My Chains are Gone

Thanksgiving comes a week early for me this year!

A week before I finished a baby quilt for my newest neighbor last July, I finished the quilt top and backing for my mother-in-law from the same fabric. The Home on the Range fabric I initially bought to teach my mother-in-law to quilt. The quilt that has been a thorn in my side since 2022.

I finished (and presented) the baby quilt in no time (but still late for the by-then two-month-old), and then life (and Parkinson's) stress took off again. The sandwiched but unquilted mother-in-law quilt resumed its stressful heart pricking because I hung it on the top of my quilt rack (custom built by Lizard's stepdad not long after we bought our house) to remind myself every day that I needed to finish it. Preferably before my mother-in-law's November birthday to cure my self-inflicted stress and hopefully enable myself to move on to other more enjoyable projects.

Her birthday was Tuesday.

I finished quilting the quilt last Saturday. That's right. In one day. Simple straight-line quilting I had hoped Lizard might be able to do at least a portion of. (He hoped, too. It just didn't happen. We're still hoping he can one day tackle the longarm again... Tremors might actually help his free-motion quilting.)

At 10:38 p.m. Tuesday night, on my mother-in-law's birthday, I finished the binding. Hallelujah!!!

Lizard's mom will be here Tuesday, and Lizard will present her late birthday present in person. She has no idea it's coming. She might be disappointed Lizard wasn't able to do any of the sewing or quilting. But a stack of the Home on the Range fabric remains... Maybe I can piece a pillow, and Lizard can help me stuff it...

Why on earth would I ever put that kind of pressure on myself again??? Oh, yeah, to get rid of the leftovers... :)

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So Close

Thread ends on the back still need to be woven in. It needs to be washed and properly photographed. And it needs to be mailed. But Baby Evelyn's quilt is coming right along! It's the first quilt I've finished since Matthew's quilt in August of 2022. I knew it had been a long time, but, oh, my goodness! Hopefully I can keep progressing now!

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Dyed and Gone to Heaven

I haven't dyed in so long, I had to look up the instructions!

Yes, I was naughty. Or knotty. Take your pick. I dyed and went to heaven. I'd promised myself I wouldn't dye any more crochet thread until I'd used up some of what I've got.

On the very bright side, I am using up a few of the 25 shades in my 2023 crochet temperature project. And to be clear, I didn't dye (yet) to replace colors that are running low. I really do plan to substitute in existing colors as close to the original project colors as possible as I run out.

But ultimtely, I could not resist. I had bought two bags of sweat sets to replace the decades-old sweat bottoms that literally are coming apart at the inseams. The set came with two colors I will never wear. I thought I could dye the homely grayish bluish green and practice once again achieving darker colors. I thought that would soothe my dye yearning.

Nope.

For starters, the sweats apparently are not the percentage of cotton the label claims. There must be a lot of polyester in there. At least on the outside.) The insides of the ugly sweats are AMAZING after a multi-hour soak in the darkest blue and darkest purple I own, mixed together. The unattractive blue on the outside (and, mind you, blue is my favorite color, so this is truly a mundane blue!!!) hasn't changed a bit. It's just not a color I wear. Perhaps I should wear them inside-out...

I couldn't just waste all the rest of that gorgeous dye, now could I?

I digitally muted my dyed crochet thread to harmonize with the ugly sweats. Ha ha ha!

I started with just one hank of thread. But it came out SO friggin' gorgeous, I decided to do a gradient and wound two more hanks. Because... you can never have enough gradients!!! I'd never tried mixing the dark blue and dark purple before. Most of the pigment did adhere to the inside of the sweats, but there was enough left for three absolutely stunning hanks of thread!!!

And, oh, my gosh, look at how the colors split when I stuck them in the sun to ferment!!! I couldn't have achieved this intentionally if I'd tried! They will be lighter once washed and dried, but still, how heavenly!!!

No regrets!!!

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