Stories from the Sewing Room

My small guild has a sleep-in-your-own-bed retreat this weekend. We are having a guest teacher do a New York Beauty class on Saturday, so I am trying to figure out what fabrics to use for that. 

I'd really like to work on some of my own things as well. However, I've found that I'm not particularly accurate when sewing away from home. I have several foundation projects planned. I think I'm going to take the Sun and Sand project, which was our guild project in 2024--I bought all my stuff in 2023. I'm excited for the project, but it is also very overwhelming. A few of the ladies who have either worked on or completed theirs will be there, so it seems like a good one to pack.

I've cut my Range project so it's ready to sew. 

I've determined that I have enough fabric to make two baby quilts from my dinosaur fabric. I originally had a different pattern in mind, but too many of my charm squares are cream on cream and wouldn't look good in that pattern. 

I'm not really sure how much I'll get sewn or even how long I'll be able to stay because my sister and kids may or may not be staying with me over the weekend. Plus I am not one who can just sit in one place all day. But hey, at least I have options now.

I thought I'd share a few progress photos of my projects. I've made and attached the binding on one side of my Magnificent Mystery quilt. 

I'm getting close on the third (and last) of the selvedge knit rugs. You can see the "yarn" balls are getting pretty small. I do have some additional selvedge that was gifted to me that I can add to finish this one. 

I made a Frankenbatting for my Linda J. Hahn quilt. I also decided on a backing. I have most of a custom quilting plan worked out--just need to find the longarm time in the next two weeks (this is my OMG). 😬😬😬

I've been quilting away on the client quilts. First is Trudy's USA quilt, quilted with Star Spangled Banner.

Next is Amber's, quilted with Winterfest.

I finished binding all of Jeri's quilts and shipped them back to her. 

I was thrilled that Mary selected the Element of Fire design out of the options I sent her. It's what I would have chosen if it were my quilt! This one took two days to quilt.

We decided on Primrose Stipple for Amber's other quilt. This one also took me two days.

I started on Ann L.'s current batch by quilting Persian on this one.

I also started Ann K.'s quilts by quilting Lisa's Raindrops on this one. I picked bright green thread (Limerick). I love it and I hope she does too. 

I will be binding or partially binding all of both Anns' quilts in the near future. 

Out in the chicken coop, things are still iffy. On the plus side, all three younger hens get along. 

On the negative side, the silkies are still not accepting any of them. They definitely try to keep the young ones away from the food and the scratch. My daughter visited over the weekend and said that one of the Barred Rocks looks like she got pecked right next to her eye. ☹️

We have tons of pears on both pear trees. However, there are bites out of many of them, especially all the Bartletts, and they are far from ready to harvest. This picture is on what is supposed to be an Asian pear. I don't know what type they really are, but there have never been this many on this tree before. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see some wildflowers, including a native rose, along the back property line. We have so many invasives around us that it's nice to see these. 

The day lilies look great.

I didn't make it all the way out to the vegetable garden for photos, but everything except the watermelon is doing pretty well. Hmm...actually I'm not sure how the Brussels sprouts are doing because we haven't grown those before, but they are alive. 

I sprayed all the Johnson grass in the lower flower garden with the garden grass killer spray. So far it doesn't seem to have done a thing. ☹️ There's a young man in our neighborhood who has started his own landscaping business. He left a flyer on our door. I'm tempted to have him quote weeding that bed. It's such a disaster. So many trees we didn't plant, the spearmint, the Johnson grass, grapevine, creeper, and who knows what else is lurking in there. It still really bothers my foot to stand on the angle down there. 

Linking with Alycia Quilts and Quiltery.

Linking with Ms. P Designs PHD Program

I had one finish in May. I sewed (and wore) a dress! It came with blood, sweat, and tears. I've been talking about making a bodice for Cashmerette's Grafton dress in recent weeks. I was totally frustrated when I couldn't get the size/fit right and searched for other patterns that had a similar look that would work with the purple and white fabric stretch tricot I purchased to wear to my son's high school graduation. I landed on Pattern Emporium's Follow Me wrap dress and skirt pattern Thursday night. I made a test bodice and it actually wasn't too bad of a fit. A bit tight. I know some people like really tight-fitting knit garments, but I don't. I felt like I needed a 1/2" narrow shoulder adjustment, probably more length in the bodice, and a full bust adjustment of 2" across the entire front/back. I also raised the neckline to be school-appropriate--it was still a bit low afterwards in my opinion.

