Two more veterans quilts ready for delivery! This is such a simple quilt to make but I love how it looks and I've made it several times. I have it as a "pattern" that I called Regiment. But it's really simply 20 Churn Dash blocks. I've made this one 3 times before and I'm sure I'll make it again. It's easy, fast and looks good. I used one of my new pantographs on this one. It's called macrame and I love how it looks. The second one is the batik string quilt. This one was made with all scrap strings and I love how it turned out. I've made this one 4 times before. I lost one of the photos. I have 2 more kits ready to go! I quilt these free motion in diagonal lines parallel to the piecing. I can quilt one of these in about 45 minutes.
I'm glad to get these 2 done to add to the delivery that I'm going to make this week. It will have about 30 quilts for teh veterans!
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I had these 2 veterans quilts quilted last month and I finally got around to quilting them. I have made this "pattern" before and I like it a lot. The effect is supposed to be like this with the mitered side borders to enhance the woven effect. I did that on these 2 quilts but I don't think there is enough contrast between the fabrics I chose for these quilts. They still look good but the next time I'll pick better fabrics. These are quilted with my standard stars and ribbons pantograph. After that last batch of quilts I decided that I needed a couple of new pantograph, I found Macrame and Becker's Shooting Star at Urban Elementz. It's very cool that you can pick a pantograph and, for just a couple of dollars, have it printed a custom size. I sized these up larger to get more width per pass. On the veterans quilts, speed matters! I used the Macrame pattern on my brown batik quilt and I really like it a lot. I'll get the binding on this one later this week.
Yesterday was mostly about doing some of my business shut-down admin tasks but I did get one of the single veterans quilts loaded and quilted. This one was made by Gwendolyn and I like it a lot. I lvoe the turquoise with the brown. In this close up photo you can see that it has a camping theme. I used the square spiral pantograph. The next quilt will use the same pantograph and thread to make things more efficient. Then I'll switch to another pantograph for the last 3 quilts.
I'm glad tomorrow is audiobook day because I won't have anything else to post. Today I go to a foot doctor and then I'm going to do a little furniture shopping. Two more veterans quilts are quilted! I'm not positive, but I think these were made by Margaret. I quilted these with the stars and ribbons pantograph and red thread. I have really gotten my money's worth out of this panto. I decided I was a little bored with it so I treated myself to two new pantographs this weekend. I'm looking forward to having something a little different to quilt when they arrive. The next two are loaded and I've started the quilting. They will be done by the end of the week. Here's a little side project I've worked on the past couple of days.
We buy the veterans backing fabric by the bolt. I cut it in 2 yard lengths and each of those pieces is enough for 2 quilts. The bolt is 15 yards so there's always a yard left over. I can cut those pieces in half and stitch them back together in a different orientation and get a backing big enough for 1 quilt. I had a stack of "ends" and got them all fixed up to make 6 single quilt backs. Now I'm going to go through that stack of batting strips (left over from quilting other veterans quilts) and piece them together to make batting for the singles. It will be like getting 6 free quilts quilted. I'm going to try to use these for the next few quilts. Yesterday I continued with my recent daily habits of a little longarm quilting, a little piecing and a little cutting. But mostly I got sidetracked making some new postcards with the batik scraps that I received. I needed some new birthday cards for the dudes. I got so involved in making them that I didn't take any progress photos. But you can see that they were really simple. I hindsight, I think I would have benefitted from a more rocky shore and maybe a narrower lake. I still like them but, who knows, I might try some more! I made 6 of them so I'm covered for a few birthdays!
This weekend it's going to be really hot so I'll start my annual deep clean of the basement and continue with quilting veterans quilts, making string blocks and cutting out the farm quilt. We had great weather this weekend. It was a good hot summer weekend and we both got outside every day for some sun and even got in an evening of kayaking. We checked on the baby bluebirds and I expect they will leave at the end of this week. I also did something new for me and I'll tell you about that at the end. On the quilting front, I got 2 more veterans quilts done and that's all I need to quilt before the club meeting Tuesday. Both of these quilts were made by Peg. I felt like this one needed a quilted motif to give it more personality, as opposed to something abstract. This leaf pantograph fit the bill nicely and it worked on both quilts. I've also been gradually cutting out the farm quilt. I have 4 elements cut out and 5 more to go. Some of you may remember that I took clay shooting lessons for a couple of years. It was a lot of fun but I stopped because I just didn't have anyone to shoot with. I've never shot a handgun but always thought it would be nice to at least have a handgun safety class. The opportunity came up when I was looking for something to bid on in a local charity auction. Up for bid was a beginner handgun lesson. I have never shot, or even touched, a handgun. I decided to bid and got it for $70! Yesterday was the day and the lesson was outstanding. Tracie gave me a thorough safety lesson and then I got to shoot 3 different guns. I was pleased that all of my shots hit the target. Chris was impressed. These were my first 8 shots! Not bad!
