Quilting and costuming

A friend said recently that I was the only person she knew who both quilted and made costumes.  Apparently, most (at least in her circles of friends and acquaintances) do one or the other, but never both.  I jusr smiled and said something along the lines of "I guess I'm just unusual," which is fine.  But I wonder... am I?  Are there really that few quilters who make costumes (and by costumes I really don't mean no-sew or little sew Halloween costumes.  I mean clothing from another time period, I guess) and that few costumers who make quilts? 

Right now I have a full yeoman woman's garb to make - bloomers, chemise, bodice, two skirts.... and still find a straw hat to go with....  and I am working on quilting Boston Molasses Flood and planning my next quilt (Texas Daycare). 

Took a break this weekend to go to First Monday Trade Days in Canton with a group.  Half of the group had never been.  There was much walking, some shopping, and much fun.  Several of us bought things for our characters at Scarborough Faire, and those that didn't bought other stuff.  I came home with a blue flying goat made of metal, a dachsund cracker holder with a spreader for a tail, and several other small things.  There'll be more trips to First Monday, I know!

Fabric in general....

Tonight I will get BMF on the quilting frame and get started with the hand quilting.  Yay!  And I am pleased with the back - I think the pieced actually doesn't look too bad.  Moreover, I think it will grow on me until I more than like it.  So that's all good.    The next quilt is perking in my brain - I know what fabric I need, I know what I need to do (and this time I will be more careful about measuring for the borders and back!).

And in preparation for Scarborough Faire this spring, since my new character is a weaver, I have started weaving.  I sincerely doubt that I will ever get into it enough to make my own fabric (not to mention that the looms I have are so small it would take a lot of piecing and joining to make a piece sufficient to sew), but it's interesting to watch the weaving go together.  I can now (in theory) go from raw wool to finished piece of clothing.  I find that fascinating - the whole process of sheep (or plant) to clothing. 

As far as planning quilts goes... I am now 21 behind.  I think.  Until this evening, when I think I will be 22 behind, because there's another one working its way up from my hindbrain....  I need to sew faster!

Of quilt patterns and such

To the stage on Boston Molasses Flood wherein I have to start quilting.  (Have to... more like get to!).  I knew going into BMF exactly what pattern I wanted to quilt.  And then changed my mind.  About seven times.  And now I am down to the wire - and I THINK I know what I want to do.  Since I am hand-quilting everything (not nearly enough money for a longarm quilter, which is what I so much want!), I am making choices.  And in all honesty, my original idea wouldn't have stood out at all - not just wouldn't have added anything, but wouldn't have really shown at all without WAY much work.  And if I really want to do so, I can add it afterwards.  Don't think I will, though.

So, now I am down to stitch in the ditch for most of the quilt, and borders featuring newspaper headlines and information about the Boston Molasses Disaster.  I know it will look good, but there is a part of me that mourns the loss of the original quilting plan.  *shrug*  I know it will be all right, maybe even better this way.

As far as quilts go, though... I have plenty of ideas.  I am up to 24 in my notebook, and I've only finished two... BMF is #3.  I'm getting further and further behind!  One of these days I want to take a day off from work and just... sew.  Quilt.  Piece.    Until then, I will toddle along as I've been doing, working at a randomly decent pace.  (I'm not complaining, just commenting.  I can't do more than I can do in a day!)

Soon enough (like this weekend), I start losing my weekends as far as sewing quilts.  Scarborough Faire (my home renaissance faire) starts getting into prep time soon, which means costuming and character work and all that.  And hopefully living chess match.  We shall see!

Long time no bored

We're moved, we're in, we're mostly tidy.  And now I have the luxury to be bored again!  (And I have been, in brief spurts of time).  So here's what I've been up to.

1. Planning quilts.  I am now 19 quilts behind my designs.  I need to sew faster!

2. Making a Winter quilt.  It's simple, but I like it.  It's a very basic one, and the photo doesn't quite do it justice.  The background fabric is white with white dots of varying sizes that look like snow falling.  Quilted on the diagonal-ish - I wasn't too concerned with straight lines, because what little I know of snow, it doesn't fall in straight lines when there's even a breeze.  The trees are appliqued over the quilting.  Bound with plain white, and it's done!  I am pleased with it.  Just need to hang it up so the few little wrinkles will fall out.

3. Valentine's Hearts - aren't they cute?  I have a limited space to decorate for work, so I am making a bunch of little stuffed hearts for Valentine's Day.  I will put them in a nice clear glass vase that sits on my cabinet.  I am considering attaching numbers to them and having a stash of goodies to dole out by numbers... ("Here, draw one!  Oh, number 5 - that's x.  Here, have x!  Happy Valentine's Day!")  We'll see....

