The Blue River Quilt, FINAL Answer!

Yesterday I went to a warehouse sale being held nearby. Arlene Blackburn, a local fabric artist, has opened an internet fabric store, and she invited the local guild members to come by on Saturday when she opened to the public for a few hours. I did. And I bought several pieces! I first selected a bundle of fat quarters by Robert Kaufman...the Elementals Collection: Nature (lily pond colorway). Then I also pulled several bolts of batiks off the shelves and got a yard of each.

When I got home, I layed my new fabrics on the cutting table to admire them...and take a picture, of course. I walked into another room to get the camera, and as I returned to the sewing room, I had to laugh! I was struck by the similarity of the colors of the wonderful new fabrics I had just brought home and the quilt I have recently finished...they were practically the same!

I am not very good at cutting out pictures, so please excuse the jagged lines! But look at the similarity between these new batik fabrics and the hand dyed fabrics of my quilt (which hangs on the sewing room wall)!



Come to think of it, I am not sure I ever shared pictures of the *final*, final quilt. I know...I *thought* I had this finished several times, but truly, NOW it is finished!



The last time I showed this, it had lots of beads in the river in several curling swirls.

Well, I wasn't happy with the look, so I scattered even MORE beads on it, until it looked like it had blue chicken pox!

Not good...





To me, the swirls and sequins in the river were over-powering the quilt...that was all I could see!



I removed most of the river's swirls as well as the scattered beads and immediately liked it better! I slowly began to add bugle beads in a more orderly pattern. I wanted to create continuity between the orderliness of the beading at the top of the quilt and what was in the river. This is the finished product:


The final result still has beads, but not so much that that is all you see!



The placement of the beads was intended to represent reflections on the water.

There is still one swirl that is more heavily beaded, but the other swirls have more bugle beads than any other type of bead and are less heavily beaded.

This is the label on the back: I named this "Shoulda Putta Frog on it"...sort of tongue-in-cheek! Over the many months that I have worked on this, one of the girls in my Monday group kept asking where the frog was...so I put one on the back. Plus, "The Blue River Quilt" sounds so boring..."Shoulda Putta Frog on it" sounds more intriguing...at least for NOW. Having just finished "Shoulda Putta Ring on it", this can be part of my "shoulda putta" series!

Of course, in years to come, this name will no make sense to anyone.

Red and 'just wrong' again!

This week at my local quilt guild meeting, we worked on charity quilts...basically, we had a 'sit and sew'. I brought my machine in and was given fabric to sew on. My table's quilt wasn't finished at the meeting, so I brought it home to finish. This is the result.



This is one of those "quilt as you go" quilts...basically, once it is assembled, you are done.

The fabric was pre-cut into 13" squares, then stacked into sets of 3...two 'fashion fabrics' and a 'batting'. The FF's are placed right sides together, then the 'batting' is placed on the bottom of the stack.

Instead of traditional (fluffy) quilt batting, we were using cotton flannel. However, the set of squares brought to me didn't even have flannel...the inside layer was just a thin cotton, like white muslin.

A large circle was drawn on the back/wrong side of the top FF square. I was to sew around this circle, then someone else was trimming around the circle of stitching and making a small slash in the top layer (only), then turning it right side out. Then another lady at our table would press these circles. Next a square template was used to draw lines on the circle so they could be sewn together.

These circles were sewn together into rows, then the rows were assembled into a quilt.

Because some of the backing fabrics were the same as the top fabric, there was very little definition of the 'pattern' that is to be the result of this technique. In order to TRY to create some definition, I had used a blanket stitch when stitching down the 'flaps' that are created when the circles are sewn together...basically, this is a "faux-cathedral window" quilt. The blanket stitch was an after-thought, so the quilt was half-assembled when I started this.

I quickly realized that it would be SO much easier to do some of the blanket stitching when the pieces were still in the 'row' stage.










In the picture below you can see that I have already done the blanket stitching on the last row and it is ready to be attached to the quilt. This way, once the 'row' seam is stitched, it can then be blanket stitched across the quilt without having to go in all four directions around the circles.


Also in that picture below you can see a tiny slit in the FF near the lower edge of the circle on the right. Well, THAT is a problem. Yes, that is the slit that was used to turn the circle right side out. But this is the LAST ROW...there is nothing to be sewn to the botton edge, so that area will not be folded over like on other rows. That circle should have been rotated 90 degrees when that row was sewn, so that the slit was covered in the first stage of sewing.







Too bad I didn't catch it until that row had been assembled AND sewn onto the quilt! This was the last row...I was almost finished...ready to blanket-stitch that last seam...and suddenly, there it is. A slit. Right there on the corner circle.


Dammit.


And here's the deal: After sewing these circles together to make a 'row', I would lay the row on the table and place a ruler across the top of the seams and draw a line which would be the stitching line for assembling the row to the others. And I used a SHARPIE to draw that line. It wouldn't show after the flap was folded and stitched.


So that corner circle had a slit in the bottom edge and a permanent black line across the top edge. It couldn't be rotated and reused, because the corner needed two ADJACENT edges to be 'blemish-free".


Great.

So I had to rip and remove that last row, then also rip out the blanket stitching around-- NOT ONLY the corner circle, but the next-to-corner circle also--so I could switch their postions, placing the corner circle toward the middle of the row where it wouldn't need two adjacent blemish-free sides. This added hours to the construction time!

But it is now finished.


Overall, I am not fond of this thing. The charity to receive the quilts this time is a hospice center. Well, to me, this quilt looks very funereal...black and red roses?





How cheerful.





The only way it could possible be more macabre is to perhaps include some of those DAY OF THE DEAD skeletons wearing sombreros!


Or perhaps this:






But fortunately, there are no skulls or skeletons on this. There are red roses, though...


I dunno...it just doesn't say "hospice" to me!





I did learn a few things when making this quilt...for one thing, the circle they drew on the quilt for me to stitch on should have been treated as a CUTTING line instead of a STITCHING line. I should have stitched 1/4" INSIDE that circle, because the square template that was provided was smaller than the finished circle. This means that the flaps are not all the same size...the vertical ones are larger than the horizontal ones. No big deal, but still....



Pressing is very important. The circles need to be well-pressed before assembling.



And when sewing those rows, be sure to include the slit side in the first stage of construction, so there will be no problems later.







Ackkk! Today I was going over this finished quilt with a lint brush, to remove stray threads, etc, and what did I find? There is a little 'snip' on the back side of one circle! Judging by the location, it looks like it might have been snipped when they were creating the 'slash' on the opposite side for turning the circles right side out. It is small...less than 1/4"...but it is 'there'. I have put some Fray check on it, but I can't leave it this way. I'll have to stitch over it somehow. Either a bar-tack kind of thing, or possible some hand stitching...although, truly, the machine bar-tack will look less like a repair, because my handwork isn't great. I think this would be a good time to have some of that Bo-Nash powder...

Red and Wrong

The sky was looking a bit ominous, so I went outside and picked a small bouquet of daffodils from my yard. I wish your monitor was scratch and sniff...they smell so good! They smell like Spring...especially when you consider that I can also smell rain through the open window beside me.

Rain? Yep. We just had a short rainshower that followed the brief HAIL STORM that just suddenly occurred!!! And this was less than 20 minutes after I picked these flowers!!! I hope it didn't harm the ones I left behind.

Strong wind and hail?
Good grief...in like a lamb, out like a lion?

I gave a bit more thought to HOW to eliminate the excess width that is created when one rotates part of the bust dart to the CF area to create gathers. This is kinda what I was thinking: Using my previous pattern, what if I just 'shifted' the width of the above-bust area medially, until the excess is gone? Here's a picture to show what I mean.

On the left is my pattern with the excess width (little triangle pointing downward at CF/neck). The next image with green lines indicates the original width of that area, before the excess was added. Third, those green lines are 'shifted' to the right until they touch the CF line. Lastly, the pink line indicates the NEW sewing line, which is basically removing the excess at the side of that section...the yoke seam.

I decided I would try this on the next pattern. But I also decided to do a few other things differently, too! I would make an awful scientist, because I introduce too many variables in my experiments!

Ok, on this knock-off of the Jalie 2794 (take three), I again drew guidelines:

• blue = grainline.
• green = future locations of dart rotation (directly opposite BP and toward lower ah).

Plus, I located a point on the side seam...this time, it was 1.5" below the underarm (before it was 2.5"). I also drew an ARC (orange) to connect the new point on the sideseam with the neckline to create the yoke shape.

Then I removed the yoke area.

I selected everything above the bust level (green) and rotated counter-clockwise to close ONE FOURTH of the bust dart (before, I put HALF of the dart into CF). This put less dart into the CF area and created less excess width to remove. Remember, before, I was not thrilled with the amount of gathering at the center front, so I was hoping this would be just right.

Next I selected the area in bold black and rotated CCW to close the remaining bust dart, which opened a dart in the yoke seam. THis one is larger than on the previous one because it is 3/4 of the dart (as opposed to being only half before).


Now it was time to 'shift' the upper section medially to eliminate that excess width at the front. I selected the neck and upper section of the yoke seam (light blue) and moved it toward the middle, such that the length of the seams did not change. Then I redrew the ARC that is the yoke seam, and Voila! a new pattern to try.

Now here is where I messed up. Remember that top I made last fall? The NO DART one from the red textured knit? Well, I hate that top and never wear it. I decided to rip it apart and recut it from this pattern. I dug until I found the remnants of that piece...not much, but enough to cut out the two new yoke pieces and a band for the neckline.

The new pieces were easily cut from the scraps of the first top.

Oh! This time (after this photo was taken) I re-cut the band to be only 1.5" wide, whereas before, it was cut 2" wide. I think I like the narrower band on the top...but wider was ok, too.

Either way, when the top is finished, I have to miter the band at the center of the V...i.e., sew across the folded band at a 45 degree angle to create a 'v'.

I left the very bottom of the sideseams unripped, to leave the hem as is...hoping to avoid one step in completion of the new top.

Then I layed the patterns onto the old top. Below, you can see the relationship of the YOKE pattern to the FRONT pattern...although the yoke WILL NOT be cut from this piece (it was cut from the scraps, remember?). But this clearly shows where the bust dart went.

When I carefully positioned the new patterns onto the previously cut top, I coud see that the old FRONT pieces were a little bit too narrow right where the yoke seam meets the side seam. I decided that I would go ahead and cut it anyway...I had ruined the old top by ripping it apart anyway, so if it turned out too tight, I would just give it away. And FYI, I had drafted this NEW pattern with only ONE inch bust ease this time; the leopard top had 2" bust ease. THis pattern had only 1" bust ease, and the fabric STILL was not wide enough...so I would actually end up with even less! But I proceeded.

Here, you can see the front pattern piece overlayed onto the now-finished top. The end of the ruler is aligned with the side seam of the top...it is a good 1" smaller than the pattern. This means the front of this top is 2" narrower than the pattern calls for! I spread out some of the gathers that should have been the bust dart to make the yoke seam longer to help make up for the lack...that enabled me to sew on the yoke, which was the correct width, but it didn't add any front width BELOW the yoke seam, and THAT is where it was needed!

The old sleeves were used as-is, because I couldn't make them any larger! ("what?" you say!)
I know...I thought the sleeves would be wide enough to reuse, but it turns out the back was at least 3/4" too small...so I just sewed them in as is. This means there was NO ease in the cap seam...and possibly, the cap seam was smaller than the armhole.

Oh! The back neck on the old top was wider than the back neck on the new pattern...one of the very areas I wanted to change! I could narrow it some, but not enough without making the top too short in length...so I decided to use the band to pull it in (by stretching the band in that area when sewing it on). But I probably stretched the band too much in the front neck area, too...the neck is sort of being pulled upward.

