In a couple of weeks we will have The Yellow River Jam here in our sweet little village of Porterdale. It is the second annual event. In the morning, there will be a paddling event on the Yellow River, which runs through the center of town, followed by a day of live music. Their tagline is boats, bands, and brews. This year they are adding some artist booths, so I will have a booth there displaying my quilts, and a few other small items.
To that end, I have been putting together some chicken pincushions, made from hand dyed, hand woven wool fabrics, and some potholders.
Yesterday, I was supposed to have a tennis match, but instead we all had a rainy day! I was really happy to see the rain we really needed it, and we got 1.2"! Yeah! I keep track of the rain for a newsletter I write for our town, and I hadn't had a rain entry since August 22!
So, anyway, I got a whole day of "found time". I spent a lot of that time weaving, then I started making some potholders. This, BTW is a great use of scraps. I especially love working with "sewn together" scraps. These are orphan blocks that can be cut up and used, or leftovers from strip sets, and the like. I use the "sewn together" scraps in conjunction with my smaller than 1 1/2" strip bin, and my 1 3/4" to 2" strip bin. Sometimes I add in from my small triangles, medium bits, small bits, or dig through my large pieces (but smaller than FQs) to find pieces to cut up and use to tie a set of potholders together visually.
I have been working on potholders for a week, or so now, and already had pieced these, but was still working on sewing the binding down. The pair in the upper left hand corner is completely finished.
Yesterday, I pieced these. This morning I chose what I will bind them with, and pinned them with that fabric, to the design wall.
I had already cut a bunch of squares for pincushions, and pinned them together with their beaks, and combs. I like to use red rick rack for the combs. I had a whole stack of the put together.
This week I added the tails. I have hand sewn on beads for eyes.
Now, I just have to stuff them, and sew up their little tummies.
So that is what I have been up to this week. Thanks for stopping by!
I am currently working on making potholders for a fall show, and gifts, so I haven't accomplished much on the quilts that are on my design wall and/or design floor.
Actually, these are last years crop of potholders. I haven't gotten any photos of this years crop yet. I will photograph them when I get some more finished.
I have been working on the units for the next row of each though. here is how they stand now. I wrote more about the idea behind the Jacob's Ladder quilt in the previous post, and to see more about the idea behind the strip pieced quilt click here.
That is what I have been up to. Check out what other quilters are up to at http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/09/12/design-wall-september-12-2016/
Thanks for Stopping by!
I haven't had many large blocks of time for quilting lately, but I have been sewing a bit at the end of every day. The exception is yesterday, when I went to visit my friend Eleanor, and spent the day cutting out a new quilt start. (Well, half of one anyway) More about that in a future post.
Last week I turned in the last piece of the very very large run I had been weaving.
Here is what the top of the rug looks like.
That's 22 feet of rug rolled up on that beam. I wove the center of the rug, then wove 2 side borders to bump up the width to almost 15 feet! The finished size of the rug was 19' 10" by 14' 8". I know that seems a bit small given the dimensions I just gave you, but you would be amazed how much it shrinks when you take it off tension.
Later this week I will be starting another rug that will be woven in three 5' by 18' panels. I already have the loom set up for that. Okay, so much for the "day job update".
I have made a fair amount of progress on this quilt. I don't really have a name I like for it yet, so I have been referring to it as "Diamonds".
Only 16 rows left to go, and this quilt will be finished.
I have been planning to start a series of quilts using the Jacob's Ladder block for a long time now. It all started when I was searching for an idea for a quilt for a wedding quilt I needed to make. As I was working on the design for that quilt, I got ideas for so many other quilts. Here is a photo of the first quilt in the series.
I have been looking forward to using this block in a zig zag configuration, and trying a larger scale. The quilt above is made from 6" blocks this next quilt is made form 9" blocks. Here is a photo of my drawing.
At first, I designed the quilt to be larger, but then thought that it is enough of an over all design, and this would be a good opportunity to make a smaller quilt, since most of the quilts I make are pretty large. So, I took a couple row of horizontally, and vertically. I have 3 rows sewn together so far. There will be 10 rows in all.
I decided to use the same fabric all across the row so the pattern would be easier to see. Because of that, I can only use fabric that I have a half yard of.
That is what I have been up to lately. Thanks for stopping by!
