Valerean

I haven't been posting much about my annual art project for 2025, making mini-quilts, so here's an update. Lately it's been a bit harder to come up with new ideas for each week's mini-quilt, but I've managed to keep up. Sometimes I resort to beading or using found objects or quilt tags from 14carrot rather than embroidery because my hands are an arthritic mess. Here are all the mini-quilts I've done to date. I'm more than halfway to the finish line, and I'm pretty sure I'll have 52 of these by the end of the year.

Now that fall has arrived I need to start deciding what I want to finish before the end of 2024 (of course I'm writing this post in August, so who knows what I'll have done.) I think the bigger projects are probably still waiting for me to do, and first on that list is this kit quilt. If I haven't completed it already I'd also like to wrap up my summer one-pound challenge quilt. For the holidays I have another decorative project I'm planning to do with some thrifted costume jewelry. So for October I will probably focus on at least one of these projects. I'm very happy with what I've already accomplished this year, so if it doesn't work out that I finish anything else I'm satisfied. August was a wonderfully creative month for me, and really gave me the self-confidence boost I needed. I really haven't had this much fun since 2019. :)

For my more modest summer art quilt project I decided to make a tote with this slow stitch kit I purchased last year from Yards of Joy on Etsy. I decided to do a crazy patch style versus the slow stitch arty type I've been doing for the last few bags, so I could embellish and embroider the seams. Patchwork finished. During the embroidery and embellishment phase I let myself do a little beading, but I didn't go crazy with it. I think I've finally got my beading obsession under control. Here's the finished tote. It turned out nicer than I expected. The back side. I liked trying a smaller art project this year, as it freed me up to attend to other projects, like cleaning out my fabric stash.

When I saw a thrift auction listing for 19 jewelry-making kits that had only two unclear pile photos I imagined there wouldn't be any takers. From what I could see one of the kits had been sold by Mary Maxim for $12.99, which convinced me to bid on it. Although Mary Maxim doesn't have a jewelry kit of the month club, their other clubs at present are not cheap . Although I only wear bracelets and earrings I like jewelry kits; they can be a lot of fun. One other bidder took a shot at it, but I ended up winning the lot. The lot dates back to about 2017, and has some really nice kits. This is the one I saw with the Mary Maxim tag. Two $19.99 kits, and one for $9.99. Most are Cousin DIY Jewelry Kit of the Month collections, like these two (the only duplicates in the lot.) I checked their web site, and they don't sell them anymore, but they're a pretty well-known company that have been around at least as long as I have. I'd say these retailed fo...

Since it's in my favorite color, I assume the green beaded velvet shawl I found in my gifted UFOs bin came from Mom. When you live in a subtropical humid climate there's not a lot of reasons to have anything made of velvet, so it wasn't something I'd buy for myself. It's also made of polyester, which is a material I avoid. Still, it's a pretty thing, so I decided to wash it and see if it would hold together -- only one problem. Both ends were fringed with plastic bead dangles, which made it unwise to toss in the washing machine, even on delicate. Also, some of the beads were missing. I do love beads, but these promised to have me handwashing the shawl for the rest of my days in my bathtub. So I did the sensible thing for me and cut off all the beads, which I will recycle into something else. The beadless shawl washed up beautifully, and now will be a wrap/lap blanket for me during cold winter days and nights.

I'm three weeks into 2023 with my calendar stitch scroll project, and so far I haven't missed a day. I'm basing the thread colors I choose for each day on my mood (green being the best; yellow being the worst), and if my hands are giving me serious trouble I do just a line of running stitches. I've also beaded a couple of days' efforts, but I am trying to resist the temptation (otherwise the whole thing would be beaded.) Some surprises: I didn't think my moods changed that much, but from the color variety I guess they're rather mercurial. The stitching on the back of the linen looks almost as good as the front. Linen is a pain to embroider with certain kinds of threads (boucle just constantly snags) but is also very forgiving. So I'm learning a lot, too.

Warming up for the next quilt means a little slow stitch piece first. I still remember how to make spoke-woven roses, too. I love my thrifted storage boxes, too. I might have to make more when I fill these up. I'm also turning little scrap balls of yarn into crochet stitch practice pieces. Everything ends up a coaster or pot holder, but getting back into this is really helping keep my fingers loose and limber.

Finished the beach bag. With this project I tried different ways to anchor the raw edges of the fabric elements and prevent or at least slow the inevitable fraying. Although I was very tempted to add the usual mountain of beads I restricted myself to a few seed bead bubbles for my button fish, some crystal montees for a little sparkle, and some abalone. I had a Picasso moment here with the shell bits. Like all my projects it is imperfect, slightly crooked here and there and not entirely as I imagined it. I think I might change the lining fabric in the future. But as always it was fun, and I feel ready to start on my holiday gift quilts now.

I'm still playing with ideas for my fabric journals. This test piece for the kind of covers I'll make came together out of scraps and a slightly warped linen napkin. I also decided to bead it because it had some cutwork holes that I needed to fill. Okay, I fell off the no-beading wagon again -- but in my defense, I've been doing very well with avoiding beading, so I deserved a little break. Here's the finished test piece. I quilted it with holographic Sulky and also tried some stitch beading. I'm almost there, I think. I might test one other variation before I start making the covers for the project.

I thought I'd keep this week's break from the linen quilt project simple, so I just grabbed three swatches (lavender linen and eco-dyed silk and cotton) from the art cloth basket. I added some pretty threads. I was just going to do some stitching. Honestly. I was still determined not to fall off the no-beading wagon again. You heard the thud yesterday didn't you? Sigh.

It's been eighteen months since I backburnered my crazy silk quilt project, so I got it out to brood over it. It's prettier than I remembered. I hate the pandemic for killing so many people and causing all of us to live in fear. I also resent it for railroading my quilting, especially this project. Part of me want to work on this again. Badly. The rest of me thinks I'll just screw it up. Oh, well. I'm all over the place with my quilting these days anyway. Maybe I'll work on the third block a little tonight and see what happens.

To wrap up my summer art quilt project I used the vintage moire satin to make the binding, and sewed that on. I had to deal with some fraying along the way, and the thickness of the layers at the corners made them hard to square, but I didn't fret over that. This slow-stitched project was about doing, not worrying. This was my third large slow-stitched art quilt, and it taught me a great deal. Embracing the fray would be at the top of that list, ha. Allowing myself to dream while embroidering was another valuable lesson. I loved how this panel turned out. Being able to let go and just stitch helped me relax and work on my mindset to find calm during a fairly busy, chaotic time during Kat's relocation for her work. I'm also happy that nearly every material I used for the project was either vintage or recycled. I'm going with Summer Dreams as the name for the quilt because that's what it gave me. Here's the finished quilt: Now to take ...