I’m sure you all could figure out this quilt by yourself but I wrote up a few notes on the website and drafted it in RWB – eventually, I’ll make one for a veteran too.
Author: Mary
Precut fun
I’ve been talking about needing to use up some of these Jelly Rolls and I’ve got a ton of Fat Quarters too so we were talking on HeartStrings and decided that 2019 will be the year of the precut. Stephanie will choose a precut each month and we’ll make a quilt using that one (using another kind of precut is OK too) and we’ll see how many of these we use up because I don’t know if you’re like me but my precuts look so pretty, they tend to sit on the shelves for a long time!
Can you believe there are just 7 weeks left in the year?!! It’s time to think about what I want to finish up before January rolls around … but first, I decided I deserved a treat and started a new quilt today.
It’s based on this vintage quilt that I saw on eBay.
I’m still working with my pile of grays so I debated what background to use …. light, medium, dark?!
I decided on the medium, mottled gray – we’ll see how it goes.
And as far as goals for the end of the year go … this is what I have so far
- Trim and bind the Patriotic Rail Fence
- Make windmill blocks, assemble top
- Load and quilt Maureen’s stocking quilt
- Finish making the green/brown flock of geese blocks and assemble that top
- finish knitting the Yowza shawl
I’m traveling twice before the end of the year and we have company the week of Christmas so I’m going to start with this list and if I finish it all up…I’ll add to it.
Quilted
I didn’t actually quilt yesterday on Veteran’s day but I’ve been working on this Patriotic Rail Fence quilt since Friday. The quilting is finished – pantograph is Ebb and Flow – and once I get it bound, it will go to comfort the mother of a veteran who just lost her son.
I’m thankful for all who serve now and in the past including both my father and Keith’s dad as well as Keith’s brother who died recently and I try each year to make at least a couple quilts for veterans. If you are interested in showing your appreciation through making and donating a quilt to a veteran, there are a number of different patriotic quilts with brief instructions on my website.
Do you RV?
Every time I go on a road trip I wish that I had an RV. Today Keith and I went to an RV show and I’m ready to buy one but he’s not convinced yet.
Ideally, I’d love a Class B (van) but it’s really just too small (Keith is 6’4), I’d never buy a big Class A (bus) or one that has to be towed (although I do love the little tear drop trailers!), but a small Class C would fit us just fine. We did look at a couple Jayco RVs — I don’t think this was one of them but it gives you an idea of the size.
I was surprised that there were a lot of Class C’s that were too small in the “cockpit” for Keith to fit in but we did find a couple that would work … now if I could only convince him to buy one I’d be happy.
Do you RV?
Questions
Bonnie asked about the quilt in the background from my last post … it’s this one…. half square triangles and 4 patches – easy!
Others have asked where I pick up the inexpensive Jelly Rolls. Both Connecting Threads and Craftsy have them on clearance … you just have to watch for them. I recently bought all three of these from Craftsy.
You’ll want to watch the ones from Connecting Threads because they don’t always have 40 or 42 strips in them but even with fewer strips, I find their clearance ones can be a great bargain. If you remember all those Happy Block quilts I was binding last month … I used deeply discounted 2.5 inch strips for the binding and also used some of them to frame my Happy Blocks.
Off my needles
Waves Scarf – a free pattern on Ravelry
Yarn – Miss Babs Yowza
Needles – US size 9
This is another one for the donation pile – I love the texture from the alternating garter and rib sections.
The ends are already woven in which is good because I took a count and these 6 still need ends woven. (There are more unfinished ones but if I get these woven in, I can donate them).
Woven Labels – review
I posted a few weeks ago about the opportunity I had to order and review woven labels. I was pretty excited because I’d looked at the possibility of ordering some several times for my quilts but each time had chosen not to.
When I got home from Maine the labels were here – the turnaround time was quick – they say it takes 7 days to produce them and since I wasn’t home, I’m not sure how long the shipping took.
There were two things I didn’t think I understood fully when I was ordering them although I can go back and clearly see that it was my error.
First, when you have dark text on a light colored label, the thread from the text shadows through so your white label, isn’t exactly white. They add an option to preserve the light colored background calling the option “double white”.
My second mistake or misunderstanding was that there is a row of text colors at the bottom that are metallic – I chose a red for the HeartStrings label not realizing I’d chosen a metallic thread although again, it is clearly called a sparkly red.
Having said that, when I first saw the labels I wasn’t sure they were going to work for me but now I actually like both of them a lot. The shadowing on the HeartStrings label makes it look pinkish and I’m OK with that and the shadowing on the other label wasn’t noticeable once I stitched it to the quilt backs.
What I love is that I stitched all 3 of these doll quilt labels on in just a few minutes and while there aren’t dates on these, I’m OK with that too especially on the HeartStrings labels where I often finish quilts in a different year than they’re actually donated. I’m going to go see if I can design another one that I like with 2019 on it and order a small batch for my personal quilts. I’m also going to see if I can write in the date on the edge of the label with a permanent, washable marker.
Another thing to keep in mind is that because there’s not a folded edge, my stitches are more visible. I’m OK with that too and if I wasn’t, then I’d use a more decorative hand stitch like a blanket stitch.
If you’d like to order some yourself – the website is Dutch Label Shop and if you do choose to order soon, I think there’s a little time left on the 15% discount they offered using the maryquilts15 code at checkout. I’m going to go order a couple more myself.
