Quilting and more.

I finally got back to some of my sewing.  The girls spent a week with my mom at the end of January and I spent some time working on a few projects.  The first was a bolero jacket for Ri's wedding dress.  We had already picked one out, but last month they told us it was out of stock and they could not guarantee they could get it back in stock in enough time for us to do her photo shoot.  So, I took a bolero pattern and a pattern for a shrug and worked them up in muslin for her to try out.  She made her choice and I've run up the bolero in chiffon to match her dress.  All I have left to do is add the lace.

I've also worked on some quilting.  I finished the top of a quilted rug I'm using in my sewing class and will pin baste and quilt that soon;  I kind of have to since my class is next weekend. :)  I'll take Beenie's quit to show the quilting process, and the sample piece to show binding.

I have Beenie's quilt pin basted, and I've spent some time practicing the patterns I'm going to use for the quilting.  This will be the first time I've free hand quilted an entire quilt.  I'm a little, okay, more than a little nervous about it.  I plan on doing the quilting in the kitchen so I can use the table to support the quilt instead of letting it hang off the back of my sewing table, like I did for Bree's.   I'm guessing it will be harder to move it around if the weight of it is pulling it down the back of the table.  We'll see how it goes. 

I'm working on Ri's quilt too.  I have all the circles made for the Dresden plates.  

I'm glad I just cut one and sewed it up first before cutting the rest, because I ended up not liking how small the circle was in comparison to the plate.  I wanted a larger one since sunflower centers are so big.  I'm pretty happy with this one.

I thought it was neat the way the centers were constructed.  The instructions were to cut a circle out of both the fabric and some iron on interfacing.  Then, placing the right side of the fabric together with the bumpy side of the interfacing, you sew all the way around the circle.  Trim the seam to 1/8th inch.  Cut a slit in the center of the interfacing and turn the circle right side out.  Finish up by pressing with a wooden presser.  Once I'm ready to put the plate and center on the block, I'll just arrange them and then iron the center in place.  The interfacing will help hold everything in place while I pin it and then sew the plate to the block.  I've got several of the background blocks cut out, and have started cutting the strips for the edging that will go around the blocks.  I hope to finish cutting the blocks and white strips this week.  Maybe even some of the green strips too.

And last, but not least, wedding stuff crowding my sewing/school room.  See?  I told you it was taking over.  And I had to get in that closet the other day.  Ughhh!  I've got to find a better place for all of it.  This doesn't even include the three boxes in my closet, albeit those are not too big, or this:

Yes everyone, if you can zoom in closer you'll see this is a 31 gallon tote.  Huge!  Also in my sewing room and also full of wedding stuff.  I think it's time to clean the garage.   

BTW, we will not be using silk flowers in her wedding; the flowers above are for T.Lynn's basket.  They'll allow her to throw silk petals, but the silk throwing petals all look like rose petals.  Since Ri's focus is on sunflowers we thought it'd be cute for her to throw petals that looked like sunflower petals.  Hobby Lobby had a pretty good sale on their flowers the other day, so we went ahead and picked up some to tear apart. Sounds like a good job for the flower girl doesn't it?

That's about all for now.  I plan on posting another recipe soon, but the ladies at the bank (Hi Ladies!) have requested that future recipes come with samples, so we'll see what we can arrange. 

Have a great week!!