Looking back
If you have read my blog before you’ll
know how much I love the work of Sarah Fielke, needle turn appliqué, traditional designs using modern bright
fabrics and quilts with lots of white. This quilt is all of those things.
The design is called Looking Back by Sarah Fielke and is from the wonderful book Material Obsession Two. In
the book Sarah says “the bird in the centre medallion of the quilt is looking
back through time to a more traditional quilt”. When I first read this sentence
it was a light bulb moment for me to describe the style of quilts that I love
the most.
This was one of my longer term projects –
I started it over 2 years ago. The fabrics are all from Patchwork on Central Park in
Melbourne. The appliqué is hand needle turn and the saw tooth borders, strip
borders and blocks are machine pieced. It is 70″ square. Sarah’s original
pattern had a lovely large scale wide print border and more birds in the
corners. I changed mine to have another border repeating the large corner
flowers and tulips.
I machine quilted it myself which was a
bit of a drama at times. I don’t think I’m great at machine quilting, but hand
quilting would have taken me years and a professional service would have
required custom quilting which can be expensive. I chose a simple cross hatch
to make it easier.
I didn’t quilt over any of the appliqué.
Some of the appliqué pieces such as the large corner flowers are pretty large
so they can look a bit puffy. I’m obviously not very good at basting as the
backing fabric has folds in quite a few places and on quilts this big I always
have this problem no matter which basting tutorials I follow. I chose a high
loft batting as I wanted the quilt to be soft and snuggly, however this means
it’s very puffy in between the cross hatches. About half way through the
quilting I was really worried I’d ruined the whole thing and there’s no way I
would rip out that many seams without damaging the fabric. The wise Mr Tortoise
told me I was being too harsh on myself, to keep going and wait until it was
complete to decide how much of a “disaster” it was. So it hibernated in the
cupboard for a few months so I could have a break from it. Then over two days I
got serious and got quilting and got it finished. I washed all the blue marker
off and you know what? I LIKE it!
I love how fresh and happy it is. I love
all those leaves. I love the sawtooth borders. I love the orange.
This quilt was made for a wedding gift
for my cousin who is also a wonderful friend. Yes their wedding has been and
gone, as has their first wedding anniversary! They have been wonderfully
patient waiting for me to finish it. We are about to go to their place for
lunch and to gift it. I really really hope they love it and forgive me the
parts of the quilt that are a bit amateurish!
6 Nov 2011
Miz
Mozelle Dress { 1 }
I am absolutely rubbish at sleeping in on
weekends and one Sunday morning at about 6am I followed a link to the dress
patterns at Backstitch. I went in search of
the Miz Mozelle dress by Jamie Christina as I had been coveting this one by Florence for
a while. Alice at Backstitch has a great range of
patterns so not only did I find the Miz Mozelle, I also found some gorgeous Colette and Sewaholic patterns. If you’re
paying postage you may as well get your money’s worth and order a few patterns
right? Like 5 or 6?
So fast forward a couple of weeks and on
twitter Katy from I’m a Ginger
Monkey is also coveting the Miz Mozelle and
since she is a true Liberty of London devotee I asked if she knew where I could
get my hands on some Liberty print jersey… Of course she did and that led me to
Sewbox and before I had even
finished my morning coffee I had this on it’s way and Katy had
suggested she might hold a Miz Mozelle-along once she was back from market!!
Fast forward a few more weeks and it’s a
perfect 30 degree day in Melbourne and the promise of summer is here and my
“must be finished first” list is complete so it’s a guilt free sewing day. The
fabric was calling out to me so I had to start my Miz Mozelle and here she is:
Wow is she comfy! And dressy! = perfect
dress!! Here are my tips:
Fitting – as always my measurements span
a size 10 through 16 on the pattern guidelines. In Australia I wear a 10, in
the UK I can often be a 12 and in the US I buy size 6 – go figure!! Since this
dress is drapey and gathered in at the waist I decided to go bigger so I chose
the 12. I probably could have done the 10, but comfy is my friend so comfy won.
I’m only 5’2″ and the waist is right on my waist and the finished hem is right
on my knees – so if you’re tall check the length of both the bodice and the
skirt before you start cutting.
Bias tape – the pattern requirements
include 1/4″ double fold bias tape and 1/2″ single fold bias tape. I don’t know
the difference between single and double – I’m sure we only have one type in
Australia. Either way I didn’t like the navy of the prepackaged bias tape so I
bought half a metre of cheap satin and cut my own bias tape. I cut 1″ strips
and finger pressed them in half. Then I used the iron (use a dry iron so you
don’t burn your finger tips) to iron one fold in to meet the half way line I
had finger pressed. I used the same width for everything. Alternatively you can
use a Clover bias tape makers. I
have a couple of smaller ones and think I’ll buy a 1/2″ one as they really make
the job a lot easier. I would definitely recommend making your own bias to
match your fabric if you can’t find something on the shelf.
Collar and keyhole opening – the ends of
the collar where it meets the keyhole opening can be both fidly and tricky. My
tip here is really only to be patient and take it slow, pin lots and hand
sewing parts of it gave my a neater finish. The loop gave me a bit of grief so
I gave up on it and sewed the tops of the keyhole together and the button is
just decorative. The neck opening is certainly big enough not to need the
button opening to be functional. I also followed Florence’s advice to make the
keyhole opening smaller so there’s no bra glimpses.
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