A mini, some more masks, and a delivery

This week I made another batch of masks for some friends! I am happy to help those that don't sew and need a mask (not that I really enjoy making them, to be perfectly honest, but I'm doing my part to help family, friends, neighbors, and a local nursing home.) 

Friday was a good mail day as my fabric delivery came! In my last post I mentioned that I was running out of some basic supplies but I was able to order the fabric I needed online since nothing is open locally.  I want to give a shout out to The Fabric Shack! They are working through all the craziness to continue filling orders. They are also waiving shipping charges in the U.S. for now. This is a mother (owner) and daughter team right now and they are doing their best to get fabric out to those in need! It might take a little longer than usual to get your order but it wasn't too long!

I really want to support them so I put in another, bigger order. I will also keep them in mind when I need to order again! If you have any fabric needs, I encourage you to check out The Fabric Shack!

Last Monday, Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict mentioned how she missed sewing with her friends. Her idea was to have a "virtual" sewing meet-up next Monday (tomorrow) with minis that were made since last Monday as a memento of our 2020 Coronavirus Quarantine! I really like this idea as I really wanted to make a quarantine quilt to document this unique time in history!

 A mini is just perfect!

I decided to make my mini with the #Sew Together At Home. That gave me the idea to make a house block with a spool as the 'door' and I drew up a little pattern. Scrounging through my stash, I found the cloud fabric for the background of my house (sky), the red hearts for the 'thread', some red for the banners on the top and bottom. The words are raw edged appliquéd in Kona black. I straight lined machine quilted the sky 1/4" apart, meander in the banners and big stitch hand quilted the house. 

details

This mini is 10" x 12"

(Even though I used the words 'sew' together because this is a sewing meet-up, I could have easily used the word 'so' together because we are 'so together' with our families in this Stay At Home time! I'm sure most of us are not used to being 'so together'.

😩

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

This week my youngest daughter ask me if I could make an artsy wallhanging quilt for her to hang above her bed. She likes a minimalist, modern style. So I looked through some images I saved and....here is a peek. 

This is the 1st quilt that I'm using my natural dyed fabrics from my adventures last summer. You can read about it here. 

 Hope you are getting some quality time in the sewing room! Stay safe and remember we are sew together! 

My August RSC Blocks

I can't believe that it is already a week into August! The summer is flying by!

The August color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is light blues. 

Although I have lots of blue scraps, light blues, not so much. 

Here is the Reverse Star block.

And the Waterfront Starburst block.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday!

Also on August 1st, the cutting instructions for the Meadow Mist Mosaic Mystery Quilt became available. Here are my cuts. 

I still need to cut one of those stacks of background squares into triangles and some borders but I will wait on that until it gets closer to the next step. 

I'm linking up here.

Not that I don't have enough to sew, but I have been back at natural dyeing. I have been trying different materials to dye. I have used black beans, grapefruit (also used oranges but I overdyed the fabric), marigolds, turmeric, madder root, and avocado pits. I also experimented with adding iron and washing soda to change the colors. 

For the second dye bath with marigolds, I decided to try a shibori technique using rubber bands. Below is the results. It is such a pretty yellow with fun markings!

Natural dyeing has been fun...makes me feel like a scientist!

I'll leave you with a sneak peek at what I'm working on...

and a picture of my grandson! Isn't he adorable! 

A finish and some slow progress

After a very busy end of the school year, I finished the T-shirt quilt that I was commissioned! The top was finished in the beginning of May but then it was on hold for a couple of reasons: I needed to complete the charity quilt for the Hands2Help project that I committed to making, I was waiting on the fabric order for the back and binding, and school was hopping at the end of the year so I was working almost every day!

They chose a grid style quilt. Gabby likes aqua blues so I used those colors for the sashings and border. 

The backing is an aqua batik.

Finished and delivered in time for her graduation party!

Then I realized, it was June which meant a new color of the month. I headed over to So Scrappy to find that dark blue will be the color play for June!

Here is Waterfront Starburst in dark blue with a low volume in blue. 

Here are the 6 blocks so far for the 2019 challenge!

And my Reverse Star block.

And all 6 together! 

Little by little I'll catch up on my monthly blocks!

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy.

In the meantime, I was determined to do a little bit of hand dyeing of fabrics. I started with some avocado pits. Would you guess they turn your fabrics pink? 

Avocado pits and skins. 

The avocado bath.

The apron I dyed with the avocado bath. 

The pink yardage is a bit lighter.

I have tried citrus peels but didn't get much color. It turned a very pale yellow. 

I have learned that natural dyeing is a lot of trial and error. 

I'll try a bit more but we will see if it is worth the time.

Now I need to catch up on my Quiet Play Pattern Club blocks!
Linking up to Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts