WIP Wednesday: the one with dresses

Probably more suited to teenagers than to me...

But it looks pretty good!

I feel like it's designed for a younger woman, or maybe that's just because the models on the packet look younger? But the style suits me, even though I don't have the skinny arms or bony back that my vanity would like. (I don't think about it too much; my back is my back, it does the job it needs to, and it has my (very pretty) tattoo.

The only thing that needs doing is the hemming of the dress. Which...will probably not happen at all. It requires me switching sewing machines.

--

Anyway, other thoughts about quilting and stuff.

1. Summer Vibes Geometric Quilt Pattern:
- could make the "quick HST" sets, then just square them up
- how many HSTs required for a queen size?
- note the pattern, it's not just all same-size diamonds. Going to need to do a blockcount.

2. Simple Harmonics
- jelly roll strips, one background colour, anything that contrasts with the background?

3. Gift box. Zippered bags and pincushions and all kinds of odds and sods for giving away come Christmas.
- make a few more of these in the coming months
- could I do one bag a week?

WIP Wednesday: the one with surgery

Right. So, quite a lot has happened since I last posted here.

I submitted my quilts to the Sydney Quilt Show (run by the NSW Quilt Guid), both were accepted. 

I changed work clients, and am now full-time in the office, which means less time for 'puttering'.

I had a hysterectomy and am in recovery. (3rd week of technically 6, although in practicality, most likely 4 weeks.) Have a picture of my Plain Jane Passacaglia on my hospital bed:

My quilt 'Shades of Autumn' won the President's Award at the Sydney Quilt Show!

I started looking at fabric again. This was a BAD IDEA. Fabric lines like Eclectica by Dan Miller, Forest Chatter by Maywood Studio, Hibernation by Tilda... Softer colours, a less brassy palette than I used to do. I still love modern, but softer modern designs. Ugh. I shouldn't look at fabric and this is why!

Sydney Frocktails is coming up and I have not one, not two, not three, but FOUR dress patterns that could work!

However, I still cannot for the life of me find the Sew House Seven "Tea Dress" pattern that is an absolutely fantastic casual summer dress! I'm slightly annoyed! And the instant I buy it, I'm going to end up finding it again, aren't I? Because that's the way this works. *grumble*

Still want to enter the "low-value" modern quilt challenge with something provocative: "a new definition: taking up the lowest volume is peak white feminine". Which could really be done in any quilt pattern.

Hm...

I wonder if I could do my "Interconnected" quilt in low-volume? It's a thought!

But I don't have the time, unless I'm going to do the entirety of the thing THIS WEEK before I go back to work...?

No. Not going to manage that. Not even close!

Okay, going to do some more sewing of blocks for the Plaid-ish quilt that I was halfway through last year (the year before) before I got completely sidetracked in sewing/crafting!

 

more thoughts on a low-volume quilt

Quiltcon Member Challenge 2024 - due October

Be thin! Be quiet! Efface yourself into the background! Support the efforts of others in your life! "We Are White Lady Genteel (a.k.a. 'low volume')"

And then a counter sub: "I Know My Own Worth" Brassy! Bold! Forward! Confident! Perhaps with a dark background and bright colours?

I'd never get it finished before October.

Pictured: the Gothic Summer Sampler, which took a very standard pattern and simply did it in black and scarlet.

WIP Wednesday: the one with thinky thoughts about low-volume

Other than completing the 2nd quilt for the NSW Quilt Guild show (different to the Craft and Quilt Fair), I don't really have much this week.

GENERAL THINGS

I submitted a 2nd quilt. It was not complete at the time of submission.

I have some more fabric for the rest of the borders, but it's still going to be a rather small quilt - only 100x120cm. Lap-quilt at best, not even a single bed.

 

DRESSMAKING

 

QUILTING:

Friends' Quilt to get quilted by quilter - I texted her but haven't taken the quilt and batting and everything over yet. I need to check the size, and also that the batting is actually large enough for the quilt.

