Terrace Dress

I've been sewing a lot more clothing lately. Loads of quilts, still, of course. Maybe I'm sewing more than is good for me, haha. I've been doing a lot of apparel though, for me and for my girls. We're all tall, so it can be difficult to find clothing that fits. It seems especially hard for tall, thin little girls. Dresses and tops are just not made for tall girls and it seems to make such a big difference when you're small. 

My twelve year old is starting to wear more women's clothing, but of course, it doesn't fit a tween's body correctly, either. Finding patterns for tween bodies is tricky, too, apparently! It's been rough. I made her this dress recently, and figured since it's meant to be belted and to be flowy, maybe the fit would work better. 

I used the Terrace dress pattern from Liesl and Co, and I found a picture on Instagram of the pattern sewn up in some Rifle Paper rayon that I already had. I asked if she would like that exact dress and she said yes! Of course, with my girls now, I have to drill them. Will you wear it? Do you really want it? Too often, I make them clothes and then they decide they don't actually like it and it breaks my heart. Of course it hurts my self esteem a bit that they don't like what I made, but I'm also disgruntled that I spent 5-10 hours sewing, and used fabric ranging in price from $30-75 depending on how expensive and how many yards I needed. It's discouraging.

And truthfully, the same thing STILL happened. 

I had her try it on before I hemmed it, and she said right then that she didn't actually like it. 

Grr. 

Apparently, she didn't love that the neckline was fairly wide and open. But it needed to be because it doesn't have any button closures or zippers, so it has to fit over the head. I tried explaining this, and she was still very torn. 

I finished it anyway, and hung it up in her room, and she put it on on Sunday, but complained, once again. She ended up changing into a dress I had just purchased for her, and I was so disappointed. Then she changed back. I try really hard to not emotionally manipulate them, and I tried to not act disappointed, but I'm sure she knew. Sigh.

But, I think she came around to the dress after she'd worn it for a bit. I think it's super cute, and the rayon is soft and flowy, and I'm sure it's comfy. Hopefully she'll like it enough to continue wearing it. And if not...at least this pattern is a relatively quick sew. 

Parisian Summer Blooms

 I often struggle with naming quilts. It's hard enough to come up with a name that suits the quilt, and then I worry I'll feel self conscious if someone looks at the label and notices the name, and then thinks it's silly.

I shouldn't care so much about what other people think of me. If I like the name, that's all that matters, right? But I do care. I think it's human nature and it takes a lot of discipline and confidence to not care too much. We should care at least a little, I think, otherwise, we'd be psychopaths. But not too much.

I fretted as I named this quilt. It is a pattern from Angela Pingel's excellent book, A Quilter's Mixology, which I love. I've made several quilts from this book, and it's one I keep returning to. She has excellent instructions for piecing curves and interesting modern designs. This pattern has been on my list for a while. In the book, the name is simply Curved Nine Patch. Simple. Descriptive. No frills. 

But I think it lacks personality, too. Which is fine, because then a maker doesn't need to feel influenced by the name when they're naming their own quilt. 

In the end, I named it Parisian Summer Blooms. The curves form flower blocks together, the colors seem summery to me with bold bright colors leaning into autumn, and there are a few Paris themed prints. I'm not sure it has the right feel, but I think it works. 

This quilt was quick to put together, which is always nice. It did take some thinking during assembly, and I didn't have quite the variety of fabrics that maybe would have made that easier. I tried hard to not have the same fabric in the same groupings, but with so many blocks coming together to form the pattern, it was pretty impossible and I settled for the few I ended up with. 

I almost regret not making it a little larger, and I have to keep reminding myself that it's a completely acceptable size for a lap quilt. I tend to make my quilts large. But, we are all tall people, so we like our quilts big! :-)

San Francisco Quilt

Designing an original quilt is always satisfying, even if it's difficult. I love to find inspiration in travels, and often take pictures of inspiring patterns or designs. Often, nothing comes of them, but sometimes I make it work. This quilt pattern is one that marinated for a while before I figured it out, and then it marinated longer still as I tried to decide on a color way. I use Electric Quilt 8 software and I tried out all kinds of colors, including a more traditional quilty look with different colored blocks. In the end, I love the dramatic colors I went with and the focal blocks. I used Alison Glass Kaleidoscope solids and the texture is fantastic. 

The inspiration for this came from a long weekend in San Francisco. I wanted to name this quilt Sausalito because that sounds like a better name, but I couldn't bring myself to since I knew full well I hadn't seen it in Sausalito. We were walking around, and I can't remember what neighborhood, and I saw an amazing antique grate on the side of a house. It was fantastically intricate and interesting and instantly knew I wanted to make it into a quilt. But, it took a while. 

I finally made it during the pandemic and I just adore it. I backed it with navy winky and it lives in our theater room and it's just perfect.

Right now, it's currently on display at the Springville Art Museum for their annual quilt show. I love going to their quilt show every year. It's an eclectic mix of mostly traditional quilts with some modern and art quilts mixed in and it's not overwhelmingly large, so it's just enjoyable. I entered a couple quilts a few years ago and didn't realize that when you enter a quilt in a show, they give you feedback when you pick up your quilt. I did NOT love receiving the feedback. I'm not a show quilter, it's just fun to see your quilt hanging in a museum! I swore I would never do it again. 

