Friday Night Sew-in & My Bookcover

This year I've decided to join Sugarlane Quilts' Friday Night Sew-in.  Quilter's around the world join together to sew on the third Friday of the month and then share their work on their blogs. Click on the name and find out what everyone else did last Friday.

Here's what I worked on.  It's another UFO.

While I'm designing or sewing I use a 5 subject spiral notebook to jot down my notes and measurements.  I title the page so that all my notes for that object will be together.  That way I can't lose my notes if I just jotted them down on single pieces of paper.  I learned this trick in my other life in an accounting office.  Anyway for all these years my notebook has been naked.  I've always wanted to dress it up but never took the time.  

While going through my UFO's I found this pink and blue arch that I made in another paper piecing class.  This class was held like 14 years ago.  LOL  I never made the finished block just completed the arch.  So again I put two things I wanted to do together and killed two birds as they say.

I started with the arch and picked some fabrics I thought would do nicely.  Here is a picture of how I work when doing unstructured work. 

The white fabric sewing below the strata is the base that everything will be sewn to to get the strata stability and is cut to the size needed to cover my notebook.

The three elements of surface design are: Simplicity; Exaggeration; and Repetition.  So I added more arches in different sized to repeat that element and exaggerate it.  I love checker board piecing so I added some checker board in different sizes and colors.  This meets all three elements of design.  It is also repeated in the checker board green fabric.  Lastly I added more dark blue bias strips to repeat that color. I top stitched everything down to the base to secure it, cut all the jagged edges and then quilted it

Here is the completed book cover piecing after quilting was added:

Here it is with the ends folded over to make it a book cover and binding added to finish it.

Here is what the back looks like after it is on the notebook.

Creating is Fun!!

Finishing UFO's continues into 2015

About 18 years ago paper piecing was a new concept.  There were no patterns to buy just a concept

of making your own pattern to paper piece.  While living in the Front Range area of Colorado a group of ladies would get together informally every two weeks or so.   This depended on what was going on in the quilting world.  When there wasn't that much to do we would get together to learn a new technique offered by one of the ladies.  

Well, on one occasion we met and one of the ladies taught us how to draw a Mariners compass and then paper piece it.  Back then we used tissue paper to draw the pattern on.  Tissue paper is really easy to tear off but don't make a mistake because it will tear apart while ripping out your stitching. I wish I had remembered to take a picture before I tore it out.  I wasn't thinking on posting this at that time just on finally using the compass.  Isn't it great how far we have come in 18 years.  Now you would never know that paper piecing is still in it's infancy.  

So I made this compass and it's been tossing around my studio for 18 years.  I knew I didn't want to make a quilt out of it.  The fabrics are all long gone.  What to do, What to do?  Well I do have a 16" pillow form and this compass is 12".  What a great idea.  In the picture above I was auditioning fabrics to complete the pillow.  I found this older batik I thought would make the compass zing.

I then sewed it to the compass using a freezer paper method.  This consists of cutting out a 12" circle from freezer paper.  Throwing the circle away and keeping the background with a 12" hole.  Then iron the freezer paper to the wrong side of the background fabric. Cut out the center circle again leaving a 1/4" seam allowance.  Clip the curves and then turn under the seam allowance toward the back and press very firmly, until the seam allowance stays in place.  Tear off the freezer paper and viola' you have the background with a perfect 12" circle hole.  I placed this over the compass and centered it as best I could.  I kept it in place by glue basting it to the compass.  You could either top stitch it in place or open up the seam allowance and sew on the crease made earlier by pressing.  I chose to just top stitch.  Then I put a fusible interfacing on the back of this little block and cut it into a 16 1/2" circle and made a pillow.

Here is the finished pillow:

Another UFO bites the dust!

   

Friday night with Friends for 2015

It's time again to join up and sew together on Friday nights.  It's held the first Friday of every month and last Friday was the first Friday of 2015.  I'm late posting but late is better then never.  Right?  Just click on the logo above and go and see what everyone else did last Friday night.

Here is what I worked on last Friday all day and into the night.  

Front

I started this vest many years ago (so this counts as a finished UFO also, Whoopie!!) I had all the pieces cut out, the piecing and applique done.  I never finished it because it no longer fit.  I had gained too much weight.  Then last year I discovered it wasn't weight but bloat.  I had a serious yeast problem that I've spent months getting under control.  Part of getting control was to loose 6" off my waist as the websites said would happen.  Boy, do I feel better and am hoping that was part of my allergy problem for the last few years.  

Back

Back Close Up

Anyway I can now fit into my quilted clothing again and have started wearing all my old pieces.  Then I found this unfinished vest.  I still have one other unfinished clothing project that is beaded to death and that's why it's not finished.  It's next after I finish a project I inherited from my mother. My sister gave me this:

She told me it was Mom's and that Mom was going to make a jacket from it.  It's more than enough for a jacket and by the way.  You do not make quilt tops and then cut out a jacket.  That would mean that you have grain lines going all different which ways and it would start to sag.  

All quilted clothing is done on a base.  This is usually muslin and you sew and flip as much as possible to the base to keep the fabrics stationary.   It works in quilting because the quilt is sandwiched and quilted.  Most quilted clothing is not quilted.  I for one do not need batting, I run too hot and it would make me larger.  I also like lined clothing.  Enough of the rant!  I have already started this jacket for me and will have to do a lot of machine embroidery to keep it stationary.  I will post here when done. 

Happy New Year!!!