So, between the neck pulling the front up, and the sleeves pulling in the bodice, and the front width being inadequate, this thing didn't have a chance!

Lemonade.

Overall, the fit is not as bad as it ought to be, but it is tighter than I desire. The pattern, though, is probably good...if only it had been actually USED correctly!!!

Although the front neck depth was increased this time, it is hard to tell it, because the band is pulling up the front (didn't I learn not to do that on the FIRST top?).

Also, I like that the amount of front gathers is less than before. THIS TIME, I only gathered from bust level UPWARD...but not below the bust (so I didn't use that point that was located on the CF that was below the bust level). I actually think I could have put a full HALF of the bust dart into the CF after all, since I removed the excess width AND since I only gathered ABOVE the bust level.

The back isn't awful...it would be fine if the skimpy front wasn't pulling it out of place! But because the front was too narrow (and I used it anyway!), it pulls the back tighter and shows 'bra bulges' (what? Surely *you* don't have those!? Sigh. Yes I do.).

The shoulders are MUCH better this time. I used the NO BACK DART setting and used the ARMHOLE SHAPE TOOLS to reshape the armhole to be much more of a slant. I have found that drafting WITH a shoulder dart produces a smaller back half of the sleeve than drafting WITHOUT a shoulder dart. I have been trying FOR YEARS to get adequate back width (driving room) in my garments, and the advice given was always 'increase the BACK SHOULDER WIDTH", which increases the size of the bk shoulder dart. My friend, Heidi Jung, assures me that I only need a 3/8" width shoulder dart...and to get that, I just have to use a BSW measurement that is .75" larger than the FRONT SHOULDER WIDTH measurement. It is the ARMHOLE SHAPE TOOLS that enable me to increase the width at the lower back armhole without using a large back shoulder dart. The AH shape tool seems to work better now than when it was first introduced (ten years ago?)...when it created large circles and jinks with only a few clicks.

Oh, I reduced my NECK CIRCUMFERENCE MEASUREMENT to 13", even though it measures more than that. I don't need to make it larger (to control the size of the back shoulder dart) if I am not using a large BSW and NOT getting a large shoulder dart!

I know this works in a knit now...I just have to prove it in a woven!

Here is my STYLE SHEET info:

Garment Type: Blouse
Style: Blouse
Closure: No Closure
Front Neckline: Square
Back Neckline: Jewel
Hemline Sweep: Straight
Hemline Shape: Straight
Front Darts: Side
Back Darts: No Darts
Sideseam Shape: Fitted

Front Waist Darts: 1 ...didnt' sew these!
Back Waist Darts: 1

Front Neckline Depth: 6
Back Neckline Depth: 0.75
Neckline Width: 0.5 ***WIDER than last time...better.
Neckline Point: 0
Front Neckline Shape Up: 2.7 clicks
Front Neckline Shape Right: -2.2 clicks

Armhole Depth: -0.75
Dart Override: 0

Side/Arm Point: -1
Side/Waist Point: 0.75
Side/Hip Point: 0

Cf/Extension: 0
Cb/Extension: 0

Shoulder Pad: 0
Shoulder Point: 0

Finished Cb/Hem Length: 24
Hip Depth: 8

Bust Pt Vertical: 10.5
Bust Pt Horizontal: 5
Upper Front Dart Length: 1.25
Upper Back Dart Length: 0
Lower Front Dart Length: 8
Lower Back Dart Length: 6.5
Back Shoulder Dart Length: 3.5 ***used NO DART option


Sleeve Style: Set In
Sleeve Underarm Seam: Tapered
Sleeve Hemline Shape: Straight
Sleeve Length: Wrist
Sleeve Cap Ease: 0.35**********
Sleeve Underarm Length: 20 ***used sleeves from original top, so these don't apply
Sleeve Overarm Length: 24.755 *****
Sleeve Hem Circumference: 9.5
Sleeve Elbow Depth: 8
Sleeve Elbow Circum.: 13
Sleeve Cap Height Adj: -0.75

Front Armhole Shape Down: -1 clicks
Back Armhole Shape Up: 1 clicks ***this is TEN clicks...and is the key to using NO BACK DART.
Back Armhole Shape Right: 0.2 clicks ***this is outward.

