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Good news, it seems that my allergies/cold/flu from Monday was really just allergies. Now I"m just trying to figure out the source but it's all under control with the magic of Benedryl. On the sewing front it's time for some planning. I can't just jump into projects. I really need plans and lists. I've spent the last few months finishing a lot of projects and I feel really good about that. So good, that now it's time to start lots of new projects. Actually, as I look through the list I really only have 1 new one but I have 3 others "on the list" that I'm going to give some attention to.  First, I need a new project for the longarm and this one is finally up. It's my oldest UFO and one of my personal favorite quilts. I started piecing it in 1998! The top was finished July 2017 and now it's time for quilting. I'll do lots of continuous curves in the 1: squares but all that black is calling for mandalas or maybe feathers. I've printed off a copy to play with some ideas. I've got several piecing projects planned.  Fist is this UFO. I made a lot of stitched and clamped shibori samples a couple of years ago and have been searching for something to do with them.  I'm going to use some of them for penguin bellies! I'll get started on this one this week. It will be a lap quilt and will go to one of my SILs. The hard part with this one will be the tiny eyes and beaks. But I don't mind a little tedium when I have a good book to listen to.
Next it's time to put these together. I drew up this quick layout in EQ and that's probably how it's going to be done. I want to have a side border for a heavily feathered vine. I envision some cross-hatched diamonds between the blocks. Mom, Anne and I are going to Paducah this year and one of my goals on that trip is to find repro feedsack backing fabrics for this and the first flowers quilt.
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 Jackie's Choice It's a quilting miracle - 2 finishes for January! This quilt has been on the list for a long time. It was started in 2013 with Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice quilt-along. I made 2 sets of blocks. One set was done in shibori and this set was done with symmetry fabrics. After I finished the blocks I realized that I had created quilts for each of my Grandmother's. The shibori one would have been the favorite of my maternal grandmother and this one would have been absolutely loved by my paternal grandmother. It's been waiting since about 2016 to be quilted. I recently realized that this quilt belonged to one of my cousins and that's what finally motivated me to finish it.
I'm so happy to have this quilt done and to know that it's going to the right home. Go over to the Gallery to see lots more photos.  Well this didn't take long and I have to say that it's nice to work on some bright colors during the gray days of January. I've decided to call them my Spring placemats and I'm making them into 3 sets of 4. This red/orange set has all flowers on stems. The border colors are just random reds, orange, yellows and purples pulled from the colors of the blooms.  This set has all big blooms.  The third set is all in purple and green. I'm ready to start quilting these but I'm quilting Jackie's Choice first.   It's loaded and I'm quilting it in a bronze colored thread and I'm loving the effect so far.
 Laura and I had a fun and productive couple of days at sewing this weekend. She worked on her Stack and Whack turtles quilt. I apologize for these bad photos. I took the with my cellphone at the center and the lighting there doesn't work so well with cameras. You'll have to pretend that the colors look good.  I worked on my Hunter's Star veterans quilt. I got all of the half blocks together and was going to lay them out for the quilt. But since it's scrappy I thought I might be able to shortcut that part. Each fabric makes pieces for 4 blocks. I separated the pieces into 8 stacks with one of each fabric in every stack.  Then I sorted the light stacks on the right side so that I can pair them up with the dark stacks and know that I won't get any duplicates. After all of the blocks are made I should be able to just work straight through the 4 stack to pull the blocks without laying them out.  I got the first stack of blocks together before we packed up for the weekend. This quilt will be done next month and I absolutely love it. The "white" isn't white. It's actually a nice pale gray.
