 I had a very social and fun weekend. Saturday I got to see my favorite dog and help her owner hang art. Weesie missed me so much that I might have sneaked her a few too many treats. Apparently she had a little upset stomach later that night.
On Sunday I went on a hike with two other friends. In between I got these two veterans quilts quilted and trimmed. They are ready for binding. The next 3 days are relatively quiet so I will get the third one quilted and get started on binding.
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 Chris left early yesterday for his annual Myrtle Beach golf trip with a group of high school friends. I admire that he is still so close to high schoolmates. I went to school in a small factory town and couldn't wait to get out. I'm closest to friends that I've made since we moved to Richmond almost 30 years ago. So, what do you think I did on my first day alone? Sleep late? No, I had a chiropractor appointment. Sew all day? Nope. I deep cleaned the stove! Crazy, huh? It's been on my list for a few weeks. I decided to get it over with while I had a good book to listen to. After that I got into the sewing room late in the afternoon and I pieced some end-of-bolt pieces for quilt backs. I got a back made for these 2 quilts and got them loaded. While I was loading the quilt I noted how happy the mosaic wall makes me. It would be dungeon like in my quilting space if not for that wall. After 8 years, it still makes me happy every day.  I also pieced a back for this quilt. It's possible that I can have all 3 of these veterans quilts finished by the end of the month. My weekend will not be totally alone. I'm visiting a friend today and hiking with some other friends Sunday, but there should be ample quilting time in the mix.
 It's so nice to get out of the house to sew. There aren't a lot of distractions and I can just sit and sew. In the last 2 days I got this top together. I have another kit in this pattern so that's what I'll be sewing in May. Now I have 4 veterans quilt tops ready for quilt, 2 are my own. I've got a little over 4 weeks to get them done.  In April I got all the blocks made for this quilt and brought it home to do the sashing. That's one of my goals for the weekend. I will also get the binding on the Oak Moth quilt.
But first, today I'm going to finish the crochet poncho! Then I'm going to practice etching glass.  My Mom, my friend and I had a lovely time at Sandbridge Beach in Virginia Beach. The weather did not cooperate but we had fun anyway. The weather started off chilly and rainy Friday. Saturday was mostly sunny but chilly and windy. Sunday was a little warmer, sunny but very windy. We did get out for two walks on the beach but I also got in some exercise sessions at the condo fitness center. But mostly we were there to sew and to visit some family and friends. Mom and I set Saturday as visiting day. We got to see Mom's Great Granddaughter, my brother and SIL and a good friend.  As for sewing, Kim worked on putting rows together for her 10-row Christmas quilt. I think she got 7 rows done and only discovered 1 blocks that needed to be remade.
I worked on placemats. I have an overstuffed bin of dyed napkins so I took a lot of different scraps and fabrics to see if I couldn't match some of them up. All of these are sets of 2 except for the one on the loser right, I have 3 of those. I had 3 napkins so I made 3 placemats. These all still need to get quilted.
The last one, the blue shibori, is interesting because I only had a scrap of that fabric left and it was just enough to make 2 placemats. Of course we came home to sun and 80 degrees! I immediately sat out in the sun for about a half an hour and then went out to plant some caladiums and astilbe that I picked up at Costco. Supposedly the deer don't like them. I'm not quite sure what my plans are for the week. I need to start making the annual beach trip gift. I think it might involve some glass etching. I also want to get the binding on the Oak Moth but I have to wait for some labels to come in. We have sewing Wednesday and Thursday so, for sure, I'll be working on veterans quilt tops. I also need to get linens and things for the new guest bedroom that used to be the office for the fabric dyeing business. It will host the first guest next weekend! We also have to start preparing the back porch for painting and that means scraping off the old paint....that should be fun. It's about 380 square feet. It's fun to go away but it's good to be home!  I didn't post yesterday because I was too lazy to get on the computer after I got home from our quilt club meeting. But, this is what I would have posted. Tuesday afternoon I finished putting this veterans quilt top together. I really love it. These rectangle string quilts are a lot of fun to make and they all look different.  The quilt club meeting was a huge success. I brought home 13 finished veterans quilts and 7 more tops to quilt.  Yesterday I started prepping for our sewing retreat to Sandbridge today. First, I'll show you the progress on the poncho. I 5 more rows I'll try it on and see if the length is good. It might be done soon.  For my retreat projects I decided to take scraps to make placemat tops and I'll take this blanket as my crochet project. It's pretty mindless and I can work on it while we watch golf.  Yesterday morning, I thought I could make a little progress on the Oak Moth quilt. I thought I could at least get it loaded and basted so that I could quilt it when I get home next week. But then I kept going and got it totally quilted! It's ready for binding next week.
