A Dress

 I made a dress!  My brother-in-law got married in Snoqualmie, WA in July, so I decided to make a dress rather than deal with shopping for one.

It's the same dress that I made at the Heather Ross Weekend Sewing Workshop this past January.  Except I never finished that one so......  I figured I'd make a new one.   I had just sent my deposit payment to Heather Ross for the WSW in Palm Springs for next January.  I was all pumped and wanted to make something.

  It's Anna Maria Horner's Evening Empire Dress for the bodice and the skirt panels from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing (Yard Sale Skirt).  Rather than line fabric with interfacing, I chose to go with some AMH home dec fabric for the top.  The bottom is a light yellow linen/rayon blend.

I added 3 small pleats to the back to keep the skirt seams symmetrical.

I actually finished the dress the night before the wedding and with all the seam ripping and re-sewing, the dress bodice ended up a little floppy.  I am on the fence as to whether or not this was appropriate to wear to a wedding.  It seems to have come out a little to "summer dress" than "wedding appropriate."

The inside is lined with some Good Folks.

The zipper install came out okay.....

I moved the straps out a lot!

I made some bias trim to go around the bottom. 

 I really like how it turned out.

:) Raven

 

A Finished Quilt (finally!)

This quilt has been a long time coming!  Most of the blocks were finished last May/June.  I started out making squares in squares with varying widths of strips.  My plan was to cut all the blocks up and "bento" them back together.  I guess I sort of got a bit lazy and also like the way the blocks looked slashed in half.  I kept some of the blocks as squares and sewed them together.  I quilted half of it in November and the other half in December.  Binding was sewn on in January some time.  And, since we also got rid of our cable box in January, there was no hand-sewing-while-tv-watching going on, so it took until a few weeks ago to finish stiching the binding down on the back. 

  It's been on the couch.

Most of the prints are from Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt.  The solids are all Kona except for the taupe color which is a Kaffe Fassett Shot cotton. 

The back is AMH Flannel.  Flannel for a quilt back is awesome.  This print went so well with the colors from the front!   Quilted all over stipple.

:)
Raven

Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt- Week 5

Block #9 and #10

#9- Box

This block's colors are my favorite!  I placed the green print fabric on so many different blues

 and ended up with this one.  I love how it turned out!!

#10- Bowtie

     I tried paper-piecing a few of these blocks.  I'm sure if I were more comfortable with paper piecing, I would prefer to do it.....but I think I like cutting the templates.  I've been using the templates and cutting about 1/4" larger that required.  After that, I piece and trim and piece and trim.  It's working out better for me, but for the life of me, I cannot get my points to line up.

It is so fun to see how different all these blocks can be, just by changing up the fabrics!

If you haven't - check out the flickr group - some seriously amazing quilts are being made!

xo-Raven

Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt - Week 4



Block # 7 Birds in the Air

 Wow- this block was so insane-driving!!  Those points meet up only in my dreams!!

But oh my goodness I flippin love these colors together!!



Block #8  Bouquet



Not sure what happened at the bottom.....I'll trim them up later.....

I'm still undecided on the dark blue....

I need to lay all the blocks out together and see how they play off each other.



Another week done!

I would describe myself as a quitter.  This QAL is a test for me- to see if I can push through my wankiness and whining to actually complete an incredibly labor intensive quilt.

So far - so good!!

xo, Rave