Other than that, it's been attack the overgrown shrubbery at home.  The house was unoccupied for a time, so things kinda... well, got out of hand.  The honeysuckle in particular!  So we're chopping honeysuckle and cleaning up the gardens and such.  No pictures there yet.  Maybe later.  It will be all pretty when we're done.  And I am looking at getting a birdbath and more bird feeders to attract the birds.  Yay! 

The newest news

Pack pack pack pack.... shifting close dates... I feel like a ping pong ball!  Yeah, looks like we're moving.  The date is still up for grabs, which makes planning a little weird.  (Try impossible).  Also makes crafting a little difficult.  There's still so much to be done, and so little time to do it in with packing and stuff.  Not to mention the craft stuff is getting harder to get to!  (It will all improve, I know it will.  But right now I live in frustration land!).  My boredom craft got buried somewhere - no clue where, so I guess I will try to finish it in time for Thanksgiving! 

However.  The next quilt is long past the stage of planning and fabric gathering and is almost out of the cutting fabric stage.  Only about 80 more pieces to cut and then I can (in theory) start putting them back together!  That may be after the move, but we shall see. 

In the meantime, here's the test piece for Boston Molasses Flood.  I read a book about the Boston Molasses Flood earlier this year, and it made a fairly impressive impact on me.  It sounds silly, especially when people find out it happened in January.  However, when it's a flood up to 15 ft tall moving at 35mph, that's no laughing matter.  The shape of the tesselation is taken from a map of the disaster.  The darker area is the warehouse area of the company which owned the tank that gave way.  The lighter area is the area where the tank was.

On the real deal, the darks and lights will (if all goes as planned) not only be shaded by small and large, but shading from dark to light from top to bottom of the quilt, as a mark of how the molasses spread and the damage lightened as it went.  (If that sentence makes sense).

There is another colorway in my head, with different prints, that could accurately be called Isaac's Storm - after the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed somewhere in the region of 10,000 people.  When I am done with Boston Molasses Flood, I may farm out Isaac's Storm to someone else to be done.  We shall see. 

I look forward to being moved and the crafting area - no, really it's going to be a crafting studio - we will have.  A two car detached garage that was used for car care - plenty of shelves, work space, and all nice and tidy.  He kept a clean work area!  AND it's heated/cooled.  Even better.  :)  But until then, it's pack and pack and make lists and organize and stuff.  And try to stay calm.

October project and bored time

In keeping with the "No, really.  I'm going to work through my patterns and make one piece of clothing a month.  Really.  I am."  I am posting the pattern picture for October's project.  I don't have the fabric yet - well, I haven't gone through our fabric stash to see what I've got to use.  I don't feel like buying more fabric when we've got SO much already, so this will be a stash buster project to boot.  Makes me feel positively virtuous, it does!

Here it is.  I am already making modifications in my head.  I don't like the sheer on the shoulders, so I'll use a lightweight something - a really thin cotton, maybe.  We shall see what's available.  Maybe silk dupioni... lord knows we have enough of that roaming around!  Pair it with velvet, maybe.  Depends on how much of each I've got, really.  That's tonight's project - finding the fabric.

Of course, I am also getting to the quilting on my next quilt (yay!) and making a "I'm bored" project: a stuffed pumpkin.  It should be cute when I get it done, which shouldn't take too too long.  I'd like to have it for Halloween and beyond.  :)  If I get it cut out today, I should be able to stitch it tonight and finish it tomorrow.  And then find another "I'm bored" project!

I've got too many projects in my head - a steampunk navigator (who needs an outfit comprised of pieces from around the world - got fabric for some of that already), my next Ren Faire character, and so many more.  I want another sewing machine - so I can have one in my room to work when it gets really late and I don't want to disturb the roommate.  Maybe I'll take another look at a basic machine. 

We're finally getting more rain.  Yay for rain!  I don't have pics, because things are in upheaval right now and the camera is... somewhere.... But there is rain, and the plants are happy.  Temperatures are cooler for the time being, and it's almost like having fall!

More finished (and almost finshed) items

It was a relatively quiet weekend - rain, which was nice, and quilting and sewing and such.  Oh, and a visit to Screams Haunted Theme Park.  Very cool! 

