It looks like we all should be wearing masks for a while, which isn’t anyone’s idea of a rollicking good time, so here’s my thinking about how to make them as unobjectionable as possible.
Category: Sewing stuff
LE BOUQUET FRANÇAIS QUILT: Quilting & Binding
I put this quilt aside for a while because making pandemic masks seemed rather more pressing. I recently had a bit of time to pick it up and finish it. The batting is a polar-fleece throw, one of a pile I bought from Lands’ End when the combination of a sale and a promo code […]
LE BOUQUET FRANÇAIS QUILT: Backing
I turned all the waste triangles — well, 48 of the 52; I mangled one triangle in the machine and so threw away three more to make it an even 48 — into small squares, as illustrated in my first post. If I’m going to have fabric left over I’d rather be left with a […]
LE BOUQUET FRANÇAIS QUILT: Final Quilt Top Layout
Continuing the fairly random approach I laid out the final sixteen small squares on the intersections between the blocks to make the second set of triangles, trying to keep a good mix of light and dark fabrics and not put any fabric too close to itself. Lola continued helpful. Here’s a close-up of some of […]
LE BOUQUET FRANÇAIS QUILT: Initial Layout
I left the big squares with the first triangles attached to them unpressed, so I could nest the seams once I decided on a layout. In the interest of randomness I decided to just figure out the nine blocks independently and then arrange them later. I was aiming for a mix of light and dark […]
Le Bouquet Français quilt: first triangles
Now that all the squares are cut, it was time to decide which fabrics to put together for the first corner triangles. I have five dark-ish and seven light-ish fabrics (plus a few plain off-white small squares) and I like contrast, so I set them out somewhat randomly but with contrast in mind. I also […]
Le Bouquet Français quilt: initial planning
Since we’re all self-isolating, I thought I’d post a bit about my process for a quilt I’m working on. I often post final pictures of things I make but I don’t typically get a chance to mention all the weird little constraints and decisions and mistakes that happen along the way. Maybe it will encourage […]
*Entire* Jelly Roll Quilt Top
This is a strip-stack quilt top + border + binding I worked out to use up one *entire* jelly roll (forty 2.5″ fabric strips, each about 43-44″ long). Because it uses pretty much every inch of every strip, you really do have to use the wonky center bits of the strips — if you’re a […]
Cross-stitch patterns are the plushies of the 2010s
You can buy them on Etsy. 67 options!
Blinky gloves
I’m experimenting with wearable computing as a way to get back into programming. It’s fun because it involves more than just pixels on a screen; you get to mess with real-world stuff like LEDs and circuits and sensors and whatnot. And it’s low-risk because it’s hard to shock yourself badly or make stuff blow up […]
It’s Spiderman! It’s a pirate! It’s both!
My nephew was apparently in need of some of his own dress-up clothes so for his 3rd birthday recently, I made him a cape using these fabrics and this tutorial: It’s totally reversible and the neck closure is done with a little bit of velcro so it’s pretty safe (the velcro comes undone easily so […]
Quilts
A few weeks ago I finally finished M’s quilt: It’s roughly twin-sized – 55″ by 75.5″. I’m quite happy with it, although the back (off-white lightweight polar fleece) isn’t perfect — sewing fleece is an occult art, I fear, and even the walking foot on the machine wasn’t quite up to the task — and […]
Not about the election
I’m terribly bored with this election — lots of pointless hot-air and genital-waving — so instead of involving myself in it, reading every word out of every politician’s machine and listening to the debates, I embarked on a bit of needlework. A far surer path to ongoing sanity, I think. (I will vote, of course. […]
Twenty-seven things to do with trashed jeans
(OK, maybe only three. But it felt like twenty-seven since there was hand-sewing involved.) M is hard on pants. At this point in the year every single pair will have a rip in at least one knee. I never bother fixing them particularly well, since she’ll have outgrown them by the fall anyway, but I […]
Finished doll quilt
Finished doll quilt Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease. Don’t be too impressed; this quilt is only about the size of a large placemat and it’s made mostly from small scraps pilfered from my mom’s stash. Still, it’s the first one I made all by my lonesome — my previous experience consisted solely of embroidering squares and […]
Yay, I can finally mention the quilt!
I’ve been dying to talk about the quilt my Mom and I were making for my sister’s soon-to-arrive baby, and since it has reached its destination I can finally speak up. Here it is! I embroidered the 16 squares, most of them with a bee motif and a few with stars. Mom sewed it all […]