 

BINDING:

Still - still! - four quilts to bind. If I start by making the binding, that will kick-start the act of actually binding the things.BACKING:

Show Quilt 1 to quilt - by me. I made a backing, but then I decided I didn't like the fabric (I think it's a polycotton blend) and will replace with what I know is cotton.

 

PIECING:

The border of the abovementioned Show Quilt 2.

 

THOUGHTS I HAD

I was looking through the submissions for the ACQ (Australian Craft and Quilts?  not sure, tbh) show which is at the Sydney International Conference Centre and the 'Craft And Quilt Fair' in early July, and looked at possibly submitting for the Modern Quilt Guild next year. Submission to be done by October, to the theme: low-volume.

There's a part of me that wants to do low-volume in darks.

"But darks aren't low-volume!"

Look, American quilting is very...American. Which means there's a big emphasis on whites and lights and neutrals and 'feminine'  - a very distinct genderisation and also a very particular colourism. (To deny that America - and more broadly Western culture - has colourism embedded in their perceptions of colour is naive at best and stubbornly obstructive at worst.)

"Low volume" is presumed to mean 'reads as white' but I don't see why it can't mean 'reads as a solid'.

(You could also read 'low volume' in a very gender- and race-oriented way in the manner in which women are taught not to take up space. Be thin! Be quiet! Efface yourself into the background! Support the efforts of others in your life! Don't be proud or up-front or bossy or brassy! Which is also why many white American traditions of genteel self-effacement are affronted by the boldness of traditional black culture. That's a whole other conversation to be had. But it's certainly something to think about since quilting shows tend to be a very "white lady genteel" thing when run at the scale of current major quilt shows.)

The Duct Tape Galaxy quilt used a lot of low-volume fabrics, although overall the colours are the thing that the eyes are drawn to, right?

Anyway, I'll have to think about it some. A dark quilt that showcases the delicate tones of colour in darker fabrics? Would they accept that? Maybe? Maybe not. But it would be a challenge that I'd love to undertake - both a challenge to myself and also a challenge to the establishment.

Thoughts. Thinky thoughts.

WIP Wednesday: the one with autumn colours

GENERAL THINGS

The Sydney Quilt Show is looking for more entries. They don't have enough this year, so they're encouraging more entries.

I'm tempted. Very tempted. But it needs to be fast and easy. Something not too complicated. Squares, perhaps.

Okay, maybe something with a touch of contrast to it:

What about some sashing?

If I'm going to do this, I have until Sunday night to submit it. I think they're kind of desperate for quilts; I asked if it had to be done by the deadline and they asked me, "how much longer do you need?"

I mean, I could have a top pretty much done by Saturday night. I don't have that much on right now. But then there's the whole business of getting it backed and quilted and bound and sleeved...

Oh well, I guess I'll try...

 

QUILTING:

Show Quilt 1 to quilt - by me.

Friends' Quilt to get quilted by quilter

 

BINDING:

Still four quilts to bind.

WIP Wednesday: the one with show quilts

Another 'shuffled together blocks' quilt. Planned for the quilt show. Need to finish the submission.

also: find a name. Current suggestions: 'hearts and kisses' or 'heirloom and spareloom' Your thoughts?

also: quilt and bind and label and sleeve

whew

Finish Friday: seven little quilts!

It's been a month since I posted. In that time, I have:
- had covid (ugh, do not recommend)
- bound 7 quilts
- started binding an 8th quilt
- prepped 2 more 'Restless' stars for sewing
- made plans to prep another 'Restless' star for sewing

BUT ALL THAT IS GOING ON HOLD (okay, maybe not the eighth quilt binding)

I'm going to attempt to make a quilt - two quilts, in fact - in two weeks.

The quilts are for two cousins – E1 and G2 – the two older cousins. G2 is, at the time I am posting this, about to be married. Making quilts for them (for all the cousins) is a project I've had on the books for YEARS (literal years) and I'm planning to turn it into a video project.

