Work in Progress: Hexagon Flower Tote Bag Becomes Hexagon Flower Pillow

I won the following charm pack at a Bay Area Modern Guild Meeting and sewed it into a bunch of 4" hexagons.

The colors say autumn to me, and so I headed to a fabric shop for the right backdrop and found this linen in a color called "Potting Soil," and another coordinating fabric called "Mira Brown Tonal Mini Crosshatching" as well as brown cotton thread.  I had also stitched my hexies into a flower.  I L O V E the color combination.

I pinned down my hexagon flower onto a linen rectangle 18" x 20" which was cut down from a 20" square because I didn't anticipate the yardage I would need for the straps which necessitated another trip to the fabric shop (luckily I live close by) to buy another half yard of brown linen....and then I played with the blanket stitch on my new Babylock Katherine to decide whether to hand stitch my hexagon flower or machine stitch it down.  As you can see my stitches on the machine are a tiny bit off as I was creating a page for my stitch dictionary.

I decided to go for it.  I also think the dark thread and dark fabric hide my imperfect stitching.

I do also love the crosshatching cotton to line the interior of the tote bag. It's interesting how the color changes under the lens from no flash to flash.  I think the fabric under the flash is a more accurate representation what color the fabric looks like.

But AAAAARGGGH!  I suck as a designer!  If you look below, there's no room for me to sew box corners of even an inch (I wanted to do a 1 1/2" to 2" bottom) because part of the hexagon flower is then under the bag.  I'm not going to rip out all those labor-intensive machine stitches and re-attach the flower to a bigger piece of linen.  Instead I'm going to practice installing a zipper and turn this top into a pillow.  OH well.  I do think this is still a pretty pieced block and will make a fabulous-looking pillow.

The Modern Quilt Studio sells a Desert Islands Solid Bundle comprised of colors like Earth, Dirt, Silver, Dew, Honey, Ginger, Safari, Teal (gorgeous!) and Mud (my favorite!).  And these colors on their own which you would think are so blah! really make other colors pop and keep bright, highly saturated colors from overwhelming a viewer.  Interesting how a color interacts with other colors.  Back to reading Josef Albers's Interaction of Color.

Work in Progress: Alabama Chanin Stencil

I copied this stencil pattern from Natalie Chanin's Alabama Studio Style which I checked out from the public library.  I bought stiff felt from Michael's and slid it under the stencil in the book and outlined with a fine tip sharpie my cut lines.  This is the back side of the stencil to show whether I cut those fine details. Those little designs are rather tricky, but I am pleased so far and can't wait to spray paint that stencil pattern on my sewing journal.

Why I Love Summer

Summer days are AWESOME for the public library (craft books about stamping and stenciling, mini quilt projects, modern quilting defined PLUS a novel by Shirley Jackson....I get a lot of pleasure from her dark and upsetting fiction--and she was born in the neighboring city of Burlingame which she implicitly castigates in her short story, "The Lottery"). AND I bought the Alabama Stitch Book for the bargain price of $15 from the Friends of San Mateo Public Library--reference for how to sew her appliquéd skirts. AND I put up tomatoes, but we still have a bowl of 'em for snacking and BLTS. I love you July.

Work in Progress: Halloween in July

Garment Sewing: Cabin Tunic Dress and Alterations

My cabin top dress from a pattern by Blue Prints for Sewing is done:)  

Golly do I love the welt less front pockets.

I decided to do the yoke in black Cotton Couture instead of the Kokka dog fabric.  I can't wait to wear it this fall with black tights and black boots and a black cardigan!

 I also decided to alter this Anthropologie top, which I always have to hike up because the fabric is so stretchy and hangs low.  I have to figure out how to hide the binding which shows my shoddy alteration.  Really I keep this top because I love it as quilt inspiration for the color blocks of peach, navy, and dark coral/orange.

This is a dress I bought at Uniqlo.  I love the fabric, but the dress is so unflattering on the figure.  I'm thinking of deconstructing it, and then sewing darts and a back pleat like in my cabin top.  Or maybe I don't need to take it apart and just figure out where to sew darts though there's probably not enough fabric to include the back pleat.

Work in Progress: Single Irish Chain Quilt Top Done!

My cutting is not the most accurate and square, and I am still mastering my new Baby Lock Katherine.  And so a 1/2" seam and lots of pinning were A-OK with me for this wedding present quilt.

As you can see linen wrinkles easily, but I do love the look of these pastel cottons and Essex natural linen--it's also quite a heavy top because of all those 1/2" seams.  I've already sewn a backing of baby pink Kona cotton, and I've made an appointment at the end of the month to long arm quilt it.  I'm hoping it will actually function for cuddling under with a glass of wine and a book.

Work in Progress: Irish Chain and Learning How to Use a Computerized Sewing Machine

After my English paper piecing on a flight and business trip, I returned home to an hour of learning about my new Babylock Katherine sewing machine and bringing it home.  My instructor just had me sit to her right as she showed me the myriad of stitches and features.  Finally I glimpsed how to use the button hole feature!  At first I hated it after the simplicity of my Babylock Maria and the learning curve of a new piece of equipment.  Determined, however, to sew a quilt on it, I started sewing and pressing strips of linen and pastel solids all of a Friday.  Below are the strips with a 1/2 inch seam because I got frustrated by not knowing how to use my 1/4 inch foot and because I didn't want any gaping seams from uneven cutting (my cotton strips are pretty accurate but my linen strips looked a bit too wonky).  

I have to say that I also love the needle down and cutting buttons on my machine and not having to trim thread ends:)  Welcome to a Saturday of slicing and dicing and maybe chain piecing this wedding present.