I made another batch of fabric flowers. These are the pointy petals.
It's an opportunity to use up some of the buttons in my stash,
since I no longer need them for journal closures.
This one features one of the lilac stick buttons I made a few years ago.
Here's the rounded petal set.
I still have to add the backing safety pins.
Most of these will go for the LSQG Boutique at the quilt shows later this year.
At my Charmers Ladies Small Quilt Group in January, I brought a hand-work project to try making a fabric flower from 6 3-inch circles of fabric. I used dental floss for the thread, because it needed to be strong. It worked great!
It went so well, I should have brought a few more kits to make more flowers.
I can use up some of the buttons in my stash that I saved for journal closures.
This is the tutorial I used for both pointy and round-petaled flowers.
I love the pearls and sparkle on this one, but I think it might be a little too big for this little flower?
Expect a few more of these ...
This may be my contribution to the boutique for the Quilt Shows this year. I
t's the kind of thing I would buy at a quilt show!
I wanted to make a short video of weaving the wandering vine pattern on '"The big loom." Every project has it's own requirements, including the motions of weaving the fabric.
I will try to anticipate some of the questions you might have below, [since I can't figure out how to add captions to the video--Sheesh!]:
1) At this point, I am using up the remaining warp for the red Wandering Vine Coverlet on cotton towels, with 2 strands of thinner green Brassard cotton to balance out the 10/2 warp and tabby in this classic overshot weave.
2) Because I have 2 strands of the green, I am using a boat shuttle with a double bobbin to allow each strand to feed out as it needs to. It doesn't really work to wind both strands on the same bobbin because they tend to unwind at different rates.
3) Because the weaving width is nearly 1 yard long, I've learned to pull out as much yarn as will be taken up in that line. Otherwise, it gets caught on the bobbin and the shuttle gets stuck in the shed before it comes out the other side. That may be an issue with how I'm winding bobbins, but I've found a workaround. It's similar to using the rag shuttles where you unwind what you need for the line before you throw the shuttle.
4) The treadle beads across the top of the beater bar tell me what treadles to push next for the pattern. This method of tracking treadles works the best for me in keeping with the flow of weaving. In overshot, the tabby thread follows the pattern and is always 1+3 or 2+4. This pattern only uses 4 shafts. I am still getting used to the size of her. The next project will use all 8 shafts.
5) Yes, the Kessenich looms are heavy and noisy, but it is music to my ears to hear the clack-clack-clunk clack-clack-clunk. It's not everyone's cuppa tea, but it is mine. ;-)
Extra Credit: There is 1 point in the video where I had to stop and unweave a line. Did you catch it? I accidentally hit the wrong treadle and threw the green yarn as if it were for a tabby. Fortunately, it's easy to tell when you've made that kind of mistake and it's easy enough to fix it in reverse.
The Footwork / Treadles
6) You've seen what happens when I weave from the top. Here's what's happening down below with my feet and the treadles. Again, the beads across the top of the beater bar have numbers that tell me what treadle to push. Treadle Beads were a complete game changer for me when I discovered this method to track treadles!
7) The treadles are tied to the shafts in such a way that even though I'm pushing 1 treadle at any given time, it raises 2 shafts in the pattern or tabby.
8) Some of the treadles have hair ties on them ... also known as "braille for the feet." I know that treadles 2 and 4 (the even treadles) have those hair ties. If I'm pushing treadles 1 or 3, I know they don't have that extra bit of texture on my feet.
9) The outside treadles (A or B) on either side are for the tabby shots. They always follow the pattern shot, so I don't have to think about it too much. In other words: I don't have treadle beads for the tabby shots. They are built in and otherwise automatic in my brain.
10) This is an 8-shaft Kessenich Floor Loom made in the 1960s, with 10 treadles. Since I am only using 4 shafts, I am only using 6 treadles.
This is the disappearing hour glass 2 quilt, as demoed by Jenny Doan of The Missouri Quilt Company. I love this nice BIG block -- very satisfying to make with a layer cake. I added the green square just because ...
I think this is my new favorite quilt ...
Although -- See that kind of gray square in the lower-r quadrant? I decided to swap that out with a blue block that was left over from the border fabric. That gray one doesn't quite fit ... There-- Isn't that better? [See the photo at the top of the post.]
Working on this was a much-needed distraction from the news. Other options for names: The Glass Half Full Quilt, or The Blue Optimist, even though it feels like everything I've ever known is going to come crashing down with this Chump administration.
I think I'm going to tie it with a wool batt. This will be a lovely deep winter quilt.
Maybe I can even pull out the quilter's frame I acquired at Quilt Camp a few years ago and put it to use?
If I push the big loom aside for a while, there would be room to set it up.
I thought I was done buying coverlets, and then this one showed up on eBay last week.
I love that red snowflake design! It's not something I can easily do even on an 8-shaft loom, so I put in an offer and they took it!
It's in 4 panels about 22 inches wide. You can tell the weft is single ply, so it puffs up nicely.
For the sake of documentation, here is the listing:
Bay item number:235902291598
$64 plus $18 S&H
I've been seeing these quilts on Pinterest, but usually there was no info about the pattern other than the designer. But I finally found an explanation!
These are made by a quilter named Jo Anne Merrill-Duckworth, and are meant to be a scrapbuster, usually in a single color way with a contrasting center.
Now to see if I actually have enough scraps in a single color way to make a whole quilt like this!
Here is a video that explains the Duckworth technique:
Easiest Scrap Quilt Ever - The Duckworth Quilt - video from The Jelly Roll Club
From Podunk Pretties Blog
Scrap Quilt Enthusiasts - FaceBook Group. I finally got into it! The creator of this technique provides a document answering questions and explaining how to make a Duckworth Quilt.
I worked up a test block, to see how the technique works, and if I could stand it (I can!).
Here are the steps for the text block at the top of the post.
First, I pulled some orange scraps, ironed them flat and cut them down to suitable centers.
These really are leftover scraps.
This didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would.
You start with 4 centers. They should vary in size and shades / textures.
Then you start adding the strips, round and round each block until they can be trimmed down to 6-1/2 inches.
Round and round ...
... and round some more.
You don't have to be too neat or precise about it. They are meant to look scrappy.
The Watermelon Quilt
Along with surveying completed work in 2024, I thought it would be useful to also survey the quilt tops that have yet to be completed, to help map out some of my work for 2025.
