This blog records my experiments and successes with fabric and fibers, surface design, stitching, weaving, photography and whatever else strikes my fancy. Enjoy ...
Remember those lone stars I was making back in April at a local quilting class? I finally decided what to do with them! It's the perfect solution for orphan blocks.
I bought some sturdy blank $3 tote bags from Hobby Lobby.
The faded glory Americana Star, in honor of America 250.
Here's a clearer picture of the free-motion (freehand) quilting as seen from the back side.
There were 2 "Green Fire" Stars like this one. I love that center fabric!
Here's the Blue Star version.
All 3 stars were quilted with this general design.
I free-motion stitched the star blocks to some felt I picked up on the FREE table at Quilt Guild one night.
The felt doesn't unravel which means you can leave the edges "free" with no special treatment. This also makes it easy to sew it to the tote bag.
I left to top edge open so it can act like an extra pocket, too!
I may donate a few of these to the Boutique for the Fly In Quilt Show in July.
There were so many cut-off triangles from the Caledonia Calling Quilt that I could not throw them on the scrap pile or toss them, so I decided to use at least some of them in the border ...
So I worked up some crumby flying geese blocks. These can be frustrating and varying sizes. I finally worked up a paper-piecing template to help make them more uniform.
Along with that, I also cut some background fabric so that there would be enough to cover those spaces. The sizes that worked:
5 inch square cut on the diagonal
4 x 7 inch rectangle
It seemed like there was still a lot of cut-offs from this technique as well, but it did make the process go much faster, and less frustration piecing bits together to make them fit.
With the remainder, I made up some pinwheel blocks. No template necessary for these.
This is how the final quilt top worked out. Lovely!
I started this quilt back in February / March, with thoughts of Scotland in my mind. Ahhhh!
Green Scrappy Lattice Quilt blocks laid out on the design wall. This is not quite the finished layout, but getting closer!
It may still change before settling on a final layout, but we're getting
there ... From this smaller picture, I can see that too many of the
plaids are lined up on the diagonal. I'll have to mix those in a little
better now, too.
How the light and dark green blocks came together.
A simple solution for the corner blocks.
Donna Jordan has a tutorial for how to make this quilt with scraps [See video linked below ...].
I used a couple of green jelly rolls from Nana's Creations on Etsy, because I liked the combination of greens and textures she put together.
Donna Jordan recommends using printer paper as a paper piecing template, cut to an 8-1/2 inch square.
I made strip sets out of the jelly roll strips (6 strips), and then subcut them into 6 inch blocks laid diagonally on the paper. Then you can fill in the corners with whatever you like that contrasts.
The next step is to iron the blocks flat, and then trip off anything that goes beyond the paper.
I have lots of those triangles trimmed from the corners -- so I worked them into a border ... flying geese and pin wheels.
Then I had to tear off all the backing paper. That was easier than I thought it would be because the stitch length was shorter than usual and did a nice job of perforating the paper. This was suitable work for one of my Quilt Ladies groups where you have to bring handwork while you chat with the Ladies.
Once the blocks were all ready to go, they went up on the design wall to audition placement for the final layout. This was the initial trial run ... I was not so impressed with it in this first go round with the bright greens on one end and the dark greens on the other. They needed to be better integrated ...
My young artist friend Aidin came to visit and he gave me a helpful design consult.
Detail shot of the pin wheel border, made from all those cut-off corner triangles. I didn't have enough to go the whole border, but I think the asymmetry works here.
Detail shot of the flying geese border blocks, made from cut-off triangles. I just couldn't bear to throw those away!
I am very happy with the way this quilt turned out. ;-)
Donna Jordan's Easy Tutorial for Scrappy Lattice Quilt.
I am nearing the end of knitting another pair of socks, and looking ahead to the next project -- and it occurred to me that I needed to dye some more wool yarn for that.
What colors? Blue and Grape? Black Cherry and Red Wine (Merlot)? Evergreen?
All staple colors for me. but I went with sky blue and evergreen this time.
I am using Procion Dye. You can't use the activator because it will damage the wool, so instead, I use vinegar and heat to make the dye colorfast. Dharma has instructions on their website.
I started with 4 balls of yarn, tied into old onion skin net bags so they will stay a little compacted (not too tight). The bags also keep them from unravelling in the pot and becoming a giant tangle. A trouser sock or nylon sock would also work to hold the ball together, and also act as a partial resist to help with thaqt gradient effect.
