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Sunday, February 15, 2015

sewing for Quiltcon

Here's a brief overview of the projects I have sewn specifically for Quiltcon. I'm not sure I am done or not, though I leave Wednesday afternoon, so I don't have much time left!


I made a dress! It's Simplicity 2886, and I had to do several muslins to get the bodice right for my (apparently) nonstandard body shape, and it's still ended up a bit odd. I also did not have enough fabric to cut out the way they wanted it cut, specifically the sash should have been blue, but I am pleased with it. I plan to make another one with another border print fabric, but after Quiltcon!


I made a pouch. It's an Aneela Hoey pattern, the Fold Over Sewing Pouch. It was a fun little thing to make and did not take too long either. I used fabric I designed and printed through Spoonflower, it's a little collection I called Cleo's Garden.


I left out the needle book and the pin cushion, since I wasn't planning on using it as a sewing kit. I just thought that it would look awesome filled with Quiltcon swap buttons (button swap buttons) and it does, but I suspect it will be a bit inconvenient to be opening and closing all the time, but cuteness is it's own reward, right?


Lastly, definitely lastly, as I just finished it last night, I made a bag. It's based mostly on Noodlehead's supertote, a bag I have made three times before, but it's smaller. It's two inches less wide, and the gusset's also two inches narrower, and the handles are thicker, and the whole this is full of crazy amounts of interfacing and soft n' stable, because I find the supertote as written is too floppy for my taste, so obviously I went overboard in the other direction. Maybe next time my bag will be perfect and moderate. Anyway, it had 64 patchwork squares of unique colors. And one side is the mirror image of the other, not exactly by design, but as a consequence of how I pieced it.


Anyway. I'm thinking I'm done. I have some quilts to quilt in my pile, and I need to take a break from this sort of deadline sewing... and relax a bit before I travel.



Sunday, February 1, 2015

Basting Day

I was at the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild's winter retreat this weekend. It runs from Thursday to Sunday, but between work and family and weather, I only managed to be there Friday and Saturday. But I had a blast, and I got a lot done, regardless.

I brought:

A Red Ridinghood throw for my daughter's room that needed to be assembled
A charm pack quilt I need to work up for a tutorial for this blog
A certain green and blue quilt I need to finish
The Cotton + Steel quilt that needs to be cut out
My flower mini quilt that needed to be trimmed and have borders added prior to basting
My hexies in case I wanted to do handwork
A coral and teal quilt that is in blocks that need to be trimmed and assembled

And two cuts of fabric to make pjs for me, and two cuts of fabric to make into kid clothes.

I worked on quilt 1 and 2 exclusively. Though some of the piecing I was doing as leaders and enders could be construed as part of quilt #3....


When I got this assembled it looked like this - there were hours of trimming blocks... and rows, and it was pretty sloggy work. I didn't use a special hexagon ruler, and I think made my life more difficult that it should have been assembling this. Anyway, I'd realized pretty early on that I'd left two blocks at home, hence the empty lower right corner, but whether I miscounted or misassembled the quilt (it is wider than I planned... somehow?) I also needed two on the top.

I got them cut out and slotted in when I got home, though.

As for the second quilt I worked on, it uses Barcelona charm packs, but I didn't do my math (story of my life) before ordering fabric, so while I had two, I need three, so I managed to piece three blocks, but I need reinforcements to continue with it. Once I'd gone as far as I could with the materials on hand I packed up.

Once home, I pieced the border on my miniquilt, and after a few minutes of hunting, I tracked down the backing and basted it today:


Then I trimmed and basted the Red Ridinghood quilt:


At 4.5 by 5.5 feet it is the largest quilt size I can baste in my living room without drastic furniture moving. And while I was hoping that the cat would be asleep through the process, she woke up and joined me at the end:


I think there is something in the cat's union rules about having to sit on the quilt while being basted.

Now I have to ponder quilting designs...