Cloned McCalls 2208 from Lutterloh Shirt...

My modification of a Lutterloh basic shirt pattern to emulate McCalls 2208. Unfortunately the pattern itself was so difficult to try and alter to fit me that I just decided to modify the neckline of my TNT Lutterloh shirt to look like the McCalls. It didn't take too much. I cut a nice facing for the entire neckline after folding back the neckline of the Lutterloh pattern and tracing the resultant neckline from the bottom of one edge to the bottom of the other. I had to make a back facing and two front to shoulder facings. Made them nice and wide and that was a good idea. Sewed up well and fitting was good. I wanted it high enough to wear as a shirt or as a jacket. The buttons are nice shaded grey-brownish ones I got on sale at Joanns last year.
The fabric is postage stamps I got on sale several years ago at our wonderful local fabric shop now gone. A print like this requires a plain no-nonsense pattern if you don't want to look really busy. Here is the picture of the McCalls again to compare.  The neckline is a bit lower than I wanted mine to be, and I think the whole project turned out well. I have also finished the tropical print skirt but no pictures yet. I am behind in my pics-for-blogging. Have been working on the quilt as well, and finished all the blocks.

Paper Pieced Strips and Sewing Plans...

Right now, the project I am starting is a Strip Quilt which my Craftsy class with Pepper Cory calls the Phone Book Quilt. But I don't want to use phone book paper and I wanted 12x12 inch blocks, so I cut them from tracing paper with a matte finish, which is very light and removable when the time comes. So far I have several blocks - it is addicting and fun to strip paper piece them. I have the fabric already - my quilting stash isn't huge, but it will make several quilts I am sure! So, this one will be 6' by 5' when done and a bit more for the binding. Half dark and half light blocks diagonally.  I may have to cut more strips but that's O.K. I have the materials to do that. I am taking my time.

In the meantime, I may just cut out this McCall's pattern. I have admired it for a long time, and finally bought it - it dates from the late 90s I think, but they still have it for sale in the stores. I can see why as it is very basic. I love that the neckline is not encumbered with a collar, and that it could be adapted to either a top or a jacket. No law against making longer sleeves either. Might even try that pants pattern.  I have fabric for the top as a top, not a jacket, and I do not have fabric for matching pants, although I could of course buy some. Time will be the constraint here, as I really like working on the quilts better now. Plans, though, we must have plans. Always better to have lots in mind to do than nothing at all to occupy our minds. Happy Sewing!

Quilt for Constance Complete...

My doll Constance Evelda was given to me on the Christmas of my third year. She still lives with me, and had herself spa treated by my Mama in her doll hospital back it the late 1980's.  I have never made her anything in all those years, as she had lots of clothes at first, being size real baby, and as I was practicing with this little quilt, I decided it should be hers. She is pretty happy about it I can tell you, as that means a time out on the deck with a nice wrap to keep the breeze at bay.  This was a fun little quilt, and I learned that I need a lot more contrast in an Attic Window pattern. So many ideas are twirling around in my head - the next three quilts are taking shape in my mind, one being another try at a real Attic Quilt with contrast that gives the correct depth. I ran across a nice used quilting book in Third Place Books in Seattle. The book is Perfect Patchwork : the Sew Easy Way, by Margaret H. Nichols. More important than her sewing method is her planning method and the way every design is made from rectangle and triangle basic block forms. Combining these forms to make some designs that usually are not done that way is really a treat. The book approaches quilting a little differently - no pattern templates - you use measurement and I even think I will change whatever measurements to whatever I want to do. She provides empty planning sheets of various types that can be copied and used to plan your own quilts. Attic Window is one of the planned block setups in the book.  There is a lot to read in this book, and I think for the price I paid, I will more than get my monies worth!  I have also been buying quilting magazines in a relentless attempt to see if one or more would be worth subscribing to. Presently I do get Modern Quilting Unlimited, which is really a nice magazine, but I find a year of one is all I need. So now I am trying various other publications, and reporting on them will be upcoming here. So far, QUILT and McCall's Quilting are coming out on top.  In the Craftsy Class on Scrappy Quilting with Pepper Cory, I really was taken with the paper pieced strip quilt, and so the next one I want to make is going to be that very thing. I have loads of seasonal curtains I used to use on my front door and they are all cotton and are all going into the scrappy strip quilt. More planning on that later.

Finished and Begun...

I am finally figuring out that I am addicted to quilting. I am not so good at quilting so much as I just love to do it, as long as it is something I want to do at the time, and something I figure out myself. So I had these blocks from Keepsake Quilting that I got as a bonus a long time ago, and I thought: "Why not make them up in a sort of Attic-Windowy way, so I did - it was good practice. Attic Windows would need wider strips is one thing I learned. Mostly I want this piece as a trial for the Janome 6300's FMQ abilities again, and with the low tension bobbin case back in, I threaded her up and put Masterpiece in top and bottom. In a very pale pink. That color blends so well with just about everything. And the Masterpiece is fine enough so that that adds to the blendability. SO that project is doing well and the machine seems to like it. Perhaps a cleaning and servicing in June, and then another try at King Tut in that machine. Before starting the Attic piece I finished the FMQ on the table runner, using my Pfaff, and I am happy to have done some different stitching on that. Spirals in each corner, and wavy ocean effect along each side.   The cats and I are both happy with it. I did the binding on the table runner on the Janome and I really love how it handles the fabric with or without the walking foot. I did use the walking foot of course.  The Attic Window pattern is one that I have loved for a long time. I am thinking of an Asian themed fabric quilt using the Attic Window as an element, but not the whole quilt. Still have that percolating in the back burner of my brain. I have a lovely panel that will be the focus of the piece. SO we shall see if that comes together later - during the Summer months. Meanwhile, maybe a garment or two, but that seems like a light getting dimmer and dimmer and farther and farther....