I made a dress.  Real clothes, it’s been a while.  I don’t think I’ve made any real clothing since I got my serger a few years ago.  I was all gung-ho about making pajamas and tee shirts, bought a bunch of knits and patterns.  Then promptly lost interest. The dress is from Made-By-Rae, The Washi dress pattern.  It was pretty simple to make, minimal parts and simple sewing.  I used a nice weight quilting cotton from Cotton and Steele, actually pre-washed it (gasp!).  The back piece has shirring, which is done with elastic thread in the bobbin.  I was pretty happy with the results of this experiment, probably should have adjusted the top tension a bit, my machine came through in the end.  The only thing I would add/change is to top stitch the side pockets.  I reinforced the stitching before and after them along the side seams.  This made it difficult to top stitch with out taking those seams out, so I’ll leave it as is.  I made a note on the pattern though, in case I ever make another.

I worked on round three of the Unity Quilt.  Lots of little flying geese, and many (1476) pieces in this round of thirty six star blocks.  I really like the French general scraps in this quilt, it’s turning out to be subtle, unlike Frolic, which is not.

I made some progress on the Heart quilt.  I think I am 75% done.  I seem to be having a bit of trouble with drift as the rows stitch out from left to right.  By the time the rows get about 12 inches from the right edge, the design is slightly overlapping the previous row.  Its not terrible, just annoying, as I try to compensate by starting the left side 1/4 inch more to the left.  I really should remember to alternate start sides, as it is too late to fix it now.  Good thing I have a note book that I keep these kinds of ‘thoughts’ in.

Today, I might start a new project.  Or clean out/reorganize a shelving unit in my sewing room.  I have been following Cheryl Sleboda – http://blog.muppin.com as she hosts her annual Spring Clean Your Studio blog hop.  I have not really been inspired so far, in fact I feel slightly ahead of the curve as I look at some of the featured studios.  One tip I gleaned was to analyze the space and what you use it for and organize it to that function.  This hop is also inspiring me towards moving my studio into my sons bedroom.  It is about 30% bigger and he’s not going to be using it regularly for another year or two, as he is in school in another state.  Then I start thinking that I should paint it first.  Ugh Painting.  Then I think about what I am going to do with all the furniture and stuff (sports trophies???) that is in there.  Will it fit in the smaller room, and how, and the rug in there, do I want a rug, everything starts to pile up in my head.  I’d rather sew.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down #47 today.

I finished the top I was working last week.  I like it, and decided to call it Garden City.  The name of the fabric collection in Flour Garden, but that’s not why I named it G.C.  My daughter saw the top and commented on how it contained “Beach House” colors.  My extended family used to own a beach house in the town I grew up in. My great grandparents built it in the late 1940’s (I think).  It’s a huge rambly place, lots of bedrooms, a wonderful screened in porch and huge sand yard with a paddleball court.  The extended family used to take turns using it, everyone one would have their week or two to hang out and go to the beach.  My family lived a few blocks away, so we would often walk over and visit.  Such good memories.  Once Labor Day rolled around, the house was closed up, and it would wait for summer to come again.  The house was always painted white on the outside, but inside it had a palette of aquas and blues with a touch of yellow.  The name of the street the house is on is Garden City Avenue.

I used the Accuquilt die ‘Hatties Choice’ to cut the main blocks for the center.  It is such an easy way to cut and  have exact shapes.  Easy to sew together, no dog ears to cut and once I got the “rhythm” of the piecing, I could assemble a block in about twenty minutes. The outer blocks I made from the scraps, piecing them into Kite in a Square blocks.  These I squared up with a Bloc-Loc ruler.  It was all going along swimmingly (beach theme?) until the outer border.  I carefully mapped the quilt out in EQ8, how wide to make the spacer borders so that I could use the 3″ blocks around the 8″center blocks and make it come out square and not have to cut any blocks in half.  The first two solid borders went on easy enough.  The block border was going along okay until it was an inch and a half too long.  What?!? everything measured out perfectly, I went back and checked the math and the EQ8 measurements, it should work.  Oh wait! bias edges on the kite blocks.  PINS! I must pin these borders, tame them, and coax them and sew slowly.

Lesson learned.

I made some really good sourdough bread this past week too.  Also made pita bread for Easter dinner, we had Gyros – sort of lamb.  The pitas were easy and so much better than the dry crumbly ones I get from the store.  

Yesterday I decided to sew a dress, change it up a bit.  I had bought a Washi dress pattern a few summers ago, thinking that it would be a great dress to wear when it was hot and summery out.  I had the fabric, a Cotton and Steel print, and the notions all ready to go.  I spent a few hours making it, and I’ll finish it up today.  Pictures to follow.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

 

I got a bunch of sewing done this week.  I finished the second clue for the “Unity” quilt, I even found and used my square in a square ruler.  I have two, a big and a small one, I haven’t inventoried that drawer yet though.

My main project this week has been this quilt (nameless as of yet).  I am using the BOB (block on board) Accuquilt die, called Hatties Choice.  The fabric is a Moda Line, called – uhh – something to do with flour.  The quilt top will get a spacer strip of green and a final border of aqua and print triangle in a square blocks.

