vacation sewing

Last week I took a vacation trip up north to Michigan with my family. We had many important decisions to make each and every day such as "beach or pool first?" and "where will we eat dinner tonight?"

I took a little bit of hand-sewing to work on, and here's what I accomplished...

36 of these little guys. I've never made them before, but I think they turned out grand. Recognize any of the fabrics?

Stay tuned for the project in progress...

Sunburst baby quilt details - Part 2

If you're just joining me for the Sunburst baby quilt tutorial, see Part 1 here.

*** EDITED January 12, 2016.  Please note that in order for these instructions to work you MUST use the Stack-n-Whack 15 degree Fan Ruler.  Other 15 degree rulers have different top and bottom dimensions, and using them will potentially result in a much smaller or even non-existent center circle opening when all your wedges are sewn together. ***

Part 2 starts now! We're ready to start piecing the circles. Layer a background wedge with a colored wedge...

Sunburst baby quilt details - Part 1

As promised, I've got some details for you about the way I constructed this quilt top. The blocks are basically a variation of a Dresden Plate. But the entire block (with the exception of the center circle) is pieced into a square, rather than appliqued on to a background.

Sunburst baby quilt

You can find Part 1 of my instructions on how to make this quilt here.

A new baby quilt top is finished...

The colors and pattern were inspired by these photos of the deck chairs at Universtity of Wisconsin - Madison...

The new mom is a big fan of these chairs and their sunburst patterns! The baby girl's nursery colors were chosen based on a gallery photo of these chairs, with chocolate brown accents added.

The quilt pattern was inspired by this fabulous quilt by Geta Grama. It just so happened that I was admiring this unique quilt when my husband asked me to make a baby quilt for his co-worker Jeremy (and wife Jill) who were expecting their first child. Jill directed me to the photos of these chairs as a color guide, and this pattern seemed a perfect fit :)

Serendipity. I just love that word.

P.S. Check back next week for more details on size and construction.

can't get it out of my head

This silk dress, specifically...

I have seen the movie "Under The Tuscan Sun" at least ten times. The plot line is pretty good: girl travels to Tuscany in an attempt to ease her heartbreak, impulsively buys a crumbling villa, and subsequently moves there full-time. But the two things that keep me watching over and over again are the lovely scenery and costumes.

I've been in love with this orange/pink silk dress from the first time I saw the film. A couple of weeks ago while channel-surfing, I caught the last 30 minutes of the movie with Diane Lane in that beautiful dress... sigh. It's just so girly and a little bit retro. I love, love, love that dress!

As I was watching it occured to me, why don't I just make myself a dress like that? How hard could it be? Aside from the fact that silk is pretty pricey, what's stopping me?

About 90 minutes from me there is a huge shop called Vogue Fabrics. They carry everything - home dec, wools, silks, cottons, you name it. Their online shop shows several colors of Thai Silk Dupioni, and I particularly LOVE this color called persimmon. Slightly iridescent, the color shifts from orange to pink as the fabric moves and the light changes. Perfect!

I did a little online research about silk fabrics since I've never sewn with them and learned that dupioni silks are woven from two different colors of silk, giving them the iridescent shimmer. Dupioni silks are an excellent choice for dress-making since they are wrinkle resistant and provide a crisp drape. They do have a slight roughness or nubbiness to the weave, which I think gives them a little character. On the downside, though, dupioni silks show pin marks more than other fabrics, so I'd have to be extra careful to keep the pins in the seam allowances.

A close-up shot from the movie shows that Diane Lane's dress has the tiniest little fold-down shawl collar without a notch and set-in sleeves with a fold-up cuff. The dress appears to be a shirt-dress because of the silk covered buttons on the bodice, but they don't continue down the front of the full circle skirt, so there must be a well hidden zipper in the side seam. I'm thinking five yards of silk is what I'll need. Wow - that's a lot of silk!

We've got a family wedding coming up in late September; that should be time enough to act on this obsession, don't you think? Next step is pattern research and a field trip to Vogue fabrics... sounds like fun!

And in case you are thinking I've abandoned my quilty pursuits, let me assure that I've been working on a new baby quilt top in the midst of all this apparel sewing. All the blocks are completed; I've just got to put them together and show you next week!

Happy Weekend, everyone!

why yes, it IS another skirt

My latest wardrobe addition is another Fat Quarter skirt made using the fabulous tutorial from Venus de Hilo found here.

A photo of my new skirt front...

And one of my new skirt back...

Stephanie (aka Venus) gives you step by step instructions in three installments so you can make your very own drawstring summery skirt from just six fat quarters! I made one last year using her tutorial, so I already had my custom fitted pattern prepared, and the whole thing took me about two hours. Well, maybe three since I decided to sew the drawstring inside-out and turn it with a bodkin. That took a bit longer than I expected - lesson learned - so next time I'll do it the way she told me :)

I've probably got enough fat quarters in my stash to make one of these skirts for every day of the summer season.

So, you might be seeing more of them here.

Just sayin'...

P.S. Fabrics are from the Stockholm line by Robin Zingone for Robert Kaufman.

Dotty Stars finished!

My Dotty Star is quilted and bound!

I chose an edge-to-edge quilting design (also known as pantograph) called "Petal Pushers" in a very pale pink color. My long-arm quilter has a giant array of patterns to chose from, and I wanted something flowery but not too dense because the front is busy enough already! The backing is primarily the flower dots on blue print you see here with a white on white strip right down the middle. I had to make-do with what was left on the bolt of those flower dots. Quilt backing fabric on clearance - gotta love that!

The binding is an irregular white dot on black print. Something about the uneven spacing of these dots seemed a better fit than dots in a grid pattern. And of course, it just had to be a print with dots!

It's now hanging in its new habitat - my sewing room! I took down my Mary Engelbreit New York Beauty quilt and placed it on my new quilting ladder. It feels pretty good to have enough quilts here at my house to be able to rotate them.

If you'd like to see any details about the pattern I used for this quilt and some construction tips and tricks, you can read all about it by clicking on "Dotty Stars" in the Labels section in the right sidebar.