WIDRN Wednesday: finishes and quilt shows and new starts

It's been pretty quiet on the sewing front through May, which I knew it was going to be (see last post) because I was going to be emotionally and mentally busy.

After the Australian election, I had to go away for work for two weeks, and while I took a little bit of handsewing, I knew that I wasn't going to get much done, so only finished up one handsewing star.

Then, right at the start of June, I submitted two quilts for the Sydney Quilt Show. They're nothing special - one is from the two quilts that I did with the fractured stars, and the other one is an old scraps-from-another-quilt that I called "It Is Easy Being Green". I really need to get my ass in gear faster for the Australian Quilt Show (which is a different beast altogether), but I'm just not really keeping up with all the quilt shows anymore. Or the making of quilts.

At some point earlier in the year I'm pretty sure I joined a quilt along... Except that I can't seem to find the email. (Okay, went and found it in my instagram messages - Make Modern, Issue 64, has an exclusive quilt-along - the Moon Diamond quilt.

But then I also started a new quilt last night!

The fabrics are various patterns and prints, but mostly around Timeless Treasures' PLUME collection (at least ten years old). I've held onto it for ages, not knowing how to use them, and then I spotted the Communique Quilt Pattern by Mouse In My Pocket and it seemed perfect for this.

Except that I started cutting...then realised I'd cut the blocks too small - the pattern sizing on the printout is the FINISHED block, and I made no allowances for seams. *facepalm* So now I'm adding framing to the blocks, which will make them stand out, sure, but is also adding one more thing to the process.

This is actually going to be two quilts in matched style - I'm thinking they might suit the C1 cousins better - E1 and G2 - in terms of something that they'd use, rather than the 'stars' quilts I just made, which I explicitly linked to the quilt I gave E1's daughter, but which aren't their style at all (IMO).

Also, cousin A5 is getting married in August, after her brother M4 got married two years ago. And their brother N3 got married, uh, at least twenty five years ago. He's my age and got at least one adult kid and another that's about to turn 18 (I think). Eesh.

I've been planning to get their quilts done for YEARS now. I guess this is the kick in the pants that I needed.

(ps. I have no idea how I've previously referenced the names of my cousins. It's all confusing - C1/E1, C2/G2, C3/N3, etc. All the way down to M6, P7, K8, P9...)

Did some handsewing on Saturday with a local quilt group meet-up. The Restless Hands Of Sel quilt is slowly progressing. Slooooowly.

It sheds papers like a chicken sheds feathers at moulting time and is an absolute mess to carry around. Eep.

And then on Monday, I decided I was going to finish a quilt by binding it - I can't remember what I called this. La Luna fabric by Tula Pink, and the Penny Patch quilt pattern:

Another quilt that I'm going to keep because I like the fabric. At least, I'm going to keep it right now. B1 doesn't like it much - she thinks the staring ladies are creepy. (She doesn't know about Día de los Muertos and sugar skulls.)

One more quilt to bind in the collection - need to work out what binding for that one - a Tula Pink Neptune quilt. Don't think I have enough of the darker shades of Neptune to do the entire border.

WIA Wednesday: the one with missing pieces

I have continued making the blocks for the 2nd Teal Stars quilt, it's about half done. It's mostly just having the cutting board clear and laying it out, cutting the block, arranging it, and sewing it together. Four blocks down, five blocks to go.

I can do it by next week if I do one a day.

One a day. It's not difficult. Just one.

I finished another row of stars for the Restless Hands quilt:

If I was going to do this quilt again (ahahahahahaha no) then I'd do lots of neutrals for the background and most of the stars, and then some swathes of stars with a little bit of colour before sweeping in to more vivid hues, so there are all the stars in the sky...but not all of them are visible at once.

I think two of the stars are switched around. One has a piece where there doesn't need to be a piece, and the other has a gap - a piece is missing. So do I swap the piece around, or do I move the stars entirely?

Otherwise, it's a really busy week for me on several fronts so not much is going to happen.

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 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.

WIP Wednesday: The One After A Really Long Break

Whew! How long has it been since I posted here? I haven't had any WIPs in ages, haven't done any quilting work or binding or anything in IDEK how long. Anyway, I finally have some updates to post about.

The loooooong WIP of my show quilt was completed on Wednesday, sleeved on Thursday, and labelled and handed off to the pickup lady on Friday. She lives 45 minutes away, in an outer suburb of Sydney. I'm not sure if it's just that they didn't think that the person 20 minutes away was actually closer, or if I was blackballed by 20-mins-away lady after we had trouble matching up schedules last year. She seemed very terse and not very pleased when I dropped my quilt off last year.

Anyway, it's done. Show is in a couple of weeks. On to the next projects!

1. BIND ALL THE THINGS

I have this pile of quilts to bind!

I have these two kinds of bindings to bind them with!

Almost certainly, I'm going to need more binding. I'm also going to need more types of bindings, because those two aren't going to match with all of the different types of quilts I have.

Just gotta get it done. Also: it's not difficult, just finicky over time.

2. Restless Hands of Sel

Restless Hands of Sel:

I'm starting to think that the stars are just going to get lost in the colours, you know? Although it will be very pretty, it won't be very distinct! Oh well, I'm going to be a bit less stringent about the colours of the stars now, spotting in a couple of randos to give the quilt some unexpected pop. That's the theory anyway; it may end up looking awful!

