Moana

 

This Grandma Christmas Task was creating something for my favorite 3 year old.  I was given an assortment of inspirations, but started with Moana.  I had to rent and watch the movie.  

I was sufficiently inspired. 

I collect antique linens and have a sweet spot for pillow cases with crocheted or tatted edges.

When the pillow case fabric gets fragile and fails, the edging always looks great.  I've been saving them for years thinking that  it would make a great edging for little girl dresses. 

My BFF Beve opened her stash to me.  

I think the triangular crocheted bits were probably the ends of a table runner.   

There was some "fussing about" to make it work.  

Had a copy of Simplicity 8270 this size which I adapted.   

Because I was adjusting to the standard pillow case edge size, I ended up making a big dart from the  underarm seam to the hip.    I added the back section after the rest of the dress was constructed, thus the inconsistencies on the overlap. I put a few extra layers of top stitching to make this more solid.

I pieced the bodice with bits of my orange/ping batik stash. 

Then top-stitched in orange with some of the fancy stitches on my machine that I swore that I would never use.  SO HAPPY with this bit. 

My serger died.  So my arm solution on the knit fabric was some fancy elastic I bought when I thought that I might learn to sew panties.  The fancy stretch stitch in contrasting thread.  OMG.

While I am delighted with the outside finishes, the inside is a train wreck.  I'm so used to serged edges and had to go old school with some zig variations.  Gotta buy me a new serger. 

This probably needs a swag belt.  Both for looks and to make it more size adjustable.

Next project is a hooded cape.  Lined with furry black minki and showcasing a fabulous red/black pin tuck satin.  In it's previous life, curtains for my granddaughter's mother when she was in her Goth teen aged stage.   The Circle of Life.

October.

My goal for the month was to finish 3 Benjamin Biggs blocks.  A week out I didn't think it was going to happen, but I squeeked the last one in before the month ended.  

I have 4 prepped for November as one of them is very simple.  That leaves 2 or 3 yet to go.  Unfortunately, I can't find one of the blocks from the original download, so I will have to draft it myself.

I have 70 of the 100 of these blocks done, plus another 7 half finished.

And I did make a second big block of this leader/ender project. 

I hope to get back to the Boomer project. 

But it's at the point that it needs time and space for the next step. And I have a background glitch I haven't really worked out yet.

Too Many Projects

 

Having made so much progress on UFOs during furlough, I decided to pull out another stalled project.  It's the Benjamin Biggs quilt.  A reproduction of a quilt from 1848 that was done as a block a month quilt along at Just Takes 2.   I did mine in traditional red/green, but using batiks.  I had 12 of the 25 finished when I stopped working on it in 2014.

There were 3 additional squares that needed the annoying 4 corner flowers added. 

It took a month for me to finish those 12 flowers plus block #16.    I have the next 3 prepped with a goal to finish them by the end of October.  They are a perfect partner to watching football. 

Meanwhile I got sucked into another quilt along that is active.  A paper pieced fall theme quilt from Twittletales.  I thought it would be a good way to use up some rusts and olive greens that I don't usually use.  I failed to realize how annoying it would be to make 100 paper pieced blocks.  I'm a little over 1/2 way done. I've been challenged by using 2 different background colors (didn't have enough of the first which was leftover from another project.) and the fact that I can only stand to sew about 5 blocks at one sitting before I get bored.

I had a lot of "good scraps" from the Monet quilt.   I should have just thrown them out.  Instead, I started a leader/ender project that resulted in some tiny 4 patch blocks. 

Which after some consideration became this 6" block. 

And ultimately a Road To California bonus quilt using up the sea / sage scraps.

The combination of being back to work, and taking advantage of the cool down in the weather to complete another garden makeover in the back yard, has cut into my quilting time.  We'll see what October brings.

Boomer

 

I spent the weekend working on a rack of ribs.

Because I needed to be able to manipulate the whole set while designing the quilt, each  piece was cut out with a muslin backing, sewn then turned right side out.  The ribs are all sewn in place, but the spine sections just pinned. 

The reason for all of that, is that the whole quilt is designed around this t-shirt.  

It was cut off my buddy Boomer when he had his heart attack. 

Fortunately he survived the ordeal. 

He and his wife have been helping me design this quilt with all of his favorite things.  

In the style of Day of the Dead. 

Scraps Beget Scraps

 

I added the backing to Monet and top-stitched the edge.  I had every intention of stitching some stabilizing lines vertically.  Instead, I threw it in the washer and drier and declared it done.  Quarter for size reference of the 1" squares. 

Since there's no quilting, I shall henceforth refer to this as the Monet Coverlet. 

After placing all those 1.5" squares, I was so ready to throw away the extras.  But there were so many "good fabrics" in the mix.   I started a leader/ender project while I was finishing up the Monet top, and today combined the pairs for 100 4-patch blocks.  I have some vague ideas of combining these with HST using the blue leftovers.  

Twiddletails posted this quilt along of Leaves in the Forest, just as I was wondering what to do with the weird olive leftovers I wouldn't usually buy.  

I was able to pull these scraps together to match the pattern colors.  

And did these test blocks (Block #4 on top, #1 on bottom) that include 9 of the 12 colors in the quilt pattern.   They appear to play well together.  

On a bright note, both of these somewhat random piecing projects are good start/stop type projects that allow me to work 30 minutes at a time, unlike the larger, more complex projects I've been finishing up.  Hopeful that will keep me on task. 

Monet Finish

 

11 years and much cussing later, Monet's Lady with Parasol is pieced. 

Finished size is 85"x 107"

This is how it looks on a Queen size bed. 

Definitely larger than the original. 

On the back of the flimsy, you can see 3 different brands of fusible that was used to position the squares.  There are even some sections I put together without the fusible. Once it's positioned, it is sewn, right sides together a row at a time with 1/4 inch seams.  Since it is so secure, and there are SO MANY seams, my plan is to add a double wide backing but no batting.    Almost done!

Addendum:  Ended up just adding a backing and topstitching the edges to make a coverlet.  Details in next post.

Final Push

 

Over the course of the week, I finished sewing 4 sections of the side panels, and discovered a section (top left) that was only 1/2 sewn.  I'll do the vertical seams when I do the last 4 panels. 

The top and bottom left panels are fused and ready for stitching.  I am out of 50% of the original fabrics, so did some clever substitutions.  Laid down the fabrics that I did have, and filled in with similar options. 

This morning I organized what was left of the original colors.  Added 7 more substitutes from the stash.  Will do my best to match colors to the original where it meets the other panels, and freestyle the rest.  As par for this project, I seem to be a panel short of the fusible.  SIGH.