We'll see how it all goes!

The pattern I'm using is this one or something very like it. It's just so nice and simple, but effective, and hopefully bright. Plus, I have plenty of jelly roll strips.

Mind you, it might end up a bit scrappy.

OH CRAP. I also have to get the Show Quilt at least sewn together. It'll be another Scrappy Block Quilt, because that's what I have available right now.

WIP Wednesday, the one with garden parties

GENERAL THINGSTechnically it's Thursday, but I only got back yesterday and promptly had to log in to work to get some stuff done. Anyway, it's been a week of much things done (although not necessarily things I wanted progressed) and today is a public holiday (ANZAC Day) so I have time to type this up as I didn't yesterday. It might still be Wednesday in Hawaii or West of it.

 

DRESSMAKING

BEHOLD the dress I made for the Bridgerton Garden Party (hosted by Netflix at an exclusive resort in country NSW):

It's pattern Simplicity S9434, but I extended  the bodice all around the waistline because my bust is bigger than the model size, adjusted the back so it fit me personally, and made it with tulip-sleeves instead of the puff sleeves that were the chief option.

I also ended up making it in quiting cotton (Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill range) and the skirts are cotton voile.

 

It worked really well, I think. A good style, very 'Bridgerton'.

I also had a second dress: this one I 'made' from secondhand clothing: one '1970s style hippie' dress, all loose and flowy, and one mandarin-collar jacket from HK brand 'Wanko'. I sewed the 'belt loops' for the tie higher - right under the bust, and shortened the jacket so that it's more like a Regency-style spencer.

All in all, I and my real-life peeps like what I've done. But pretty much everyone in Bowral was indifferent. Ah well. Now I have a regency dress if anyone I know happens to have another garden party!

Or, you know, I could wear it to the next frocktails event!

 

SEWING:

Today (Thursday) I sewed up a couple of zippered bags which have been lying around for at least a couple of months - since the Blue Mountains Frocktails. Well, one of them has been around for at least a year, I think - I've had it since one of the Sydney Frocktails, I'm sure - while the other one I got in the BM Frocktails goodybag.

I lined one with patchworked scraps of linen - also from the BM Frocktails goodybag, and the other with some more Joel Dewberry Notting Hill print, although I think this one I had saved for handkerchiefs.

 

BINDING:

I have finally - FINALLY - made a teeny tiny squidge of progress on binding. I've cut up some more strips for binding, and was fully intending to sew them together today and make the binding and...I got distracted. It's 8:30pm and I'm out of energy, so no binding.

 

PIECING:

And while I was in Bowral, on Sunday afternoon I finished sewing another column of stars to the Restless Hands of Sel quilt.

Quite cutely, a little girl and her family wandered by and wanted to know what I was doing. Her mother encouraged her to ask, and so we had a little talk about making quilts and what I was doing and how it was made.

 

THOUGHTS I HAD

Finally picked up the four quilts that my quilting group made in the years before COVID and delivered them to my mother, who is going to raffle them off for her charity organisation to donate the money. My quilting group always intended to raffle them off, we just haven't had the time to get it all organised and happening. Mum's charity does this every year, they offer a bevy of prizes, and people love winning the quilts that I or my group have made.

I'll post pics of them another time.

WIP Wednesday: the one with more Regency

DRESSMAKING

Finished the stays and a cotton chemise. 

   

The pattern for the chemise was self-drafted thanks to a number of helpful YT vids, however, next time I would make the neckline smaller, although this might require a more triangular body shape rather than the rectangle I went for.

Also, a note to myself: always flat-fell the first set of seams before sewing the next set.

The stays presented a bit of a problem - I didn't make them very well ("flexible" seams and a tendency to wing it) so I don't feel like they do quite what they're supposed to do. Some of it is the shoulder straps, I think, and how they're set up, and also maybe the pattern was not as supportive as it needed to be - I need a tighter bodice and armscye (as a FB friend who I've known for nearly 40 years observed).

