July 2003 Archive

Sunday, July 27, 2003

Sewing, Sleeping & Socializing
Those were the three components of this weekend. I'm determined to have Burgundy and Mike's quilt top done by Saturday, to take to Minnesota on Sunday.
Making good progress. Much sewing The quilt is all designed on squares (concentric borders/rows of blocks) in a naturals palette. The centerpiece is a basketweave pattern (see June), then a border, then a row of stars (see below). A couple more borders and then a border of these log cabin blocks. They'll be trimmed down to 10" square. A border or two and then a row of 3" squares. A couple more borders and there you have a bed sized square quilt of squares.

More pics this week as a work on it.

Monday, July 21, 2003

Linen Millinery
On August 3rd, my mom and I are hosting the wedding shower for my lovely sister, Burgundy, who gets hitched to the lovely Mike August 9th. I am officially in the wedding prep vortex. It's not a bad vortex to be in, but I'm close enough to the trip that I'm listing with a big To-Do list and wondering if there's enough time between now and then to do it all.

Yesterday, I was talking to mom who said, "You better pack a hat!" Our shower is a ladies tea (mom's going to the nines with it) and all comers should be wearers hats. I had pushed this to the back of my mind, because I wasn't keen on finding room in the luggage for the hat. The plan was to take the extra fabric hemmed from my orange linen dress and tie it around a straw hat mom owns. But I used to be WAY into hats and made loads of them, so this seemed like a weak solution to the problem.

Last night I had a brainstorm, seen above. I took the leftover hem and turned it into a ruffle in a soft linen hat made from a linen shirt I had dyed before, but never wore because it died unevenly. It all came together smoothly and fits just fine. It matches the dress. It'll take up next-to-no room in my luggage.

I just can't decided if it's cute or too cute.

Sunday, July 20, 2003

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag
On the left my beloved sequined and beaded bag. A couple years ago I totally splurged on it at Art Mart in Champaign-Urbana. Spent my I really didn't have, but was so glad I did. This bag is the perfect size, hangs perfect, nice magnet closure. I literally wore it out. Today, I made a replacement (on the right). I used Butterick pattern number 3873, option A. Took in the width by a couple inches, lengthed the strap by about a foot. This pattern was not meant to be worn diagonally. Bonus, I reused the magnet closure on the old bag. Thick black cotton, thinner cotton lining, pocket inside. We'll see how it works out. Not estastic with how thick the strap is. Happy to have this type of bag back. Happy that it's slightly larger.

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

Seeing Stars
Not much to blog about. Return of client work is cutting into makin-stuff-with-my-hands-time, but the finanical side of me if breathing easier. Pretty much have been slowly making stars for Burgundy and Mike's wedding quilt. Thankfully, I learned a shortcut to making the "geese" to make eight pointed stars. My first, uneducated stab at it was a mess. The stars are different combinations of fabrics, with the black/sky parts all being one fabric, the white/points being all one fabric, the middle square a second white fabric. With variation from star to star. They're about 7.5" square. 20 made, 8 to go...

Since I'm not a precision quilter, I'll be putting sashing around the stars to get the spacing right. And it looks like the points of some of the stars will be clipped. I'll post a pic when the stars are added to the whole.

Monday, July 14, 2003