The Farmer's Wife Quilt

Sometimes I am waaaay behind the curve when it comes to current trends.   Apparently, I have been hiding in a hole because every quilter I talk to knows about The Farmer's Wife Quilt book.   About a year ago, I saw the book in my favorite quilt store....but it had already been out in the stores for several years. 

An interesting part of the book is a compilation of letters written by farm wives who entered a contest back in 1922.   The popular magazine, The Farmer's Wife, offered several cash prizes for the best answers to this question:  "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, want her to marry a farmer?".   Over seven thousand readers responded and 94 percent of farm wives stated that they would, indeed, want their daughter to marry a farmer.

The Farmer's Wife Quilt book not only has included the best answers to this question but it also has 111 six-inch quilt blocks with instructions  for piecing the blocks on an accompanying CD.   The blocks in the book are a treasure trove of quilting history and aptly capture the time period of the 1920's.    Originally, when the book caught my eye I bought it for my friend, Barb, a fellow quilter who lives on 22 acres in northern Alabama and is "farming" her little slice of heaven on earth.   It wasn't until 4 months ago that I broke down and bought a copy of the book for myself.

The colors of the blocks in the book are more primitive and darker in tone, ie: browns, greyed blues and creams.   My color choices tend to be more vibrant so I decided to break into my stash of 1930's fabrics with the reds, pinks, teals and soft greens.    I'm so glad I choose those fabrics to make my quilt.   Because there are so many different blocks, my goal is to try and make 2 blocks per week for the next year so that maybe I will have all the blocks necessary to complete a quilt by next Spring.  

So for the next year, my challenge to myself is to try and sew and then post on this blog the 2 blocks I've made for that week.   Here goes:
Block 1 is called Attic Windows and is on the left and block 2 is Autumn Tints and is on the right.

As you can see, these are not your Grandma's browns and blues......these are happy colors!!!   I hope you'll enjoy following along as I attempt to make all 111 blocks.

See you next week,
Debbie

The Raincoat that Almost Wasn't

If you've ever sewn garments, you may be able to relate to what happened to me recently while attempting to sew a raincoat for my granddaughter.   My daughter had called me months earlier and said that Sydney would love it if I would make her a raincoat.   While I was at the fabric store, I ran across some awesome Amy Butler laminated fabric that would work great for a raincoat.   I even bought an Amy Butler pattern for a rain jacket/coat which could be made up in several lengths and I was well on my way.  Well, sort of....

The fabric sat in my sewing room for a few months while I tried to figure out how I was going to prevent water from entering the inside of the raincoat where each little stitch made a hole from stitching the seams together.   We get some torrential rains here in Florida and the last thing I wanted was for Sydney to wear her new coat and get wet because the seams leaked.   I finally did the research on the internet and bought some of this......

I found this product at our local camping/hiking/sports store and it is normally used to seal the seams of tents that have developed leaks.   After some experimenting, I  came up with a plan that I thought would work for the raincoat.    After I sewed each welted seam (think blue jeans seams) I brushed this liquid sealer on the fabric inside of the seam using the brush attached to the glue bottle.   It was a little tedious, construction wise, as I would sew several seams and then brush them with the glue and let them dry overnight.   And that's how I kept sewing and gluing the entire raincoat, hoping that I was sealing  the seams as I went along.  I even tested the seams by pouring water over a test seam as I held it over the sink and it worked!

 The pattern didn't call for welted seams, but I really liked the professional finish of them, so I used them on the shoulder seams, the back of the two part sleeves, and the side seams down each side of the coat.   To make a welt seam, first sew the seams "backwards", with the raw edges out instead of inside the garment.

 Next, trim one side close to the seam.  Then, take the "longer" side and turn under the raw edge, stitching close to that edge as straight as possible.

And you end up with this!   A welt seam!   I had to use a Teflon foot  to stitch the seams because the plastic coating on the fabric made a regular foot stick and pull against the laminated fabric side.

Whew!   Alright, got the sleeves on and the hood and made the lining, too!   Three days of sewing, gluing and drying and now Sydney came to visit.  I could hardly wait for her to try it on.......ummmmm.  "Sydney, this is never going to fit!", I moaned.   Yup, even after using her measurements and checking and rechecking the pattern(which happened to be multi-size)......I had made the entire thing too small!!!!!!!   Aargh!  Apparently this pattern is made for really skinny, skeletal builds.   Aw, man!   The arms were skin tight, the coat wouldn't even come close to buttoning.   Everything was small except the hood!

Back to the drawing board.   I remeasured her, and we decided on the size we felt would be a better fit for her.   Next, I pulled out the pattern pieces and calculated how much additional fabric I would need to buy, if I could find it, to complete another raincoat.   I cut the hood off the raincoat so we could reuse it, and laid out the pattern pieces onto the fabric I had left over from the first time I cut out the pattern.  We loaded into my car and drove back to the fabric store, hoping to find the same fabric.

