Monday, June 28, 2021

Charity quilt #3 with overdyed fabric

This is the third quilt top that I've made with the overdyed fabric that I made with scraps given to me by a friend.  The other two were in the navy and royal blue tones.   This one was made with the turquoise fabric and some of her black scraps.  I added a bit of gray here and there to lighten it up a bit.  It's 65" x 70" and is intended for a male recipient.  It's been donated to our Clark County Quilters charity group.  

The main thing that I learned from making this quilt is an old lesson - pay attention to the value of the fabrics.  I don't think this quilt is successful for that very reason.  I mixed light turquoise with dark fabrics, and medium and dark turquoise with med and light grays.  Rather than a strong zig zag pattern, I ended up with a mish mash.  Lesson learned (again!).

Here was my inspiration, which has a strong value difference between the red and the gray/black background.  I found this on Pinterest and am assuming it was a quilt designed by Victoria Finley called "Fractured".  I fell in love with the modern graphic nature of this quilt.


And here is the quilt that I made:


Here's how I sewed this quit together:

Unit #1  Start with 46 of each color, stack them right side up, do the slash 2” from the left top to 4” from the left bottom.  Swap the top and bottom layers on one side and sew back together.  Trim to 5-1/2” x -5-1/2”.  You’ll end up with 92 each 5-1/2” squares.

Unit #2  Start with 41 of each color, stack them right side up, do the slash 4” from the left top to 2” from the left bottom.  Swap the top and bottom layers on one side and sew back together.  Trim to 5-1/2” x -5-1/2”.  You’ll end up with 82 each 5-1/2” squares.

Solid squares  Cut 8 each 5-1/2” solid squares

Sewing

Lay out the squares according to the picture below and by this count:

Row 1:  5 each Unit #1; 7 each Unit #2 and 1 solid block

Row 2:  8 each Unit #1; 5 each Unit #2

Row 3:  5 each Unit #1; 7 each of Unit #2 and 1 solid block

Row 4:  5 each Unit #1; 8 each Unit #2

Row 5:  5 each Unit #1; 7 each Unit #2 and 1 solid block

Row 6:  4 each Unit #1; 9 each Unit #2

Row 7:  8 each Unit #1; 4 each Unit #2 and 1 solid block 

Row 8:  6 each Unit #1; 6 each Unit #2 and 1 solid block

Row 9:  8 each Unit #1; 5 each Unit #2

Row 10:  7 each Unit #1; 5 each Unit #2 and 1 solid block

Row 11:  8 each Unit #1; 5 each Unit #2

Row 12:  9 each Unit #1; 3 each Unit #2 and 1 solid block

Row 13:  6 each Unit #1; 7 each Unit #2

Row 14:  8 each Unit #1; 4 each Unit #2 and 1 solid block

Sew the columns together and press alternate rows opposite directions.

Sew the rows together.  Press in one direction.

Stay stitch 1/8” around all the edges.  I started with 6" squares, layered them right sides up, slashed them on the diagonal, then switched the pieces to form two new squares.  Those squares were trimmed to 5-1/2".   


I hope you like the quilt and can use the pattern!

Friday, June 25, 2021

Charity quilt #2 with overdyed fabric

This is the second quilt that I made from the overdyed fabric.  Again, it is intended for a man.  

It is entirely made from 5-1/2" squares of dark fabric, and 112 half square triangles made from light and dark fabrics.  All were scraps given to me by a friend.  It is 60" x 70".


I hope you like it.

Monday, June 21, 2021

Comfort quilt for a man from overdyed fabric

This is a quilt that I made from the over-dyed fabric.  It is intended for a man, which our charity group always needs.  It was made with 5-1/2" squares of fabric set on the diagonal axis, and 5-1/2" half square triangles in the rest of the rows and columns.  To make this 60" x 70" quilt, you'll need 24 solid squares and 144 of the half square triangles (made from 72 dark and light 6" squares).  


I hope you like it.

Monday, June 14, 2021

Overdying old fabric

I got another box of old fabric from a fellow quilter.  Since our quilt guild is always looking for charity quilts that are appropriate for a man, I decided to overdye most of this box with blue dye.  First, it all had to be washed to get rid of any sizing.  Here is the pile:


YouTube is so great!  Whenever I want to try something new, I always look there first.  Somebody has almost always posted a video on how to do something.  So, when I wanted to learn how to overdye fabric, that was where I went.  So many people have posted videos and almost all of them recommended Procion fiber reactive dyes and soda ash.  I've shopped at Dharma Trading and Blick Art Supplies many times before, and decided to order from Blick since they offered starting kits.  My friend also loaned me her dying supplies.  I ended up using navy blue, royal blue, turquoise and black in different mixtures.  The Dollar store was a good place to shop for dye containers cheaply and I purchased 5 dye tubs, measuring cups, rubber gloves, and squirt tubes.  I repurposed a gallon jug and a few quart sizes pop containers.

