An Interesting Day

I went to the Hamilton fabric district today to pick up fabric I'd ordered for new drapes for my house. (I love it! and will post photos when I get to sewing the drapes). I took along my friend M, who is male, not a sewer, but a good driver, shopper, and companion. And he wants me to make him some pillow covers and an ottoman cover so we were shopping for that for him.

In one of the drapery shops a customer got out this to show the clerk and I happened to be standing right there so I stuck my nose in to see:

It's a christening dress he made for his god-daughter's newborn daughter. That's right, I said he. The maker is a man. I nearly asked him to marry me - or out for lunch - but my shopping companion would not have been impressed. The maker had also knit a beautiful shawl to go with the dress. He was likely in his mid 50s and finds sewing and knitting relaxing - just like the rest of us. He owns his own business and is going to start making heirloom christening gowns on the side. He figures this one took about 50 hours; he learned by watching youtube and from some DVDs and books. The work is exquisite and the gown absolutely beautiful! I wish now I'd have gotten his business card to follow his progress in the business.

I finished another Dear Jane block. This one looked pretty tricky but turned out to be less scary than I thought.

D2

I hope to get a little more sewing done tomorrow. I am determined to have more than 2 blocks finished of my homework when we meet in 2 weeks again.

Local Quilt Show

Last weekend my friend C and I volunteered at the quilt show our guild holds. There were a lot of interesting quilts to see. The guild members create way more modern quilts that I thought - people don't always show what they've made during "show and tell" at our meetings.
Here's what I found interesting:

Neat Hallowe'en theme

C with her quilt

and her bag

liked the low volume in this one

liked the reds in this one

neat border with the curved piecing

L - remember you were trying to figure this out and I said the blocks were all the same size and that fact that they looked different was an optical illusion and you didn't believe me?

told you so :)

the mini quilts are all pieced!

art

art 2

close up of art 2 - the leaves are made with wool bits

we should go here; http://www.stjacobs.com/quilt-fibre-festival

yummy

Creative Show and back to Dear Jane

Last weekend I went to the Creative show with my friend C, who also quilts. Sometimes I'm disappointed by the show - I found some things I liked this year, but found the overall number of vendors quite low for the admission price I paid to get in.

Here's what I bought (all fat quarter sizes):

I liked the sayings on this - turn your head sideways to see them

these will become baby booties for a co-worker (who shares the same first name as me)

these will likely also become baby booties

this I just thought was so cute!



This weekend the Brampton Quilt Guild is holding their bi-annual show. C and I sold raffle tickets in the morning, then toured the show. I'll post some pictures tomorrow. I was inspired to get some sewing done so tonight I ignored my school work and headed up to the sewing room.

B11 is finished:

B11

I looked back in my book to see what I've finished this year. Every month we get assigned 10 blocks. I haven't finished all my homework yet this year. This will be my month and I'm determined to get through all 10. They are almost all paper pieced this month so that might try my patience.

I was talking to a lady at the quilt show today, telling her I was making a Dear Jane - she called it "Damn Jane", which some days, is not far off.

Mini Quilt Part 2

I found my sewing room tonight for a bit. I finished up the main pieces for the mini quilt I want to finish for my guild's show next weekend. Nothing like cutting it short!

Here's my original layout idea with either black or white background:

I was hoping for a spinning effect in the star - it didn't quite work. I think the red is overpowering and skewing my spin.

I can't decide on a background - any suggestions?

I want to bind it with this:

 

mostly because it has all the colours in it, I included it in the star, and I don't really care for it for anything I'd make for myself. (Although it did very well for it's intended purpose, which was a back for a pillow I made for my cousin before she moved to Germany.

 

 

I tried these layouts too:

 

 

layout 2

Layout 3, with helper



I think I like layout 2 the best. Any suggestions on which layout?

Here's the layouts sort of side by side:

I need to get this sucker finished!

I had my Dear Jane class today and I'm woefully behind, so I need to get going so I complete my 10 blocks before the next class.



Mini Quilt for Quilt Show

My quilt guild is having a show in a few weeks. I wanted to have a quilt finished that I could put in. Alas, it was not to be. Of all the projects I have on the go, there was too much project and not enough time.
Then, the newsletter arrived last week and it said they needed miniature quilts that they could sell. My hope sparked again - I think I can finish a mini quilt.
Tonight I started:

I have to hand it over on Thursday night at the guild meeting. Wish me luck.

I found the sewing room tonight

C4

I've Been Knitting

For some reason I had an urge to knit. I found this pattern I really liked on a knitting blog I read (the only knitting blog I read) and I fell in love. Then I found this awesome yarn I liked. So, I've been knitting. I think part of the urge is to feel like I finish something - often with Dear Jane I feel like I don't get all that much accomplished in a couple hours - with the knitting, I can see a lot of progress in a few hours.

the basic layout of the scarf - not your usual shape

my progress to date

a close up of the yarn - it's not as pink as it looks in this picture

another close up - it feels very spring, which I've been craving