There is a story behind this fabric.  I ordered a bunch of fabric from Connecting Threads early in March.  They were having a green fabric sale, and at the time I was getting ready to go to the Empty Spools retreat to work on an ‘Emerald City’ quilt.  The fabric arrived the day after the event was canceled.  I was kinda bummed about the whole thing, but still, new fabric is exciting.  I opened the box and saw that there was a fat eighth pack in there.  Nope, not what I ordered, not on the receipt either, although I was missing one yard of green fabric.  Also there was a pretty blue fabric that wasn’t on my order.  I figure whomever was filling the order went by the SKU numbers and didn’t double check the description, and that’s how I ended up with the mix up.  I probably should have sent it back, but when I went to the website, the fat eighth pack wasn’t there, the fabric line wasn’t to be found either.  At that time C.T. had stopped taking orders and shipping, I took it as a sign to use the fabric to make a charity quilt.

I spent most of my day yesterday making sour dough bread.  It started out simply enough, I made a starter “mother” with a pack of starter I found in my cupboard.  Then I pulled out a book “Sourdough School”.  This book is written by a very well intentioned baker, who has a very intense knowledge of making sour dough bread.  Her way of teaching it through a book is, well, daunting.  There are so many references back to other pages, step by step instructions, references to other techniques, and ideas and reasons and ideas and theories.  I was dizzy.  I just wanted to make bread, flour, water and yeast. Eventually that’s what I did, I put the book away and used my remedial knowledge of bread making and the functions on my oven.  There was a proofing function, and then a specific baking function for San Francisco Sourdough Bread.  And you know what, the bread turned out okay.

I had much better luck with the soft pretzels I made earlier this week.  I didn’t have any yeast, and there was none to be had at the store.  What I do have is cider and beer yeast, as my DH makes those yeasty things.  I used the cider yeast, and you know what, they were delicious.  

One last picture from the garden today, the first Iris of the season, this one is a re-bloomer, it flowers in the fall and the spring.  I think the name is “Rock Star”, anyway its a star in my garden.

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I get a Whoop Whoop  today.  Looking forward to the weekend, I think I’ll stay home and sew.

Yesterday was the beginning of the Hands2Help blog fest/challenge at Confessions of a Fabric Addict .  The guest blogger was Katie from Katie Mae Quilts and she shared a quick and simple to make quilt top using charms.  I wanted to play along, and after a few hours had a cute sized square laptop quilt.  I started with a stack of novelty fabrics most of which were the remains of a layer cake.  I added in a charm pack of Kona solids and voila!  There are still enough squares left from the layer cake to make another, they are more pastel colors.  Maybe next week, or tomorrow or today, my calendar is wide open.

Today I am going to work on the Unity quilt clue.  There are flying geese and a square in a square blocks.  I am hoping that I can use my Accuquilt to cut some of the pieces.  I think I have a square in a square ruler around here somewhere.  I really need to make a list of all the specialty rulers and templates I have.  I did that with my Accuquilt dyes and it has proven to be quite helpful.  Right now all my specialty rulers are in a drawer, stacked in no particular order or category.  The ones I use the most, like the easy angles and the bloc-locks are in a rack near my cutting area.  I also hang most of my straight rulers on the wall with command hooks.

I made a bunch of face masks Friday, for friends and family.  I keep saying that I’m done making them, but someone always seems to need one or two.  I have made 40 so far, most have been with ties, but the first ones were with a small amount of corded elastic I had on hand.  I wore one last week when I went grocery shopping, it started to chafe the backs of my ears.  Can’t imagine wearing it all day, no wonder people are coming up with extenders and such to keep the straps from their ears.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

I finished the quilting on the Bee hive quilt.  It is just a simple end to end pantograph  called Vintage tufts.  Boring, but effective .  I started quilting the Heart quilt, also an end to end pattern, but a bit more interesting, with circles/orange peels and hearts.  The thread broke six times while quilting out the first row.  Extremely frustrating, I tried a bunch of things, tension, needles, lowering speed.  I struggled to finish that first row, saved and shut it down.  I oiled the machine, just for good measure.  After some rumination I think that the sandwich was a bit too tight on the frame.  I couldn’t loosen it during that row, as it would mess up the spacing on the pantograph.  Today I’ll start with it a bit looser.

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Got the borders put on the Glorianna’s Dream quilt, and I thought of a new name, Turkish Delight.  I have this yellow check fabric in my stash that I think I may use for a backing.  There is 5 ½ yards, maybe enough, math is involved, so it can wait a bit.  The ‘To Be Quilted’ pile is large, so there is time.

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I’m happy with how the center block for the Unity quilt came out.  I would like to use up the pile of left overs from Estrella too.  They all play nicely together, and I kinda like medallion quilts.  I made a Sue Garman quilt, called, uh, Coxcomb Medallion.  I blogged about finishing the top back in January 2016, but I don’t remember when I quilted it in April 2018.  It was on my bed this past January.  I still have to appliqué four blue circles in the corners, does that make it a UFO?

Started a new sweater, “Nieve” by Coco Knits, I’m using a cotton silk blend yarn with a loose twist.  It’s turning out okay, I just hope that it doesn’t get too saggy, as cotton sweaters can.

I spent some time gardening, pulled a can full of weeds, and cut the grass.  Hardly made a dent, but I found some pretty flowers to look at and saw a monarch butterfly go by.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down #45 today.