On the crafting front - finished my September sewing project (yeah, yeah, a little late.  I have good reasons, really I do).  Now I need to pick October's sewing project.  Should be able to do that tonight, and will post picture of finished project and the envelope for the next one.  As a refresher, here's the Burda envelope:

And here is my finished product, still on the dressmaker's mannequin (Beatriz is her name, and she's been most helpful since I've had her). 

As you can see, I added lace and did not cuff the sleeves.  Yes, it's a little wrinkled; it's linen, so it's going to do that!  I'll steam it well before I wear it and get those pesky wrinkles out.  On the main, I am pleased with September's monthly sewing project. 

And in my defense, this one is late because I lost the fabric for two weeks.  And then when I found the fabric, I lost the directions.  *sigh*  This is why we need a dedicated sewing area!  And will hopefully have one soon.

        Since the Massive Quilt-o'-Doom is done and on the bed, I have been working on my next quilt.  I won't post the picture until it's done - complete and total - but I do have a pic of the test applique I did this weekend.  The colors are wrong (I'm just using scrap fabric for the test appliques, so I don't waste my good stuff) but you can kind of see what it will be like.   Yup.  It's a baby Godzilla!  He'll be rampaging through a city with radioactive trail and overturned cars and everything.  If it comes out right, maybe I'll do some of the other monsters - Gamera, Ghidorah, Rodan... maybe even Mothra. 

Maybe.

At any rate, there's the completed stuff and almost completed stuff and plans for the future.  There's so much going on right now that boredom isn't really an issue.  And I admit that some of my "bored" time has been spent reading.  I enjoy it, and last night read an entire book because I couldn't put it down.  And because it was creepy and I wanted to get to the end and a happy ending (that I suspected would be there) so I could go to sleep on a good note!  The book was Ghost Trackers - written by the guys from Ghost Hunters with assistance from a professional novelist.  Good book!

...she finishes things! (finally!)

The Massive Quilt-o'-Doom is done!  Completed!  Finished, even!  Not the best picture ever, but here it is!  A nice, flame-y looking bargello quilt.

I quilted in the ditch, because it was just easier, really.  It's been a while since I quilted, so I thought for once I would do something easy.  It didn't turn out too bad! 

The cat HAD to make a guest appearance.  She's been sitting on the quilt since I got to the point of binding it.  She particularly seems to like the yellow area - brings out her eyes, I suppose.  :)

Anyway, I hope to have a better pic of it on my bed this evening, but I had to take it to work to show my co-workers.  (And then I ran off and forgot it and had to go back for it... good thing we don't live far from work!).

I've started cutting the pieces out for the next quilt - Baby's Day Out, aka the Baby Godzilla quilt.  More pictures as they happen.  It's smaller, so hopefully it won't take as long to do.

And I finally got my Halloween pennants up at work.  The ribbon is hard to see here, but it's a fancy ruched-looking textured ribbon that does add to the look.  I'll get a better picture up here after I get one. 

And I failed to get my Burda pattern made.  Got everything cut out and ready - and then lost the instructions, so I couldn't put it all together!  I am going to get another copy tonight (grrrr) so I can make it.  *sigh*  Already behind.  But I will catch up and get back on track!

More designs?! Really?

I really need to sew faster.  And win the lottery so I can get a quilting machine and stand, so I can quilt as fast as the ideas are flowing.

Yes... there are now two more ideas in the queue.  One can easily be postponed.  The other... well, let's just say that I was enthusiastic enough to make a test piece to make sure it did exactly what I thought it would.  And it did.  I have quilt pattern!  (yayayayay! arms flailing like Kermit the Frog). 

But... but... I'm not done with the Massive Quilt-o'-Doom yet!  *sigh*  Right, right... put other ideas down.  Step away from the ideas.  But... it's so lovely!  And it's not something I think I've ever seen before!  (I'm almost afraid to post a pic, so I won't.  Not yet, anyway).  Right now, the newest one (the one that I made a test piece for) is called Boston Molasses Flood.  With a few minor color changes it will be called Isaac's Storm, after the Galveston Hurricane of the early 1900's.  Both events happened in the early 1900's, so there's one connection.  All the flooding and damage is another. 

I have the tutorial for the pennants almost done - except that I left the pattern piece at work, so I can't scan it in currently, which means I couldn't supply it, which I want to do... so that will have to wait for tomorrow.  And I really need to get my stamp made.  Yeah, I'm going to dabble my toes in the selling of patterns and finished stuffus.  Soon I will jump onto the Etsy wagon (and hope I don't ever wind up on the Regretsy page.  If you've never been there, GO.  Really).

But boy... I really need to get a move on!  Halloween pennant being worked on, September sewing project being worked on, Steampunk-ish jacket being worked on (well, I cut out the pattern today, does that count?), and MQ-o'-D being worked on.  Oh, and the beginnings of a doll. 

