Artisania

I was digging around some of my old photo folders and came across these photos of  baby quilt I made in 2006 for my step-sisters baby boy:

The paper pieced froggies in the centre were some of the first paper pieced patterns I’d ever sewn:

And the cutie pie recipient of the froggie quilt:

Geez,  I’d almost forgotten about this little quilt!

So things are trucking right along with this dress design.

I bought myself that hip french curve ruler thing:

and then sewed I think is draft 3, what would be the bodice liner, complete with one layer of thinsulite for a little bit of structure (since  the fabric store didn’t have any suitable foam liner to offer):

Not bad, not bad, it fits nicely and holds it’s own shape seemingly well. But…

Good gracious that’s low cut! Yep, turns out that any padded layer is going to effectively shrink your final piece. You’d think I’d know that being the quilter that I am. Even though double sided body tape and a well boned bustier will be used, this is just still too revealing.

And poor Analise nearly hyperventilated at the thought of dancing around with her cleavage all out there for all to see. She did remind me that there will be plenty of older folk in attendance and that something significantly more modest would make her happy.

So there you have it. Off to draft more coverage and to figure out how the heck I’m going to drape the silk in the way I want.

Oh, in the millisecond I had before Liam dissappeared under bolts of decorator fabric, I spied some striped silk in various shades of cream and green which might work underneath that cedar sash. You’ll have to imagine a strip about 4 stripes wide wrapping around the bodice:

But now that I’ve actually had a moment to look at them, I’m having second thoughts. Mom would choose one of the green shades where I was leaning heavily towards the cream and white version.

I don’t know. I’m just going to have to wait until I have the sash in my hands to audition fabrics with. I know Analise originally imagined herself in a seaweed and bark dress. Yes, she is a hippy LOL! But a really sweet and highly intelligent one, and since my brother effectively nixed that interesting idea, I keep thinking of how I might incorporate some seaweed-like fabric into this dress design. Maybe that’s what I should place under the cedar sash? Hrm, seaweed-green silk?

Ooh ooh ooh! For awhile now I’ve wanted to be a part of a quilt festival, but have never had a whole quilt in my possession that I could show. But wouldn’t you know, a virtual quilt festival is happening!

It’s being hosted by Amy at Park City Girl and goes all week long! Be sure to click over and check out the nice long list of participants and all of their beautiful work.

So here is my entry. Or rather, entries

This is a mosaic of most of my favorite quilting projects over the past year. Some are completed baby quilts, some are mini swapped quilts, and some are blocks I’ve sent swapping.

I love quilting. I think what I love the most about the process is coming up with the original design concept, and then wading eyeballs deep through fabric, thread, drawings and paper to finally present my lovely creation. I never expected this hobby to be such a rewarding pastime!

Many of my favorites up there are original paperpieced designs. I stumbled across this technique a few years ago and once I finally figured it out, I was completely hooked and addicted. If you’ve never tried it, you really have to give it a go! Oh man there are so many amazing patterns out there, and so many for free!

One extra special quilt, which has taken me nearly a year to be able to post about, is this one:

Last spring, we learned that my hubby’s pregnant cousin was coming from the other side of the country to visit. And even though we only had about a weeks notice, I just couldn’t let her leave without a baby gift from us!

So, in 5 days I whipped up this little quilt. The goal was to use whatever I had in my stash. the top is a nice red fleece, and it’s backed with a soft flannel – white with orange duckies. It measures 31″ x 36″ and is based on this darling little piece of wrapping paper I’d been carrying around with me for over 10 years.

It’s created by Helen Rhodes : http://www.helenrhodes.com/ The young parents to be were 19 and 20 (I think?) and I wanted to make something really vibrant and cheerful, something a different from the faded pink and blue you so commonly see for baby stuff.

I machine appliqued each frame together, using fluffy red fleece for all the red parts and used smooth satin ribbon for the edges so that it becomes a touch-filled experience for the little one.

I also used a different free motion quilting for each frame, and snuck in some messages to discover within the embroidery.

There were a couple of firsts for me: First time using machine applique for a quilt top,  and the first time adding a label – which I hand embroidered. Oh, and the first time I ever made french knots! If I had more time I would have done some free motion quilting along the red chunks and finessed the cat’s faces better.

This was my first time doing this peacock feathery quilting…oh I love how this one turned out!

Can you see the word sing I snuck into the quilting?

Can you see the hidden words in this one?

Every child should be encouraged to do this:

The daisy flower block:

and the juggling kitty block:

my first handstitched label:

Here it was all wrapped up the night before it was given:

Boy. So much love went into this quilt. I laughed and cried and poured everything I had for 5 days into this gift. I don’t know, but I just knew that this baby would find a lot of comfort in this quilt. I imagined her/him exploring all the different textures, and growing up to point out the kitty’s faces and count the balls. And then, later on have fun discovering all of the hidden messages I’d so lovingly snuck in for her/him to find.

The young couple loved it, and left to then show it off to the next family members they went to visit in Calgary. I then received phone calls from my Mother in law gushing over how beautiful and thoughtful the quilt was and how the baby will just love it!

Fast forward to August, and we get the phone call. The one where we were supposed to be told that the baby was born and everyone was happy etc.

