How the Week Went

      This week has flown by.  I did spend some downtime thinking about a quilting friend who passed suddenly Tuesday evening.  We will miss her. 

    I quilted one day on my Strips and Strings quilt. So far I have quilted some darker areas with dark green thread. I have much more to quilt.

 

I prefer to quilt when I am fresh in the morning. With 2 mornings this week taken up with an appointment and guild and an afternoon lost to appointment that only left a couple of afternoons to sew. 

   I pulled out this paper-piecing UFO and made good progress.  All the paper-pieced units are finished.

    That is it for this week. Hope you enjoy a great weekend and also find time to enjoy some time sewing or quilting.

Watercolor Block Play and Finishes

   Several years ago a church quilt friend passed and our group was given 4 yards of fusible grid interfacing that can be used for watercolor quilts.  I offered to demo the method for others.  I precut interfacing blocks and made up kits for the others to make a block or 2.  A few in the group did a block a few years ago.  Here is the quilt from 2016.

Today we were reminded of the importance of value as we laid out the blocks. 

    

        

Hope someone will be interested in doing more since we still have several yards of the fusible grid interfacing.

    A friend asked me to make a Quilt of Valor for his best friend who served during the Vietnam War.  It is finished. 

I hope it will be presented to him soon, but I don’t know when.

    When I made the border blocks, I also made two sets so another QOV can have the same border.

    In my efforts to finish up projects, I made 2 more placemats to go with 2 made a couple of years ago.  Now the 4 will make a nice gift along with a blue wrapped coil basket.

  

With our very warm weather now is a great time to stay inside and sew.  Hope you get to enjoy some time sewing or quilting.

I have linked up with Alycia for Finished or Not Friday and 
Sarah for Whoop Whoop Friday.  Check out the fun projects  others are working on. 

Dye Using the Microwave

     I’m still clearing some unfinished projects and finding all kinds.  At the NC Quilt Symposium in the summer of 2010, I took Velda Newman’s class on “Texture and Form”. (Don’t think she teaches anymore.)  Yesterday I found the incomplete projects from the class.  I find it VERY difficult to throw the pieces away. I expect it is the way I was brought up by parents who grew up during The Great Depression. Instead, I want to do something with them. At least I can make a placemat, table topper or wall-hanging.

     I refreshed my memory on how to dye with Rit Dye in the microwave.  You can find the instructions here. 

 Here are my pieces before dye: 

melon shape –texture was created by stitching with a layer of batting on the back and cheese cloth on top of the main fabric.

Basket shape- texture was created by stitching contour lines with a layer of batting on the back of the main fabric. 

Here they are after the dye process: 

 I can image the melon with a vine and leaves. 

 I plan to add some highlights and shading with fabric markers or paint.   Velda did multiple empty baskets but I think mine needs some flowers. 

     

What do you do with incomplete projects and orphan blocks?

Hope you enjoy time sewing or quilting.