3. Cousin Quilts

Cousin M got married in late July, then had a wedding lunch in Sydney mid-August. We gave him and his wife money as a gift, but I was planning a quilt for them.

It was also a chance to chat with all the cousins, and one of them mentioned to her new partner that I made "the most gorgeous quilts ever!" And that both she and her sister still use the zipper bags that I gave them for Christmas maybe a decade ago!

So nice to know!

Anyawy, I have Cousin M's quilt pattern picked out, the fabrics for his quilt chosen, and it's just a matter of putting it all together. If I can get it done by the time I go to the UK, then it can be a belated wedding-gift-slash-Christmas-present.

That's the plan at any rate.

WIP Wednesday: the one with not much

Not much progress to report:

Sewed together the pieces of a basic cloth shopping bag, and pinned up the current column of The Restless Hands Of Sel which is moving verrrrrrry slowly.

Still musing on whether or not to enter the Sydney Quilt Show.

WIP Wednesday: the one where I begin as I mean to go on

2022. Could be good. Might be awful. But there's still quilting to be done!

Last year (I think) my dad asked if I could make a bargello-type quilt in rainbow colours. Actually, I already had that on my 'to do' list as a quilt. So looks like it has a recipient now!

Pattern is 'placid curves' from Amy Ellis' book Modern Neutrals and I'd already started cutting up the pieces. So that's that much less that needs to be done.

Although working out the colour plan has the potential to be tricksy. Ah well, we'll see.

The Restless Hands Of Sel

Obviously my hands have not been restless enough this last year. I've made hardly any progress on the quilt in the last couple of years. The goal this year is to get it at least 80% done. JUST DO IT!

Doesn't help that the stars are awfully samey. Not quite what I wanted when I started putting the quilt together. A more definite 'colourwash' would have had more visual impact. Ah well, I'll work on it for the rest of the quilt.

The newest addition to the 'flock'.

And in context:

Midweek Mod Squad [Restless Hands, Penny Patch]

Another week, another Midweek Sydney Mod Squad update!


Restless Hands Of Sel

Today, with the loosening of restrictions around visitors, I went around to a friend's place - leebee81 on Instagram - and we did some handsewing. I got five blocks sorted, cut, and glue-basted while there. Now they're all ready for stitching together, which I'll do during various meetings over the next couple of weeks...


And then I laid it out to see how it looked in the overall quilt colouring:


Penny Patch On The Roof

This week, I finished off sewing together the last of the Penny Patch On The Roof. They were originally to be for my cousins, but I decided on a different design for them instead. Which I still have to execute, preferably before the end of the year.

Layout in daylight:

Finished top by electric light:

Still don't have any idea what I'm going to do with these four quilts, but I'm sure I'll work something out...

I could gift them to my bible study group members this year? There are five 'households' who are regulars: J&N, D&D, R&K, A(&S), and L. If I do one more, then maybe I can gift one to each? Hm. I still have the fabric for one more...

Of course, that means I should make some for the group I had a couple of years ago: M, L, J, B, R, Y - most of whom are actually closer friends - but they'd have to be nice, simple ones that I can get done before the end of the year, not too complicated...

(Hm. I could maybe do Plaidish Quilts for them? Mix and mingle my scraps? Oy. Better start cutting!)


Soroptimist's Annual Raffle Quilt

My mother is at me to make the quilt for her group, which needs to be done by September, although she'll need pictures before then. I was thinking a plaidish quilt might work for that, too. Need to work out the palette/fabric collection, though...

-

If you'd like to check out the tag on instagram, there should be a neat selection of work by the Sydney Mod Squad members!

Midweek Syd Mod Squad

It's a Wednesday which means we're looking at a Midweek Syd ModSquad post! And I actually got things done this time!


Restless Hands of Sel

I had all the stars for Column 2 finished by Saturday night.
Now I just have to sew them into a full column so they don't get lost, and then I can start on picking and cutting out Column 3 fabric.

The actual sewing of the pieces goes together pretty fast, it's the organising and sticking fabric onto the templates that takes time and is tricksy to do. Especially when the pieces are pretty small...



Penny Patch On The Roof

Started on the four-patches for the quilt:
And the 'penny patch' blocks:
18 patch blocks to make, then 12 solid blocks, assemble and ta-da!


The other ladies from the Sydney Mod Squad will also be posting their #midweeksydmodsquad progress:
@natasharenstead
@pennypoppleton
@quilting_bushgirl
@pinkyquilts
@leebee81
@skyberries

Midweek Mod Squad

It's still Wednesday in the Americas and Europe right now, yeah?

Penny Patch On The Roof #3 is done!



Penny Patch On The Roof #4 is still in pieces all over the cutting table, and I desperately don't want to do it. *sigh*


It's mostly a question of JUST DOING IT. So difficult right now when I'm in the middle of Life, The State of The World, And Everythhing.

But the restless Hands Of Sel blocks are coming along nicely. Apparently if you sew in Zoom meetings, it helps both the meeting and the sewing go pretty fast...


And one of the first 'tricksy' ones: Star 15, which is many small pieces and not quite as dramatic as I wanted it to be. I have to remember to pick distinctive colours for blocks.


I have the binding for the Sydney Mod Squad Group Quilt. Need to contact the woman putting it all together about how wide she wants the binding. (I have her binding maker, too, which is why I got the binding fabric.)


And I'd better start on my 2nd quilt for the Sydney Quilt Show. No, I haven't even begun putting it together. I know. Struggling a lot lately.

How's your stuff going?