.. she goes fabric shopping

Oh, dear... more fabric.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I have too much fabric already.  BUT.  It's really cool and pretty and I have a use in mind for about half of it already, and... and...  yeah.  I bought more fabric.

On the plus side, we drove to Denton to a quilt store - my roomie wanted to show them her quilt, because last time we were there she told them about it and they asked to see it.  I took pics of the current massive quilt-o'-doom (halfway quilted now, yay!) and my IPad, with the rough sketch for the Baby Godzilla quilt.  (Or as I am coming to think of it, Baby's Day Out.).  They were amazed that I was designing my own quilts and told me I should start selling quilt patterns.  Yoiks!  Really??  Both women independently said so, and the other ladies shopping were impressed with the design too.  I didn't think it was all that awe inspiring, but *shrug* we shall see.  So.  Now I have to finish the quilt-o'-doom and then the Baby's Day Out quilt and make a coherent pattern/instructions for it.  And then move on to the next one, which is one I merely thought about earlier, and now am considering doing for real.  Although I'd have to get better at applique work first.  :)

So, apparently I have the glimmerings of a plan. 

... she plans

I want to go to First Monday in Canton again this month.  (Well, beginning of next month-ish).  That should be Labor Day Weekend.  Sure, it will be hot, but I want to go.  Anyone interested in going with?  Last time I got two metal goats and a handful of other things I wouldn't have found other places. 

I want to go to the coast in November.  So I am going to plan for it. Stay on the coast, watch the water, wade in it, beachcomb for nothing much in particular... be a tourist.

There are other things I want to do, so I am planning.  Road trips, learning Japanese....

I have a bunch of craft projects planned as well.  The drawback is that so much of my stuff stays in the planning stage.  I need to move past that and actually DO some of this stuff.  Quilts, canning, baking, painting, weaving.  Learning to spin my own thread/yarn.  Make costumes.  Re-write a few books. 

I just have to plan the time.  And my lists, nice as they are, are not helping!  I can always re-write lists!  I need a better way to plan out my time.

On the plus side, the bargello quilt is moving right along now, and I am working on a wish bird (pattern from Valori Wells).  It's cute, and if I do it in reds, oranges and yellows, it can be a phoenix.  Then again, I might make one in black and make a raven.  We shall see.  Maybe I will shrink the pattern and make a flock of birds to hang from the ceiling.   The test version is in purple.  First thing I pulled out of the cotton fabric drawers.  :)

More ribbon rosette things

Two new flowers of felt and ribbon.  The top is a smaller Tudor rose - I think I like this size better, really  The bottom is made of ribbon and lace.  I have so much lace it's not EVEN funny anymore.  I am not allowed to buy any more until I use up some of what I've got.

So... any other uses, folks?  I am working on more ribbon/lace flowers, but there's got to be more.

I am working on a pale purple version of the blue one right now... with wider ribbon and wider lace.

My evening project is still the bargello quilt.  It's moving along - I finished the first 8" wide strip of quilting and advanced the quilt in the frame last night.  Hopefully it will start to go faster, now that I've figured out what I am doing!

The Tudor Rose and a Quilt Top

A finished Tudor rose.  In felt.  it's not perfect, and there are several tweaks I intend to make.  But I promised pictures, so here you go!

It was a simple project - the part the took the longest was actually finding a yellow button for the middle.  I dug through the stash of buttons last night, though, and here it is. 

I could certainly post patterns and a tutorial if there is interest.  I may do it anyway, just for my own amusement.

I am still working on the Halloween wreath, and started an autumn wreath last night while sitting in bed with the cat in my lap.  She liked the yarn.

I have finished the top of my bargello quilt (the PLANNED project), and have it in the rack so I can start quilting.  It's surprisingly nice - I look forward to the end product.  Which means I need to get quilting!

It's approximately queen sized, and here it is laid out on the floor for pin-basting.  It's now safely racked and out of the way of little feline feet.  Tonight, I start quilting.  I have debated this with myself for a while, and I think I will quilt in the ditch along the "diagonals" between colors/shades.  That should hold everything together while emphasizing the diagonals instead of the vertical stripes.

The other thing on the list for tonight - the Halloween wreath, probably.  I need to spin more cobwebs for that one....  yay for having wool roving to spin into cobwebs (yeah, it was going to be yarn.  It's now cobwebs).

So much to do, so little time to sit and do it.  (Not really.  I just don't seem to be able to make as much time).