Valerean

I'm pulling together materials for several spring projects, including some fat quarters I found at the Dollar Tree. They're bright and pretty, and quite colorful, which hopefully inspires me to step outside my November beachy comfort zone. I've never worked with proper faux fur, only Minky, so I thought I'd also try to sew some bunnies from these Dollar Tree squares. Finally I've put together the background fabric and embroidery thread pallete for my vintage linens quilt. The fabric is actually European linen scraps from a sheet maker that sells their manufacturing trimmings, which I already used in two linen quilts in the past. It's really dreamy stuff.

One summer project I was happy to finish last week was my one pound challenge quilt, made from thrifted fabrics chosen by someone else. To keep with the recycled theme I bound it with two leftover scraps of cream colored binding. It turned out quite pretty, with a lovely romantic vibe I really like. This was the first time I tried incorporating lace in the patchwork, and I really liked the whimsy of it. The backing -- made from thrifted fabric from my stash -- worked nicely, too. Here in shadow you can see all the hand stitching. It did take me a month longer than I'd planned to complete, but such is the state of my hands these days. Every time I finish a project like this I feel like I've won a little battle with my arthritis, so it also gave my spirits a wonderful boost.

To finish my memory lap quilt made out of my old t-shirts last month I decided to use some thrifted binding I had on hand versus buying new. It's off white, and pure white would have been a better match. Still, the backing was a thrifted sheet, the batting was thrifted and the embroidery threads were all vintage, so it just felt like the right choice. Once I sewed it on I thought it worked fine, and the quilt was complete. The quilt turned out much prettier than I expected it would; the embroidery was a big help. It also feels like me to me. The back. I learned something from every stage of this project, and while I'm not in a rush to make another quilt out of t-shirts, it was definitely interesting. Detail of the backing, darkened to show the stitching. I surprised myself by making this quilt; I didn't think I had it in me. Now I think I have one more large quilt left in me for this year (which will be the kit.)

This is what the recycled t-shirt throw looked like with a quarter of the embroidery done. It was slow going until I finally got the hang of how to embroider old cotton knit: Carefully. Slowly. Don't try to unpick stitches, either! Ha. I also trimmed and evened out the sides where I needed a little more fabric (my guy donated one of his old t-shirts to the cause.)

When I started embroidering my recycled t-shirt throw I considered stopping as I was making holes in the cotton knit by trying to bury knots and pull the thread through in certain places. Fortunately I got the hang of it fairly quickly. Burying knots is fine from the back side, and I just need to be gentler when I tug on the thread. I'm going with random feather stitching in four different colors of perle thread, and just stitching enough to keep the batting from shifting and bunching in the future.

This is me putting the last quilting stitch in the throw made of my old t-shirts back in July. Because I used big stitches it didn't take long to quilt each block; altogether I stitched on it every night for ten days. I learned many things from this project as well (lesson number one: never make anything to be quilted out of old cotton knit.) There is a little embroidery I have planned for it, and a couple of fixes I need to do to the sides. Although the sheet I thrifted as the backing had a label that said it was 100% cotton, it has a very weird feel to it, almost like a poly-cotton blend (maybe the label is a lie.) It doesn't self-heal well, so every puncture my quilting needle and safety pins made still show. Anyway. Next up will be the embroidery/fix work, and then I'll be able to bind and finish it.

Once I pieced the top for the lap quilt I'm making out of old t-shirts and a thrifted sheet, it was time to pin it together and get on with the quilting. I did have to cut down the sheet to serve as the backing, and I used a low-loft batting that I actually thrifted as well. As I was pinning it together, however, the t-shirt blocks stretched all over the place, forcing me to repin it several times. I expected this but started rethinking my plan to machine quilt it, not only because of the stretching but also the size of the quilt, which is pretty big for a lap. Finally I settled on hand-quilting it with various shades of green perle cotton thread that I had on hand. It will take longer, but I'll be happier.

I'm taking off today to see if I can finish a quilt (more details about it in upcoming posts), so see you tomorrow.

When I saw on their web site that Fabscrap hadn't quite reached their year-end goal of $50K to run their service I decided to place another order and make a donation, too. That order arrived just after Christmas but I was so busy I forgot to post pics. I ordered their card making kit, which came with fabrics, trims and four blank cards. I also got another Ugly Christmas sweater kit (I'm going to use the sweater for another project.) They had a pay what you wish scrap pack listing for scraps with any amount of spandex, which they can't process into shoddy because it gums up their machines. I paid the highest price for five pounds of it, and got mostly browns, which gave me an idea for another project.

Just do this.

On Saturday I finished embroidering the last row of patchwork on my recycled linen quilt, so it was time to bind it. The scraps of linen I had leftover weren't enough for me to make bias binding out of them, so I got this big scrap of Kona white from my stash. Making my own binding isn't difficult, it saves money (a package of 3 yards of the premade now runs about four bucks) and it lets you use up your scraps, too. Here's the finished quilt, which I started on April 7, 2022 (I did not plan to finish it exactly 18 months later, but I like that I did.) It's entirely my design, and taught me quite a bit as I worked on the embroidery. The back of the quilt. I think this is the last large embroidered quilt I'll be making, as my arthritis has gotten a lot worse, and I'm losing function too fast to depend on my hands anymore. Still, I'm satisfied with this being the final one. I've named it Serenity , which is what it brought to me.

It took another two weeks, but I finished embroidering another row of patchwork on the recycled linen quilt. I can never resist taking a pic of the back, as it's just as neat as the front of the quilt. I got stuck for a couple days on the center patchwork, and the feather-stitched circle I tried with the stitches changing direction with each new row. I felt as if I'd run out of ideas for the embroidery. Slow stitch is mindful, and once I stopped worrying and just let the serenity of the process calm me, new ideas started coming to me. To acknowledge the process I embroidered "Serenity is a state of mind" on the quilt. One more row of patchwork to embroider, and I'll be ready to bind the quilt.

For my first quilt recycling project I decided to use this little doll quilt. It's about ten years old, made of scraps of different cotton, flannel and knit fabrics, and has no batting. It was also tied rather than quilted, which makes it easier to take apart. What I appreciated about this little piece was the softness of the fabrics, and the fact that they'd weathered plenty of use and laundering. My first task was to separate the quilt into its original components: top, backing, binding. I put the binding away for use in another project, discarded the old yarn ties, and grabbed two of those white cotton utility cloths that I'd washed to serve as my foundations. I pieced the top and backing with some batting, and grid-quilted both with an perle thread in an antique gold color. All the materials I'll be using in these projects are either thrifted, vintage or scrap. I used big stitches for the quilting, as I wanted a particular look. Finally ...