This certainly took a lot longer than it needed! I spent way too much time stressing over the quilting plan instead of just quilting. I probably spent more time thinking than actually quilting, like usual. I started in the middle with the blocks and worked my way out with each border. By the time I got to the yellow and blue borders it went really fast. It's now trimmed and ready to deliver to Becky for binding and label. This one started as a quilt kit that one of our members bought so you might recognize the pattern or kit. It will be donated to out local food bank and they will use it for a raffle fundraiser. We make a quilt for them about every other year. The quilting doesn't really show on the quilt very well but I was able to get it to show by laying it in the foyer and opening the front door for some side light. I used white Wonderfil Master Quilter in the top and Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin. I didn't have one thread break on the whole quilt. I dyed the backing for this quilt and tried my best to match the blue in the background of the outer border. My fabric turned out a little more purple but I'm still happy with it. The back is the main reason that I wanted to do some custom quilting. I knew it would show on this side. Here's a close up of the back. I can say that I have finally reached a point where I am happy with my feather quilting. For once, it wasn't stressful quilting feathers. That's a big win!
Now I'll return to the regular programming of quilting veterans quilts. I have a really bright one loaded to quilt this weekend. 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. I got permission to share my "Paula" quilt this week! Here's the backstory: I don't buy many commercial fabrics but I buy most of the fabrics designed by Paula Nadelstern. I fell in love with her symmetry fabrics when I took a class from her sometime around 2008. For many years now she has invited me and a few other quilters to make samples from her new fabric line. We used to have to make 36" square wall quilts but now we can make whatever we want. I choose to make 48 x 60 quilts that can become veterans quilts. The fabric line this year is called "What If" and you can see all of the fabrics here. I was particularly excited to see the stripes this time and I plan to stock up on them when the fabrics arrive in stores in the Spring. I hope you have a few minutes to check out the Virtual Fabric Show to see the other quilts that were made. Go to the 35:05 mark to see Paula's section. The other quilts are really fabulous! There's one by Peggy True that I want to make. Hint: it's not the applique wreath! I was on a really tight timeline for my quilt so it had to be simple with 12 blocks and some sashing. My only goal was to use a little of every fabric in the line. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. You can look at each of the blocks in detail by clicking on them. If you look close you will see that they are all very simple. The fabric does all of the work. I decided to use the two grayscale fabrics for the sashing and border but felt it needed a little extra. That "extra" came with stripe inserts in the sashing.
When it came time for quilting I was down to the wire so it got a quick overall design. I sure overbought yarn for this project! What was supposed to be one baby blanket for my new Grand Niece, turned into 3 blankets! That's insane. The shower is this weekend and I'm giving them all 3 blankets. They can give once they don't want to someone else or back to me for donation. I love a corner to corner blanket for a very fast project. I started this in the car on the way home from vacation and I finished it last night. This one is the smallest at 28" square and I think it would be a nice car blanket. After 3 blankets I can say with confidence that I really like the Knitpicks Brava Worsted yarn. It comes in 50 colors and goes on sale once or twice a year. I used Marina, Cornflower, Coral and White. On all 3 projects I used a 5.5 (I) hook. Also in the car I made a baby hat from the coral color. Baby hats are just so cute! I only had a tiny bit of coral left and that will go in a scrap blanket. The blues and white are going back in stash because I'm over this palette for now. The other thing I did yesterday was a test set up of Starlink internet. We are very rural so we don't have any kind of fiber internet options. We've been on another satellite provider for years. It's OK, but it's terrible for streaming TV. Eventually this will be mounted on the house but, for now, it's in the yard. It has some obstructions from this spot and it's still 3x as fast as our current internet. I'll also credit Starlink for creating a product with the easiest set-up ever. If I had plugged the power in properly it would have taken 30 minutes instead of 45 to set the whole thing up. The ties are on the cable so that it doesn't get accidentally mowed or cut before we can mount the device. I thought I was pretty clever with that.
