Wool quilt

I have been working on a wool quilt for grandson #8. I just finished it.

This is made out of thrift store wool sweaters. When I get them home I wash them in hot water and dry them. These are not felted a lot, but enough that the edges didn't fray when I cut them. For years I have seen in magazines and on-line the occasional wool sweater quilts and they all seemed to have bulky, puckered seams. I knew that I did not want that look so decided to butt the seams instead of the standard seam. Each place I started and stopped the feather stitching I knotted the threads and hid them on the back. (Bette White shows a cool technique that I might try next time :))
Once I chose the 3 sweaters I thought I could get to work together I over-dyed the yellow sweater with a stronger, brighter yellow. (It started out a very pale yellow.) I decided on the size based on the pockets in the lighter blue sweater and cut as many 6 inch squares as I could then I cut 3" squares then 1.5 inch squares. After laying them out I figured out what and how many yellows I needed. I also used the scraps to practice my seams and made a couple of postcards with them:

(I used all of the blue sweaters but have the back left of the yellow.)

The sweater squares kept creeping forward when stitching. First I tried a spray adhesive, it still moved. So I tried basting each piece down:

It still moved and those stitches were a pain to remove. So I used strips of steam a seam 2 under each seam, ironing it to a very thin interfacing, then stitched. It worked much better. After getting each block made I laid them out on the guest room bed.and rearranged it, and rearranged it, and played with it some more.

Then I went to EQ7 ( I love EQ7.)

 Then I sewed it together. THEN I tried to figure out how to bind it and quilt it. I thought maybe satin blanket binding.....NO that looked horrible. I even considered knitting my own binding....I went to Painted Pony 'n Quilts (a great quilt shop) and Tonya helped me select the only fabric even close to the right colors, a plaid.

 I decided to back it with thin-wale corduroy (since nothing else looked good- although now I think the plaid would have been fine). I tried to find a flannel but didn't. (now I've found a quilt shop that carries more flannel; Quilters Emporium in Stafford, TX)

 I added a border of yellow and cut the interfacing out from behind the blocks. So the back of the top looks like this:

In trying to figure out how to quilt this the pockets kept getting in the way so I got my magnifying light out and managed to pick them off. I gave the pockets to a friend to monogram the baby's last initial (no first name has been decided on) and the year of birth; '15. (Then after all the quilting I sewed them back on-the hardest part of the whole quilt!)

I would have liked to quilt a design that would allow the quilt to drape better but since I'm unsure of the strength of those butted seams I went with a tight baptist fan. The pin-wale corduroy on the back feels wonderful but the quilt is a little stiff. Next time maybe I'll leave the batting out.

This will be used for years. Unlike the baby quilts I've made in the past this will have a place on their couch every winter, at least as long as they live in a cold climate.
I LOVED trying something new and using some of my bin of wool....now to make one out of cashmere.....
When I asked for one more picture my son did this:

You CAN still see the quilt.....

Valentines 2015

I saw these 'spool cards' on Pinterest...never even opened the link, just saw one pictures and decided to do my valentines with the idea. I also has some thrifted sweaters and a velvet skirt, black, and this big jar of labels that I cut out of everything..

Here are my 3 completed valentine's:

I guess you'd like me to open them...

Doesn't look like at least 5 hours of time does it....and that's for each one. The base is a strip of linen cut from a pr of thrifted pants...that also determined the length. They each had this at the beginning;

Then I did different things. My Mother's was just hearts and a few words...

The next 2 got tags;

(Blogger took my picture and turned it over...explain this to me please....)

This one has more hand stitching and some charms;

When I was finished I wonder-undered an old valentine print from my childhood to the back and stitched the edge down. One got a button, the other 2 have rick rack to tie them shut with.

I glued the strip to the spool with E6000 glue. The one spool that did not have a label got a heart on top. They were fun to make, now I need to get them mailed.

P.S. So, Friday they were in the car ready to mail but I ran out of time... Then Saturday I had an idea and I opened the packages and added some bags for them....
My first one is for my husband;

 UGLY! I had to get the seam ripper out and redo this guy;

Cute but then I did this;

Darling! Here I am blowing my own horn but I loved this. Then I needed one more;

Here they are all together;

The front of one linen pant leg sacrificed for the good of Valentine's Day.
They are in the mail now with an altoid can filled with fudge for my DAD. Hope they enjoy these, I enjoyed making them.

postcard

I continue to send a post card practically every day....Here is the one I did yesterday;

If you look real hard you can tell where the cluttered background ends and the post card begins. The heart trails off the card a little bit. I hope the post office will let it through. This is grandson number 7 and even though he is 18 months old he will still cuddle. So lovely to hold a cuddly baby.

Last week I sent 2 that were experiments on seaming some felted wool sweaters that I'm using to make grandson #8 (due in May) a quilt.

This is the first one, I sewed the pieces to a piece of heavy fabric and the wool crept ahead of the needle. BUT, the seam did not ripple
Here is the second one;

This one is sewn with navy thread...I like the yellow better. I glued each piece to thin piece of interfacing. The glue washes out...but there was still a little creeping and the seam did not ripple. Every recycled sweater quilt I have seen in magazines the seams were rippled. So I hoped that butting the seams would eliminate the ripple. I'm going ahead with the quilt.