The process was fairly simple.  Wet your fabric.  Dissolve the dye powder in the plastic cups (and mix with urea if needed).  Dissolve the soda ash with water in the gallon jug.    Scrunch the fabric in the dye tub.  Dilute the dye concentrate with water.  Pour the dye over the fabric and manipulate.  Wait 15 minutes.  Pour the diluted soda ash over the fabric and manipulate again.  Let it sit for one hour.  Rinse the fabric thoroughly to release the excess dye.  Wash the fabric in hot water with Synthropol.  Dry and iron.  

Of course, I failed to take pictures through the entire process!  Ugh.  Well, anyway, here is the finished pile of fabric. 

I found the book "Color by Accident" on low-water immersion dyeing immensely helpful.  The book was written and published by Ann Johnston of Lake Oswego, Oregon.

I like the end results, don't you?

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Quilt Sewing Day with the Undercover Quilters

One thing that the COVID-19 isolation created was a huge need to get together with some long-time quilting friends.  The Undercover Quilters has been going strong for at least 25 years.   We've seen each others' kids grow up, get married and have their own kids.  Some of us have moved.  Some divorced.  Some of our kids have been divorced.  Some are just about to get married.  Through it all, most of us are still making quilts and still trying to see each other as often as we can.

Once the isolation and restrictions lifted, and we all got vaccinated, we started meeting once a month for a day of sewing and friendship.  Here's a picture of us in June 2021.  I'm so thankful that the group still includes me, even though I've moved away from the Portland, OR area several times.  And it was so nice to see them all again.

Here we are:


I hope you all have good friends like I do!  

Monday, June 7, 2021

Crocheted hot pads

My mother used to make crochet hot pads by the dozens.  Everyone in the family has several and we all use them.  Totally washable, they are useful and colorful.  Nobody seemed to have a copy of the pattern.  Then, viola!  My youngest sister found two copies in a box of stuff.  She set out to make them, but didn't know how to crochet.  She asked me to help her.  Little did she know that it would be the blind leading the blind!

We both struggled with the first couple of rounds of crochet and discovered that our tension was too tight, or too loose and we had "bowls" and "flowers".  I tore mine out and started over.  She kept going.  We both learned a lot from each other and YouTube.  I quit counting my stitches and developed a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants method.  My sister kept going with the pattern.  In the end, we were able to make only one hot pad that was of any use.  

I decided to rewrite the pattern to make it easier to crochet and easier to count stitches.  It's not the original star pattern, but simply rounds of single crochet and double crochet.  Good enough for me.    

HELEN’S HOT PADS
(revised)

 First color:
Chain 4, join.
Row 1              Chain 3, 16 DC’s in circle, join (16)
Row 2              Chain 3, DC in same space as Chain 3, 2 DC’s in each of 16 DC’s. (32)  Join. Cut yarn.
 
2nd color
Row 3              Attach yarn. SC in 4 DC’s, SC in same as last stich (adding a stitch), SC in next 4 DC’s, add a stitch and continue in rest of row in same pattern.  Adding 8 stitches total.  (40) Join.
Row 4              Chain 3, DC in each stitch.  (40) Join.  Cut yarn.
 
First color       
Row 5              Attach yarn.  SC in 5 DC’s, SC in same as last stitch (adding a stitch), SC in next 5 DC’s, add a stitch, and continue in rest of row in same pattern.  Adding 8 stitches total.  (48)  Join.
Row 6              Chain 3, DC in each stitch, 2 DC every 6 stitches, adding 8 stitches. (56)  Join.  Cut yarn.
3rd color
Row 7              Attach yarn.  SC in 7 DC’s, SC in same as last stitch (adding a stitch), SC in next 7 DC’s, add a stitch, and continue in rest of row in same pattern.  Adding 8 stitches total.  (64)  Join.
Row 8              Chain 3, DC in each stitch, 2 DC every 8 stitches, adding 8 stitches.  Join. (72) Cut yarn.
 
First color
Row 9              Attach yarn.  SC in 9 DC’s, SC in same as last stitch (adding a stitch), SC in next 9 DC’s, add a stitch, and continue in rest of row in same pattern.  Adding 8 stitches total.  (80)  Join.
 
Make 2 pads the same.
 
Joining the pads
Place the two pads together with all the loose yarn in the middle. 
Using same color as row 9 (First color), Attach yarn.  SC in one SC.  Skip one SC, make shell
stitch in next SC.  (Shell stitch is 5 DC’s in same SC).  Skip next SC space and SC in next
stitch, skip SC space, Shell stitch.  Repeat all the way around.  There should be 20 scallops on
the outside edge.  Join. Cut yarn.  Bury yarn ends.


Here are a pair that I crocheted from the revised pattern.

Nice memories.