It looks okay-ish, I guess. Not quite as high a bust profile as I'd like - as a friend observed, it might work for an afternoon/day dress. Which I'll make and use the underpinnings for.

 

The stays also don't have a busk - the wooden prop down the centre of the bodice. The friend who I consulted said that most people use a paint stirrer and cut it down. That might be a plan.

Anyway, that's two things out of the way: chemise and basic stays. Might have to make some more solid stays, but that can wait until later.

 

And planning a regency dress for a garden party I may or may not get to go to!

Bridgerton in Bowral is apparently going ahead (after hearing it might be cancelled), and I'm going down from early Sunday morning (I hope to leave around 6:30am and arrive around 8am) and will stay until Wednesday. I can work while I'm away (may not be particularly comfortable, but it can be done) and I will also be seeing the first episode at the local cinema!

 

The thing about the garden party, though, is that you apply to participate, and chances are high they're going to look for influencers and other people with big followings who'll promote the event and the happenings. Which is a big d'oh, but I'm hoping to meet some other Aussie Bridgerton fans, so we'll see how that goes. I've already made arrangements with people I've met on FB.

That said, I still want to make a Bridgerton-style gown - if I don't like it, I can likely fob it off on someone else.

 

BINDING:

ahahahahaha, no.

 

PIECING:

More seams on the Restless Hands Of Sel, although still haven't finished sewing the column together!

So my current schedule is full of dressmaking for Regency balls, etc.

WIP Wednesday: the one with Regency

GENERAL THINGS

I have decided to sew one seam a day. At least. If I do more, then great. But otherwise, one seam a day. One thing a day, whether that's hemming handkerchiefs or stitching binding together.

Hemmed hankies, made from spare squares of fabric around the place

Also: an overflowing scrap box. Need to cut those up and stuff them into the pouffle.

DRESSMAKING

I have applied to go to a Bridgerton garden party in Bowral (which is right in the middle of the holidays, I think) and I don't have any Regency clothes at all.

I would really like to make:

1. a Regency corset
2. a day dress
3. an evening dress
4. a spencer/jacket

I mean, this is wishful thinking: I have a little over ONE WEEK in which to do any of it. I have no patterns, I have made no muslins, I have no time.

Frankly, even just getting the evening dress done would probably be nearly impossible.

But I do have fabric. Lots of it. A lovely two-tone cotton weave (not quite the colour for a day dress, but possibly a riding habit). A gorgeous emerald green-black dupion silk (I found it at a Pitt Fabric store one year during the Sydney Craft And Quilt Show and bought the bolt). And a green lace so dark it's almost black.

The light doesn't show the colour very well. But they look really good in sunlight!

There's the blue-black chiffon (probably poly) and the mustard-and-violet chiffon (actual silk!) and a maroon crepe de chine (actualy, that could work for a day dress, although, again, not quite the right colour), and assorted cotton voiles and lawns that would probably work quite well (although they're prints, not solids, obviously).

One of the things I find absolutely mind-boggling today is how casually I have more fabric than a modiste of the Regency could have ever afforded. It's less susceptible to mould and decay and wearing and fray, and with some care, it might last for another fifty years.

Anyway.

BINDING:

Done: Cut strips for red bindings.

To do: cut morestrips for red bindings.

PIECING: 

I went to the Saturday morning sewing group meeting for the first time in a couple of months. There were a decent number of people there, and it was a lovely sunny day after having had an exceedingly wet and rainy Friday ("rain bomb"). I dragged along all the components of my Restless Hands Of Sel quilt and did some more work on it. 

I sorted out which stars were next on the list, and sewed some of the columns together, which was quite satisfying.

One problem I'm having, though: I can't find where I put the fabric pieces I was using. When I went on holidays last year, I took with me one of the bags that I'd been using to house them and...stuffed the rest into a ziplock bag. Which I then mailed home with a bunch of heavy winter clothing I wasn't going to need while in Hawaii--

Okay, so now I have an idea of what happened to them, but I still can't remember where they are... Wait. Found them!

