Tuesday, January 28, 2014

A little of this and a little of that.



I've got quite a few WIPs at the moment that I wanted to share with you.

I picked up some 1 1/2" Hexagon English Paper Piecing templates on a shop-hop with my local quilt guild this fall.  I wanted to try it out so I grabbed some 4 1/2" fabric squares that I picked up from a local quilt shop that was going out of business and picked out the greens (my first few were blue before I decided to stick to one color) to start working away.

These have been a fun project to take on the road with me while I'm waiting in line or something.  For the most part I've worked on them at the laundry mat while waiting for washers and dryers.  I think when it's done I might call it my "Laundry Quilt."  I will probably gift this quilt to someone (maybe my Mother in Law) since these more traditional fabrics aren't really my style.

In March I'm taking a sewing class at Nido, the new fabric shop in Burlington, VT.  Some of my girlfriends from college were interested in learning to sew their own clothes and since I'm really only comfortable with 2D objets (read: quilts) I though this might be a fun opportunity to learn some new skills.  We're making the Laurel Dress by Colette Patterns.  It's a simple shift-style dress with lots of options to customize.  To see some of the fantastic versions of this dress check out the Colette Patterns Flikr Group.


I've been really struggling with picking a fabric for this dress.What I like to sew with and what I like to wear are two TOTALLY different things.  Just check out my Apparel Fabrics Pinterest Page for proof.  I've looked at everything from shirting stripes, forest animals, bicycles, neon dots, gauzy florals, and even lace (but that requires essentially making two dress, one in lace and one for a layering shift)

Finally I decided on the Dot Chambray in Indigo from Robert Kaufman's Chambray Union collection.  My fabric came yesterday and I am in love!  It is unbelievably soft and I think it's going to make a beautiful dress that I can wear both to work and casually.  I'm glad that I ordered this fabric when I did.  It's already out of stock again!

Now I just have to wash/iron it and work on cutting out my pattern pieces for my dress.  I think we're going to go to Nido's open sewing night the month before our class for help with that portion though since we're all newbie dressmakers.

Finally,  I've made some more progress on my challenge quilt that I shared last week.  I was able to finish my gem center and I'm really loving the piece so far.  Now for the next challenge.  Piecing curves!



There are a few spots that get a little muddied from lack of contrast (as you can see in the black and white picture below) but overall I'm really happy with the piece.  At this point, I'm definitely not taking it apart.




I'm linking up with this weeks WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.


Anyhow, that's it for today.
Happy Quilting!

16 comments:

  1. I've never been good at sewing any thing that needs to fit either. Hope you love your dress! The quilt center is great.

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  2. Love that you're trying something out of your comfort zone! Your gem is amazing!

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  3. Your gem center is gorgeous-- really caught my eye in the WIP link up! It may be the arctic temps outside, but I love the warm oranges :)

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  4. Very nice choice of fabric for your dress. I hope you enjoy apparel sewing! It's a lot different from piecing, but the results can be so worth it. Love your gem quilt!

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  5. The gem is truly that...A GEM! It looks fantastic!

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  6. Thank you both of you! The gem is supposed to look like topaz. See this previous post here: http://neverjustjennifer.blogspot.com/2014/01/paper-piecing.html

    As for the dress, I'm so excited to try it out!

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  7. that gem is gorgeous! can't wait to see how it evolves.

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  8. The gem is awesome! I don't think it has to have vast differences in value for each piece. It looks more real if there are some subtle differences too.

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  9. Your challenge quilt block is impressive. It looks good.

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  10. I really like your Gem center. I just used the Gen Jr. to make some table toppers, fun and easy.

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  11. Stunning gem!!!! I think the variety of color is perfect!

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  12. The gem center you have made is stunning and all in my favourite colours.

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  13. That's an achievement. It's okay to have less contrast in areas, it makes for more movement IMHO.
    LeeAnna Paylor
    lapaylor.blogspot.com

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