Thursday, April 01, 2010

Drawing & Daydreaming

The rain finally stopped and spring has arrived in northern New England. It hit 60F today - glorious. Just glorious. Last weekend I finished this king sized Bento-Box quilt. It was nicely made, and with pretty fabrics. I really makes me think of this quilt, which I made for my son last year (which was all but butchered by a longarm quilter I used once. Just once. I wish I had the longarm then, as this pattern I devised works nicely for it. OK, maybe I didn't create it alone. I have seen variations of it done, but it is not a Panto I kind of stumbled upon it merely by chance one day. I call it "swirly peacock" - not so creative. The owner really liked the quilt. The stitching is in ivory, and just leaves a pretty texture on the quilt.
I took my "baby" in to get it's first minor servicing this morning. It decided this week that skipping a stitch every blue moon was OK. I told it that was not the case, but we apparently did not see eye to eye. I just got the call from the tech that it was a very minor timing issue, and that they totally oiled the inside of it and it seems to be perfect again. Whe I pick up that bohemeth on Saturday, he's going to show me how to do the oiling myself. Funny - (or not), I thought it sounded like it was a tad noisy. Sooo....since I had to drive 45 minutes to take the machine in, I took advantage of being in the same town where Mardens is, and went shopping. Mardens has THE best name brand fabrics, all at $3 yard. Plus they cut very generously. I figured that what I bought was really only $2.50 per yard!
Sophie wants a Fancy dress for her birthday. Mind you, it is at the end of August, but I think if I get it finished, I will let her wear it all summer. And she wants pink. LOTS of pink. It is all I can do to get her into any other color. She and I picked out about 6 yards of these Henry Glass pink/peach prints. No, it clearly does not take 6 yards, but tell a 3-1/2 year old that we are not getting a particular fabric. It is easier to pay another $3 and keep it for some other use. In her defense, however, ruffles do take a good amount of material. And this girl wants ruffles. I sketched out a 2-piece outfit to make. The top will be smocked, and will fall flowy at or slightly below the hip. It will have bows on the shoulders and probably inthe back too. The skirt will have 2 ruffles and will be kind of a patched-peasant style. I think it will be most cute. She can put a long sleeve shirt under it in the fall. I must get the smocking threads pulled this weekend and buy some coordinating embroidery floss. I can start on the smocking while she's at the hospital next week.
I have also been busy sketching out how I will quilt the batik quilt. Normakky I use the Bamboo tablet, but I've done a lot of this in the evenings in front of the tube. I am trying to find that happy middle ground between what I can competently quilt and what can potentially wow a judge.
Check back in a month or so to see if I mastered that task!

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