Florentine Fancy a Work Commissioned Quilt

What is your first thought when you see this quilt?

 PDF Pattern found here

Mine was to the effect of  "oh no, what have I gotten myself into!?!"

My boss took me over to the shelf containing the Florentine Fancy fabric line and asked if I liked it.  I responded with a non-committal "It's cute." which it is on the bolt, while mentally adding that I wouldn't make anything from it for myself.  Next thing I know he's telling me that he wants me to make it as a sample for the store.  The store covers the cost of the fabric for the top while I do the batting and backing and have it quilted (not a hardship considering that I work at a quilt store full of fabric and long arms).  The store displays it for a couple of months then it's mine to keep. 

I'm a little worried because it's a free pattern which means it could have some glitches.  It finishes up at 60x60 so not a bad size and I've got a month to get it done.  It's just really far out in left field for my tastes. 

I'm going to try to keep an open mind about this even though it's so very, very outside of my color comfort zone.  Who knows, I may end up loving it.  If not, I have a friend that's already spoken for it. 

Tuesday Morning

I must admit I'm not usually outside in the mornings.  I more often than not hole up in my bedroom in front of my computer to do my homework.  Today I had to get up early to take my sixteen year old kitty to the vet.  She has glaucoma and her eye ruptured so we're having it removed.  She's old but still very spry and full of energy so I'm hoping, sure she will be fine. 

The foxglove is blooming.

When I got home the sun was shinning and it was so nice out.  Even the snails were sunbathing in the garden, so I let the girls, Lucy and Ethel out in hopes that they'd give my garden a de-bugging.  Funny bitties, aside from eating most of my strawberries they've spent almost no time in the garden.  In fact I've had to go get them out of the neighbors yard (up to three neighbors down) twice.  

 Uh, girls, the garden is on the other side of the driveway.  

It's been so nice to be out and about the yard in the morning though, If I didn't suffer from a lack of motivation and an abundance of procrastination I'd do my homework in the evenings and enjoy the early sunlight and soft breezes every morning, maybe with a nice cup of tea.

Comfry, hard to believe I planted these as two 4 inch plants last year. 

Ever since I was a child I've loved to work in the garden.  I remember reading The Secret Garden and perfectly relating to Mary.  It's carried through to my adulthood and although I don't do as much as I'd like due to time and money constraints I do enjoy my little garden of herbs and flowers.  

Chives in bloom

So this morning I pulled up most of the weeds and planted the dill and mint that I purchased last night.  I got some lovely purple petunias too but haven't decided where to put them yet.  I like having them close where I can bury my nose in their beautiful fragrance.  So perhaps they'll go out on the back patio. 

My new little dill plant, he looks so small surrounded by already established plants. 

With the girls in the front yard I figured I'd be safe weed treating the back.  Other than mowing we didn't do a thing with the back last year.  We're paying for it now with an overload of foxtail grass, dandelions and several other nasty weeds.  If it was just one or two I'd happily dig them out by hand but it's so much more than that, there's just no way.  So it's off limits for a couple of hours.  

 Strawberries, these are all runners from a single plant. 

After that I poured myself a cold glass of juice and sat back to watch the animals.  I think they enjoyed being out in the morning too. 

 

Toulouse hiding in the grass

Berlioz spies him.

 While the girls could care less and go about their grooming.  Typical girls.

Ready for the Post

Despite some setbacks...

My mug rug is ready to be put in the post come Monday.  For my first undertaking of applique I think it turned out pretty well. Fingers are crossed that my partner will like it as much as you all have said you would (thanks so much!).

I'm trying to get projects finished.  My problem is I've got homework that I should be doing, so I sit thinking that I want be working on a sewing project when I'm trying to do homework and when I try to work on a sewing project I sit feeling guilty and think that I should be working on my homework, so neither get done.  Schoolwork makes me grumpy, it keeps me away from my projects way too much.  Gah, someone remind me how worth it it's going to be once I get my degree. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my irregular postings.  It's so nice to know somebody is out there. 

-Anita

Mug Rug - Opinions Needed

I joined my first ever sewing swap.  Mug Rug Swap II.  My partner is much more inclined to the modern side of quilting than I so I was rather at a loss as to how to proceed with her mug rug, but as I was going through her Flickr account I came across this.  She likes teal and burnt orange, I hope she actually likes the picture and not just the colors.  I feel pretty confident that she doesn't read my blog so I'm soliciting some help here.

Kingfisher # 21 on Explore

I need honest opinions (cutting me a teensy bit of slack based on the fact that I've never done any kind of applique before)  but I just couldn't think of anything else that would make my partner happy and I would enjoy making.  Of course, after actually doing this, I use the term enjoy rather loosely. Applique is a LOT of work.  If I'd half an ounce of sense I would have started with something a lot easier.

 I used primarily batiks for the kingfisher himself, as well as the outside border, and the background is from my favorite fabric line called Rock Candy that has a lovely, subtle of shimmer to it. 

 I used white thread in my bobbin and an invisible thread in the needle.  I tried to get my tensions right but it kept reverting so I kept getting the white pulling up.  *grumble*  I didn't have it in me to re-cut/fuze/align every thing though.

Is a squarish mug rug ok?  At the moment it's 9.5" tall by 10.5" wide.  I'm afraid that if I add a panel to make it a rectangle it's going to turn into a place mat rather than a mug rug. 

So tell me what you think.  If you got said mug rug in the mail would you be pleased or disappointed? 

New Skirt

The color for this month is yellow and how serendipitous that I had a skirt planned in that color.  I've had this fabric laying about for at least a couple of years.  I love the wee flowers and the little nubs of texture, not to mention the fact that yellow is just such a happy color in general.

I made this full circle skirt using *** pattern with a few of my own adjustments.  For starters the fabric was very see throughr, I didn't want to bother with a slip but neither did I want to go around flashing my knickers so I added an underskirt. It's the half circle skirt version of the same pattern
The original pattern just used a waist stay rather than an actual waistband, I wanted the latter so I created one.  This brought up a whole new issue with the zipper I'd originally put in, as you can see.

The fabric doesn't lay right around the pull, there's a big gap at the top, and somehow it's causing the waistband to be off kilter.
At first I thought I could live with it, but the more I looked at it the more it bothered me, so I pulled out my seam ripper and undid the waistband about four inches on either end, removed the zip and replaced it with an invisible zip.  My first one ever.

The only thing left to do now is the hem. . . on both skirts.  This could be a while.