Pink & Yellow Quilt

The Anna Maria Horner voile quilt is done. The fabric is super soft. I love that.

The pattern is another disappearing 9 patch quilt for a friend's new niece. (So many baby quilts this year.) But it's a more sophisticated take on a baby quilt, something she can use as she gets older.   

For some reason I could not get a good photo of the whole quilt. The pictures below are much better. It's been hot as hell for weeks, but as soon as I need to take a picture it starts storming. 

Starting

It's happening.

I AM going to make a shirt. I've been thinking and talking about it for too long.

What pushed me over the edge? Well, Etienne was talking about his decision to book a trip to climb Kilimanjaro and he said he kept thinking about this Buddhist saying, “There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.” It really got to me. Making a shirt is certainly not "truth", but I do have to actually start something in order to make something.

I picked Simplicity 2696, view F to start out with - a pattern that seems fairly simply and a shape that I already wear. I bought this ocean blue shot cotton, but then thought I should maybe try it out (make a wearable muslin?) with some white fabric first. Or if that goes well, then I can use the blue for another style in this set.

I think that the sleeve and shirt lengths on view F are going to be too long, so I'm going to make 3/4 sleeves. Not sure if I should take off inches on the shirt length before or after. It comes all the way down to the crotch and I prefer it to hit at the hip.

Been reading a lot of clothing sewing blogs lately and decided that I would follow their leads and trace out my pattern size instead of cutting it directly from the pattern itself. That way, if I need a different size in the future then it will still be available on the pattern. And this style is pretty loose, so I might need a smaller size anyway.

I've never traced anything before. Kind of winged it with some giant white paper that I bought at the Pratt store, carbon tracing paper, and a chopstick. (This chopstick is officially part of my sewing kit. It's also perfect for poking out corners in fabric because of the rounded edge.)

And since I was on a roll, I went ahead and traced the pattern pieces for the Color Wheel Quilt. I used plastic for the main template since it was small enough to fit on the sheet and I would be cutting out so many more of those pieces than the rest.

Look what I found

A basket of quilt squares and cut out pieces that I started in 2007. I gave up on it because it wasn't looking as perfect as I wanted. The points weren't as pointy as they could be and the blocks just ended up being all kinds of crazy sizes, no matter what I did. (And by crazy I mean, slightly off. I suffer from random bouts of perfectionism.) 

I even began to think that it needed some additional colors, so I made up a couple of blocks in these other fabrics. I never really liked the look of all the colors together, though. Not sure what to do with them now.

Maybe some more yellow would be nice though?

Looking at everything again, I realize that I don't really care as much about the imperfections now. I probably would care if I was giving it to someone else, but it's just for me. I love the quilt for so many other reasons (the yellow & white combo and the old school pattern) and it doesn't deserve to sit in a bin for another three years.  

So there you go. Another quilt to work on. I know I've been doing a lot of talking lately and not much doing. I hope that can change soon and I'll have more to show here. I have two orders right now for baby quilts, so I'm sure that will get me going.

New Year. New Quilt.

I have been feeling so weird lately. I've spent every weekday thinking about sewing and then every weekend not wanting to do any sewing. What is my problem? I guess I just have to jump back in.

It's time to start the Color Wheel Quilt. One of my new year's resolutions is to make a quilt for my bed, so why not start with this one since I have the book and all of the fabric. Sarah bought me the fabric bundle as a wedding present. Perfect.

Just so you know, I have completely nerded out in this endeavor and have photographed each bundle, so that I could put them back in order after washing. That's probably something you should know about me: I'm really into systems.

 So, here we go...

Another Zoo Quilt

I made yet another quilt using the Alexander Henry 2D zoo fabric. I'm not obsessed or anything. I can't help it! Everyone loves this fabric and when they see examples of it, they want one too. This is a Christmas present commissioned for a friend's daughter.

This measures about 40 x 40 and is quilted with small six inch star bursts to mimic the little flower shapes on the front. The backing is a cloud patterned fabric specially requested to match the little girl's room.