I am using my favorite sock yarn wool for dying: Chic Sheep merino wool yarn from my stash. I don't think it's available anymore for purchase, so I'll have to find a substitute in future. These are all the same white / lace colore to start with, even though the lighting and net bags make them all look different in the photo above.
I soaked the white balls of yarn in water ahead of time, as the pots of water were warming up to just below a simmer. This helps the balls to take up the dye more evenly. In actuality, I was looking for a more mottled / gradient look, with some variation through the ball. In that case, I should have just prepared the dye bath and tossed in the dry balls of netted yarn.
To prepare the dye bath:
Heat a pot of water to just below simmering. Because this is wool, you don't want it to boil or you'll have felt.
I was using old Procion dyes. Using Dharma's
instructions for Procion Dye on wool (no soda ash, as it can destroy the
protein fibers). I sized it for roughly 1/2 pound of fiber, or 2
balls of merino wool yarn, each at 100 grams.
In the Dye Pot,
1-1/2 T salt
1/3 cup white vinegar
Enough water to cover / submerge the balls of yarn.
Heat this until it gets just ready to simmer.
For the dye concentrates, I mixed up
1 tsp dye powder with
about 2 cups warm water.
1 put that in a plastic bottle with a tight-fitting cap, so I could shake it up until the dye powder was completely dissolved.
Once the dye pot was hot enough (just ready to simmer, not boil), I removed the yarn balls, I
added the salt and vinegar, then the dye concentrate. Stir that up.
Then add the balls of yarn. Let them simmer until the dye has moved from the water into the yarn.
For the blue, you may need to add more vinegar as that encourages the uptake of the blue dye.
I let them simmer for about 2 hours. Then then turn off the heat, and let
them cool completely. Then I dumped the dye water, squeezed out the balls and
rinsed them in new water, letting them soak overnight. I repeated this
rinse process until the water ran clear.
Then I squeezed out the balls (still in the net bags) and hung them by the fire to dry for a few days. From past experience, it's difficult to unravel a wet ball of yarn, so be patient and let them dry. It may take a few days, but that's ok.
The dry dyed yarn balls -- un-netted.
The next step is to wind the dyed balls onto a niddy-noddy to make skeins.
This allows you to see what you have as far as color gradients, etc.
Notes: Again, it's been a long time since I dyed yarn, so I forgot -- the measurements for dye were a little less because I wanted the mottling. But I forgot that tiny detail, and added a bit more dye,, and dumped in the entire 2 cup bottles, which gave more even coverage of the dye all through the balls of yarn.
This was a double set of precut log cabin logs by Jordan Quilts. It did not take long to come together, especially if you use the chain piecing technique in Donna Jordan's video.
Now that I have all 24 blocks, it's time to audition layouts to determine how they will be sewn together.
This diamond pattern is the one I decided to keep.
And here it is again with the borders.
If you look closely at the printed fabric, you can see humpback whales.
All cotton towels. Overshot 4-shaft weaving pattern: Wandering Vine.
With the leftover warp from the Wandering Vine Coverlet, I made some all cotton towels.
The warp is 10/2 American Maid Cotton, same as for the wool coverlet.
Wandering Vine All Cotton Towels, fresh off the loom
The weft is Maurice Brassard Cotton in various colors. I had to double up the pattern threads, so I used the shuttle with 2 spools. It was not working to wind both strings onto the same spool.
All the towels turned out quite well. A few special people will be getting some hand-made towels in the coming year. ;-) They all have a nice hand -- what you would expect for towels. As I understand it, they will improve with use, washing and drying will improve their absorbancy.
I varied the pattern repeats, too, as I wanted to see how much they would shrink and just what makes a good size for a kitchen / tea towel.
On the loom under tension, they measured about 36 inches wide.
After wet-finishing, they shrunk to 32-1/2 inches wide. There is always more take-up than you'd expect. The measurements below do not count the bits that are folded under for the hems at the tops and bottoms.
They are all slightly different lengths (or widths, depending on your perspective), in part because I wanted to test out some different sizes for towels -- and because I filled only so many bobbins and didn't want to waste the Brassard cotton.
Red - 32-1/2 in x 20-1/2 inches with 4 pattern repeats.
Sky Blue - 32-1/2 in x 24 inches with 5 pattern repeats.
The actual blue is lighter than it shows in the photo.
Green - 32-1/2 in. x 24-1/2 inches with 5 pattern repeats.
Indigo - 32-1/2 in x 15 inches with 3 pattern repeats. My husband claimed this one, as he thought it was the perfect size and color for his blue kitchen.
Here it is hanging in it's rightful place on the oven door handle in the kitchen.
