Dress Me Up - finished quilt top

I feel as though a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders now that my Dress Me Up embroideries have come together in a quilt top. It's just over twelve months since I started the first dress.

The ladies in the fabric diamonds came from a piece of Springtime in Paris by Michael Miller.

My photography leaves a lot to be desired, but I think you can get the general idea of how it looks.  It measures 55" by 64".

Fifties Dress No 12

Fifties No 12 Dress for "Dress Me Up" is  now finished, for better or worse.  She should keep warm travelling to and fro in her little cape.  Now the problem is  of how to put them together.

I'm trying to decide if I can combine some of the illustrations in this  Paris fabric with the twelve embroideries. The ladies in the fabric are just over half the height of the ones in the embroidery so I'm thinking that  at that size perhaps twelve of these ladies wouldn't dominate the embroideries.

Fifties Dress No 9 and Rose Star Piecing

Finished Dress No 9 for the Dress Me Up quilt.  Three more to go.

And I've also had a dabble with the Rose Star block which I first spotted in  Possum Blossom's blog which led me on to some instructions at Summerfete .  I've only used hexagon-shaped templates until now so I was tempted to try out these different shapes.

Not too sure about the colours though.  The samples I looked at had myriad colours and I don't trust myself choosing so many colours.  So I thought let someone else do the choosing and started using a layer cake of Moda's Urban Cowgirl.  All put together in a quilt the sight of these bright colours is going to knock you over at a dozen paces !

One thing I discovered though is that I get on much better using cardboard templates instead of paper ones.  Much more accurate and much sharper corners.

I've also changed my philosphy on creating still more UFOs.   I don't think that way any more.  I am simply an adventurer dipping my toes in as many waters as possible.  Who can resist when bloggers keep showing us so many interesting ideas.  There are just not enough hours in the day to try them all. So thanks to all those bloggers.

Fifties Dress No 8 at long last

Fifites Dress No 8 of the Dress Me Up from Bobby Socks Quilts is finished at last, in its fashion  Four more to go.  I've heard marathon runners talking about hitting a wall and that's how I'm beginning to feel about these embroideries.  Each one seems to be taking me longer to complete !

Here in the southern hemishpere it's summer time and holiday time.   Most groups take this month off from their regular meetings, and with all the holiday activities as well it's easy for handwork to take a back seat for a while.

But I also finished quilting and binding the floral quilt with cross stitch panels and I am so pleased with it.  The colours  are among my favourites.  Taking a photograph of it lying flat doesn't really do it justice as it drapes beautifully. I used the bamboo batting which is so flexible.

Fifties Dress No 7

Dress No 7 now finished.  This one is a cutie !

Two of this year's quilts  have found a home.  Granddaughter has just finished first year university and has moved into a shared house with three other students.  These will help keep her warm as they try to save on the heatig bills !

I'm looking forward to having more time for sewing again once Christmas is over.,  But in the meantime I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year .

Fifties Dress No 3

No 3 dress for Dress Me Up wasn't quite as time consuming as the first two.  I think it's really sweet.

But if you look carefully half way up the left hand side you can see  that a small pleat has formed in the fabric - as I started to iron it the backing shifted - an iron-on adhesive kind of gauze which re-inforces the front fabric and  helps prevent puckering.  The more I tried to get the pleat out the worse I made it, so now I need to do some thinking !.

Not being a good week, actually.  This morning I made another block for the Farmer's wife quilt and went to give it a press before trimming the edges,  Only then did I notice  that one of the fabrics was sewn in with its wrong side facing.  It's so noticeable - how could I not notice it when I was sewing. Now for some retrograde stitching - the polite way of saying unpicking.

But one person who does things right is Pam from the Friday Group who has finished her lovely log cabin quilt.  I really like this one, particularly the sprays of flowers at the centre of each log cabin.

But it's raining.  And I'd love to go out for a latte !  Why can't we have a coffee truck which trawls the streets with some approriate bells or music blaring so that I could just rush out and get my desire !

Fifties Dress No 2

These fifties dresses for the  "Dress Me Up" quilt certainly are not quick to finish, but are fun to do.  I love the curve of the collar on this one, which is the second in the series.

