works in progress

Let's see.

Last week, I was sewing like a woman obsessed.

I don't know why, but I just had to get my Any Which Way quilt top finished. 

And so I did.

(and it's just hung there on a hanger on my closet door for a week now!)

I'd done a little math a few weeks ago and decided that doing a 7x8 layout as I'd intended would make the quilt too big,

plus,

I was getting a little tired of making the blocks,

so I decided that a 5x6 layout would be much better :-)

I bordered each block in either Kona white or Kona snow

(it went so fast, compared to the block construction!)

and then I used RK Yarn Dyed Essex Linen Blend in Steel* for my sashing.

(That went a little more slowly.)

I really like how it turned out.

It's kinda funny;

it's exactly what I had in my head (minus the border - which I had all cut, but decided I liked it better without)

and yet, 

it looks so much 'airier' than I'd anticipated.

It almost seems to sparkle, I think.

I'd purchased several yards of red fabric with 3/4 inch white polka dots for the back,

but it seems totally wrong for it now.

I dug through my vintage sheets and found a white one with light red polka dots that is just perfect :-)

I've decided how I want to quilt it,

but I am sorta paralyzed now

with figuring out how, exactly, to get the design marked on the quilt....

I spent an entire evening trying to make a stencil and that didn't go well at all.

Once I figure out the how,

I need to figure out what to mark it with.

I'm leaning towards a frixion pen, because I'm fairly certain my hera marker isn't going to cut it. 

Even though I have successfully used it, it still makes me a little nervous.

~

I cut out about 570 diamonds from 50 different fabrics yesterday for my EPP project.

Pretty sure I'm all done with the fabric cutting now.

I actually probably over-cut a few blocks worth.

Shocking, I know ;-)

I currently have 10 completed hexagons

and another 54 stars sewn up.

I ran out of prepared diamonds for stars (although I've got about 30 sets of 'surround' diamonds prepped)

so I've spent my last few EPP sessions glue basting more.

I was originally using a sewline glue stick,

but I went through it way too fast.

I tried to use it sparingly, but I guess I am just heavy handed with the glue.

Karen used just 1 stick for an entire quilt;

I used up my first stick after basting 72 diamonds.

There will be 1,320 diamonds in this quilt.

That wasn't going to work!

So, now, I am just using an Elmer's glue stick.

I'm almost embarrased to tell you I'm on my 3rd or 4th one already.

(maybe I need more glue because of the humidity? I don't know!)

patiently waiting their turn with the glue stick...

~

After I finished the quilt top,

but before I cut all those diamonds,

I made each of the girls a swimsuit.

I still need to tweak my pattern because I had to do a bit of altering to both suits after I'd completely sewn them up.

(truth be told - they ended up with 'design elements' they wouldn't have had if they fit properly at first, and are cuter because of them.)

While digging through the swimsuit fabric, Lexi found one of her favorite old t-shirts.

It was way too small for her last year, but she loved it so much I couldn't get rid of it.

When she saw it, she asked if I could please make a dress out of it,

so I cut off the bottom portion and found some fabric to match and made a maxi dress.

She thought that would be a good length for curtsy-ing.

She kept getting caught in it though, so we pinned it up at the sides.

She still got caught in it, so I told her we needed to shorten it.

Darn it - my hem was so pretty, too.

I cut off about 6 inches and re-hemmed it

and made the fabric that I cut off

into diamonds.

:-)

* I have to tell you about this fabric, or rather, the shop where I bought it.

I knew I wanted a textured gray of some sort for my sashing, and I'd ordered a few different fabrics, but none of them were just right. Ordering online is tricky sometimes (lots of times...). Somewhere online, I saw a picture of a gray yarn dyed essex linen and thought that might be what I was looking for. I was getting kinda tired of playing the guessing game ordering sashing fabric though. I'm pretty particular with color matching, and I was going broke trying to match my grays. I found an Etsy shop that carried the fabric and I sent a note to the shopkeeper asking about a couple of different essex colors and which Kona grays they matched. I figured I could then use my Kona color card to help me decide (Yes, I ordered one for myself as a 'congratulations you lost 10 lbs!' gift. If I'd have known how seldom that particular gift-giving occasion would occur, I might have bought myself something a little bigger ;-)  Ya'll, Alice was so fabulous! She wrote me back detailed descriptions of the colors of the fabrics I'd asked about. None of them exactly matched a Kona color (but then,
neither did the grays in my quilt) but I was able to choose, from her descriptions, the perfect fabric for my sashing.
That, my friends, is customer service! And I am one happy customer!!

~

linking up with Lee's Work in Progress Wednesdays :-)