So far, so good. Today I will sew! I finished the second baby blanket! I expect that I have enough yarn to make another. I used the same color sequence as the first blanket. It finished 35" x 38" The pattern is the Crochet Ripple Baby Boy Blanket from Daisy Farm Crafts. It's all double crochet stitches done in sets of 3. Their patterns are really well written and there are excellent video tutorials. The color yarns are Brava Worsted from KnitPicks and the white is Lion Brand Basic Stitch. They are pretty much indistinguishable, very soft and easy to work with. They wash great too. I didn't do any sewing but I got out my brand new ruler and marked blocks for sewing. I got all of the rest of the block sets marked and ready for sewing. I'll work on them at home. Today we are going for one more hike on Beech Mountain and then heading out. Yesterday we did a 5 mile walk on a series of Carriage Trails. The nice thing about Carriage Trails is that you don't have to watch for trip hazards, you can look at the scenery. You only have to watch for the cyclists. About 90% of them are on e-bikes. The trails were Aunt Betty Pond and Eagle Lake. We saw some beautiful autumnal color. There's a section where the trail crosses back and forth over a stream over 6 bridges. It's very picturesque even though the walk is all uphill in this section. Here are a couple of other photos taken on the walk. We've had a great week and we're ready to head home. I'll check back in on Monday.
Almost everything I crochet is donated to charity but not this one! This one is for my nephew's daughter who will arrive in November. The parents, James and Ashley picked the colors and pattern so.hopefully, they will love it. When I got the yarn I made a swatch and washed it a few times to see how this yarn would perform and, I can say that it's going to be a really soft blanket and should hold up well to multiple washings. The blanket finished to 34" x 47" so it might be a little too big but it will be big enough for the baby and the dog to share on the floor. The details: Pattern: Even Squares Blanket from Daisy Farm Crafts except that I used half double crochet instead of the pattern stitches. I did the pattern in 4 row sets. Yarn : Brava Worsted from Knitpicks in White, Marina, Cornflower and Seashell. It was the first time using this yarn and I liked it a lot. Hook: I, 5.5mm Daisy Farm Crafts is known for their gingham and other patterns that carry two colors along on one row. You can see the blue in the white section and the white in the blue. Once you get the hang of it, it's quite an easy technique. I didn't really know what I was doing when I ordered the yarn and I seem to have some leftovers! I only used about half a ball of each color.
When we were discussing patterns, Ashley mentioned that she likes the traditional chevron pattern too so I might make a striped chevron a little smaller than this blanket. Then I can make a donation blanket with whatever is left. Who knew that orange could be a neutral? This is my last finish before vacation. This is also a veterans quilt and I love it. I really enjoy making these quilts. I can piece a top in one weekend if I have the strings and foundations already cut. You just have to remember that half the blocks need to have the diagonal in the opposite direction. I didn't pay attention to my block count when I made this quilt so I had to remake one block. I know that orange isn't appealing to everyone but it's my happy color and I love it in this quilt. In between travel preps, Chris and I got in some kayaking one evening. It was beautiful out on the lake.
We leave today for a 2-day drive to Maine. I probably won't post again until Monday. It may look like one quilt here but you'll see below that I made 2 identical quilts. I cut out veterans quilt kits all at one time and they usually hold me for a year or more. I had enough of these fabrics to make 2. I worked on piecing them over 3 months of quilt club sewing days and got them quilted and bound this weekend. I really like the look of this quilt and will likely make more in the future. See, I did make 2! I also got 4 quilts ready for the quilt exhibit in September. One of them is Mom's. Three of them needed labels and 2 needed sleeves. Luckily, I had 4 hanging rods just the right size! I really wanted to get these ready before I leave so I didn't have to worry about if after vacation.
Otherwise, it's just laundry, packing and a little evening crochet going on here this week. This is the last time you have to see this quilt because it's officially done! It even has a hanging sleeve. I'll get a label on it this weekend and it will be ready for the exhibit in September. All of the history and details are on the Goldfinch page but I'll share a few notes/observations:
Don't forget to check out the Gradient sale! The sale ends July 25th!
This is the 7th blanket that I've made with this pattern and line of yarn. It seems a little insane but I love the yarn and bought a ton of it on clearance and I'm going to keep making blankets until it's all gone. I think I only have yarn left for 1 or 2 more blankets. I will not start another until the weather cools down. This one got a little hot to work on but I wanted to finish it before vacation as I want to use the project bag for my travel projects. I've been calling this my "dude" blanket because, so far, I've given them all to men in my family. But this one has a more feminine look so I'll probably give it to a deserving woman. Maybe someone not in the family but someone that has done good things for me. Here are all the details: Cascade Cartwheel Yarn, 6 balls Pattern from BagODay Crochet, pattern repeat is 8 stitches plus 3 I used a K hook and chained 131 stitches (with an L hook), all of the others have been 147 stitches but I wanted this one a little smaller. 6 balls made a blanket that finished 46 x 64 and that's plenty big. The best part is that on the last row I had this much yarn left!
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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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May 2024
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