Chest Ease: 1
Waist Ease: 3
Hip Ease: 3.5

Chest Circumference: 41.5
Back Shoulder Width: 17.5 ***used NO DART...This # will be reduced to 15.75" next time.
Neck Circumference: 13
Natural Waist: 34
Hip Circumference: 42
Crotch Length: 29
Height: 66
Weight: 161
Bra Cup Size: D
Center Front Length: 14.875
Front Shoulder Width: 15
Front Shoulder Slope: 18.125
Shoulder Length: 5
Center Back Length: 16.5
Back Shoulder Slope: 18.125
Bicep Circumference: 12

Take two, continued

I forgot to give details about the 'band' that I used. I cut it 2" wide of self-fabric and folded/pressed it in half lengthwise. I cut one length for the top of the front pattern (neck edge) and another longer piece to go around the yokes and back neck.









I marked notches so that when I sewed it to the yoke edge, it would be applied 1:1. However, I found that I needed to stretch it around the neck area to keep it from sticking out.

Originally, the band was cut the same length as the total of the neck and yoke seam length, but later I reduced that length by 2", stretching the band around the back neck and just slightly on each side of the front neck.

Here you can see the inside of my top...the center front gathering was achieved using by a piece of elastic...I did a straight stitch down the middle of the elastic when it was stretched.

Jalie 2794 via PMB, take two!

Here is my second attempt at creating this style using PMB. This one is better, but still not great. Style-wise, I think I have most of the 'moves' down pat...but the basic block I started with is still not perfect.

Remember how, on that last one, the armhole seams hung WAY off my shoulders? Well, even after scaling, they still do. My Front Shoulder Width measurement in my chart is 15.5" I don't know why. Here, I determined that using a FSW of 15" gives me the needed width across my upper chest. I don't remember when or why I increased that, but for the next one, it will be changed back to 15", and I'll reduce the SHOULDER LENGTH measurement by .25", too, to keep the front neck opening as-is.

Speaking of neck openings, what is up with my back neck size? At some point I must have decided to increase my NECK CIRCUMFERENCE measurement to give me a wider neck opening on the back pattern...it is much wider than the front pattern's neck width. They should be fairly close to equal, although the back CAN be wider to reduce the size of the back shoulder dart. I am sure this was my intent, because those back shoulder darts have been the bane of my existence since I began using PMB! I don't want huge back shoulder darts...they don't look right when I sew them, but my upper back is much wider than my upper chest, so they are necessary for controlling the length of the back shoulder seam.




Well, when the back neck is too wide, it allows the front shoulders to 'spread'...making the front neck opening as wide as the back neck opening...which then pushes the armholes out that much farther! So, in addition to a FSW that is a little too wide to start with, the neck is also contributing to this problem. You can bet I will change that for the next one!

For this top, I used the setting called NO BACK SHOULDER DART. It drafts no back shoulder dart (duh) and reduces the width of the upper back so that the back shoulders are the same width as the front shoulders. As you can see, the armholes in back are still WAY out on my arms. In experimenting with numbers (after sewing this) I found that reducing the Neck Circumference Measurement will cause these seams to move inward...next time.





As I mentioned before, I still think I need to increase the size of the bust dart by increasing the cup size I am using. I have gone back and forth with this...but after reading the book mentioned here, I am pretty sure the size and balance of the armholes is critical. I must get those right and use whatever dart size follows.





Here you can see the little fold that forms on the sides of my bust at the bottom of the front armhole. There is no corresponding fold in back...just in front. This leads me to believe that back armhole is too short for the front armhole (or the front armhole is too long for the back).

