Retro Flowers!

Sometime in September I stumbled upon The Retro Flowers Quilt and fell in love.  It was charming!  Simple, bold, striking!  So many possibilities!  I had some leftover fabric from the Vortex Quilt, and set out to recreate the Retro Flowers in solids.



I cut out all of the colored bits and *most* of the white - I used some scrap muslin from one of the sample dresses from my wedding.  And I started sewing.  And sewing.  I worked on this project off and on - whenever I got the sewing machine out, I'd sew up another flower square, bundle everything back up, and let it rest again.  My project rhythm was broken up a bit when I had to cut out more of the white arcs, and that's when the project went on a many-months-long hiatus.

The other day I got everything out again - it was time to just Finish This.  And so I did:



I made 17 flowers, so there will be one included on the back of the quilt.  The top measures about 60" or so square - I put a few inches of sashing around the whole thing.  I ended up supplementing the leftover solids with 5 more colors.  Next will be finding a suitable backing fabric and quilting this baby up!

This project was immensely satisfying - once everything is cut, the flowers go fairly quickly, and it's wonderful to have a completed square in a short time.  I didn't spend too much time figuring out he final placement of the squares - at that point I just wanted them all attached, and I figured it would look fine no matter where they ended up.  I'll likely make another one of these - I think it would be a great stash-buster to make one with prints!

As Promised: SHIRT MAYHEM!

With skirt madness temporarily sated, D expressed interest in picking up a pattern to make some Hawaiian style shirts.  In fact, he wanted to make them himself.  So off we went to pick out a pattern.



This is Simplicity 5581.  The shirt is pretty easy to make, except for the collar (of course) which is pretty fidgety (as collars go).  I've had this fabric forEVER, and it was great to put it to use.

Next up, D wanted to make one a shirt too.  I figured the best way to go about this would be for us EACH to make a shirt at the same time. This way I could walk him through some of the more difficult parts and use the shirt I was working on as the model/demo.  After a run to gather here to pick up some more fabric, we got to work.  Two shirts later.....



(this is the one that I worked on)



...and ROBOTS!  This is the one that he worked on.  Pretty great, right?!?!?!

Next up: QUILTS!

More Sewing!!!

For a brief moment in early April, it was spring skirt weather here in New England. This was, of course, very short lived, but it was long enough for me to eagerly tackle many of the fabric piles I had purchased with the specific intent of making skirts.

Things got a little bit crazy.

First, this denim-type skirt.  The lovely Miss Walsh was over with a delightful jean skirt on, and I reverse-engineered this from my memory of what her skirt looked like.  I added pockets - REAL POCKETS, not those dinky fake pockets - and went crazy with the top-stitching.  It's a maroon duck-cloth and it's mighty comfortable.

So nice, in fact, that I made it twice:

This one is with a Cotton/Linen blend Echino print.  I'm really thrilled with how the piping on this one turned out!  And it was easy.

I changed things up a bit after that:

This is just a simple reverse box-pleat skirt in a much lighter cotton.  No pockets.  Invisible zipper.  

And the last one (for now!) - this is another reverse-engineered number.  It's based on a skirt that I wore CONSTANTLY and is made from a linen/cotton blend.  Again with the top-stitching!  Apparently that's my "thing".  This one is a bit longer, has some more swing and drape.  No pockets.

Next up:  SHIRT MAYHEM

Some Sewing

I got this awesome new sewing machine for my birthday - It's the Singer 160 and it is replacing my much-loved 25 year-old Kenmore. (I really wish there was a simple way to attach an odometer to these machines because I'd love to know the "mileage" I've put on it.) The Singer is great - my old machine was missing the wide-bed attachment for a loooong time, so it's great to have a nice wide bed to hold things a bit more. It's also super smooth and quiet - the Kenmore was like a freight train! I had been considering getting a new machine for quite some time, and when I saw this I knew it was the machine for me - not too many bells and whistles, slightly more high-tech than the Kenmore, and completely humpable. So with a new machine, what else to do but SEW???? First up, I finished up this Two-Zip Hip Bag. This was a great test for the new machine, as the pattern has you sewing through something like 12 thicknesses of decorator-weight fabric. It's also got some tiny, mildly fidgety bits. I'm thrilled with how it came out. And it was another chance to use my favorite goat fabric from IKEA. Next up, this adorable fitted tablecloth: This is from a pattern in Home Sewn: French General, which is a charming book full of linen. I modified the way I approached the pattern a bit. This is a cotton/linen blend from Jo-Ann Fabric. I also made a slightly larger one in red, with a non-scalloped border. Next up: CLOTHING. QUILTS.

Spiralling

Two months ago, The American Folk Art Museum held the "Infinite Variety" quilt show in New York for 4 days. Sadly, I did not get a chance to see it in person, but the pictures that were popping up all over the place were inspiring. I was especially intrigued by this one - the optical illusion effect, the simplicity of the design, the whole thing! I HAD TO FIGURE IT OUT.

So when I'm still thinking about it two months later? Yeah, that's a sign that I have to make it. I got out my handy protractor and started to chart the whole thing - I planned on using this lovely pile of colors that I picked up with Kelly in January:


We got a 1/2 yard of each of those 12 Kona Solids - the idea was to make a quilt using those solids and white. I had no ideas.

But then it all started to come together! There was some tweaking, some long division, some cursing, but with much perseverance......


And then the tough part, getting it ALL together.......


It's GIGANTIC! It's about 78" or so across. The center seams are incredibly, um, unseemly - there are 48 seams all converging on one point, making for a LOT of bulk, and a bit of a mess. I appliqued a little quarter-sized circle over the whole mess, and I think it's fine. But the center circles are still all quite thick - it's 3-4 fabric thicknesses for the center foot or so. I'm sure the quilting will be a BEAST - I'll be hand quilting this, as it's just too big to think about running through a machine, and it will gain me a bit more control over the lines and colors. Hoping to begin to tackle the quilting this weekend!

End of August

While most people are panicking about the end of August signifying the end of summer, I am breathing a sigh of relief. This summer has been so abominably hot and unbearable, and I am pining for cooler days (and nights).



I finished up this woolen vest, and I am anxious to wear it! It's a handspun blend of 3 Southern Cross Fibers (“Deep Thought” - Oatmeal BFL, “Homeward” - Falkland, “Desert Sky” - Polwarth)with a wee bit of Cascade 200 and unknown wool to finish off the collar and sleeve edges. I knit this completely in the round and steeked it, which I really feel is the way to go with things like this - so fast! So fun! That daring edge of CUTTING your knitting! It's delightfully squishy.

And then I kept knitting.....



I've been wanting to make the Fresco Legwarmers for ages, and when I got my order of the new Quince & Co "Chickadee" yarn I figured it was finally time to cast on. With a few mods for color, and then again for almost-running-out-of-yarn (whoops!), these legwarmers FLEW off the needles. The Quince yarn is wonderfully plump and squishy, and made for a lovely fabric on both US3s and US5s. The stitch definition is wonderful and even - and this is all before blocking!

And I've kept up the quilting, but with a twist:



This is a test square (18" - for a pillowcase) using origami crease patterns. I recently saw the documentary "Between the Folds" which is all about origami and the people who make it. Many of the crease patterns for some of the more complex pieces can be found, and I loved how they looked, so decided to try my hand at translating that to a quilt. This is The Garden Spider. I'm going to try out a few more pillow cases before going big and making a full-sized quilt!

Here it is being sewn: