Things I'm Working On

Yes, I might not be blogging or commenting on your posts a lot but I'm actually working on several sewing projects and somehow manage to fit a little bit of sewing or sewing prep into most days. These projects are new and there's still a few old ones to tackle but I'm following these creative outbursts as they come and know all will be wrapped up at some point.

This baby quilt top for my colleague (very excited for her!) is the latest project that I added to the list.

It started out with some fun layouting on the floor. My first equilateral triangles. Funny how it can still amaze me how much seams shrink a project.

And then there's these dotty hexagons and triangles. I splurged on the Hex N More ruler as well as the Super Sidekick as I want to work more with geometrical forms than previously and try out new blocks. Working out so far!

Last but not least, another quilt for the tiny one (totally the most gorgeous baby ever, yes, we're completely enthralled new parents). Her baby quilt is much too special to be used for outings in the park - though the handquilting possibly won't be done until her first birthday - which is why I'm working on a fun zig zag quilt. I'm using triangle paper to save time and it's a great project as it's easy to break up into increments. Rather than sewing all the HSTs, ironing them all open, sewing them up, etc., I'm working the processes in small parallel steps. Gives me the pleasure of "finishes" whenever I'm working on it. I even picked a more girly palette!

Happy sewing!

W.i.P. Meets Sunday Stash

We've been properly living in our new flat since Sunday afternoon. Yay! There's still a few things to fix and a couple of boxes to unpack, of course, but I'm finally back online for good (can you sense my relief?) and as of today I managed to put all my boxes of stash where they belong. Which means I also found the box containing recently acquired stash I'd already verbally confessed to on here but hadn't a chance to show off confess in pictures, yet. So, here we go!

Pearl Cotton for my HST Grecian Waters Quilt.

So pretty. Don't you think the set will work just lovely with my Christmas FQ bundle?

Making use of a sale and the postage these V and Co. Simply Color half yard cuts also found their way to me.

But onto my WIPs!

I finished another seven flowers on my train rides Wednesday and Thursday last week (over 500 miles in 27 hours with less than 17 hours between both rides). This brings the official count to 52 finished flowers and 14 with pre-assembled ones.

Finishes - a whole lot of moving!

Ongoing Projects (no longer stalled!) - 1
EPP hexies - 52 finished flowers + 14 nearly-theres

Stalled Projects (still) - 1
EPP parallelograms/stars

Planning Stage - 4
Wedding Anniversary quilt
Grecian Waters HST quilt
Quilt for the husband
Tons of baby things

Happy sewing!

Return of the Hexie Tin

The move is approaching. Not everything has been going as smoothly as desired but hopefully these things will be sorted by Monday or Tuesday. Fingers crossed that I'm in our new flat come the next weekend. It'd be nice to be living with my husband once more. I'm with him in Berlin right now, but he's been gone since the 3rd because he took up work on the 4th. Adding up the moving and travelling back and forth between Berlin and Bamberg, we've been parted longer and more frequently since the wedding than in the five years before. So odd.

In the meantime, and despite a flat in boxes and disassembled furniture, I had a very pleasant visit by a good friend from the UK and my sister to keep my company. Karaoke, good food, and lots of laughter certainly, and thankfully, took my thoughts of my packed up sewing machine and fabric stash as well. Never fear, though, there's things to keep my fingers busy still - hexies! Before our last move I basted a ton of them but never actually got around to sewing them up. They definitely came/comr in handy now.

On the top left are the 29 finished flowers from before the move, on the bottom are 13 I've assembled and finished over a couple of days whilst packing, and on the top right are 24 with the petals finally attached to the centre that will keep me busy until we, well I, finally move and on the train.

gratuitous shot of 42 stacked, finished flowers

I suppose I'll have to give my hexies some serious thinking and layout-ing after the move to see where exactly they'll be going. Exciting!

I'm off to catch up with your blogs now. Happy sewing!

P.S. My blogiversary is only three weeks away. Oooh, what to do, what to do? Fingers crossed I'm back online fully by then.