I also think I could have used less bust ease. I used 2" bust, 3" waist and 3" hip ease...then scaled the pattern 96%. I think once the armhole seams are up on the body where they belong, using a little less bust ease will be needed to pull the side at underarm inward, too.

I feel like this style is making me look VERY large and top-heavy! I am hoping it is just the too-wide shoulders and excess fullness at bust, but it could be that the horizontal gathers between the bust is just not my look.



To create this style, I started with the BLOUSE with the side dart.



I used a SQUARE neck,
Front Neck Depth =5.5", and
I reshaped it using the neck shape tools...
27 clicks up and 21 clicks left.
This gave me a sweetheart shape.


First, I extended the bust dart all the way to the bust point.

I located a point on the sideseam that was 2.5" below underarm level, and drew an arc from that point to corner of neck.

I located a point on the CF seam that was 5" below the neckline, then another point at its midpoint.

I also drew some GUIDELINES:

• a vertical grainline in the shoulder area;
• a horizontal line from BustPoint to CF;
• and another front BP to lower armhole.

Then I removed the yoke area from the front pattern.



On the front pattern, I selected everything above the bust dart (blue) and rotated CCW, using BP as pivot point, to close HALF of the bust dart.

Then I selected only the side area of the upper front (green) and rotated again, using BP as pivot point, to close remainder of bust dart. This put HALF the bust dart into the Center Front and HALF into the seam that would join the yoke...to be eased.
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I redrew the arc just to smooth it out a bit, then I measured and added notches to both the yoke and lower front.

The one thing I wasn't sure what to do with was that tiny vertical dart at the front neck. I planned to gather the upper center front, which would take care of the vertical excess created by the bust dart, but what about the horizontal excess? I didn't want to sew a dart or create a seam there.

Remember, I had located a point on the CF that was 5" below the neck. The bust dart added another inch. so rather than gather this 6" down to the original 5", I decided I would gather it to 4", and that would probably use up the horizontal excess, too.

Well, maybe it did and maybe it didn't.


Anyway, this is how I did it. I'll probably try this one more time, but I am not sure I love the horizontal gathers in the center front. Perhaps FEWER gathers? Perhaps keep them higher (not go all the way to the 5" point but stop at 4, maybe?


Although the waist darts are on the pattern, I didn't sew them.

Here are my drafting choices:

Garment Type: Blouse
Style: Blouse
Closure: No Closure
Front Neckline: Square
Back Neckline: Jewel
Hemline Sweep: Straight
Hemline Shape: Straight
Front Darts: Side
Back Darts: No Darts
Sideseam Shape: Fitted

Front Neckline Depth: 5.5
Back Neckline Depth: 0.75
Neckline Width: 0.25 ***(look how much wider the neck looks...even the added band width has plenyt of room. This is because of that back neck being too wide.)
Neckline Point: 0
Front Neckline Shape Up: 2.7 clicks
Front Neckline Shape Right: -2.1 clicks (I guess a 'negative' right click equals a left click?)

Armhole Depth: -1
Sleeve Style: Set In
Sleeve Underarm Seam: Tapered --(I might try the curved next time, but I was chicken.)
Sleeve Hemline Shape: Straight
Sleeve Length: Wrist
Sleeve Cap Ease: 0.32 ***(notice, hardly ANY cap ease!)
Sleeve Underarm Length: 20
Sleeve Overarm Length: 24.65 ***(yeah, I have gorilla arms.)
Sleeve Hem Circumference: 9.5
Sleeve Elbow Depth: 8
Sleeve Elbow Circum.: 13
Sleeve Cap Height Adj: -0.75*** (This will probably change when I get those armhole seams up ON my body!)

Jalie 2794 via PMB

This week, I created a PMB version of Jalie 2794. The Jalie patterns are cut very close, and I prefer a less-close fit, so I decided to just copy the style lines and use my basic PMB block to create this look.


Well, my first attempt was close but no cigar! I forgot a few basic but essential steps for creating a pattern for a knit top.

For one thing, I forgot to raise the armhole depth.

