Simultaneous Projects

New quilt coming up:
Right after I finished that last baby quilt I started on a new one! I was convinced it would be completed within a week of starting, but that didn't happen. I have the binding sewn on and will take the rest of this week to watch Downton Abbey and stitch it to the back.

Planning

 

Setting up

Dressmaking:

Passport Dress by Lisette

Tomorrow and Tuesday I have off and I'm going to sew a dress. My mom and I read through the instructions together. She measured me and we traced the necessary lines. I am very fearful of tackling this project. It's been more than a month since I bought the fabric and pattern. There have been excuses like, "I should clean," "I should take Zip for a walk." "What if it's a total waste of time?" If I allow myself two days to devote to this project, I think I can handle the pains of taking my time, learning new sewing skills and maybe failing.

Continental Dress by Lisette

I have wanted to sew a dress for a really long time. These gorgeous dress patterns by Lisette are inspiring me to figure it out.










Small Travel bag:
At the quilt expo a couple weekends ago in Portland I bought this adorable fabric with animal schoolchildren. (Sorry no photo yet.) Phrases are written down: "Going to school by bus. School is fun every day." And "There are a lot of friends." I am still new at sewing so this will be yet another learning project and I'll make sure to share how it goes.  I's using Heather Ross' Weekend-Away Travel Bag pattern from her book Weekend Sewing.

from her book

On the Clothesline

Newly pinned to the clothesline is the finished quilt!
This colorful baby quilt measures a tad under 40 X 40 inches.

Front

 

Back

 

Together

Quilt in Progress

 I am not very particular about my fabric measurements or straight line sewing, so it is inevitable that my quilt blocks will not perfectly match up.  I'm always  frustrated by that lack of crisp coordination. And yet I don't really take the necessary steps to getting those clean lines. While I'm piecing the quilt top together, I can get really down on myself for making this shoddy product.  But after awhile I remind myself that everyone has their own learning curve and I'm in the midst of mine. I just started sewing one year ago.

So I to step back from those numerous mistakes and look at the things that drew me to the project.

Awesome Fabric

The Process

Here's an example of two fabrics that I wanted to position side by side: the yellow deer and the antlers of a larger deer.  The Oh Deer! fabric collection has two scenic, flowery fabrics with deer in the picture and I was glad to at least capture a couple of those because  they help keep up the forest theme.

The Whole Project

 As you can gather from my previous post about possibilities, I like setting out all the fabrics. And once I've chosen an arrangement, I like to keep it exactly how I want it.















And most of all, I always find relief (and joy!) in seeing the project as a whole. Here's the quilt sandwich, pinned and ready to be rolled up and quilted. I barely notice my mistakes now that I have the bigger picture.