This project is packed away until next month but I'll need to get another cut and ready before then. I actually have a couple piles of fabric for veterans quilts and I'm working on ideas for them. I'll share that later this week after I have time to do some cutting. This week I'm also starting to work on another very old UFO! Maybe I'll have one more finish for January. I'm still wandering around a bit trying to figure out what to do next. I don't want to get out something new until we get Laura's projects cut and underway. One new project mess at a time is enough. So instead of starting a new project it seemed a good time to be in the basement and get a start in this year's allowance of veterans quilts. I try to quilt 40 a year. Sometimes I do more, sometimes I do less. Last year was a more year and after hearing what these quilts mean to the nurses and doctors at the VA I'm motivated to have another "more" year.  I'm starting with 2 quilts made by my blog friend, Patty. She made a lot of these 16-patch quilts last year and generously sent 2 to me for our veterans quilt project.  I pondered a long time about what thread to use. Eventually I decided to take my lead from the dark lines in the African prints and bring those into the solid fabrics. We'll see how this will look.....I'm not ripping it out. That's rule #1 with veterans quilts. I make a decision and carry it through.  It's going to be bold on the back too! These should be done by the end of today.  Meanwhile, upstairs Laura decided that she wanted to make a Stack and Whack quilt and that meant a call to Mom for a private class.  Here's the fabric she picked. She and Mom spent an afternoon cutting pieces so she can start sewing this weekend at Country School sewing days. She's playing with the layouts of blocks in anticipation of sewing. Today shes going to iron a pile of veterans quilt backs for me that I dyed this week! :D  Tomorrow we go to sewing. She will work on her S&W and I'll get back to this Hunter's Star veterans quilt.
It's my first finish of 2020!  Groovy II, 90" square The binding is on and the quilt has been washed. Aside from the label, Groovy II is done! We love this quilt and it's going to be a great summer quilt for our bed. You can read more about it and see the ice dyed back in the Gallery.
With this quilt finished I'm feeling a little lost with nothing to do. I've been dyeing more veterans quilt backings and Laura started a new Stack-and-Whack project under Mom's tutelage yesterday. I forgot to take some photos but will snap a few to post tomorrow. But I need to find a new project. I think I'm going to try to attack another UFO and design a few veterans quilts before I start something new. We need to get both of Laura's new projects cut out before I start spreading one of my new projects out. It already looks like a bomb exploded in here......although we did try to neaten things a little for the cleaner today. I have one more finish for 2019! Aside from the label, the Puppy Quilt is done!  The Puppy Quilt, about 84" square This is a retirement gift for a friend and I'm about 5 months early with it! I won't make her wait 5 months, I'll get it to her as soon as I get a label made and attached. She's seen in in development and picked the background color so it's not a surprise and she wants it now.
Read more about it in the Gallery.  Well, that was easy! I do love this quilt. It's going to be our new summer bed quilt. My summer quilts have a flannel sheet as batting to keep the quilt light weight. I keep any flannel sheets that are out of rotation because I use the for batting for quilts or place mats. I was going to load it to start quilt (with the goal of finishing it by the 31st) but I need a king size sheet for this quilt. I've ordered a king set of sheets (which will give me 2 battings) and it should be here in a few days.  Instead I'm going to load the puppy quilt and get it quilted. I have the backing and batting for this one already. I want one of these quilts done by the end of the month and I can get the other done in January.
I'm not going to be posting again until sometime after Christmas. If you celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful holiday.  So I'm not getting quite as much done this week as I wanted but one of my goals is to get my Groovy top done. After a little focus the past 2 days it's half together!
Love, love, love this quilt! Today is usually dyeing day but since we're leaving Saturday I can't dye this week but I have another plan that I'll share with you tomorrow. This weekend was our monthly quilt club sewing weekend. I look forward to this weekend every month and I get a little cranky if anything prevents me from spending both days there. I do get a lot done but I always come away with about 10 more ideas for new things but mostly we tell stories and laugh. I try to use those days to work on veterans quilts. I keep the projects packed up and only work on them there.  The first thing I did was finish up this Hunter Star quilt. It started as gradient that I had dyed for another project. It was similar to the Sugar Maple gradient. I added some orange, yellow and green from my stash and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I cut it with the Go! Hunter Star die. With the die I can cut out a quilt like this in less than an hour. But I learned one BIG lesson. This quilt needs to be done in the equivalent of 2 color. It's important to keep up with the way the seams are pressed and a totally scrappy version is a headache from that perspective. So I did a better job on the next one. This one is going to be very manly. It's made with Crossroads and Earthworks Stash Packs and I paired it with a pale gray from my stash. I probably won't get this one finished until February but I'm going to love it.
This week our friends from England arrive to stay for a couple of months. Laura likes to spend a lot of time in the sewing room so we should get lots done. This week will be a little light on quilting because we are getting ready to take a little trip Saturday but I should have something to share every day. We'll see! |
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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