I've just started No 3 dress and it  seems simpler to do with its sprigged pattern.

And there's  still been time to make a few more blocks for a Farmer's wife quilt. I'm now about half through for a lap size quilt.

Starting New Projects and Swapping Hexie Flowers

I really didn't need to start a couple of new projects just yet when other things are so close to completion but I just couldn't resist. This is the progress I have made on the first dress for "Dress Me Up", a quilt displaying twelve dresses from the 1950s.

With all my efforts with my improvised light box I find I have drawn a spot which wasn't even in the original. A ghost spot !  I had intended to do the spots in outline only but the black of the dress outline is so strong that I fell that all the overall patterns will need to have strength in them too, hence the solid red spots.  Time consuming though.

This was also a hexie flower week and the following beauties arrived from my fabric pen-pal, Brandie.

Isn't the guipure lace centre attractive. It's always nice to add variety to a few of the centres. Thanks, Brandie.

At the same time my offering for this month was heading in the opposite direction.

I was in a much more mellow mood this month and made these very quiet hexies. I'll brighten up again next month, perhaps blues, or reds, or greens, or blacks - perhaps not blacks ! No, definitely not blacks.

Spending time at home meant time to slip on a new pair of shoes so that they would soften up a bit and mould to my strange feet to make sure they were perfectly comfortable before going out in them.  So what happens?
I knock my needlecase onto the floor and spill some needles, and when I stand up I wonder what is the matter with my shoe.

It's going to take a stronger wrist than mine to wield the pliers to get this well-embedded needle out of the shoe.  Fortunately it didn't go right through to my heel.

Improvising A Light Box

I needed to transfer a pattern today, one of twelve, and I wanted a more satisfactory method than my usual one.  I should have bought a light box long ago but there has  always been something else which I wanted more. So this is what I did .........

The piece of glass is the top of a bedside table in the spare bedroom, placed on two chairs and over my light-magnifier.

Then comes the pattern I wanted to trace. I had first printed it onto a heavy tracing paper, then taped it to the glass.  The pattern is the first of twelve in a quilt called Dress Me Up from Bobby Socks Quilt Company   Each is a dress from the 1950s displayed on a dressmaker's dummy.

 A piece of the off-white fabric I am using is taped over the tracing paper.  To look at it you would never guess how carefully I had ironed it.

I can see most of the pattern through the fabric but I keep the original drawing beside me so that I know what I'm looking for and don't draw the pattern by guess and by gosh.  I was using an archival pen from a local art shop.   It leaves a permanent mark but it's a fine line and will be easy to hide under the embroidery.

Then I had the bright idea (no pun intended) that by twisting the light source straight up instead of pointing down at the floor I would see the image more clearly.  Well it looks like that in the photo.  But the combination of better view of the dress combined with the clearly defined self pattern on my fabric meant that I couldn't see the pen strokes I was making.  I was heading for trouble there !  Pressing more heavily and repeating strokes.  So it was back to the more diffuse light.

And by now my knees and back are starting to protest at all this getting up and down.  Have to have a think to see if there is some other way I can prop up the glass !

So here I am, just starting off.  I've ironed on a backing to stop the material from puckering from my stitching. The dress and form is just clear enough for me to see comfortably and won't disappear.  The dress form is a bit too close to the embroidery hoop so I'll do it last of all. A family member has already seen the pattern and uttered a most definite That's Mine so this quilt's destination is already determined.

I found this quilt a few weeks ago on the Dread Pirate Rodgers Blog and today the Pirate has blogged that she has now finished embroidering the twelvth dress and is pondering on how she is going to finish the quilt. I couldn't resist it once I saw her work.  The quilting blogs are such a source of inspiration.

Much as I like quilting I am not happy at doing  little bits and pieces on the sewing machine.  I prefer to have a nice un-interrupted day in front of me.  But I always have a piece of embroidery on the table to pick up at odd times during the day or evening. These days my embroideries are meant to be made into quilts.

After a day of enforced rest yesterday it was great to make some progress today. I'll be glad to hear if anyone else has any handy hints on light-boxing. For all things embroidery you can't go past Mary Corbet's Needle and Thread . Under her Tips and Techniques she has a interesting selection on Transferring Patterns.