Eureka!    They still had the same fabric and even had the same cotton I had used for the lining.   Ok, now we were on a roll.    Some $ and an hour later we were back at home, ready to conquer this baby once and for all.  I cut it all out, stitched and glued and 2 days later we had a finished raincoat.   Hey, I don't usually give up and this was one time I was determined to get it right. 

The pattern is so busy, that it's hard to tell where the front seam is.  There are covered buttons in the same fabric down the center front.

And I really like these pleated pockets with the flap on top.   I reused these from the smaller coat, so, that saved me a considerable amount of time and materials.  I also just reused the covered buttons, too.

The hood was also reused from the smaller coat and I simply reattached it.   All in all, I learned a lot from this project.   I will definitely measure out the pattern next time I make clothes for someone other than myself to be certain there is enough ease in the pattern to make it fit right.   And I won't make a lining until I can get the kids to try on the garment first so I'm not putting more time into something until I'm sure it will fit.

With a little determination and some luck finding the same fabric, the raincoat finally came together and Sydney is very happy wearing it!   Aaaaah,  glad that one is behind me.

Learned my lesson,
Debbie

Christmas Tree Skirt, Part II

Alright, so when we left off I had just finished deconstructing the gown.   Now it was time to put things back together.   So, the biggest hurdle I had was figuring out how to keep the zipper/lace/row of buttons intact, but still take the bodice and "flatten" it out as much as possible so it wouldn't be a "funnel" when sewn back together.   Get it?   It's hard to explain but think about how flat most tree skirts are.   There wasn't a way(ok, I couldn't come up with a way) to "flatten" out the bodice while still keeping the back intact and not taking the entire gown apart at all the seams.  And it turns out I needed all the length of the entire gown to get the width I needed, so, I had to sew back on the section I cut off!   Which was a blessing in disguise as I had a finished hem on all the layers ready made!

It took three attempts to "get it right", but I finally felt like I had achieved the practical application that was needed while getting the look I was after in narrowing the bodice down.  

I know this looks goofy, but I used a giant gallon Ball jar to simulate a tree stand.   Here I was playing with the lace, trying to space it out around the top of the tree skirt.   I also reattached the crinoline underneath the newly bustled skirt to give more fullness to the finished product.

At least I had plenty of lace to work with.   And I love doing handwork, so the time spent sewing the lace back on gave me a boost.

Gorgeous, simply gorgeous!

And here's a close up of the lace all attached on the finished product.

I ended up "bustling" the gown's skirt in two layers to get a feminine re-creation of the way the original gown was designed.   When I delivered the tree skirt to Natalie, I explained that when she uses it, it will be just like her wedding day.    She will need to "primp" and play with the gown/skirt to achieve a finished look.   She plans on having a carpenter build her a 10" high box made of wood and attach their tree stand to it.  That will give some height allowing the gown to tumble down over the stand and box.   Then, using acid free tissue to stuff out the areas she wants to pouf more, she will get the look she was after.

Oh, yeah, this is a horrible picture but I was exhausted at this point and just took the pic for the sake of having a pic of the veil attached to the skirt.   I didn't spend any time rearranging the bustled portions of the skirt to make it look pretty.  When the skirt is arranged pretty around a tree, it will look much nicer than it did plopped on my cutting table.  

When I delivered the skirt, Natalie was so excited to see her gown transformed into something she will get to use every year around her huge, decorated Christmas tree.  I hope it's all she wanted it to be....a way for her to relive her precious memories of her wedding day....now being celebrated each and every year under her Christmas tree.  

Merry Christmas, Natalie
Debbie

Wedding Gown to Christmas Tree Skirt..........aargh!

Well, this is a new one for me.   Dear husband's co-worker asked me if I would turn her gorgeous, expensive wedding gown into a Christmas tree skirt.   I'm always up for a challenge, so I said, "Sure, how hard can it be?"   Gulp.....   Very seldom does anyone in my family turn down a request...and the joke in our family is that someone always says, "How hard can it be?"   Followed by a fit of giggles as we rattle off the disasters we've overcome as we tried our hand at various ventures.....most of which took 3 times as long as they should have, had we known how to do them correctly in the first place.

But, I digress.   Did I mention that the wedding gown was really expensive?   And so, the gown and accompanying veil sat.....and sat......and sat.....for 2 months draped over my dining room chair.  I know, I know.  I was procrastinating because I was really unsure of just where to begin.

Finally last week I opened both bags and stared down my nemesis....um, I mean my newest project.

Breath, Debbie, breath.

Isn't it gorgeous?   I can just picture Natalie in it, walking down the aisle with her new husband.  Ok, enough daydreaming.  It's time to get down to business.

And so, the moment of reckoning had come.   Where and what to cut first?  Just the thought of taking a scissors to the gown made my palms sweat.   But I had to start somewhere, right?

The gown was so full and hard to work with so I decided to remove the crinoline from inside first.   Ok, keep breathing....so far, so good.  That was easy.

Cute!   It even stands up on it's own!

Onto the bodice.   The only way to remove the boning and stays was to use a trusty razor blade on the tiny stitches holding them to the gown.

