Día de los Muertos Redux

Aaarrgh! My quilt panel of the bridal couple is too small in comparison to the rest of the panels.

I've decided I'm going to use the Til Death Do Us Part as part of another wall hanging and embroider another panel.



Día de los Muertos revisited

I still have yet to finish the square floor pouf I sewed for a grandniece.  The top seam for the zipper is frankly not pretty, and so I've been procrastinating on that task by resuming hand embroidery of my Día de los Muertos quilt and eyeing the Michael Miller Paradise jelly roll as possible logs for these patchwork blocks.

Installing an invisible zipper

I've been sewing a floor pouf for a grandniece, and it's been fun! I got lucky, picking up the mint fabric at Joann's which I had ordered online and found this Coats and Clark 100% cotton quilting thread on clearance for two bucks at the check stand. 

I learned all about straight line quilting with your walking foot from Jacquie Gering and performed the necessary prep of drawing my chevron pattern with an erasable pen.  I aim to master free motion quilting, but really I love matchstick and parallel lines best.

When I acquired my Baby Lock Katherine a year and a half ago, I had no idea what I would do with the 100+ different stitches.  However, it's been fun playing with all the wavy lines and thread embellishments on my machine.  I love each and every 2.5" strip--I used straight-line stitching on the print strips so as not to detract my favorite patterns and played with decorative stitches just on the solid strips to create movement.

Finally all six panels are quilted!

Let the assembly begin!  I watched Ashley Nickel's Creativebug on how to install an invisible zipper.  I started with the two panels that would have a zipper between them.  I basted the panels with 5.0 stitch length and then reduced my stitch length to 2.5 after marking where I would place the zipper.  If I make another one of these panels, I would use a 1" seam instead of the .5" seam here (I had already pulled apart my .25" seam).  After basting, I pinned the zipper onto the seam.

I didn't do a very nice job installing a zipper in a dog bed, and this zipper install was not a genius reveal with my thread ripper.  However, I will totally use this technique again with a few needed tweaks.  I hope people will not look too closely at my clumsy zipper installation, which I plan to look a bit more finished with some embroidery thread or a blanket stitch, but I am still pleased with the final result



Rubies and Pink Tourmaline and Citrine Are a Girl's Favorite Gemstones

I saw this block recently on Instagram and love the colors.  It's making me recall the yellow and pink log cabin pillow I sewed and the quilting to-do pillow in my closet in the same colors.

Back to Hand Sewing

I attended a Bay Area modern quilt guild meeting this Saturday and brought my Dia de los Muertos embroidery panels to sew along.  My flower bed will be inspiring the color palette of marigold yellow, petunia purple, celosia red, vinca coral and fuchsia.

 I also spied these hexies in the box....methinks they need to be sewn onto a zippered pouch.

Weekend Sewing: Napkins

A Quote to Integrate into a Sewing or Quilting Project

“I try to carry books with me wherever I go. Their weight has become like ballast against the churning sea of modern life, where so many real things are vanishing, and so many beautiful things are being made invisible.”