Adding another WIP to the pile.

Oops. It has been another Very Long Time since I updated. I am about to embark on a new quilt top project, but this one will be very simple. I got a collection of Amy Butler prints from Hawthorne Threads for my birthday back in October and told myself I wouldn't cut in to them until after my exams (in November.) Well my exams are done now, and tonight is super simple quilt top night, as decreed by me, chief sewer in the house. I'm hoping to whip this (WIP this? Hahaha, I'm here all week, try the veal!) all together tonight and maybe even start the quilting tomorrow. My last WIP is on standby (the cathedral window quilt) because I ran out of batting. It's around halfway done, though and maybe I can finish it up in time to be a Christmas present. It deserves some new photos, at any rate. The inspiration for tonight's quilt is this beauty. I love rainbows and big patterns and getting things done quickly because I am impatient. Ideal. See you in a few hours, blog.

No Words, Just Pictures.

Always Come Crawling Back (WIP Edition Remix.)

I'm back, with a few photos and a few good intentions. I'm working on a new quilt (aren't you surprised) and it's a long way from finished (the shock continues!!) I'm using black poplin as the frame for a basic cathedral window quilt - the finished squares are 17cmx17cm.

As you can see I'm still not a fan of little fussy patterns or pastel colours. I'm mixing designers like a mofo on this one too, so if it's going to trouble you to see some Amy Butler next to some hand dyed charm squares I picked up from a local seller then move along. Last night was pretty productive, really, hampered only by my little friend trying to help me feed the fabric through the machine.

Photos! To make up for this morning's text only post. I was as good as my word(s) though and finished off the corset. Here's an aerial view.

Plus some close ups of the crystals. They're Swarovski hot fix in 'crystal volcano' and they change from red to purple to green to gold. Looooovely. Even if my sister has accused me of 'going all pageant mum' with my recent fondness for sparkle. (To be honest, I'm beginning to doubt her commitment to sparkle motion...)

Soundtrack while I was applying the crystals was a bit more pop than my usual. The last week I've been playing Patrick Stump's solo releases high rotate. I've particularly fond of Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia). Go listen to that and imagine me dancing to it at bus stops all week and awkwardly stopping when someone else walks along the street. I decided that you can't bedazzle things while listening to Anthrax, so my entire afternoon has been songs I can shake my ass too.

Back to the corset though, here's a view of the hand bound eyelets I mentioned. I considered going over with a second layer of thread to hide the brass totally, but decided I sort of like it being visible.

And the contrast lining:

Hopefully I can put up a picture of my sister wearing it when I give it to her in a fortnight's time.

I also got a bit more done on the quilt-in-progress I'm working on. I ran out of thread, otherwise I'd have gotten a bit more sewn up tonight.

I'm kind of loving how quickly the herringbone pattern comes together. I reckon I can probably knock out the whole thing in a few hours of solid sewing. (Except it won't be happening tomorrow because, as I discovered a few weeks back, buying thread in Wellington on a Sunday? Not A Thing.

Catch Up

Naughty Megan, no updates for a couple of weeks! I have been working on things, but in bits and pieces and nothing worth posting. Last night I was a whirl of productivity though so I should have something to show you all soon.

The last week I've been hand sewing grommets onto the corset I'm making which to be honest hasn't been that exciting. I've mostly been sitting cross legged on my bed watching a terrible TV program while I sew blanket stitch ad nauseum. I would have used regular grommets but half of my hand setting die has gone wandering, argh.

Plus all my rhinestones arrived yesterday so I think I might spend some of today bedazzling everything I can get my hands on. Awww yeeeeah. More later lovies.

ETA: I am super super excited for the book Gertie is writing, particularly because it'll have this gorgeous wiggle dress pattern in it. Can't wait!

In which I talk about food and am indecisive.

Today was generally good, with a side of oh-no-the-supermarket-closed-early-because-it's-a-holiday followed by a delicious student cuisine dinner of sub-$1 noodles which I suspect I have hauled from flat to flat for the last three years. They were marinating in so much MSG I don't think it matters - they also came with a packet of sauce featuring such fabulous flavour sensations as VINEGAR and SALT. Not really the topic of this blog, but my deep disappointment that I couldn't buy the ingredients for the mini-feast I had been planning for the last two hours of work needed venting somewhere.

I also got some sewing done tonight: I attached the binding to the top of the corset and played around with what I'll do next. My sister mentioned she wants ruffles, and I was sort of envisioning ruffles over the bust, but I'm not sure how to do it and make it look good. I think maybe because the dupioni won't hold a crease it isn't looking as clean as I'd like. Here's a comparison picture, anyway:

I'm also sort of considering lace:

But I've also got my little sparkle loving self invested in the idea of putting rhinestones on it and I feel like lace + rhinestones will be too much. Oh dear. Don't worry, I'm really just wittering to myself here. I'll probably pin the lace on soon to get a real idea of how it'll look.

Anyway. There's not a lot more I can do without the boning and busk (or embroidery cotton for the eyelets - I think I'm going to hand sew them, because I hate fun and enjoy sewing blanket stitches for 10 hours.) Instead I used some of the fabric I cut for bone casings and didn't use to test a slightly different method of sewing herringbone blocks. I think I like this better:

Seeing it like that really makes me want to get a single fabric and sewing a sort of not-really-wholecloth quilt. Basically piece and sew an entire herringbone quilt of one fabric. Maybe this only sounds good in my head. I'm pretty stuck on it though, possibly a really chunky pattern? Maybe one of my next projects.

I also started piecing a block with the actual fabrics, but there are a couple of fat quarters still to arrive in the mail and I want to hold off adding much more so the various cottons are evenly spread. I like how it's looking though:

Minor Updates

Just a quick update on where my various projects are at. The corset is progressing well - I cut the lining yesterday:

And then sewed together the outer and inner pieces. I started off making external boning channels and swiftly reaslised that was quite a lot of work, and wasn't going to look very tidy given I prefer using 1/2" bones. So I moved to twill tape internal channels and sewed them all today.

(For reference - this has the lining folded out from the back - the curve in the top right of the image is the centre front of one half of the corset.)

Then I attached the lining to the outer, and turned and sewed the hem so that there's room for a 1/4" bone just before the grommets.

Speaking of, I lost half the die for my hand held grommet setter :( Boo. Not sure if the dies sold online are compatible, bother. I'm thinking of hand sewing the eyelets though, to make it tidier, but again, not sure if dooming myself to several hours of hand sewing is such a good idea. Hmm. Something to ponder.

The next step from here is attaching the binding to the top and bottom and inserting the bones and busk. The only fly in the ointment is that I still have to *order* bones and busk when my next pay cheque comes in, so that might be a couple of weeks off.

In the mean time I've been busily cutting strips from the quilting fabric, so once I've done all I can on the corset without further supplies I'll start work on that to keep me busy.