LOL. Thank you so much for helping me jog my memory as to where everything is.

THOUGHTS I HAD

What if I got you guys reading this to vote on what I should do next?

WIP Wednesday: the one with half a dozen quilts to bind!

GENERAL THINGS

The DX7 needs to go in for service. I think the last time it was in might be 5 years ago, so it probably needs retuning and everything. Now I need to find someone who can do electronic JUKIs. I have my TL-98 straight-stitcher for the binding that's needed right now, although I find I prefer to do the zigzag stitching for binding these days.

DRESSMAKING

'So Simplicity' top has gotten stuck. I've been trying to edge the hem with a twin needle, but the twin needle is causing the fabric to 'hump' between the two sewn lines on the top. I don't know how to get it to stop this. It might be that the fabric is just too delicate to actually lie flat. Or maybe it needs a stabiliser of some kind? Otherwise, I'll probably need to edge the hem, and then do the hem-stitch along the bottom. 

BINDING:

I have 6 quilts back from the quilter, need to start binding them. Borrowed the 'binder-making machine from a friend to speed up the binding-making process. We'll see how sped up it gets.
1. cut the strips for the various quilt bindings
2. sew together with straight-stitch
3. make binding tapes
4. sew binding tape to each quilt

PIECING: 

Cousin M's Quilt is going nowhere. I got stuck on the colour scheme, and it doesn't feel right. Maybe I should just stick with the white background instead of the gold one?

Also, I need to do better quilt calculations. The current ones are kicking my ass.

Manic Monday: if I think about it, I'll go mad

Stocktake time!

Well, sort of.

A friend asked what quilt patterns I was eager to do and...I made the mistake of looking in my pattern file...

These are the patterns which I have and yet haven't done. That's not counting UFOs, any quilts in books, or patterns that I downloaded 'with intent'.

Possibly one of the more depressing things about quilting is the knowledge that all the fabric, all the backings, all the books, and all the patterns? You'll never get through that. Yes, yes, all the positivity and encouragement and silly memes, but the truth is that I have far far more than I'm ever going to get through: scraps and buckets and strips and fabric lines and excess quilt blocks...

I guess I could just start by filling out the 'mismatched' blocks that I have and adding them together...

WIP Wednesday: the one that should have been a Finish Friday

I got about 8 quilts off to the quilter, two did not have padding, but she was okay with buying it and charging me. That was a couple of weeks ago and she hasn't been in contact which seems a little odd. Usually she's done by the next week. Hopefully they didn't cause her any issues!

I completed the dress for the Blue Mountains Frocktails event and it turned out pretty well.

It was a stretch knit dress, sleeveless, with a cowl neck, pattern Simplicity 2580. I might have liked a bit more flare to the skirt since I don't like my hip-to-waist ratio (practically non-existent) but it turned out to be a pretty comfy dress to wear and not too difficult to make.

I'd use the pattern again, although this first time I had significant issues with putting the cowl together and ended up having to do a bit of unpicking. Twice. This is the first time I've made notes on a pattern for the next time I made it.

I've since cut out another pattern - "(It's so easy it's) Simplicity 2898" - another stretch knit, but just the top this time, although the idea is that it's a fairly long top, which will be a nice change from all the short ones I end up with.

--

While peering around in the brick-and-mortar shop being run by one of the organisers of the weekend even, I spotted a book called Zero Waste Patterns by Birgitta Helmersson, which is designed to create loose-fitting clothing with Zero or minimal waste. I've been looking more at zero waste patterns, so this was neat.

They're all loose-fit but with a certain amount of structure to them. Should be comfortable, will certainly be interesting. I do need to try them in lighter cottons and linens - maybe a quilting fabric or two?

--

So that's Finish 1 for the year! 11 to go, and it's the middle of February!