I made the pattern alterations. I did add a rounded back adjustment since there was a center back seam, but it made it puckery, so I took it back out and it was fine. I figured if I went with the flounce sleeve, it would camouflage any additional bust wrinkles. 

I added the ruffle to the skirt piece figuring it looked like a more forgiving edge finish. I regretted my choices when I had to turn up the entire hem to coverstitch. I think I used as many clips as a full size quilt binding requires when I machine bind. {Note: I did try a glue stick, but it didn't work on this fabric.} I also forgot how to set up the serger for a coverstitch since it's been so long.

Friday night I was almost done, but it was late and I was tired. I had accidentally serged one of the sleeves in in the wrong orientation and had to rip all that out and realign it. I had to hem the flounce sleeves, which were actually more like circle-skirt sleeves. I couldn't figure out the neckline band and I still needed to join the bodice and skirt. But I was too tired to figure out the neckline, so I went upstairs, teary with defeat. I had over 10 hours in at this point.

I got up at 6 AM Saturday morning determined to try my best and finished by 7:30--my goal was 7, but it was close. The neckband puckers a bit, but it was okay. I decided I needed to add the belt tie, so had to make that at the last minute. I didn't have enough time to hand-sew the opening shut, so I used school glue and ironed it. I DID IT! I made something that fits! And I wore it to graduation.

After looking at the photos, I think I need to take the skirt off and shorten the bodice an inch. The weight of the skirt really pulls the waist down. Even though I narrowed the shoulders 1/2", they ended up being a bit wide. I think the FBA might have added most of that back in. Or maybe the sleeves are pulling the seams outward because those things are really full. The bust fit isn't perfect, but it is totally wearable. I think I might have needed a bit more in the bust or else to change the armsyce shape. I could have narrowed down the waist to hip a bit as well, but it's okay.

This project gave me confidence that I can learn fitting. I have such a huge pile of patterns and clothing fabric that are in various stages of trial. I'd love to make more pieces. Also, I rarely need to wear a dress. I'd forgotten how much I love wearing them. Not very practical in my daily life though. 

This dress was item 5 on my PHD list. It took me approximately 12 hours, like 60 printed pattern piece pages plus tape, just over 3 yards of fabric at $8/yard, plus the additional pattern purchase, around $10.

My sewing room is a wreck of pattern pieces, fabric scraps, and extra yardage.

I also made a lot of progress on item 1, Magnificent Mystery. By the end of May I had the top completed and the back made. 

This week I made a Frankenbatting for it and quilted it. I will hand bind this one, but should hopefully complete it this month.

I made a few flying geese units for project 14, Bonnie Hunter Unity quilt. 

I washed all the fabric needed for item 17 (20 yards), another solid color bed quilt. I need to press the fabric and seam it, then quilt and machine bind. 

I also made progress on number 22, the Athena bag. I quilted the Soft and Stable panel required and cut all the fabric. It's ready to sew.

I'm working on a quilting plan for number 23, the Linda J. Hahn class quilt. I'm hoping to quilt it in June.

In the quilting-for-hire side of life, I quilted four quilts for Jeri. 

First is this one, Arithmetic from 2015, quilted with Briar Rose.

This Texas panel is quilted with Star Spangled Banner.

Next I quilted Honey Bee on her Positively Charming quilt.

Finally, we decided on Arnica for the log cabin quilt.

I am working on fully binding all four.

In my personal life, we did graduation on Saturday morning. Yay! We've been at college orientation this week. I'll get back to quilting tomorrow. 

Penny and Poppy are getting along well with Nugget. Peanut and Smoky continue to harass them. We were really surprised to find Nugget and one of the Barred Rocks perched on the water tank holder. The silkies don't fly well and have never attempted this. It even took them multiple months to get up into the garden tanks in the coop run expansion. The three little hens all got up in the tanks right away. 

Out in the garden, we've finally moved past all the rain (I think). Everything has germinated though the purple bush beans are not doing well for the second year in a row. Something appears to have eaten most of the foliage on the watermelon. The peas have a few blossoms, so hopefully we'll get a few before it gets too hot. I've transplanted the pepper starts from the Aerogarden out to the actual garden. My husband has been working on adding irrigation/automatic watering to the tanks. 

pea blossoms

purple beans on left, green beans on right

My day lilies are covered in buds. I guess they prefer to be much wetter than their normal conditions. I can't remember them ever having this many. 