Another thing, I forgot to scale the pattern...reducing it in width to account for the fabric's stretch. This thing was huge!






As I evaluated the fit, I wondered if I needed more 'bust cup'...a larger bust dart and a smaller F-armhole. It was a tough call, since the armhole was too low anyway, and the whole thing too wide.





You may (or may not) remember that I had been working on getting the armholes balanced...getting the front and back armholes the right size for my body. On the last few tops I made, I was getting very close...but suspected I might still need a tiny bit more bust dart and a smaller front armhole. Then I started sewing on a quilt and sort of stalled on my fitting process.









Since the underarm was so low, I basted a 0.375" folded tuck across each side of the front and again across the back, between the neck and underarm...basically raising the armholes by 0.75".


This improved the underarm depth dramatically, so I decided to try this top again and raise the underarm depth on the next one without making any changes to the dart size...but definitely I will SCALE the pattern smaller for the knit!

Well, I have just finished sewing that new one. It is better, but I can tell I should have changed the dart size, too. No pics yet...check back! But I used the same fabric...more leopard print...so it will look amazingly similar.

Green Blankie

My daughter still sleeps with a blankie.

She is 32 years old.

And married.

She had asked me to make her a new blankie, as her current one is looking rather tattered. In the past, the task of making her blankies has always fallen to her grandmother, but now that she is 'over 30', her request for new blankies has fallen on deaf ears (I wonder why? :) ) .

So I decided to make her one. I had made her son, my grandson, one for Christmas, but she explicitly stated that she wanted hers puffy...and would like it to NOT be heavily quilted. Tied would be nice.

Well, there is NO WAY I am gonna TIE a quilt!
Not. gonna. happen.

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But I would QUILT one!



To make it extra puffy like she wanted, I decided to use THREE layers of batting...one layer of cotton WARM AND NATURAL sandwiched between two layers of GLORY BEE I low-loft polyester batting. While the cotton batt can have 8-10 inches between the stitching, I wasn't sure about the poly, as the label didn't say (I have had this batting in my stash for a hundred years; perhaps they didn't label them in the dark ages). Anyway, I decided 3-6" would probably be good spacing.

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The fabric I used was intended as a quilt BACKING...it was 108" wide. That seemed perfect to me, although I have never bought this kind of fabric before. I measure off the length of the quilt and snipped the edge, then tore across the fabric. To my dismay, this fabric was so far off grain that by the time my rip reached the opposite selvedge, I had lost nearly 6"! Yikes! So I had to add a strip on one end so the blankie would be long enough...72" long was my goal.
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I made this pillowcase-style, putting right sides together and sewing around the edges, then after adding batting, I would turn it right-side out. Well, because the fabric was so out of grain, this looked like a big mess. I ironed and pulled and blocked and ironed and pressed and sprayed and pressed some more. It was better but not straight.

Good enough.

I layered this atop the 3 layers of batting and stithced around the edges again. Then I took it to the serger and serged off the excess.


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This is what it looked like after adding the batting, but BVEFORE turning right side out. You can see all the grain pulls. If I had this to do over, I would NOT tear the fabric across the grain, but just cut as it came off the bolt!

You can see the seam where I had to add a piece to add length. I left an opening in this seam for turning right side out so the batting could be attached to the entire perimeter.

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Once right side out, I used the sewing machine to stitch 5/8" from the edge all the way around the blankie. This keeps the seam from rolling to the front or back and provides a finished edge look.

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Here is the opening in the seam that was used to turn this...I stitched it closed by hand before taking this to the quilting frame.

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I use large corsage pins to pin this blankie to the leaders on the HandiQuilter. Then I quilted a loose vine-like swirl...no leaves...trying to keep it open and well-spaced.

The quilting went very fast...well, if you don't count that I ran out of thread on the second row and had to run to the store.

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And don't even THINK about how the second-to-last row was next to impossible to finish...the thread kept breaking.

