Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Something for me

I made this skirt and blouse for my birthday. The linen I bought locally and it is just right for hot weather.

The fabric for the skirt is Hope Valley  - I bought it on-line. I had seen it on many blogs and chose it for the sprigs of blue flowers. I was a little bit disappointed by the colours when the fabric arrived - I didn't expect it to have a yellow tinge and the colours to be muted. Plus I didn't know what to wear with it.

Once I paired the skirt with this creamy white linen the colours came alive. The fabric took on a more translucent look. Now I love it.







The skirt is drafted from a dress pattern from a Burda magazine. The blouse is from the  Japanes 'Tunic Tunic - 1 day sewing' book. I find it a little too 'blousy'. I would like to make the neckline higher and shorten the sleeves, to make it a little neater. Otherwise the fit is great.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Corn and beans

This is an example of how I work and what I mean by ‘piecemeal’.

I started out with this corn and beans block and some pink and purple fabrics.

Originally I was going to use a white muslin for the background, but I thought it looked too stark – perhaps because many of the fabrics have white in them?








I had some pieces of yellow fabric in the cupboard that my mother-in-law had cut out with some project in mind and never finished. I thought they looked nice together. I added more fabrics in green and blue; many of them are 1930’s reproductions, many of them are modern, and some are old clothes.

I didn’t intend on making a 1930’s style quilt, but that seems to be the way it is going. Martha from q is for quilter, has done an ocean waves quilt top in similar colours.

The block design comes from this book - I like the simple black and white illustrations

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Do you do wonky?

This post was inspired by Deb Rowden's 'How do you work?'























This quilt came together one day when I was particularly frustrated about something. The girls were out of the house so I had no limits on space. I got out the sewing machine, dressmakers shears, and all my heavier scraps - upholstery fabric, denim, corduroy.

I must admit that it was therapeutic. I used a heavy fabric on the back and an old sheet sandwiched in the middle (it was ugly and I really wanted to get rid of it). I tried hand quilting this in baptist fans, but the fabric was thick and it was hard going. I started free machine quilting it until my machine gave up.



I will get around to finishing the quilting on this eventually. If I pin it carefully, I think I can quilt out some of the bumpiness.

I have some woven tape to bind it with (not sure how to attach it though - anyone know?).




I love reading about wonky quilts on other blogs and looking out for them on e-bay, but it's not something that comes naturally to me. Next time I think I will try something that combines wonkiness with precision like this string pieced lone star. I still get a kick out of my corners matching up.























This top (circa 1930) was hand pieced - that's more my style. It doesn't have a foundation fabric - would it have been hand pieced onto paper? I can't imagine so.

I don't know how to go about string piecing by hand. Any ideas anyone?