2017 Wk 10 - mostly embroidery

Today I have finished embroidering 'Carla's' quilt label, and a customer's quilt label.

This means that I just have about 10 inches more sewing and then Carla's quilt can go in the post tomorrow, and so can Meg's label

I sent the original poncho to Jackie . . . seem here modelling it and looking far more glamorous, far slimmer and far more photogenic than me in my replacement red one

And I made a pencil case for oldest Great Niece (and didn't much like it so I made another one too) She is an awesome artist so I though a pencil case made of paper would be something that she could doodle on and decorate - every time I forget how horrible the paper is to work with!  Anyway she can have them both and do what she likes with them!  (We also gave her a large pack of pens and money towards a car / driving lessons / insurance)

2017 Wk 9 - Mostly Quilting

Friends of ours have had a fairly major life changing experience.  Nearly 17 years ago they had a son, called (names changed) Carl, but this New Year they wrote to friends and family to tell us that

"So, it turns out that nearly 17 years ago, when we announced the arrival of our son, Carl, that we were mistaken.  Instead we are proud to announce our transgender daughter Carla.

It would be very much appreciated if everyone would call her Carla, something we have been doing at home since the summer, and use female pronouns.

Her brother has been brilliant – he said the other day that 2016 has been a good year for our family and we are looking forward to 2017.  Carla plans to start driving mid-March, take her AS levels and visit universities.

We hope you will be as glad as we are that Carla has been able to express her true self and we look forward to seeing you soon."

I cant begin to understand what a difficult time they must have had leading up to this announcement, but I am really proud of the whole family.  Carla's birthday is very soon, so I messaged Mum to ask if it would be OK to make / send a gift, and if so what colours would be appropriate?  It tuns out her room is grey and orange.  I already had a quilt in mind.  The logo used by the LGBT communities is a rainbow, and rainbow is created by rain and sunshine - or tears and happiness?

This quilt, Rainy Day Rainbow, had been put on the 'time out' shelf as I wasn't happy that Orange was really represented, but if I was to make orange a feature - ie as binding, it could be a perfect quilt for Carla

Unusually for me this had been made as a patchwork top, so I spray based . . .  and quilted it!

Not quite matchstick quilting, but 85 quilting lines at about a minute each is plenty of quilting!

I don't have any orange (that'll be why there wasn't any orange in the top!) but I've ordered some spray time and will get it finished and posted as soon as the fabric arrived

As it was an otherwise quiet day at home I also knuckled down to making a dress,.  I had made 5 versions of this, all draft, to make sure the pattern really fits ME!

Number 5 came out ok but was made from curtains that are a bit too stiff.  (Pic for Janine who also recently made a dress from curtains, but hers is much better than mine!) Pls ignore the mess!

And finally I have a linen pocketed dress that I can wear!  (but with leggings so I can hide my knobbly knees!)  Not a bad way to spend 3 hours! (ignoring of course the proceeding 15 plus hours to get this far!)

Project Planning

I don't know when I'll next get time to sew, but I need to be ready!

This project needs more fabric (will hopefully be sorted on Friday)

 

And this project has been tidied up, and needs backing (will hopefully be sorted on Thursday)

 

I was also quite sure I'd blogged about my first pyrography attempt, but if I did the internet has eaten in, so here it is

The bunting flags are only about an inch wide, but it's not too shabby!!!!

 

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The one where I worked on the Rainy Day Rainbow

Today saw all the rainy day strips being stitched together and pressed

I'm really pleased with the effect of the rainbow, but the tops and bottoms need a bit of attention

 

Do I hack off to even it up, or do I try and add surplus strips to even up the edges? All suggestions welcomed!

 

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The one where I started sewing Rainy Day Rainbow Quilt

My quilts usually get names after they've been finished, but this one has its name much earlier!

I used the grey fabrics from FOQ that were cut into 10 x 2½ strips about ten days ago and started stitching them in strips with the rainbow sections.  The grey reminded me of a rainy day - hence the name Rainy Day Rainbow!

In case anyone is interested (including Future Benta), I actually have the initial 'recipe' for this quilt, and thought it worth making notes here!

I cut 10 20" x 2½" strips - one each from a variety of rainbow fabrics: I felt these worked well together (although the order changed a bit in the final version, and the pale blue got ditched)

I used 11 grey FQs, cutting each one into 14 bricks 10" x 2½": (Actually I cut up 13 FQs, but so far have only needed 11, but there wil be borders and binding needed, so I cant see there being any waste)

I took pairs of different grey bricks and joined them at 45O: when opened they make a straight line.

I made 11 strips that were 8 grey bricks long (using the 45Omethod) 

I made another 10 strips that were each made of 6 grey bricks and one rainbow strip long. (These I actually made as a circle as I didn't know where the top and bottom would be)

And then I started laying them out on my 'design bed' - splitting the rainbow strips as appropriate (it's left a jagged top and bottom but that will be sorted later)

I decided to stagger the all grey strips as my seams aren't 100% even, so this way any dodgy seams aren't as glaringly obvious

(OK, not fab, but they are just being auditioned in this pic, - it gives you an idea)

I then started pinning.  From seam to seam the grey bricks now measure 7½"

The seam on the staggered strip then needs to be joined to the middle of the adjoining brick  It needs to be pinned at the 4" point, so that a ¼" seam hits the diagonal seam ¼" earlier, ie at half of 7½"

I've pinned about half the strips to their neighbours, but now I'm done for today, (and I've run out of pins) so the next part of the instructions will be sometime in the future

The one where I started a rainbow

You know if you have lots of UFOs you should really finish *something* before you start something new? Yeah, I laughed too, and then I pulled these rainbow fabrics

And then I cut the new greys into 2.5" strips

And then the guilt (and the mess) finally won and I finished the April calendar block

So you'll have to wait to see my rainbow plan!

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