get delivered with many more this weekend.  I checked on the Eastern Bluebird nest yesterday. All 5 are doing well and have passed their ugly phase.
 The Wedding Quilt, 72" square I just could not leave town knowing that I had more binding to do when I got home. When I travel I have to prepare a lot of my food to take with. Between kitchen sessions I focused on getting this done. I am thrilled with this quilt! This is the second Antelope Canyon quilt that I've made. I really like this pattern by Laurie Shiffrin. I do not know the couple this quilt is made for very well. But I made a quilt for the groom's sister and wanted him to have one too. I searched their registry to come up with the color theme.  The quilt is made of 4 blocks. 4 very big blocks! I used 8 steps of the Black Shades pack and 4 steps of Indra for the fabrics. The background is the lightest shade and I used a controlled random pattern of 6 steps of black for the arcs.  I quilted it with the Woven Wind pantograph. I love this one because it keeps the quilt nice and soft and it's really fast to quilt.  The groom is an avid hunter so I selected a winter camouflage print for the backing. I know that if they don't like the front of the quilt that they will love the back!
I do not worry about what happens to my quilts once they are gifted. I don't like to gift them with any sort of responsibility. I will let them know that if they want to let the dogs play on the quilt that I'm OK with that. I'm happy to end April with this big finish!  Wheelchair Blanket, 38x46 Back in February I finished this wheelchair blanket using corner-to-corner. I had almost 3 skeins of the yarn leftover that I wanted to use up in another wheelchair blanket. I got the yarn (Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn) on clearance at Hobby Lobby last year and I think this color/pattern is good for masculine blankets. I wanted to use the rest to make a second blanket.  I knew I needed more yarn and, based on the last blanket, I estimated that I needed the equivalent of one more skein. I had 3 balls of Dollar Tree Just Yarn (which is really Premier Basix* and is a very good yarn). I decided to add a border to each end with 5 rows of black, 5 rows of print and 3 more rows of black. This black is Black Tweed.  I got near the middle of the blanket and realized that I wasn't going to have enough yarn. I wasn't going to take it apart so I just added a black band in the middle. I didn't have any more black tweed so I had to use plain black.  The drama wasn't over! I got to the other end and ran out of print yarn on the row before the border was supposed to start. I had some solid gray that I was going to use but remembered that I had some 3 weight yarn left over from a baby blanket. I held one gray strand and one white strand together to finish off the blanket. This turned out to be a true scrap blanket but from a little distance it doesn't actually look like a scrap blanket.  Here it is folded up and all of the different yarns look fine together. I can't say that this was the result of bad math. This was actually the result of no math! I just started hooking and addressed the problems as I encountered each one.
* FYI Dollar Tree Just Yarn is the same as Premier Basix and it's less expensive to buy Basix on a per yard basis. The Dollar Tree version is great if you only need a small amount of a color like for Amigurumi. |
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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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