But I guess my trauma has worn off, because I went ahead and entered again. I like entering original designs and I just decided I'm not going to read the feedback. I'll let my husband read it and tell me the good parts. :) 

Arno

 I like picking up small pieces of artwork when I travel. We bought a small watercolor in Florence of the Arno River from the view of Piazzale Michelangelo. It's a classic view of Florence and the painting we bought was done at sunset, so the colors are just lovely and perfectly Florentine with the terra-cotta roof tiles. The painting lives in our bathroom now so I get to see it every day. 

Recently, I started thinking about how the colors would be perfect for a quilt. I pulled a bunch of fabrics out and decided to use the Clammy ruler I had just picked up from QuiltCon. 

I got cold feet for a while, though, and in the meantime, decided that I really wanted to make a wall hanging to replace a piece of art that I've always hated. Why is it even in my house? Long story, don't ask...lol

So, instead, I pulled some solids that worked together and created a bridge design that reminded me of the view of the bridges in Florence. I made an extra one or two curved block pieces for each row so that I could stagger them and I added sashing strips between the rows so they looked more like bridges and I absolutely love how it turned out!

I wasn't sure how I wanted to quilt it, so I waited for a few weeks and brainstormed. I ended up with a design meant to mimic the Arno River running horizontally through the middle, as it appears on maps of Florence, and then added perpendicular lines to it. I used a walking foot, which is by far the most comfortable way for me to quilt, and I'm pleased with it. Even though the tribute is subtle, I still appreciate it and I like the softness the curved lines add to it. 

Some of the blocks aren't pieced super well, and that's okay. They don't all line up perfectly. I still like it and it turned out better than I expected. And the best part is that they were all scraps/leftovers from other projects! I find that extra solids tend to languish in my drawer so I'm trying to use them up.

PS I also did manage to get the clamshell quilt top made and just dropped it off to the quilter's. I LOVE it and I'm excited to get it back!

Blog Revival

I think I might try to revive my blog. I’m dissatisfied with Instagram for a couple of reasons, and haven't posted there for over a year or so now, but I really like having a log of my makes. I haven’t blogged much because of the photo factor...getting pictures with my big camera doesn’t happen often anymore, and getting them from my phone to my computer isn’t always easy. However, pictures are the best part of quilty blogs, so I best figure it out, right? 

I also miss writing. I have dabbled in various writing for years; I majored in English literature in college, returned a few years later for a master's in English literature, and naturally spent those years writing papers. When there was an opportunity for slightly more creative writing in non-creative writing classes, professors complimented my writing. I didn't get as many (or any...) compliments in my creative writing classes, but that's okay. I've dabbled in children's fiction, and have several picture book manuscripts gathering dust on my hard drive, one of which I'm decently proud of, and one and a half rough drafts of children's novels. Those drafts were pandemic projects, and I really like the finished one, but revision is not a skill I've finetuned. I've always wanted to be an author, but the publishing world has shifted and changed over the past decade and I honestly don't think I would feel welcome or really want to participate in how it currently runs: marketing is not an interest I have and there is so much expected of authors today. 

The dream of publishing looms still, though, and I've had what I consider to be a good idea for a quilt book for several years. Will I ever pursue it? Likely not. There are too many other things, and I don't consider myself especially good at diligence. Look at my blog and Instagram page! :) I tend to be consistent for a few months, maybe even a year or so, before I lose steam. This revival may prove to be the same. However, this time, I am using it more selfishly. I won't be trying to drive traffic here through instagram or other socials. I welcome readers, but want to use this really as a platform for documenting my quilts, which I miss now that I am not posting to Instagram any longer. And for writing. 

So, here I find myself. 

What's happening in my sewing room right now? Lots. And lots has changed in my creative journey over the past couple of years. I'm still churning out quilts, more than maybe I should. I'm finished up a top this week, and I already have two ready to take to my quilter when I pick up the one she finished. One was a leaders and enders, so that doesn't feel as excessive as it sounds, and the one I'm finishing is an improv log cabin scrap project. Here are the blocks laid out. They are 10" finished, so this will be 60x70. And I still have loads of solids scraps...

 I'm not sure I'll finish it before I go get my quilt, but there's a good shot since this week is the last week before my kids head back to school (and my babies are off to kindergarten!) so I'm busy with preparations and last-of-summers. I want to clear out some of my leftover cuts of solids for the backing since it's a scrap quilt, so that may hold me up from delivering it with my others. 

My kids have largely highjacked my sewing room this week as well. On Sunday, I asked what they wanted to make sure we did before the end of the summer, and 3/4 said they wanted to sew bears. The one that didn't said she wanted to go to the beach. Sorry, kiddo, no beach days this week. *shrug* Sewing bears in a service project we worked on last summer. There's a local organization that has created a doll pattern and a bear pattern and they collect handmade dolls and bears and send them all over the world to other charitable organizations that request them. These organizations then donate these bears to refugees, victims, and other children who could use a little love. Last summer we made 27 bears and the girls loved it, mostly because we would watch movies in my sewing room while we worked. Here's our finished group last year.

But I love helping them serve, and so of course I'm happy to let them commandeer my space. I know we won't get 27 done, but that's okay. We've completely finished 12 already, and several more are stuffed and need to be closed. We'll get a good number done in the next few days. I'm proud of them for their desire and willingness to do something for someone else, and I love using my talents and skills to serve.