Sign of Life

First things first, I survived the move and am slowly settling in. Second, and very bothersome, thing, we’re still without internet and phone. Grrrrr. So annoying. I am, however, on a short visit with my sister to celebrate her 25^th birthday until Sunday noon so can work a little on the blog, schedule a precious few posts, and catch up a little with your sewing lives. I'd love to hear from you and will answer any comments/mails before I'm off again. Third, I’m forced to experiment not only with the changed light settings 

of a basement flat - 4^thstorey before! – but a new, if old, camera, too. So please bear with me.

Here’s a “before” look at my corner of the “office”. It’s already been cleaned up a bit but not yet looking quite “after”.

I’m not actually sewing at the desk as I still prefer our dining table in the living room. Yep, this means I’ve been sewing! For one, I’ve basted all my hexies, thus, turning my box into a magical hexagon bon bon land. These stacked hexies will be made into 38 flowers!

Even more exciting, I’ve spent a good amount of time hand quilting the Viking baby quilt and finished it a day before the arrival of the little one was announced two weeks ago. It was a daunting enterprise at first, hand quilting that is, but I’m even more in love with this quilt because of the details now. Here’s a sneak peak, more to follow in a separate post.

Happy sewing!

W.i.P. - Going Away/Home Soon

Eek, only three more sleeps! Taking the train to my love on Saturday. I so can't wait to take him into my arms again. Da-da-da-daa da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-daa da-da-da-da-da-daaaaaaa da-da-daaaaa da-da-da-da-da-da-da daaaa daaaa. Yep, it's the final countdown!

He's been living between and out of boxes for nearly three weeks now. Can't expect him to unpack much whilst working full time, can't expect him to feel at home in that mess, either. I'm so glad my sister has offered to come along and help us settle in quickly rather than unpack as we go.

Anyway, let's forget about the move for a moment. Do you remember my tin?

I've been basting nearly all of them whilst watching Horrible Histories - my husband and are enthralled with the show - with my lovely hosts. We've got another season to go, so they should all be done in time to keep my hands busy on the train and then on our sofa with a nice glass of red. So looking forward to that scenario, too.

Alas, no progress has been made on the Viking baby quilt. I didn't have the leisure (and state of mind) to hand quilt. The baby's due in a little under a month now which is still ample of time to finish the beauty. Right?

So, without further ado, here are my

Stats for the Week

The Move  - Unpacking is upon us!

Ongoing Projects - 4
Viking Baby quilt -  more quilting needed
EPP hexies - 29 finished flowers + tons basted
Polaroid blocks Tote - will it ever get made?
EPP parallelograms/stars

Planning Stage - 4
Chair cushions for my sister - yardage has arrived
Yoshi quilt- need to order black yardage and batting
Wedding Anniversary quilt
Cushions for my sil - I think she ordered some lovely Ink & Spindle a few weeks ago

Back onto moving, a whole bunch of troubles with moving are...telephone companies. They've not yet got us on the net and might not for a while. Typical, sure, and still... Major boooooo! So, unfortunately, I might not be posting news for a bit. I have, however, prescheduled a few Skirts on Sunday to keep this place alive and will be back sooner or later to let you know I'm alive. Answering comments should be delayed after Friday but won't be forgotten.

Granted, I'm still sad to leave many people behind but I'm all excited now.

Happy sewing!

W.i.P. - Hexie H(e)aven

My husband has been away for a week, today. He's already working down south and I'm missing him dearly. On top, I've decided to have my sewing machine serviced so The Dark Sewing Machine-Less Days have started earlier than expected. With the considerable amount of time dedicated to packing and other things it's best not to feel guilty about not using a machine that's present, though. Further, after two years of sewing it really deserved being taken care of professionally.

I boxed up my stash on Monday but spent time cutting into it before that as I'm afraid hand quilting the Viking baby quilt won't be enough to keep me busy during the less stressful moments. Do you love hexies? Then you'll like my tin. Or do you hate them? then this tin is not for you.

Cutting the shapes took about 1.5 hours. With 54 already basted hexies I now have enough in this tin to make another 41 flowers. Still need to cut six sheets of paper shapes, though - probably my least favourite part but right now I prefer printing on waste paper and cutting to spending money.

Add my 29 finished flowers and I'll have 70 flowers to work with - not quite enough for a quilt. I might have to make even more flowers or decide to work with a neutral between all my flowers? I'm in no rush, though.


Stats for the Week

Finished Projects - none, or do packed moving boxes count?

Ongoing Projects - 4
Viking Baby quilt -  top finished
EPP hexies - 29 finished flowers + enough cut shapes for another 41
Polaroid blocks Tote
EPP parallelograms/stars

Planning Stage - 3
Chair cushions for my sister - yardage ordered

Yoshi quilt - yardage ordered
Wedding Anniversary quilt

Happy sewing!

W.i.P. - Hexies

No sewing since Sunday. Alas. So I thought I'd do a quickie about my hexies.

I've begun storing them in a tin that used to carry Spanish bonbons and yes, I've started to make hexies out of leftover fabrics from my hen night dress. I still need to find a contrast fabric for the centres.

More cut hexies shapes to ensure a constant supply.

Most of my finished flowers. A few haven't made it to the photo call...I think they're in one of my bags...

Stats for the Week

Finished Projects - 1
Pouches - these weren't even on my W.i.P. list!

Ongoing Projects - 5
EPP hexies - 29 finished flowers
Polaroid blocks Tote
EPP parallelograms/stars
Viking Baby quilt - stuck on the layout
Wedding clutch - lining embroidered

Planning Stage - 4

Chair cushions for my sister - calculated yardage
Wedding Anniversary quilt
ET Phone Home EPP project
Moe Moe's Star quilt


Happy sewing!

W.i.P. - My Hen Night Dress (4)

On Sunday afternoon I worked on the second toile of my hen night dress. Before we go into the details, let's have another look at the first.

It was way too short, the shelf-like front bodice was pulled up somewhat by my chest and it seemed as if I could go down a size overall. So I did. I cut the pattern for my second toile a size smaller but with the pattern piece for large chests to ensure the same chest circumference. Further, I manipulated the waistband and the back bodice to be 4cm longer and I cut and slashed the front bodice to add space for my chest in a curve - from about 1.5cm toward the middle easing into none in the side. See the top pattern piece in this picture.

Finally, I distributed the gathers differently, letting them go further down the side as to smooth out around the fullness of all my chest and not just the front. That looked odd before.

The results were a bit of a mixed bag.

Negatives first: I ended up with a bodice that I could not pin down on me because it was too tight. No seam allowance left. It was impossible to take good pics and I had no one around to take them for me. Sorry, you must take my words for granted. Despite allegedly allowing for the same amount of chest as the size larger without the extra pattern piece, the second toile looks as if it has way more fabric which makes the gathers look odd on my chest and hollowed out in between them. The neckline is looser and less flattering than the first toile's, too.

Positives: The length is perfect now, hitting slightly below my natural waist as to allow for a seam allowance for the skirt. The shelf is not being pulled up by my chest any longer, rather the seam sits nicely under it giving it a great silhouette. Finally, it was a good idea to spread out the gathers, I might even go for another centimetre there. See?

So I will take my changes and apply them to the pattern pieces of the first toile. I think the lengthening of the waistband (and the weight of the skirt) will make it sit better on my waist and less loose than the first time around. Also, I think the pulling up of the shelf was a big contributor to the way the waistband pulled up and away from my stomach, too.

I might have to add another alteration to the front bodice to get rid of that vertical fabric pulling which always originates from the point at which the gathers stop. Hmm, any ideas? Just go for gathers all the way round? I'll mull over it this week but I'm confident that I can cut into the 'real' fabric this weekend and make my dress!

And now for something completely different to reward you for all that dress talk - 23 stacked hexies.

On Sunday and Monday evening I finally took my seam ripper to a tank top dress I made last summer which I fell out of love with. I want to salvage the double-layered scalloped skirt by turning it into an elasticated skirt. Huuuge step take, I tell you. More to follow another time.

Also, a parcel chock-full of gorgeous fabric for the baby quilt has been delivered this morning. Yay. I'll wash these now and press them in the evening. (Finally some sunshine and higher temps!)

Happy sewing!

Stats for the Week

Finished Projects - 0

Ongoing Projects - 7
EPP hexies - 23 finished flowers and tons basted hexies
Polaroid blocks - still need to make a tote!
Hen Night dress - let's make the dress!
EPP parallelograms/stars
Kirby pillow - needs borders, batting, quilting, and backing
Repurpose last year's scalloped skirt dress to a skirt - add elastic
Viking Baby quilt - fabric will be washed and pressed in the evening

Planning Stage - 5
Wedding Anniversary quilt
Wedding clutch
ET Phone Home EPP project
Moe Moe's Star quilt
Chair cushions for my sister

Linking up with W.i.P Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Kirby's Adventure in My Living/Sewing Room

Remember these? I finally started putting them together.

When I first mentioned my plans, Emily from Phone Home Designs by E.T. recommended that I use fusible web to speed up the assembling process and prevent pulling. I liked that idea a lot but since the project (still) isn't urgent, I have waited for the tutorial that Angela promised for her Super Mario Bros. QAL to see whether she might have found another ingenuous method. She has, but unfortunately I cannot find Angela's recommended wash-out stabiliser over here, so I resorted to Vilene H 200 - one of the thinnest fusible webs that I've used before to interface waistbands of summery light skirts. That way I hope to prevent too much stiffness because I still want the pillow to cuddly.

However, I didn't lay out the whole image onto a large piece of interfacing. I was too scared of accidentally moving bits and ruining everything. So I cut strips of interfacing that I ironed onto single rows of pixels.

My little book for crafty plans and the necessary math with the sketched layout - can you see that I ticked off each vertical row as I went? OCD or carefulness? (Yes, I used it to count the necessary amount of pixels per colour, too! And nearly forgot the black 'mouth' pixel. I wondered for the longest time why I only counted 399 pixels all in all. Duh.)

This is how far I got on Wednesday until I ran out of fusible web of an appropriate length. Meh. I thought I'd quickly rush to my regular supply shop should the rain deem to subside for a moment (yep, our weather is just as bad as yours, British friends, I literally feel your pain) but then I had to get some pressing grocery shopping done and the fickle weather held me back. So the fun had to be delayed until after yesterday's trip to the citizen centre where I wanted to request my new ID (I want to have it as soon as I'm married and not weeks after).

The wait was long. Looong. Long enough to finish all these. And only the grey ones were pre-assembled!

Today I spent my lunch break to finish the remaining eight pixel strips and this is what Kirby looks like at the moment.
 

Oooh, I can't wait sew the rows together. He'll shrink so much but it'll be fun to see that happening. Like the mushroom over at Sarah's blog? Fingers crossed I find time for it and the second toile of my hen night dress this weekend. We're rather busy at the moment.

Have a great weekend and happy sewing!

W.i.P. - My Hen Night Dress (3)

Just a real quick post with pics of a few current projects today. Excuse the lameness, fingers crossed my Viking fabric arrives soon for another baby quilt. And there's still the potential of fabulous snaps of a dress in the near future. Maybe not only the snaps but the dress itself will be fabulous?

Here we go, more fabric for hexies.

And more hexies pre-assembled for train rides.

Tadaa, second toile cut with manipulated pattern pieces. I'm looking forward to assembling this on Saturday. Hopefully it'll fit just fine so I can progress onto the 'real' fabric.

Once more linking up with W.i.P Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, so here are my stats.

