I love sewing--any form of needle and thread makes me happy.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Work on the Floral Block Continues.

I'm still working on the Crazy Quilt Floral Block.  Here's another unit that's finished:

The center motif is an applique.  The seam on the left side is fly stitch with French knots.  The seam on the right is herringbone with pearl beads.  Above you can see a peek of lace with buttonhole stitch, sequins anchored by seed beads, and the lace is topped off with chain stitch.

The center unit is still giving me fits.  I've sewn a motif there, but it's crying out for more.  So more thought into that one and some seam treatments on one more unit and it's done.

Quilting:  I've started on the stars for the Friendship Stars Quilt from Craftsy.  So many half-square triangles to cut and press and square up before I can even begin sewing with them!  Goodness!  That got tedious quick.  Now I'm sewing again so all is good.

Garment sewing:  Miss this so much.  I'm nearly to the end of my quilt thread bobbin.  May take the opportunity to switch out threads and stitch up that dress.  It's a fairly quick sew and would keep me  and my sewing "fresh".  I'm also in need of a finished project and this would provide that.

'til next time!
Cathy 

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Just a Note of Progress

It's been 2 weeks, and I didn't want to lose touch.  There has been some progress in the sewing room.

Quilting:  I mentioned in the last post I'm taking a beginner quilting class on Craftsy: Start Up Library: Quilting with Christa Watson.  Well, I'm finding it very informative and easy to follow along.  It is very rudimentary, which I like, and takes you through the processes step by step.  The teacher is very engaging and shares lots of tips not in the extensive class materials.  A more experience quilter could probably do this quilt from just the class materials.  So far, I've completed the 12 chain blocks.


Next up are the star blocks.  Really looking forward to those.

Crazy quilting:  This is something that I do in the evenings while relaxing with my husband.  I work quite a few nights so I don't tend to make very fast progress with this.  I have finished one motif I'm pleased with that did take a lot of time.



I used outline stitch, French knots for the center and beads scattered over the flowers.  I'm still working on this piece. An inspiration for the large blank center section has yet to hit.  Pinterest has yielded several possibilities if I change them a bit to suit this.

Garment sewing:  I have cut out a dress in a scuba fabric with a geometric design.  I probably won't actually stitch it up, though, until the quilt is pieced.  By then, I'll want to change gears for while and I don't like having UFOs.

I keep reading these amazing goals other bloggers post for 2019.  I admire them so much as they are posting some pretty heavy sewing goals and from their past sewing exploits these goals are attainable or near-attainable.  I don't really set goals much.  I have joined the 50-yard Dash (a stash reduction of  50 yards in 2019) and the Fabric Fast (sew from stash with only mindful purchases during the year) on Pattern Review's Forum.  These were very encouraging for me last year.  I'm hoping  they'll be more so this year.  I got so close with the 50-yard Dash in 2018--47 yards with several months of no sewing activity that I know I can do it this year.  Other than these two goals, I'd like to become adept at quilting this year.  Perhaps enough so to tackle one of Mom's quilts.

I wish you good luck with your sewing in 2019 and with meeting your sewing goals, too.

Til next time,

Cathy