I've been working on several of my own veterans quilts lately but wanted to wait to post about them until all 3 were done. This first one isn't totally mine. The blocks came from several people and Carolyn sewed together the center of the quilt. It wasn't quite big enough so I brought it home, added the borders, quilted it and put he binding on it. So I'm counting it as "mine". I think the lime green narrow border and binding made this quilt. I quilted it in a free motion all-over design that I've seen called fern or banana peel. It's fun and fast. This was one of my veterans quilt kits that I started sewing together last fall. The stars are made from hand dyed scraps. I had planned a different border but it looked horrible so I had to dig in the stash and came up with this medium blue. I wanted some light custom quilting and came up with this. It went fast and looks OK but I don't love it so when it came time to quilt the next one I did something different. The quilt kit for the blue quilt actually had the making of 2 quilts in it and this was the second one. I love this pattern and will make more kits with this one. It makes great use of small scraps. I decided to go with a small wavy crosshatch on this one and I like it much better. We had sewing days this weekend and I started a new kit that also had 2 quilts in it. It's a super easy pattern and all I have left to do is add the borders. I might get that done this week although we will be getting ready for vacation this week. Who knows what will or not get done. Yesterday we picked up Mom and went to my brother's to deliver Eli's tie dyed tshirts. After we dropped Mom back at home we saw the Weinermobile! Honestly, I've never seen the Weinermobile before. It turns out that you can find out if it's going to be near you on this website. It's a quite shocking thing to see unexpectedly driving down the street.
8 Comments
I can't share my two biggest projects right now but I did get caught up on veterans quilts and finished quilting this one by Karen and also finished one of mine. I thought the meeting was last night but one of my friends corrected me. The meeting is next week! So I'm ahead. I quilted this one in all-over leaves. That seemed to go well with the fabrics. These are the t-shirts that I dyed for Eli and Ella. I hope to deliver them this weekend. I'm really pleased with how these turned out.
Today is dyeing day so I don't know if I'll have anything to share tomorrow, unless the weather is good enough to get photos of the big blue quilt. The benefit of a cold and rainy weekend is that it makes for a great quilting weekend. I got busy on some veterans quilts. I had 6 that I wanted to get done by Tuesday. I got 4 finished. Two that I'll share today and two that I am binding so I'll share them when they are completely done. This one was made by Clara. She loves the 3 yard quilt patterns and then she adds borders to bring them up to the size we need for the VA hospital. I quilted it with overall leaves. This one was pieced by Peg. She added the borders and sashing to some blocks from a scrappy block drive that the club did. She greatly improved this random set of blocks. There are two more that were quilted and I'll share them as soon as I get the bindings done. I also got the binding done on the big blue quilt but, with the rain, I couldn't photograph it this weekend. That will come later this week too! I've got the last 2 quilts loaded. This is another that I made and will need to bind. I can start quilting these today after we drop off my car to get that dent fixed. My batting scrap bin got full enough to make a giant dog bed. I'll pass this on to my friend for Richmond Animal League. I've also figured out something to do with some of the scraps from the house quilt! I can't wait to share when I get it done.
This week is all about more quilting, finishing up some tie dye shirts and making a label for the big blue quilt. Today I'm helping my friend move so I thought I'd share the rest of my weekend events. It was sewing weekend for my quilt club. I always look forward to our 2 days of sewing together. On Friday we had 16 people, one of our largest groups ever. During the 2 days I got all of these blocks made and I sewed the top together Saturday night. I now have 3 of my own veterans quilt tops that need to be quilted along with about 7 more....once the big blue quilt is done. On Friday afternoon I went into Short Pump (yes, that's a town name because "back in the day" there was a short pump where people could get water for their horses) and met up with Chris. Chris is a super nice lady who work with that Lutheran Relief organization that I mentioned last week. She takes all kinds of fabric and craft donations from people. What they can't use she passes on to various organizations around town. She gets a lot of linens in the donations and she now passes those on to me for dyeing. She had 2 bags for me this time! Saturday evening I sorted through it all and have piles of things. Some are complete sets, some is fabric that I might be able to dye and some I can't use and will pass on elsewhere. Most of it, though can be used and some will be used for a specific patchwork project that I have planned. While I was at sewing Saturday this happened. There's a park area there and the parking lot gets a lot of traffic. So now I'm working on dealing with this through the insurance company. It will be an annoyance but much worse things have happened.
Our friends left this morning to return to England. We had a really lovely visit. We had tons of rain during their visit but out last day, yesterday, was beautiful. We love it when they visit. We are so compatible that we could all probably live together. We are already planning their next visit. In between time with our friends I got the last 2 quilts quilted and ready to return to the piecers tomorrow night. These two quilt were made by either Jennifer or her mom, Clara. They are a dynamic duo and make lots of quilts for our veterans. I'm still favoring my shoulder, although it's better. So I'm quilting from the front of the machine and I did a ribbon meander on these. I really love the effect and it's fast and easy to do.
