Looking Back

I was talking to a friend about Halloween quilts last week. 

I remembered this quilt from five years ago and pulled it. It is nice to look over a quilt from years ago and be able to find lessons learned and delight in the finish. 

This was only of my only forays into making a medallion quilt. If you want to read more about this quilt, and see more photos, you can check out this post or this post, both from February 2017. 

I relied on Liberated Medallion Quilts by Gwen Marston while designing my quilt. Electric Quilt design software was also a must to help with the math. 

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors

Juki TL-2010Q

Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Dritz Craft Pins, 1-3/4-Inch (250-Count)

Electric Quilt

Spooky Embroidery Continued

I know I keep sharing this project, but I'm not stopping until it is done and it still isn't done.

This past weekend I managed to get a couple steps closer to done. The collar was a real challenge. This is the first time I've made a collar like this and I learned a thing or two along the way. Mostly, I learned that the directions for this coat aren't really intended for "advanced sewists". They are intended for people that have made this style of coat before. So many steps, or images, are just not in the directions. 

I managed to get the collar constructed, though it wasn't as straightforward as I thought it would be. Very fiddly. My iron and the pressing cloth had a real work out. 

The embroidery placement on the sleeves turned out great! I think I need to make something with simpler construction (like a fleece jacket) and add some awesome embroidery. 

The coat front embroidery is mostly covered by the collar, but I think that makes it a little more subdued, so still a win. I have to finish attaching the lining, sew on the sleeve buttons, stitch the button holes onto the coat front, and attache the coat buttons. Plenty left to do, but I can almost see the end from here.

Tools (affiliate links):
Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle
Fiskars Rotary Cutter
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Vitessa Advanced Steam Iron
Sleeve board
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Juki TL-2010Q

Spooky Embroidery Continued

In the last post about this embroidered coat, I mentioned the better of the two pockets. Here it is! Perhaps not perfect, but better than the last one. 

Garment sewing is slow when you're only making one thing. I'm sure if I was making a dozen I would be at about the same point in construction as I am with just the one. I finished the lining and even used my sleeve board for what it is intended. Most often I use it to press bags once they are turned. 

I assembled the lining with the serger. Lining fabric is always so slippery and has a tendency to fray. It's almost sad this bright lining will be hiding under the coat. I'm hoping to make more progress over the next few days. Maybe I can have this done by Halloween. Though I don't think it's likely.

Tools (affiliate links):
Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle
Fiskars Rotary Cutter
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Vitessa Advanced Steam Iron
Sleeve board
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Juki TL-2010Q

Spooky Embroidery

What seems like forever ago, Darling Husband asked me to make him a coat with this pattern. It was for a costume. Since I missed the original deadline (he bought a coat from Amazon for that costume), I decided to get to work making the coat the way I envisioned it.

My vision includes loads and loads of black embroidery on black fabric. I cut and interfaced and sewed some pieces together. The back panels were joined before I added the embroidery.

After watching more than a few tutorials on YouTube, I figure out how to make these pockets.

I'm pretty pleased with the result, but I'm not likely to choose to add these pockets to another garment. This is the first one I finished. The second one came out better, but I didn't take a photo.

I added more embroidery. This embroidery is dangerously close to the seam line, but I think it will still work.

Because embroidery makes everything better. 

These designs make me so happy. Each of these designs is from Urban Threads called Gothic Nouveau.

As often happens, I am reminded how long it takes to construct a garment. I started working on this project on Saturday, and haven't made too much progress. I worked on it most of Saturday and part of Sunday. I even set up embroidery and worked on other sections while the machine stitched along. I must have done three or four embroideries while completing the three pockets. That isn't discouraging me, just reminding me that anything awesome takes time.

Tools (affiliate links):
Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle
Fiskars Rotary Cutter
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Vitessa Advanced Steam Iron
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Juki TL-2010Q

Polly Cross-Body Pouch

After I completed my Halloween Medallion quilt Hocus Pocus I had made quite a dent in my collection of Halloween prints but I wanted to try out a pattern I picked up by joining the Two Pretty Poppets mailing list. The Polly Cross Body Pouch is an exclusive pattern for the mailing list. It is a great way to try out on the patterns and the bag is pretty awesome, too.

After printing the pattern and reading through it in full, I fussy-cut the outer bag flap panel from my backing fabric. Then I dug around until I found a suitable print for the rest of the bag and lining.

I didn't follow the directions precisely. Not because there is a problem with the directions. The directions are excellent. But because I didn't have the bag hardware needed to make the bag as designed. I really like this little bag. It will be a great running around bag. Just big enough for phone and wallet. I also learned a few things about bag making that I can use in other projects. I will definitely make another. I'm sure these would make great gifts, too.