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I changed the needle, I changed the tension, I adjusted the HEIGHT of the frame relative to the machine bed...I don't know what finally made the difference but finally it started 'behaving' again, and the quilt was finished!

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I mean, "blankie".

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Actually, the official name is "foot-pocket blankie".

Most people know these as a 'quillow'...the quilt that folds up into a pocket to become a pillow.

But my daughter sleeps with one foot in her blankie...and it is NEVER folded up!

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Now it was ready to remove the blankie from the HQ and start working on the pocket.

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This is how it looked right off the frame...no flash. It is puffy!

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I made the pocket accordian-style, to allow a little more ease along that upper edge. That is the weakest link...the pockets usually tear away from the blanket at the upper end. If I had thought about it ahead of time, I probably could have added some interfacing on the inside where the pocket was to attach...but I would have had to be really accurate to put it in the right place (or make the interfacing really BIG!).

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The pleats on the sides of the pocket were edge-stitched before the pocket was sewn to the blankie.

I used a bar-tack to reinforce the upper edge.

My tea cup doesn't go with the blanket...it is just being used to hold the pocket open for these photos!

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To wrap this gift (her birthday), I just stuck it in a brown paper bag with handles.

Then I made a gift-card/hang-tag.

I had a few other gifts to wrap also and had already put them into purchased bags....these bags had leopards on them.

You know how gift bags usually come with a little folded card on the handle?

Well, I removed one of those to use on my hang-tag for this plain bag.

I used some Heat and Bond as the base, and covered it with fabric...a scrap from her blankie, plus some scraps from my repetitive consequences quilt.

I cut the little folded-card (from the purchased bag) in half and layered it onto the card.

I sewed an eyelet in the corner and used a leather punch tool to make the hole (this was the first time I ever used that tool and it was very cool! I will use it more...).

Then I chose several colors of embroidery thread and zigzagged over them to make the cord.

A wooden bead on each end and, voila!

A hang-tag for the blankie!

Now all the gifts look like they 'go' together!


Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Is that a UFO I see?

Why, yes, I believe that IS a UFO!

Only now it is 'finished'! yea!!!

This top was one of my experiments at creating a dartless pattern from my darted PMB block. I cut and sewed it several years ago, *almost* finishing...then stopping before doing the hems, thinking that I would wait until I bought a coverstitch machine to finish it.

I was fairly certain I was gonna buy one.

And I DID buy one.

Four years ago today.
That's right...March, 2006.

I have had my coverstitch machine for 4 years.




Yet this top has remained a UFO...hanging in a sewing room closet waiting patiently.


FINALLY this week, I pulled it out to finish it!

The cut edge of this fabric tended to roll on the cross grain, making hemming challenging. So I pinned it to my ironing board and applied some Wonder Tape. It comes on a roll...one side sticks to 'whatever', then you peel off the paper to expose the other sticky side. I applied to the cut edge, then removed the paper and folded the hem and stuck it in place. THEN I took it to the coverstitch machine and ZIP, ZAP, it was done! You can stitch through Wonder Tape...it washes out.





I also stitched around the neck edge. This was one of the main reasons I had waited to finish this top. I wanted the stitching in this area to stretch, but I didn't want to do a zigzag stitch on my regular sewing machine. The coverstitch LOOKS like a straight stitch (double), but it has some stretch so the stitches don't pop when it stretches to go over the head.



Ok, the stitches aren't perfectly straight, but that is my fault. I could count on ONE HAND (ok, maybe not) the number of times I have used this machine, so I am still acquiring skill!

:)


Cut me some slack here...









Posing for pictures is so unnatural to me! I have to take a gazillion shots to get ONE that is usable...notice, I didn't say 'good'. But apparently, posing for pictures is also an acquired skill...and one that others are struggling with also.

I had to laugh when I read this post.

While I am not posing with a vacuum cleaner, I did use one today! Does that count?

Come to think of it, after viewing this movie clip that Etta sent me (after a discussion regarding a tapeworm diet), it is a wonder I am able to go near the vacuum cleaner...