WIP Wednesday: the one with organisation (sort of)

Okay, I need to finish off gifting quilts to my bible study group of the last five years. I've been intending to gift them a quilt for the last couple of years running, but now the group is splitting up (just switching things around and also different timings), so NOW IS THE TIME.

I feel like I need more quilt tops and designs to offer them. *sigh*

Also, I have collections that need using: Joel Dewberry, Kate Spain, Tula Pink, the Chinese silk I bought back in 2010... They're great collections, but they should be used together! 

QUILTING

I have five quilts to head off to the quilter, although she may only be able to do 3 of them. 2 are ones that I should be doing myself, but actually getting them done is the tricky part; I don't know if I have the time/energy to quilt them myself! Although it would also be good practice, right?

Quilter has time from next Thursday, which is later than I liked, but the response would be to give her a bucketload of quilts and then leave them in her care. I can do that, if I can get things together this weekend.

Break Free Or Build Upon - quilts 1&2 are the quilts that I have 

BINDING:

Still at least four to quilt. I should borrow L's tapemaker, I have that much tape to make... Although really the hardest part is selecting the binding. 

BORDERING:

Okay, I decided I would turn the French General 'backings' into tops. One rim-border in sharp scarlet, and then maybe a small 'extra' border in cream and pattern. So those need to be done. 

PIECING: 

As I said, I need more patterns - nice large, easy ones. I think doing more with the Disappearing 9-patch might be an idea, and can be done in many different styles and types and kinds. What about "A Year Of Disappearing 9-Patches" for a theme?

Curtains for the front windows.

Layer Cake Lollies pattern: here

Star Chain Quilt: here

Pop Shortcut Quilt:here

BACKING:

Tula Pink 'La Luna' quilt has been one of my Halloween hangs for a while - just put it up in the window, let everyone look at it. Need to actually back it and get it off to the quilter, so there's that. I think one of the postage stamp quilts also has to go.

THOUGHTS:

I need more batting. Must work out where's a good place to get it from - would much rather a LQS than a big organisation. I don't even know where the LQS are anymore after COVID, although there must be some still in existence...

And finally, some patterns that I spotted while travelling that would probably make great quilt tops!

WIP Wednesday: the one with holidays!

Back from holidays. Went all around the world catching up with family and friends, and then hopped on a cruise for 16 days. I didn't do that much while with family and friends, but the cruise had a 'knitters and natters' group for an hour or two in the morning which was great to sit with and handsew and chat. I have emails/FB accounts for several of the women, so that might stick.

I'm missing my local group of "younger women sewists", but it can't be helped since their kids are in the phase where mum is the GM, taxi, reminder, clean-up, and therapist, and they don't really have the time/space for meeting up outside of that (although they're mostly still working on projects, so far as I can see.)

One of my goals for this year is to finish 12 projects.

'Finishing' can mean "just put a binding on the damn thing" or it can mean "create from scratch".
- get my growth group's quilts out - I mean, that's at least half a dozen of them straight off the bat! Need to dig out J and N's quilts and get them to the quilter.
- one dress for a slightly-out-of-town frocktails (and damn, I just realised I don't have anywhere to stay for that - oh wait, did I pre-book? *checks* Yes, I prebooked. Phew!)
- cousin quilts: THIS BE THE YEAR

Frocktails clothing:

I'd like to use up the pleated fabric that I have. I don't know what kind of style, though: a skirt, a top, an A-line dress that flares from the high waist? I want something that I can wear, if not 'casually' then certainly without feeling like I need a Special Occasion to do so.

I also want to make a Regency-ish dress, rather like the one seen here (which I'm trying on at Liberty of London), only with the top of the back opening wider and the bottom pointy.

No, it won't be "proper Regency" but also most of the shows being billed as 'Regency' right now are not, in fact, Regency at all. Neither are the romance novels, nor most of the fiction out there, let's be real! I don't need or want my dress to be absolutely perfectly done the way they did it in the auld days (for starters, I'm using modern fabrics rather than Indian muslin, and there isn't a dress on Earth that you could pay me to make by hand.