Feis dress

I have been working for months now on an Irish dance dress.  Here is where I'm starting the skirt.

Here I am trying out a pattern for the belt part.

It doesn't look like it on Meg, but the skirt was pretty straight across the bottom when it should curve like a smile.  And the shoulder hung off.  I ended up taking the bodice apart to interface the entire thing.  I thought stretch velvet would be better for a dance costume, but others told me it had to be interfaced to keep it's shape and to support the weight of the skirt.  Once I interfaced it, I still had to adjust the sleeve/armsceye a little bit.

Nearing completion.  The bodice is remade.  The skirt is remade to smile more.  Now to mark the correct length so I can finish the skirt and attach it to the bodice.

I still need to add boning to the skirt front, finish off the inside of the skirt and attach it to the bodice.  Resew in the zipper as it ripples.  And finish off the sleeve hem treatment.  The final thing will be the cape, which I haven't even thought about yet.  And only one more week until Christmas when I'm supposed to give it to her.

Happy Day, Lucky Day

Yay!  Guess what happened to me today?

I won an Accuquilt GO! Fabric Cutter as well as three dies!

Jane hosted the contest on her blog that you should GO! check out.   Jane has been experimenting with her own GO! cutter and dies.  She has me wanting to make an apple core quilt.  It looks pretty easy with the GO! since it cuts registration marks right along with the apple core shape.  I can't wait to get mine!  Thanks so much Jane and Accuquilt!!

Proud Nana

My granddaughter, Megan, is learning to embroider like her uncle Matt.

Here is her email to me:

i hope i get as good as matt at embroidery we're coming over soon
XOXO
Megan

I love that child.

Quilting time

I've been quilting on this quilt every day for a while now.  A couple of hours at a stretch.  It doesn't seem to be making any progress!

I still have all that blue border, stitch in the ditch around the applique and quilt the applique blocks background.  I don't think the blue border will show the quilting very well, so I think I am going to practice some motifs in it.  Here's a bigger picture:

I know, kind of funky and I surely do need practice!  Harriet Hargrave said that the more quilting you have in a piece, the less any one element stands out (those bad parts) so it makes all of your quilting looking better.   I'm banking on that!

Oh happy day!

Happy dance, happy dance!  Look what I won from Lyric Kinard:

This looks like such a fun book.  Lyric did some really cool stuff (May 3 entry) using directions/inspiration from the book.  I love that graffiti look.  The book was written by Alisa Burke.  Alisa also does a ton of online workshops that look terrific.  I might have to try one once I check out the book.  The interesting thing is that you can take many of these workshops anytime; you don't have to wait for it to start and you can work at your own pace.

Thank you sooooo much Lyric!

Nearly done...

Yay!  I'm nearly done with this quilt that has been lingering around my house for thirteen years.  The top is done; I just need to quilt it.

Yes, I do need a bigger design wall.  Notice that I have the upper right hand taped to the door!  It feels really good to have this top done.  When I started it, I of course planned to hand quilt it.  Back then, I wasn't any good at machine quilting and thought real quilts were hand quilted.  Now I can do machine quilting, but this is such a traditional quilt that I think it needs hand quilting.  On the other hand, I really don't want to spend months more working on this quilt so I will probably end up machining it.  I'm a little stumped on how to quilt it too.

I did mitered corners on the outer border because I thought it would look funny since it's such a directional print.  I had to cut the fabric cross grain so I took some care in piecing the two pieces for each side.  I had dreams of matching up the designs in the miter, but that really didn't work out too well and it was more work than I wanted to do.  I do kind of wish I had taken the time though since I'd never done that before.  

Anyway, another top off my to do list and onto my quilting list!  I need to start quilting really, really soon as I have way to many quilts on that list.

New sunroom

I have been painting for the last two weekends. No sewing done, just painting. First primer everywhere then woodwork, then two coats on the ceiling and walls. It's finally done!

While doing all this painting, I was thinking quilting by listening to to Brye Lynn's podcast.  If you haven't heard it yet, go to sewstitchcreate website.  I listened to about six months worth of podcasts while painting.  Love it!

Determination

I'm getting there on this one. Just 5 more rows of squares to do. I'm getting pretty fast at them too. Then comes the pieced border. Yay!

Challenges...

My guild has a challenge every year. In the past it has been things like black and white quilts or nine patch quilts. That type of challenge. You make a quilt matching the challenge and show it at the last guild meeting and the membership votes on which it likes best. This year's challenge is totally different. It sounded like a really good idea. Identify eight UFOs in October and finish them by June to be entered in a drawing for a set of fat quarters. For each that you get done, your name gets entered into a drawing. I had no problem coming up with eight UFOs. In fact I was so smart I entered thirteen so I could decide later which eight I wanted to work on. My oldest UFO is from 1997. It's an applique and pieced quilt originally published as a series in McCall's Quilting magazine. I didn't have all the issues so I had to order some back issues. I later bought the specially published booklet of the entire quilt just so I could have a condensed copy all in one place. I had gotten quite a ways on the blocks, completing almost all the applique blocks. The last applique block only had a little more to do. And I had two pieced blocks yet to do. I finished the two pieced blocks and here are all my blocks minus the one applique block I am still working to finish.

Don't you love the 1990s dark colors. Notice the top right block with all the little squares surrounding the pieced block. All the blocks get this treatment. Now I remember why this is a UFO.

I have tons of 2 inch blocks to sew together and add onto the blocks. Here's a picture of the completed quilt.

This may go back into the UFO pile yet....