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I'm not quite sure what all I did yesterday. I was busy but I didn't make any new coasters. I did computer stuff most of the morning and then I made the label for Kim's quilt in the afternoon. I'll gift it this evening!  To make the label I started with a photo copy of an orphan applique blocks from the first quilt I made with these flowers. On another sheet of paper I printed off the text that I wanted on the label.  Then I cut a hole out of the copy of the block and centered the text behind it.  Then I added "blanket stitching" with a Sharpie so it would look like the label is stitched on the flower.  Then I photocopied the whole thing to fabric. I line all of my labels by fusing a piece of white fabric the finished size of the label. That serves 2 purposes. It keeps the backing fabric print from shadowing through and it gives me a good edge for turning under the seam allowance. Then I fuse the label with Mistyfuse before stitching it down.  I always wash the quilts before adding the label. If I don't the quilt will shrink a bit behind the label and the label will be baggy. I wanted to wash this one for Kim because it's been dragged everywhere to show off and I want her to be able to take it right home and put it on her bed. I love the crinkly look it has now.  A good friend of ours had surgery yesterday and here's the card that we sent him to wish him well with hopes that his stitches look better than these. You know, it's surprisingly hard to make sloppy stitches!
 The quilt labels for both quilts are done! There was a time crunch because I needed both quilts ready for delivery Saturday. This one was a lot harder than it looks! It took a lot of tries to find a good wheel combination for the ears and then to set up alignment marks on the wheels and the paper so that the ears would be mostly symmetrical. I'm pretty pleased though and I know that this will lead to more experiments with layering spirograph elements.  This one really doesn't have anything to do with the quilt design or theme. It has everything to do with my desire to play with a different set of gears.  I've had this set for a while but haven't really started to explore the possibilities with them. You can see on the left the pieces that I out together for this label. I just needed a little project to kick start my exploration of these and that's going to start happening soon.  In the evenings I've been making quick progress on this blanket. This is the last round of hearts so there's only the border left to do. I think 2 skeins of Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn is going to just enough to finish this blanket.
I will be away from the blog for the next week. Usually when I take a break I schedule out some posts, even if they are just giveaways. But we're heading off for a family vacation, something all of us probably need about now. I've decided to give myself a break from everything - home, business and quilting. I'll post a fabulous Customer Gem tomorrow and then I'll be back May 25. There once was a time when I labeled my quilts with a Pigma pen and date with my name. Then I started making labels in Powerpoint with images and printed them to fabric for stitching to the quilt. Those were certainly the good ole days. Now my labels are multi-day and, sometimes, hours long processes. Here are the 2 most recent ones.  First I started with the Groovy quilt. I decided that I would do this one in color and see how well it holds up in the wash. I've had good luck with color photo labels in the past but they do fade a little more than black and white. I printed the text (using a new font that I spent 30 minutes finding and downloading) and then started drawing small Spirographs all around it. I didn't take any more process photos because I was too caught up in playing with the gears.  For Jackie's Choice I wanted an oval label because the family name starts with an "O". I know, it will be sideways, but that's the idea I fixated on so that's where I went. I started by trying a lot of different gears in an oval gear to see what pattern I liked best.  Another 30 minutes on the font website and I finally had the label printed and was ready to draw out the design.  I was able to get them both printed on one sheet of fabric! You can see that I colored in some of the sections on the Jackie's Choice label. I thought it needed a little extra. Here they are done!   In other news, the placemats will be done later today so I can post them tomorrow. Tomorrow is also quilt club sewing weekend so I'll have the second Hunter's Star quilt together by Monday.
When I posted about my Wild Gears + Zentangle labels last week enough of you were interested that I thought I'd share a little more along with the last 2 finished quilt labels.  When you order Wild Gears they come like this. They are precision laser cut and there are a lot of gears on one sheet. This is the Compact Gear Set. The larger Full Gear set that I bough is about 16" square. The larger pen holes are for making parallel designs. You draw once in the large hole and the insert one of the little fillers in the same hole and draw again.  That's how I did this one.  I filled in the space to make a dark frame and then did Zentangle designs to fill the spaces.  For this label I nested one Wild Gears design in another. You can see the pencil lines that I used to center the ring on the label.  Here's the finished label. I draw my labels on paper and then photocopy them to fabric that's prepared for printing. You can get printable fabric from a lot of sources but I generally prepare my own.  These labels used the last of my stash of printer fabric sheets so it was time to make more this weekend. This is a pretty boring chore so I try to make enough to last me for a while. I fold about 4 yards of Pimatex fabric in a plastic container and pour a whole bottle of Bubble Jet Set over it and let if stand for a few hours to totally soak in. I use Pimatex because the tight, fine weave accepts printing detail better.
After the fabric is saturated I hang it over the shower rod to drip dry, I don't wring it. Hanging it to drain on it's own makes it much easier to iron. I iron it to freezer paper sheets and then I can store it indefinitely for future printing. Here are 55 sheets that I made Sunday so I'm set for a while. I am continuing my ice pack regime and my knee is getting better. Aside from doing squats and burpees, driving and sewing are the worst activities for it. Tomorrow I'm teaching at Visarts so Chris is going to take me and spend a couple of house in Carytown while my class is going on.
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In Bloglovin you need to search "Colorways By Vicki Welsh" to find the blog. About Vicki
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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