It was a fun few hours and I learned a lot. It's not something I want to pursue but if I ever had to use one I'd be comfortable doing it, so mission accomplished. I've overcome one fear. I'll not be taking snake of height classes to overcome those fears. I finally made some progress and finished quilting both veterans quilts and I got this one bound. I think this is the 4th quilt like this that I've made and I have two more kits cut out. I love making them. it's a great use of scraps and they look great. Well, at least they look great in my opinion. I like to do this diagonal quilting on these blocks. If you look close you can see that the quilting lines are pretty crooked. But I have a mantra that "messy quilting done consistently, looks great" and when you step back from this you don't see the wonkiness. This happy quilt was made by Karen. She's a master of scrap quilts. I quilted this one with free-motion ferns or banana peels, whatever you want to call it. It's fun and fast.
This weekend I have to get my little quilt club program ready, make a quilt label for Becky's quilt and, hopefully, get 2 more veterans quilts quilted. Before I show you Becky's beautiful quilt I want to thank you for all of the kind comments about my shop retirement news. The comments, orders and orders with comments have been wonderful and I really appreciate them! I'm working to get all of the orders process by tomorrow but if there are fabrics you have wanted for your stash, there's a lot still available. This is Becky's awesome quilt that I quilted last week. This is going to be donated to the Montpelier Center For The Arts to be used as a raffle quilt. As part of our "rent" for our meetings there, we will provide them with one quilt each year that they will raffle for a Christmas fundraiser. This will be the quilt for 2024. My farm quilt will be the quilt for 2025. Becky mostly hand quilts her quilts but we agreed that quilting would not show on this particular quilt. The blocks are the focus of this quilt and a pantograph was the perfect quilting treatment. I love quilting her quilts because they are always flat and square. But she also does a lot of fussy cutting so it's fun to find the little treasures throughout the quilt. I quilted it in gold thread using this feathered curls pantograph. It's one of my favorite pantographs but I don't use it often. I feel it's too feminine for the veterans quilts. I was glad to be able to use it on this quilt. My camera refused to photograph the backing correctly. Imagine this is a pretty forest green done in a gradient with light in the middle and dark at two edges. It looks a lot prettier than this photo in real life. I returned it to Becky and she had it bound in a day! Now I just have to make a label this weekend and it will be ready to donate. I think this quilt will generate a lot of ticket sales!
Thank you for your nice comments for Chris. He really appreciated them. He is continuing to heal and I'm getting back into some sort of routine. Today I'm letting him drive to the grocery store! Yesterday I got two veterans quilted. This one was made by Sheila and it's for a dog lover. I quilted this one with a pantograph called Burning Bush. This one was made by Glenda (my Mom). The mandalas are from Paula Nadelstern fabric and are printed mandalas, not pieced. I used a dark gold thread and quilted it in swirls. I like how it turned out. I also went to the REI store to buy some shoes and got some new shorts (on sale) instead. Of course I had to hem them. It took longer than it should because the were sewn together really well. But I got the sewing machine running again and that was good.
Today Mom and I have lunch with my cousin but I think I'm going to start cutting out the farm quilt to get it all ready for our trip to Maine in August. Why send your Mom flowers for Mother's Day when you can send her mushrooms? These postcards started with the leftovers from the house quilt. I took a bunch of the scraps and added a backing of fusible web. Then I had to figure out what to do with it. I worked on a few different ideas, including butterflies and flowers, but I was watching a potter decorate some mugs with mushrooms and decided to give that a try. I work out ideas with some free cut pieces in various backgrounds. So I got several made and stitched them with a black outline. I finished the edges and just wasn't happy with them. They needed something else....like polka dots! Why, yes! That will do. This was the most fun part of making these cards. After some experimentation I found that Q-Tips made the best dots. I even used the stick end for some small dots. I made 7 of these so I have some birthday cards stocked up. I need to work on a new postcard design in June for the boys in my life.
This is my last post until after vacation. I'll be back Monday, May 27. I hope you have a great week while I'm playing with my new Grand Niece. |
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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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