Cutting out garments

For the past week, I have been cutting out garments. 
Winter is good for laying out lots of yardage on your extended dining table.

I've cut out nightgowns and p.j. pants, some waffle shirts, and a jacket out of silk.  I have a laundry basket now full of garments stacked all cut out and ready to go, and I found that if you fold all the pieces on themselves, then tie with a ribbon (like a package) you can layer all the tied packets, together with their patterns, and then I will just pull one off the top when I go to sew and all the instructions are there, and the pattern picture reminds me what I cut out.

This beats the alternative which is two small boys snatching the pieces and spreading them all over the room for you to pick up!  Ah well, and it is also much better than the trash bag I used to group that pieces from the last garment I cut out.

The weather has been ideal for doing stuff around the house, and I am getting a jump on my spring cleaning.  You can only clean so long before it is time for fun, so we cut out Valentine's Day hearts and taped them up on the wall, I taped, little boy put them on the wall.

I have been checking out embroidery designs on the web (love these line type designs), making chicken noodle soup, and in general staying inside out of the rain.  It surely helps one get to the bottom of the laundry pile as well.

I've been trying to learn to use Lightroom 4.  So far, I'm operational, but there is so much more to learn.  Thank God for YouTube, or it would be going a lot slower.  It does make a lot of your really bad photos look almost passable, which is nice.  And maybe eventually I will get them organized.

My machines are due back soon from service, so hopefully I can get all those packages of ready cut garments sewn up!

Pics

Winter Inspiration

"You can make something useful, functional, and fabulous from absolutely nothing, so save your money for purchases that you cannont make, such as vintage beaded fabric..."

 -pg. 92 Where Women Create Book of Organization by Jo Packham

 

Funny how life throws one pieces in order that seems ludicrious.  Like winning an auction for embroidery thread, and THEN your machine refusing to embroider.  This all could make sense, if only humans could see the future, but we write our story every single day, without heeding the possibilities of the next day.

 

So I hit upon thoughts of how to use embroidery thread without a embroidery machine.  Decorative stitches.  Yes, and I use those on hems, and neckline, and omit the lace on nightgowns which actually should have lace as it seems so everywhere right now.

 

If one could pintuck the present and the future, I think they would still find themselves confused.  I read books on sewing and I find myself thinking. 

1) Reading the book on organization should help you.

2) I'm glad I only just read about that project, now I    don't have to do it!

3) There are always techniques that seem obvious but you haven't done, and lightning hits, e.g. folding and then serging the fold, and triming against the seam.  Where was I all this time? 

 

I have been engrossed in a studio redo, and inbetween that my sewing has largely been comprised of mending.  Sheets, jacket zippers, etc.  I have completed some nightgowns and flannel p.j. pants.  However, nothing lately that speaks to my soul.

 

For my sons quilt, of course I pick a block that takes an hour to complete, and I mean an HOUR of stitching and ironing all ready cut out pieces.  Sailor's joy, yes, but I was not expecting it to take that long.  It is done in Civil War repros and yellows/blues with poision green backgrounds.  That said, I am improving my technique vastly with inset Y seams.  Maybe that will serve me in the future.

 

My Christmas present was some cubbies for the sewing room, and also some glass for my camera.  I have the cubbies in and almost filled, but they still need to be arranged neatily. 

 

My thread is arranged and sorted by color in drawers now, which I have found works the best for me in my small space.  It blocks the dust, and if you need a green, you can pull out a whole drawer take it with you wherever and find the right one.

 

I ponder my goals for a new year.

 

1) Mermaid art quilt on my design wall, IS coming together this year (then I can use all that thread I just bought).  It

 

2) My son's quilt.  I made him a duvet cover, but know he needs his big boy bed quilt.  It will come together easy once all the block are done, and I will send it out to be hand quilted.

 

3) Quilt some quilts already! I am a sewist who loves to quilt, but just seem to sew more than quilt.  I was halfway through the micro-stipling before I blew up my machine again, so I think I am at a machine crossroads.

 

4)  More embroideries...

 

5)  Print some pictures on fabrics and get my son to paint on fabric more.

 

6)  Finish the quilt for my couch and make some pillows to go with

 

7)  Try to blog once a month

 

 

It has been a mild winter here.  The boys are constant entertainment.  My oldest helped me sort the embroidery thread, and he wanted only to open all the new in plastic ones (so like me) and he snuck a couple but I made him stop.  He helped me "finish the job," and I love it.  He really likes his quilt.  I took a pause on it over the holidays and am resuming this week.

 

Life is full, and I am expectant that this new year will bring sewing adventures that stretch my creative talent and widen my ambitions.

 

 

 

 



Thoughts On Micro-Stippling

I'm micro stippling this quilt because the fabric begs for it, really, it does, and that is the only reason.  Pictures will follow next time, sorry.  I'm "micro-ing" the inner square of the Irish chain like quilt and leaving the house, which I fussy cut to be in the center of the square, free, to sort of puff out.  I may or may not trapunto.

The result is really more pleasing than I thought I could produce.  I seem to be keeping a very even look.  I'm managing to get about 1 1/5 diamonds done in a day and that is a rather large area of a freakin' huge quilt.  It does however make the quilt real flat, and the thread is a quilting thread weight, so that is part of it, but I did that because it is intended to receive actual use as a bed quilt. 