Relief Society Invitations

I have an assignment at our church that involves an evening meeting once a month for the women in our congregation. The February meeting is going to be fun; about repurposing items for your home. So the invitation I designed started out like this;

Well, actually it started out with just a strip of a page from a book. I did 4 of those and decided to use some scraps that were in my trashcan. Literally. The zipper part came out of the trash as did the blue and white scrap. (When I cut up a shirt to use in a quilt I throw away the interfaced bits, collar and cuffs.) So I made 50 of these. Then I had a couple pieces left over so I put 2 fabrics on a few...then I saw a scrap of a red felted wool sweater and added a heart! I love these;

 You can see a red and white scrap from a collar of a mans shirt and a plaid from an old dish towel of mine.
 Here I started cutting up a new shirt so I just used a section of the buttons;

Here they are in my granite wear colander; I loved doing this.

Sashing for Leaf quilt

I haven't forgotten the leaf quilt, just been busy. I have most of the sashing and border cut. If I were to guess how many pairs of pants were needed for this quilt.....Takes several, how's that?

Really.... I got the final border out of 1 pair of pants and a skirt. With cutting as much of the 3.5 inch sashing as I could get out of the leftovers...190 inches with a needed 528 inches meant another pair for the sashing. That's 3 pair of black pants for the settings. To make the block blackgrounds I needed 2 pr. of pants (actually I had one skirt and 1 pr of pants) Each of the color parts came from a different piece of clothing, although I could have gotten 8 blocks from each pr. of pants, I chose to use many different ones. (Here size matters; a large man's pair of pants will be much more fabric than a woman's size 5, and they shrink very differently.)So my sum-up is very loose, several times I had to wait until I found more fabric. Then it needed picked apart  (it will shrink funny at seams and hems), pressed, washed once or twice, pressed.

• background 2 pr. pants
• leaves 2 pr. of pants
• sashing and border 3 pr. of pants
• inner border, scraps of leaves fabric

That's 7 pr of pants! Of course I didn't figure this out before I started. I didn't exactly use all pants; one of my oranges was from a tan/brown yardage and I found a long pleated wool skirt that I used for some of the border/sashing. There will be random seams in the sashing since I'm using some shorter pieces of wool from the pants I cut the border out of.


I'm learning a few things working with wool.

•  I need to use more pins and there is
•  no finger pressing. 
•  I kept the iron on and pressed each seam open to cut down on the bulk.
•  I did not care if the fabrics were of different weights, so some of them were bulkier than others. 
• Check for moth holes! I found a tiny one after cutting out the leaf... :(
• Take apart before washing
• Jackets are a pain to use, so much interfacing that you don't get much usable fabric...You can pull some of the interfacing off but it's more work than pants or skirts.I didn't use any jackets in the making of this quilt. But I have 4 hanging in the closet for the next one! Hey at $0.99 they will be worth it, I hope. ( I am waiting for my husband to try them on, if they fit he'll wear them this winter.)

My inspiration was a couple of utility quilts that I've seen. One was very like what I imagine a wagga is (slang to refer to an Australian wool utility quilt). One of my customers showed it to me, very heavy, rectangles of wool on the front and back. I wish I'd taken photographs of it  Very dark random pieces. Then I have a pin;

of this wool Welsh quilt but the pin goes nowhere so I don't know where I got it. and a google search does not bring it up. This quilt actually got me started ...then the season I was in dictated leaves....Halloween dictated orange leaves....I had lots of black fabric or so I thought....So I will continue. I am now wondering what to put on the back...I know it won't be wool, I'd like to be able to pick this quilt up!  I'd love suggestions....
Then there are the scraps! What to do? What to do? I have a fun little project (that keeps getting bigger) that I started. You may have to wait until NEXT September to see it though, Oh dear I just thought of a Christmas one to do.....

Last leaf

Since we are having a party here Saturday I needed to get the leaves off the floor. But first I needed to dye another piece of fabric;

I found 2 scraps of the same color of red plaid. Unfortunately I forgot to cut off of piece of the one I decided to dye. The top is the dyed piece but they started out the same color just slightly different plaids, even the other colors were the same.
Since I was dyeing I might as well try to redye some of the other pieces I hadn't been excited about. I had seen a youtube video on how to dye wool for rug hooking and was going to follow their instructions instead of the instructions that were on the package of dye. Here's the video.

See how uneven the dye job is? I had read that wool is hard to get wet so I had soaked it in water for 20 minutes. The unevenness is fine for a leaf....

Here I soaked the scraps overnight and it is much more even. I also brought it to a boil and simmered it for 1 hour. The first 3,4? times I dyed I brought it to an 'almost simmer' for 30 minutes.
Here's my last leaf;

Now I need more black wool for sashing. I can pick it up off the floor until I get more wool! :)

Leaves

I have a quilting decision to make...I made too many leaves....Had to see how it would look.

So I can go with my original plan

 and eliminate 2 leaves or

or make 1 more...and get a bigger quilt!
I think a red plaid over dyed orange is just what I need. Anyone with a skirt left over from high school?
What's a quilter to do?

New reason to diet!

Just yesterday I was bemoaning my lack of black wool; so I decided to look in my own closet. I have a pair of black wool pants! And wonder of wonders they are too big! WAY TOO BIG! I can justify getting rid of them too big. Wow! I bought them at the thrift store years ago, during my hunt for wool, and they fit so I've worn them each winter since then, probably 5 years. I paid $.99 for them. (Most of the wool pants/skirts I find now are about $4.) They missed out on the wool purge I did last year 'cause they were hanging in my closet.

 Do my pants look right at home?

Just my favorite block....today anyway.
NOW

• I can finish the blocks for my leaf quilt now.
• I'm motivated to go walking 3 miles today.
• I'm motivated to get rid of the rest of the chocolate Halloween candy; and not by eating it!

Now I'll have to find a use for the red wool skirt I have....Surely I no longer fit in it either.