I'm not taking my computer to the beach so I won't post again until Tuesday. Have a great weekend!  Like everyone else in the Southeast US, we have been having a lot of pollen this weekend. I had to use the lea blower in the porches and spray off the car every day and we're looking forward to some rain today. I did a little bit of outside work Saturday but mostly I stayed in and sewed. The first think I finished was the back for the Oak Moth quilt. I generally don't like pieced backs but this was such a great opportunity to use up more of my vintage and repro 20's fabrics. I've still got enough left for at least 2 or 3 more quilts.  This coming weekend, Mom, a friend and I are going to the beach for a little sewing retreat. I've got to figure out what project I'm going to take. I wasn't ready to start something new or to pick a retreat project so I picked up this set of veterans quilt blocks and started putting the top together. I'll get this done before we leave for the beach Thursday.  My other goal for the weekend was to quilt 2 veterans quilts. I should have finished them but started having some thread breakage problems on the last one yesterday. I was getting really frustrated so I put it in time out and will go downstairs to finish it this afternoon after I get home from some errands.  Along with all of the pine and oak pollen, we have Redbuds and Dogwoods in bloom everywhere.
 Today at quilt club sewing I decided to work on this string quilt kit. I started it Wednesday after I finished the RWB blocks. Since this was still spread out on the work table I decided to just go with it instead of cleaning it up to work on the RWB quilt again. I got all of the blocks made and I barely had a half dozen strips of blue fabric left when I was done.
Perfect. I really like how this is looking and it will have the orange as the binding too. I'll put both of these away until I finish the Oak Moth quilt since it's currently spread out by the sewing machine. I expect that I can have all of them done in a few weeks. I have also been making a set of birthday postcards but I won't show them until May. These are for the men in my life and one of them reads the blog. I'll share these cards after his birthday. I'll be on vacation that week anyway so it will be a good to have at least one post that week. Today I plan to start sewing the Oak Moth blocks and get back to crocheting the poncho. My hands are feeling better. This weekend I'll be back on the longarm quilting some veterans quilts.  I had lunch yesterday with Mom and my cousin and then a friend stopped by for a visit in the afternoon so I never made it to the sewing machine. But I did get the pieces cut for the patchwork backing and I got all of the feedsack and repro fabrics put away. I need to change focus to make a birthday postcard but I'll start sewing moth blocks soon.  But today and tomorrow are sewing days with my quilt club. I've missed 2 month so I'm looking forward to getting back to it. I'll work on the RWB quilt on the left but I'm taking the string quilt in case I need to take a break from the first one.
 Yesterday was a day of driving around. Mom and I had dentist appointments. We don't mind the dentist because he's quite handsome and very nice. Then we visited my brother and ran a bunch of errands. But after dinner I had time to put together two moth blocks for the new quilt.I was going to use another repro fabric for the body and antennae but I think I like the solid better than a third print. This weekend I'll try to get everything cut out for this little lap quilt.  When I took the big road trip to Denver in January my favorite travel bag got damaged on the flight home. I should have been able to carry it on with me but I was forced to check it at the gate. By the time it got to Richmond one of the handles had been ripped off. In all fairness, they were pretty worn. I've had the bag for a long time but it's such a perfect size (and color) that I didn't want to throw it out. I found replacement handles on Amazon for less than $20 and my brother offered to replace them for me. He knows how to work with leather and has the right adhesives and stitching tools. I had opened the lining and removed the old handles for him and he then did the hard work.  When I got home I stitched the inside seams back together.  Yes, it's dirty. Yes, it's a little frayed. But it's perfect for me and I'm glad to keep using it a while longer. Some day maybe I'll take it apart and make a pattern for a new bag. But this should last another decade or so.
Today should be the last load of mulch to spread!  It's possible that I've picked 3 new quilting projects but I'm starting with the Oak Moth Quilt. yesterday I washed some white fabric for the background and picked all of these fabrics for the elements. I got the all ironed and ready for cutting.
In other news, I finished the 8th load of mulch and not I'm down to the beds around the house so only one more truckload and I'll be done. I also added 3 more rounds to the poncho and ate a lot of chocolate, like every other day of my life. Today is the dentist and a visit to my brother but I might get a moth block or two sewn together for a test run. |
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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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