I'm sure this will remedy somewhat with the gorgeous texture I know it will have after I wash it.  And yes, this quilt needs to be washed after about 6-8 years sitting waiting for me to muster the courage to do it justice.  I am glad I waited now, because I have a lot more skill at machine quilting then I would have even just a year ago.  Partly due to watching You-tube, partly from just getting some more quilts through.  So I am just really proud of myself to be finishing it at last.

Micro-stippling is great for getting the frustration out that builds up when you care for two very young kids.  You can kinda just get mad at the empty space on the quilt and declare it will be destroyed with your meanders.  It harms nobody, and pleases the thread companies, and at the end of the game one may actually finished the UFO that has haunted them on the shelf for years.  Plus, it is something that actually shows, and it stays, read does not need to be re-wiped or moped again in a hour.

Micro-Stippling also is not great for people that like to finish all at once.  It is best done in small, do-able chunks, so as not to leave your shoulders and thumbs/forefingers about to fall off.  I'll admit to a couple mornings being super sore from it, ah, wait or was that lifting my 30lb. 1 year old?  Yes, 1, no longer a baby.  Awww.

I finally filled a bunch of bobbins up.  I'm using blendable variegated thread, but two different brands and two different color ways on top and bottom.  I have been changing my needle extremely frequently and using micro-tex sharps. 

I am also attacking, (since I'm on the subject) my bags of scraps in vacuum bags in the garage.  Every morning when I start the wash, I grab a few handfuls and bring them in to get ironed and cut out in strips, squares, or templates as appropriate.  This should create quite the scrap quilt.  And satisfaction that what previously took up a whole lotta room, will have been gone through.  Plus, I will have a quilt all cut and be ready to just sit down and piece it.  Yes, sometime in the future when I have some time to sit down and piece.  I guess one steals those moments while the dishes wait, and the kids watch Mighty Machines.  Sometimes I too, feel like I'm working hard doing mighty things, with my might machine.

Binding

This is how I did my binding last time.  Yup, rolled around a Dixie cup and the little scrap triangles stuffed inside the cup.  Nice, neat, and because the cup is waxed it removes really neat if you want.

I went on a binge ordering bobbins because I reached the point where I was unwinding bobbins by hand just to use them again because I was out.  So lets just say I am stocked up for awhile.  I like to wind a lot at a time of the same thread, especially piecing thread.  And then of course I am always using the opposite machine of what I already have a bobbin in such color wound for.

So here is the quilt that I bound with this binding:

Made as a house warming gift for Aunt Laura my sister-in-law.  The sage green exactly matches her wall, and I made the quilt before I saw the wall so it is happenstance.

Lesson learned quilting this quilt is that let yourself be free when you machine quilt.  The quilting went so fast, I was ultra relaxed about it and just did what came into my head, some loop de loops, some swirls, I just went with the fabric.

All the fabrics are from stash, even the backing was on-hand, so it felt really good to know that a whole quilt came out of my collection, and no it is not now just sitting on the shelf collecting dust, but out doing good service in the world.

Flannel "Gee's Bend" Quilt

"Mamma I'll help you bind it!"

Just fun to work with extra hi-loft! Warm, flannely, and the perfect project for Feb. to make me feel like I actually do accomplish something. I bound it in navy satin blanket binding because that's what I had and I wanted to finish.

It is amazing the transition from top, to quilted top. This quilt has simple fastly done quilting, and yet it took a, "I'm not sure I'm gonna pull this one off quilt" to a love it!

Just the right size for two little boys to fight over!

Christmas Sewing

Image: Of A Winter Beachwalk

The challenge of sewing with out either of my sewing machines, has become translated in the question of -What can I serge????

After some much needed time to myself, I made a runner which I serged with a rolled edge and some coordinating napkins. I have also been randomly serging scraps from the flannel bag aiming for another quilt for the boys room. One I want to tie with floss or yarn because when was the last time I have ever done that?

The serger is great for instant gratification. You can eliminate turning right side out if you want to. The feeling of just humming along puts one at ease and your stresses slide away tumbled beneath the threads of the loopers and the needles.

I think about the freedom sewing gives one to create the things their mind envisions. These kinds of creations can be achieved so speedily with the serger and I am so thankful for mine.

I bought some roses to lift the mood as the temperatures here reach down below freezing heartily. "Rosy Outlook", I kid you not their label read. I tried fabric, I tried walking around the nursery filling my paper sack with paperwhites to force for Christmas.

What it was that really cheered me up from the gloom that sneaks in with the tiredness new babies can cause mothers; was just about five minutes at my serger and coming out with a table runner ready for Christmas and it it not yet December.

I'm starting early this year. Last year it was so late when we got a tree due to friends and so many things going on. This year it is about being early and more prepared so things are ready and I can rest and enjoy.

I also finished cross stitching a stocking for my son, and have started on one for baby. I am so proud of the results I am producing on linen, that seems like a major victory after my first attempt seeming so difficult.
It is really true that once you start evolving to work with good materials you don't want to go back to what you were doing before.
The red tug heads out to meet a tanker, pushing past the grey water out to the sun behind the cottony clouds. I sit on the sofa and think about how nice it feels just to sit for awhile and watch the sea not sure which direction it would like to go.