Stats for the Week

Finished Projects - 1
Zippered Hexie Pouch

Ongoing Projects - 4.5
EPP hexies - 11 finished flowers and tons basted hexies
Polaroid blocks - still need to make a tote!
Hen Night dress - 2nd toile cut
EPP parallelograms/stars
Kirby pillow

Planning Stage - 7
Wedding Anniversary quilt
Wedding clutch
ET Phone Home EPP project
Moe Moe's Star quilt
Repurpose last year's scalloped skirt dress to a skirt
Chair cushions for my sister
Viking Baby quilt

Hmm, I really need to get some from the planning stage moved to ongoing - the clutch especially! And I must do the math for the chair cushions so fabric can be ordered.

Happy hump day and happy sewing!

Sew Stitchy Hexie Pouch

After a spectacularly productive week, this past week has seen way less sewing. Nevertheless it's been very productive, only borderline stressful, with lots of important things checked off the wedding to-do list. You know the drill: find a hairdresser, find something to put in my hair, decide on flowers for the wedding bouquet, get more serious about the seating plan, find a dress for my sister/witness, buy earrings... So yay! There's only very little left to do and I'm hopeful to have everything done by the end of next week and therefore five weeks in advance. Fingers crossed.

This afternoon I finally had some proper me-time and I spent it in one of the best ways known to us - plotting, cutting, sewing. First, I manipulated the pattern pieces of my hen night dress and cut the second mock-up which will be assembled next Saturday.

Second, I wanted to make something quick and fun and very useful. My hexies are overflowing so I made a zippered pouch to keep them in check. And what better fabric to use than some of the Sew Stitchy layer cake that I won the other week? It arrived on Tuesday and I'd been trying to come up with an instant gratification project ever since. I chose the grey pins and hexies for the outside. So apt! And much prettier than a plastic ziplock bag. Right size to take outside, too.

It's sized 23cm by 19cm. Here's a shot with eleven finished hexie flowers for reference. Hexies are 5cm in diameter.

I'm making much more progress on them now I'm taking pre-assembled sets (the petals attached to the centre, but not each other) with me on the train. That way I can finish one flower on my way to and another on my way from work. Pre-assembling takes place whilst watching a movie, for instance tonight.

To celebrate having more space for my hexies I decided to cut fabric for even more hexies. Hehe, slightly addicted.

The pouch used only four pieces of the layer cake, so I've got another 38 left to make awesome things with. Maybe a sewing machine cover? More pouches? It's already proved a real treat. Thanks again, Fiona!


So what did you get done?

Linking up with Manic Monday over at SewHappyGeek.

W.i.P. - My Hen Night Dress and More EPP

A W.i.P. post on Wednesday! With a little less than two months until the wedding and only a little more than a month until the hen night, I had to get a start on my hen night dress. Both pattern and fabric have been in my stash since my birthday in March!

I've chosen the Jamie Dress by Sis Boom because I like fitted bodices and wide skirts. I've sewn a couple of skirts before but have so far been too lazy-stressed-scared to try a dress. At 1,76 m (nearly 5'10'') and a D-E cup most patterns require alterations and I did not feel up to it in the past. The Jamie Dress shouldn't require too many alterations - at least the measurements are a lot closer to my own without glaring discrepancies between bust and waist. I assume that I'll have to add some length to the bodice, though. Fingers crossed. (I will be less scared and lazy and learn to do FBAs once this project is under my belt. Promised.)

Everything cut out for the mock-up.

The fabric is Indigo Vines from the Katagami collection by RJR fabrics. No fashion fabric but too pretty to pass up. You can still find it here or here should it take your fancy.

Bodice parts weren't the only things cut out on Sunday.

EPP has got me in its grip! I pulled some fabric scraps and did a little basting.

Added one more hexie flower to the pile.

Stats for the Week

Finished Projects - 1
Echo pillows

New Projects -2
Chair cushions for my sister
EPP parallelograms/stars

Ongoing Projects - 3
EPP hexies
Polaroid blocks
Hen Night dress

Planning Stage - 5
Wedding Anniversary quilt
Wedding clutch
ET Phone Home EPP project
Moe Moe's Star quilt
Repurpose last year's scalloped skirt dress to a skirt

Happy sewing!