If you are looking for a well-written bag pattern, please check out Two Pretty Poppets. They might have your next favorite bag.

Medallion Quilt: Hocus Pocus Part 2

After I decided on a name, I had to create a label. Thankfully, Urban Threads had just the thing.

I loaded it all onto the frame and got ready for stitching.

I decided that I wanted to use as many colors as possible, or so it seemed. I used all of these in the quilting. I matched the threads as I went along.

I didn't do any fancy quilting and there were a few times that I went a little sideways, but it all worked out.

I quilted the background for the center block with some slightly wavy lines. I didn't want to overdo it.

The quilting took a couple days. There were some times that I had to rip stitches, but not too many.

You can see some of the colors on the back.

Overall, most of the quilting is obscured because the fabrics are just so darn busy. I could have quilted the entire thing with the medium gray thread, but where is the fun in that?

These happy skeletons were pressed into duty as binding. (Pun intended.)

Quilted, trimmed, and bound! My first real finish of 2017. Bring it on UFO Challenge! I can do this!

Get It Done UFO Challenge hosted by Spring Water Designs.

Medallion Quilt: Hocus Pocus

Earlier this month I shared a post about the UFO Challenge I was participating in. The first number selected was "5" which was a Halloween medallion quilt that I wanted to make. I was inspired to make a medallion quilt by Gwen Marsten's book Liberated Medallion Quilts.

Here is the stack of fabric I started with. I didn't use all of these, but I did use many. Some of these I purchased and some were given to me.

I designed the quilt from the center out. I picked this large section of some Ghastlies fabric for my center and used the swoon block to really make it shine. I used Electric Quilt 7 (EQ7) to plan each border and round of the quilt.

I also used skills and tools I learned while making Bonnie Hunter's En Provence mystery quilt.

I tried to keep the piecing simple. This is where I learned about accuracy in a somewhat painful way. If you aren't getting perfectly sized seams and perfectly sized blocks then this kind of quilt isn't for you. I used the borders for each round to make sure everything was the right size.

I learned that busy fabrics don't always read the way you want them to. Example: the black and purple half-square triangle blocks in the row above are really just muddy.

Making sure you know the size of your piece after you added that last border is pretty important, too. The black and white striped border wasn't even supposed to be in this quilt. Mistakes happen. This one wasn't tragic, by any means. You will realize after you've cut the half-square triangle blocks that you could have just made four flying geese units instead.

This is the first time I made units like these. Split-quarter square blocks are what Google tells me they are called. They aren't difficult once you've made about a hundred quarter square triangle units.

The final round used flying geese, split 9-patch, 9-patch and single blocks to showcase some of the fabrics. The unfinished size with the final border is 72.5" by 72.5". Not too shabby.

I'll share the quilting in another post since this one seems to be so full of pictures.

Get It Done UFO Challenge hosted by Spring Water Designs.

Wardrobe Wednesday: All Hallows Cape

Not long ago Professor Pincushion posted a wonderful tutorial on how to draft a cape pattern. I wanted to play along and on All Hallows I got busy in the early morning hours before the sun was up.

I drafted my cape pattern.  I wanted something small since this was my first draft.

Then I drafted the hood pattern. This hood is very roomy.

After cutting my cape pieces, I set the embroidery machine to stitching some fun designs. This design is from Urban Threads Embroidery. The set is called Gothic Nouveau and I bought it when it was first released in October. Urban Threads has hand embroidery versions of many of their designs, so don't let the lack of an embroidery machine hold you back from checking out their wonderful designs.

In hindsight I can tell you that these designs are too close to the front hem and not close enough to the bottom hem. I really need to print out my designs before setting up for placement. Not a disaster, but a learning moment.

The second learning moment came when I realized that I had cut and seamed two half capes to make a full-circle cape. The pattern designed by Professor Pincushion is for a half-circle cape. My choices to correct this error were few. I went with the one that I thought was the least painful and that let me keep my full-circle cape. I drafted a yoke to fill in the gap.

I decided to use a contrasting fabric, mostly because if I was going to make a mistake I was going to use it as a design element. Overall, I think it wasn't a disaster. I did learn a little something. More importantly, I learned how I can modify the pattern further.

I used another Urban Threads design from the same set for either side of the hood. Again, the design is too close to the front edge. Good placement from the top edge.

Here is the hood after seaming but before I finished the front edge. If I didn't need that hem it would have been perfect.

My finished cape! I wore it all day on All Hallows. It wasn't warm enough for outside, but it was good indoors. I have so many ideas on how to change this pattern. I want to modify it to make it easier to embroider. I want to modify the hood so it has a center panel that will change the shape of that leading edge. I want to make a longer version. So many possibilities!

Have you made something from a pattern you drafted yourself? I would love to hear about it.