But that’s not the message we received. Little baby Cali was stillborn, after a gruelling day of labour and natural childbirth. It was suspected that she died shortly before the mom went into labour. I don’t know if they ever found out the cause, but I remember it was right during the height of the big unsafe sandwich meat fiasco and they suspected the sandwich the mom ate the day before.

*sigh* I’m still brought to tears remembering all of this. And I wonder what’s become of Cali’s special little quilt? I’ve never had the heart or the nerve to ask. It was such a hard hard time for my hubby’s family.

This news came shortly before the last baby I was to make a quilt for was born. I must confess that I was so heartbroken over the news, I just couldn’t bring myself to make another baby quilt just then. If you remember I finally finished and gifted that one last December.

Anyway, I didn’t mean for this post to be such a sad one, but I figured that this special little quilt and it’s beautful little recipient needed to be honoured in my first quilt festival!

Thank-you so much for hanging in there through my long winded post, and be sure to check out those other entries of this fabulous online Quilt Festival!

So, I’ve just spent the past 2 hours perusing the net for pattern drafting tutorials, just to make sure I’m on the right track with my dressmaking approach.

I’ve found a bunch of books, some videos and this great blog, just bursting at the seams *giggle* with inspiration and good tips and info: Myraida

Oh wow.

Ok, I’m flying by the seat of my pants here. There, it’s out. (Oh I hope Analise isn’t reading this! – Don’t worry though it’s still going to turn out just great!! )

That’s not to say what I’m doing is wrong, but I can honestly say it’s certainly not the most….technically accurate way of going about things. LOL! I can now say I’ve learnt a LOT about fashion draping, and enough about pattern altering to understand that I should find a hip curve ruler thingy. I hope Fabricana carries them. It’s a larger curved ruler used in pattern drafting, a step bigger than a french curve.

Okay… back to my dress form to make some rather important markings.

Yep, nothing says Happy Easter like a book on how to draw dragons.. ?  That Easter bunny sure has some interesting ideas!

It’s a tad advanced for 4 year old Liam, so Maya and I had a go at it this warm Monday morning…

Holy moses that is not easy at all. Kudos to handdrawing artists everywhere.

Especially Maya. Isn’t her dragon fantastic?!?

Well, all sorts of progress is happening on the dress!

Let me show you some pics of the second draft, the copy of the brown and white dress the bride currently owns…

This is my own pattern. (Although I did pretty much copy the dimensions of the brown dress.)

I have to say that I managed to recreate the bust gathers pretty well. I love how this looks!

Ah right. I guess some positive ease might come in handy… I think she might like to breathe on her wedding day…

Here it is with an unlined skirt attached:

She had a fitting on Friday and this fits her like a glove! Oh I’m so pleased we stuck through and made that second body form of her! It’s come in so handy throughout this process.

But… I’m not entirely happy with draft 2.

First, I keep thinking about this woven cedar bark sash that she will be wearing with the dress. It’s going to be a straight edged thing about 3-4″ wide. And I keep thinking that it will look weird with that curved inset – the piece that dips up into the bustline. I need that line to be straight to showcase that sash better.

Second, as tickled as I am that I created such neat gathers, it’s just too bulky I feel for my rather well endowed bride. She already has great curves, I don’t need to add anything on top of them.

And finally, she’s a swimmer and has these beautiful strong, slender, but squared shoulders. Having the neckline going straight across will only make her look wider and too square.

Nope. We need to soften up that neckline, and form-fit the bust area all the while creating a nice backdrop and frame for that sash. She’s going to send me some pictures of some sashes so I can show you what we’re talking about.

Here’s my initial concept:

And then I found this picture that convinced me to try to overlap the front pieces:

Is that not gorgeous or what? The bride is totally on board with the new concept too.

Except I’m completely out of fabric now, and need to replenish on Tuesday. So I’m cutting into the skirt of draft 2 to hash out draft 3….

to be continued…

Oooh, the silk arrived!!

I need to get a shot of how it drapes. It’s just beautiful! The ivory is for the dress and the brown is for the shawl. She had it custom woven by a woman’s guild in Cambodia. Good gravy, it took a loooong time to get here. This is actually the second shipment. The first package never made it out of Cambodia. This package took nearly 3 months to get here. Can you believe it? It had me so worried that I was perusing the silk aisle last week, just in case.

So I picked up some broadcloth and a pattern and drove my machine et al. to my great aunt’s house this afternoon for some peace and quiet.

I bought the pattern mostly for the skirt pattern. I wanted the waist and hem to fall just right. I thought I’d try out the bodice anyway to see how it turned out.

You’ll have to ignore the crooked top seam. I literally had 30 seconds to turn and stitch it down before I had to run out the door.

The skirt falls perfectly in the right places – I’m happy with that.

The bodice isn’t working for me. Now it could be the fact that I didn’t line or underline it, and the sort of lumpy nature of the body form isn’t doing it any favors. It just doesn’t lay nicely. I also had to take in like 2 inches above the bust.

Seriously, this pattern was sized for like a double E bust – ??

I think this week I’ll draft up my own bodice pattern. I’ll grab some foam liner and see what I can come up with.

I also received some great goodies in the mail which I’ll have to show you next time! – Thanks Marilyn and Beth!!