I broke down and bought a grass killer to apply to the Johnson grass invasion in the lower garden. If you miss any of the rhizome when you try to remove it, it's like a Hydra and grows a ton more. We'll see how it goes. 

Linking with Quiltery and Alycia Quilts.

What will your June sewing goal be?

My goal this month is to quilt my Beach Bumz top.

Other things I'd like to work on include quilting and binding Magnificent Mystery, sewing and quilting the whole cloth purple bed quilt, and continuing to work on piecing other projects. I have a lot of work lined up though, and many bindings in those bookings, so my time will probably be somewhat limited. Any progress, no matter how small, is still progress though, right?

Now it's your turn to link up. The link up will remain open through June 7.

Well, friends, we've made it through our school years. Of course there was one last hiccup. On my son's last day of school they were briefly under lockdown. No one was harmed and the whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes. Someone was spotted heading toward school with a gun. It was a BB gun and the person/student was apprehended outside the school doors. Graduation is this Saturday. More on that in a minute. 

You may have seen my finished Magnificent Mystery top on this month's OMG post, but if not, here it is. I have decided how I want to quilt it, so it's just a matter now of making the backing and finding time to get it on a machine. If you want to read a few more details about it, scroll back one post to the May OMG link up.

I also quilted a fat quarter's worth of Annie's Soft and Stable. It was my first time quilting it and it was a breeze. 

I have also been trying to work out how to make a dress to wear to my son's graduation. I decided on the Cashmerette Grafton pattern with the fitted, sleeveless bodice and a circle skirt. I looked at my size and what the pattern's finished measurements were and went with two sizes larger for the bodice since I didn't want it skin tight. I made just the bodice part using a similar weight and type of fabric as I'm planning to use. It was a total disaster! 

The cup size is one that is recommended based on my measurements, but it looked like I could fit a small chicken in each side of area just under the armpit. My chest is not where their chest is. Plus the bodice itself was a lot shorter in the front than the back. It barely covered the goods in front. The back wasn't actually too bad other than the copious amounts of excess fabric on the sides. But the bodice fit looked nothing like any of the models on their website. Theirs were all much longer, ending closer to their waistlines. 

I remeasured myself and entered the numbers in their fit calculator. My upper bust measurement varies by 1/2" or so depending on day and time. If I put in the half inch, I get one size. If I round it up (like I did for the first try), I get a completely different size and cup size. I wish I had someone close by who knows what they are doing who could help me fit this bodice. I've printed off the smaller size and cup size bodice and will try again with that. I might try to just have my son and husband help drape and trace me to get a general size idea if the second bodice doesn't work. It might scar my son. lol. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. Ugh.

Okay, moving along, I've quilted just a few things since last week. Thursday and Friday I had a ton of pick ups and drop offs, so I didn't accomplish anything those days. I took the long weekend off. 🎉

I quilted Interstellar Lite on Penny's quilt.

Heather selected Ansley Park for her quilt.

And Trudy went with In the Swirls. 

We stopped to get groceries the other night and Kroger had a robot doing inventory. My husband reached in to grab some asparagus near where it was scanning. It got confused and started spinning in circles. It has "eyes" that blinked at you on the other side.

My son and I went to the IU Surplus store to poke around. We didn't get there quick enough after they stocked all the small appliances and furniture after the students moved out. They did have tons and tons and tons of cleats of all sizes. This pair was a size 19 I think. It was huge!

And we were scouring Facebook for hens that were approximately the same size as Nugget. She is still being shunned by Peanut and Smoky. Peanut even tries to keep her from the food. Smoky is trying to keep everyone away from Peanut. I saw that Henry had some blood on his wing the other day. They haven't fought in quite some time, so 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

We ended up driving an hour each way to pick up two Barred Rock hens. I think they are a bit younger than Nugget, but fairly close, maybe six weeks instead of eight. Their integration into the coop seems to have gone a lot better. I think they were housed with a large flock of all ages previously, whereas we raised Nugget (with the two roosters we had to give back) from one day after hatching. We left them out in the dog cage in the run Monday and put them up in the coop that night.