gl's wardrobe

i finally finished this knitted skirt (pattern by 'barefoot knits') that i started last summer.  i'm lucky it still fits her.  who knew that i would be a little sick of this color by the time i was done?  luckily, when i took her shopping for summer material she didn't pick anything purple.  phew!

summer fabric that gl picked out. 

she surprised me by picking out this one.  i really like it.  it's going to make a beautiful breezy dress.

this was my choice.  i have a design in my head for it.  we'll see if i can translate it to fabric.

this one was also my choice.  i'm thinking a double layer skirt with a lace border.  the rest of it i plan on using in another quilt. 

purple pain

i'm easily distracted.  i've come to accept it and stop beating myself up over it.  this time it was those extra quilt squares.  i only needed 63 for the quilt and it turns out i ended up with about 120.  i needed to do something with them. i couldn't let them go to waste could i?  surely not.  i layed them out and pieced them together with the thought that i might make a bag or a skirt from the material.  sure, it's not what i was supposed to be working on but OH MY GOODNESS!  i'm so glad that i did it.  while working on sewing the blocks together i was reminded of one very important piece of information :  VELVET IS EVIL!

i had forgotten that.  i had forgotten just what it feels like to chase a scrap of velvet across a sewing table.  to watch it shift out of position and defy every pin that you poke into it, then turn it's head and stick out it's tongue at you.  i remember now!  it sucks.  i did an online search to see if i could get some tips for working with velvet and i didn't find anything different from what i was already doing.  i also found an expert quilter from Romania named Geta Grama whom i saw had made some quilted velvet bags.   i wrote her a note asking for advice and this is what she wrote back.... "if I would have a few options, I would never choose to piece velvet."  good to know.

i finished a bag using the scraps but now i need to go back and redesign the quilt.  luckily i don't have too many velvet blocks in it but enough to make me uneasy.  i need to replace them all with some nice, safe cotton.  looks like i'm already dropping behind in my april challenge.

 quilted purple patchwork bag (12 x 14) with ....

pocket.
sold!

"purple haze is in my brain....."

 i started the purple quilt today.  pulled up the purple stash from the basement and picked out my backing and my binding from the group.  i've been saving purple remnants for awhile, just for this quilt. 

 the size will be 35' x 45' with 5' squares.  i need 63 squares, a backing that is at least 2 inches bigger on each side and at least 160 inches of binding.  

i think i ended up with  more than 100 squares but some (like this green here) didn't make the final cut.

here it is all laid out on the kitchen table.  i swear, someday i will have a work surface that i do not share with food.  i like to take pictures of my projects and then look at them.  it gives a different perspective and sometimes you see things that you didn't see with your naked eye.  for example, i see that in row 4, 3 of the squares are the same material.  i'll have to change that.  otherwise, i think it looks good.  i was aiming for sweet and feminine.  i think i hit that mark. 

the math is done, binding cut (2.5' wide) and rows put into piles and labeled. 

tomorrow i start sewing.