yellows and greens

The beginnings of the second men's shirt quilt.

1930s orange DWRs

Inspiration for a project that feels almost (but not quite) impossible.



From: http://www.lasm.org/exhibits/art2008.shtml





From: http://www.mqumag.com/gallery/photo/48/

daisies

I always have too many projects going at once. It's nice sometimes though to have something quick and little so that you feel like you're accomplishing something.



These are for a new little baby friend by the name of Daisy. I didn't make a daisy out of lazy daisy stitches on the booties because of that, but it all makes for something ridiculously cute.

These are made from Simplicity 2867, a reproduction pattern. It's two pieces of felt with two stitches--one up the back seam of the upper and then a big oval to join the upper and the sole. Easy as pie.

red and white-ish quilt top

I got asked by a friend of my sister's boyfriend's parents (follow that?) to make some custom quilts for her. Her husband passed away not too long ago and she wanted small quilts made from some of his shirts--one for herself and one for each of her two daughters for Christmas gifts.

The project is a challenge to me because of the colors of the shirts. I gravitate personally towards bright colors or punchy pastels. I'm not big on muted colors--ask anyone who knows me in person and sees my outfits regularly! When I initially spoke with the woman she described the shirts as being Hawaiian shirts, so I thought they'd be bright colors. I had an idea to make each quilt one super-sized traditional block--one four foot square quilt block. I thought the bright colors would make that really fun.

When I picked up the shirts and talked more in person with the woman, who said that she really wanted something "funky" (especially to give to her daughters) I had to change my approach. These colors make anything other than traditional a challenge.

As you see above, the first thing I did was sort the shirts by color. Then I stared at the piles for awhile waiting for some inspiration.

Then I did this:



That's the first completed top. It's approximately 52" square. There's a lot of woven interfacing and piecing happening there, with knit fabrics and fabrics with a loose weave and bias seams. The red shirt in the middle was cut to include the chest logo, which is the logo for the local yacht club that the family was a member of. The black t-shirt patch with the writing is from the gentleman's business t-shirts. Each quilt will have the same black patch and logos from other shirts in them somewhere, though I want to keep those more subtle than a t-shirt quilt or the like.

I am rather pleased with the end result. Two more quilt tops to go (though I only know what I'm doing for one of them) and then the quilting.

new vintage skirt

I have more free time on my hands lately, so I want to update on some old projects and try and build more here. Blogging shouldn't involve blogging about blogging, but when you can't manage to do it often, that's what it becomes.

Here's a skirt instead!



I got this fabric for free--a woman in my quilt guild was helping a friend of hers that had worked at a fabric store in the 1970s clean out her house. There were BAGS of fabric. Most of it was godawful polyester double knits. I took some of those in funky prints, but a lot of it was in bad shape from having been poorly stored for so long.

I got this swath of unknown content fabric. There was just enough to make a skirt, and I figured out pretty quickly that I'd use it to finally get around to making the skirt from Simplicity 4044, one of Simplicity's re-release of their old patterns. I've had pants cut out of this pattern for years that I've never finished! Someday...

The fabric is a bizarre color that should be ugly, but somehow manages not to.



I have a yellow vintage styled sweater that goes perfectly with it.

The pattern of course, was super easy. It's 7 pieces of fabric and a zipper. It is super long. I turned up a really deep hem and it's still just below the knee on me. I kept the extra fabric in hopes that the weight would help give the fabric a bit more pull and drape. It took a lot of steam to shrink out all the excess for the hem!