I'm ready to pick up some more quilt tops tomorrow night but I think I'll quilt the big blue quilt next before I do more veterans quilts. It's time to get back to my normal routine! These two quilts were super fast and easy to quilt. I'm glad my shoulder pain had forced me back to the front of the machine and away from the pantographs. This one was made by Becky. She fussy cut those strip borders so that they look pieced. It's made with 4" blocks and borders so it was perfect for a wavy crosshatch. I think this quilt was made by Clara and I decided to pull out the rulers for a very simple continuous curve pattern. I used red thread on this one and it shows nicely in the tan blocks. It's a nice orange peel pattern on the back.
Today is going to be spending time with our friends. They are back from a few days away. I might get some placemats finished or get two more quilts loaded. I was able to get back to quilting but just a little at a time. Daily stretchy yoga has really helped to start unwinding my shoulder enough so that I could quilt about 30 minutes a day. So these 2 quilts were on the frame about a week. Yesterday I tried an acupuncture treatment and will do a couple more. It did seem to help quite a bit but there's a ways to go before I get the knot totally undone. The best thing about quilting the veterans quilts is seeing the creativity of the quilt makers. This quilt was made by Margaret and she made great use of some African fabric scrap blocks. It's quilting pantographs that really set off my shoulder so I have to do any quilting right now from the front. For this quilt I did one of my favorite, fast overall designs. I used a variegated black and white thread and I'm not sure I did the quilt any favors with it. Chris says he likes it. Hopefully the eventual owner will like it too. I used the variegated because I'm making a concerted effort to use some of my unusual threads this year. I have SO MUCH THREAD and I need to try to stay away from the creams and blues and use up some of this stash. This quilt was made by Gwendolyn and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. It's so unique that I had to do something different with it for the quilting and I could use lime green thread! Quilting this one was so much fun with a little ruler work. The bonus is that I almost finished off a cone of lime green thread. I'll use the rest of this cone for basting and I still have one more big cone of lime green. What was I thinking when I bought it?
I have two more on the frame now and another 2 to get done before our meeting next Tuesday. Well, my trip to Nebraska was canceled! I was going to Lincoln to meet my friend who was driving in from Colorado. Then I was going to travel with her back to Virginia. Then a big storm came through the West and she can't leave Colorado yet. We'll have to do a road trip in her campervan another time. So I'm back to cutting veterans quilt kits. My order of patriotic fabrics (on sale) came in and I got started with 4 kits. The kit on the left has 2 quilts in it. I have a lot more fabric to cut!
Today I'll get back to doing some dyeing and I hope to also get some time to do some longarming. By Monday I'd like to have 4 more veterans quilts quilted. Then I'll have 2 more to get done before the next meeting. If you look close you can see that these are not the same quilt. I always like it when someone gives me two matching veterans quilt tops. It makes it an easy job to pair up for a backing, thread and quilting pattern. These are the last two I'll finish before the meeting tomorrow. I'm using the heck out of this Woven Wind quilting pattern. The next quilt on the frame is a 60" square picnic quilt for my friend. Then I'll be back on veterans quilts after I pick up more tops tomorrow night. Friday and Saturday were sewing days with my quilt club and I finished this veterans quilt top. I really love it and when I make the next set of kits (very soon), I'll cut more of this one. When I cut this quilt I did cut two of them. The second one has a beige background and will have a dark brown border. I got all of the blocks made Saturday.
I only have one kit left and it's a string quilt that will go together quickly so I went online shopping and found a good sale on patriotic fabrics. I like to make both patriotic and scrap quilts so I'll cut out lots of kits of both and will likely get started this week. Our friends from England arrive Thursday so who knows if anything will get done for the next few weeks! Mom and I went to the Mid-Atlantic quilt show Friday and went to meet her new Great Granddaughter Saturday. It was a fun trip and we really enjoyed the quilts at the show. Between Thursday and yesterday I was able to kick off March with 4 more veterans quilts. This one was made by Peg. This one was made by Ann. They were both quilted quickly with this fern or banana peel motif and turquoise thread. I even finished off a cone of thread with this quilt. Quilt #3 was made by Clara. She's quite the prolific piecer. It was quilted with loops and stars. I don't know who made this one but I like it a lot. I quilted it with this free-motion fan motif. I hadn't use this in a long time. I need to get it back in rotation because I like it a lot.
I have 2 more to get quilted before the meeting next week. They are on the frame, basted and ready. Tomorrow I'll be working the primary election so I don't expect I'll have anything to post Wednesday. |
FeedsTo subscribe click the RSS Feed button and copy the URL of that page into your blog reader.
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
All
Archives
May 2024
|