A Warm up Begins & Kantha Project

   Good evening, a warm up is slowly coming on scene.  Still very frigid in the evenings, but during the day we have no wind and full sunshine. Sun makes such a big difference. We got to around 30 F yesterday but the snow is still melting slowly, and the ice has broken away from the docks-a very good thing. I did just see that we have  more wintery weather returning soon.

  I did get the steps cleared off the other day, but the hill to the top is very icy as the snow melts and then turns to ice at night. As long as I have snow on the hill-I can get up there to check the mail

 Awhile back I shared Kantha fabrics that I had gotten as a gift from a friend in my Christmas box.  These are vintage old quilts that have been cut up into different sizes to use in craft projects. I was intrigued by these so I found a shop I liked on Etsy and ordered another assortment.  This bundle I got in the mail a couple days ago- had a dozen of large squares around 12 to 14 inches or so and also several sizes half that size-so those can be sewn into a block.

   I got to thinking I could put together a quilt for the couch-lightweight-perfect for spring and summer. These pieces are three layers of thin cotton-all different designs-and then were hand sewn together in long running stitches.   

    In the past I had made several blue jean quilts-those blocks are layered with jeans and batting in the middle sewn together with seams exposed.  Then those seams were all snipped towards the quilt to create a fringe.  I am thinking of doing the same with these Kantha pieces, as there are different designs on both sides of these old quilt pieces.  I know another project starting-but this hopefully will go fairly fast. I don't think I will even square up the blocks first to be the same size (would waste fabric) -just go for it to see what happens Trim the sides straight after sewing together the rows.  

 I really liked the shop owner on Etsy here. So I wanted to share her shop for any of you that enjoy sewing projects. She was very helpful putting another bundle together for me with just those two sizes of pieces I want  The link takes you to her Kantha fabrics but she also carries so much more. She has a you tube channel as well.

  I thought this was interesting-these types of old quilts cut into pieces for new projects-I have not seen this before-great way to repurpose

as always better viewing if you click to enlarge

She even has vintage yo yo's-that would save a lot of time for stitching up into a quilt. Years ago I tried making these-sooo time consuming to make these so I stopped that project.

  

Here are a few photos of the Kantha blocks I pulled for a quilt.  This will make into a very light weight quilt but I think I will like it. I am not usually drawn to this type of color pallet but I like the colorfulness of these pieces-and these were all hand stitched so I honor that.

I am thinking to sew together strip rows in the down line of blocks-and then trim of the edges so that will be straight to sew the next row to it.

Below are the half blocks that will be mixed in with the above blocks. (wool rag rug is handwoven by a neighbor of my Mom's many years ago when she was still living on the family farm-these rugs are treasures and I have several of these that I still use after all these years. They are placed in light foot traffic areas

  I have been dealing with a really bad tooth or perhaps a couple and are now getting infected-I found a partial bottle of antibiotics that I am stretching out with the herbal medicines. My dentist appointment is not until the second week in February-this dentist is always hard to get in to see him. My car on top is still not shoveled out-hoping for more melting today.

 

    Have an Awesome day

Cleaning my Art/Craft Room & New Paint Supplies & Happy New Year

    Brrrr  still cold here, but the sun is shinning and no wind anymore as it has moved on.

       I decided I needed to tackle my art/craft room this morning, along with the coffee table in front of the living room tv which was piled high with books etc.

   Felt good to get my craft room tidied up and cleaned-the motivation was I need my desk top to get cleared off-for room to paint. The coffee table will get filled up with sewing supplies for those bags I am making.. My plan is to work on these in January and February I still have not tried a toothbrush rug yet but I have lots of fabric strips ready for that project.

  I bought some fun painting supplies that I think I will really love. 

    I found on Amazon an off brand of gouache tubes with lots of different colors - a student grade at a really good price-Inside was information and also a chart to put dots of paint colors on to-I have not done that before. The amazon reviews were pretty good-most people liking the paint and the extras in the box.

  I also wanted to upgrade to something fun for water and I spotted this stacked ceramic dish set with lid-which will be perfect for working with the water based gouache-I love fun supplies don't you?  I had been using the lid in my watercolor paint set up so now the gouache will have it's own space.

This is what I am using now

My new pieces-I think I will love these The two stoneware dishes I will use for water

   I usually find what I am looking for on Pinterest for ideas-I found these little bags made from the Kantha fabrics I want to make these to go inside the bags I am making-need to figure out the draw string closing on the top..

I liked these too

   My postcards are finally moving in the postal system-several friends have let me know they just got them different days this week  So far the international ones have not gotten through.

    Any plans for New Years Eve?  For a few years when we lived at the woods home we went to an early evening party at a good friend's home  He boiled shrimp and everyone brought sides-good eats.  When he got ill and stopped doing that, I started doing a shrimp boil for the two of us.  Last time I looked at shrimp -it didn't look all that great-so haven't decided what I will make this year.

    I will be watching the country music New Year's Eve Show-I enjoyed it the last couple of years.

    

Happy New Years