That's a lot of stays!   At least now the gown is more flexible and easier to work with.

I was starting to feel more confident by now as I gently removed the handstitching that held the delicate laces to the bodice.   Natalie's favorite part of the gown was the back with all the beautiful lacework and the long row of satin covered buttons, so I wanted to do everything I could to keep that intact.   Because of that I only removed the lace up to within 1" of the back zipper and the buttons.

As I was feeling pretty convinced I now had a good plan of attack, I plowed forward and made a design decision about the length I needed to cut off the gown in order to start forming the proper width for the tree skirt.   I did a bunch of research on the internet about the width of tree skirts and different tree stands.   Remember, this gown has to fit over a tree stand.  And Natalie told me when I asked her what size tree they usually purchase that she likes to get at least a 9 footer!   So, that meant the tree skirt had to be pretty wide or it would look skimpy under the tree.

To be continued....
Debbie

Monograms, Easy Peasy

Ha!    It only took an hour to program this new monogram.   Unfortunately, my learning curve on the computer can be really long!   My old sewing buddy, Barb, is visiting from Alabama and she asked if I could do some monogramming for her as her machine won't do it.    We thought it would be a great way for us to do what we used to call "spend the day", which meant we would get together at one of our houses and paint, sew, or garden all day long.

Barb has been busy sewing and painting and "nesting" at her new house in Alabama since moving there 3 years ago.   One of the last projects for her is making a bolster pillow for her bedroom.    That's what the monogram above is going to be used for.

In between all her projects at her own house, she is helping a friend up there to redecorate her home.    This monogram is for Andrea's bedroom and will be a pillow to match the soft teals and whites in the room.

Wow!   I wonder how many hours Barb and I racked up sewing together over the years?   It's a lot, I know that much!   We sure had fun together this week, too.   Even when we haven't seen each other for months, it's like riding a bike; we just fall into the same familiar rhythm of sewing and chatting.

It's good to have a sewing buddy,
Thanks, Barb, for visiting!
Debbie

New Toy

Yes, I have a new toy.  Actually, it's a new sewing machine to add to my arsenal in the studio.   It's called a Sashiko machine by Baby Lock.   Sashiko is the Japanese term for hand quilting and it has been done in Japan for centuries.   Only they used the hand stitches to layer fabrics on garments, rather than quilts for the bed.   There are many traditional sashiko (quilting) designs to copy, but that's not why I got this machine.

It truly gives the look of hand quilting to whatever you are stitching on.   Have you ever heard of a hand-picked zipper?    In haute couture clothing, the seamstress will stitch tiny stitches on the outside of the fabric surrounding the zipper after it has been sewn into the garment.   It's a beautiful treatment that is rarely seen today and is difficult to master the tiny, even stitches, and now it can be accomplished with the Sashiko machine.  I love that the stitch length can be adjusted from very small to quite large, and the space between the stitches can also be adjusted as well, so the variations are almost endless.

Not to mention the quilts I can embellish with the look of hand quilting without the months of hand stitching, which is usually not practical.   It's also a way to embellish clothing with the look of hand stitching as a decorative element.   Ohhhhhh, the possibilities are almost endless!   

Hopefully I will have some projects to show you in the near future utilizing this new technology.
  
Can't wait to play,
Deb

Gone to the Dogs

Yes, I've finally crossed over......to the dogs.   My son's dog, Winston, is the Sheltie on the right.   The fluffy mop on the left is Molly, my 16 week old Cavachon.   They weren't too sure if they liked each other when we first brought Molly home.   But after a month, they started playing together and now when they are awake they are always together!

So what does that have to do with sewing?   Well, their favorite place to crash is the carpeted floor of my teeny-tiny sewing room.   As I sew they sleep and keep me company.   I just have remember to step over them!

Woof,
Deb

44 and Counting

Whew!    My embroidery machine is smokin' !   Not literally smokin', figuratively speaking.   I've been working on a job for my upholsterer friend, Jeanne, who is making covers for beach chairs at a Clearwater Beach Resort.   There are 44 of them and they all need the resort's logo embroidered on them before they can be assembled.   I'm stitching as fast as I can......here's a peek at the finished embroidery.

Only 32 more to go,
Debbie

Check out "Home"

I've added a new website to my blog list on the right hand side of my blog and thought you might like to check it out.   My oldest son, Jarrad, has started to pursue his love of woodworking in earnest and you can view samples of his work on his site.  Or you can log onto http://sullivanandsonswoodworking.com/ and view his website.   He can build anything.........seriously......he's amazing.   The clock above is just one sample of the gorgeous projects he crafts.  He made this detailed clock for my husband and I for Christmas and we love it!

Hope you enjoy his work,
Debbie

Welcome to my Studio

Studio:  a fun, fanciful title for the repurposed bedroom I use for my sewing.   Yea, nothing fancy here, but it functions pretty well for me.  So check it out....

Color, color everywhere.  I am obsessed with color, I love color, I dream in color.  These are just some of the almost 400 embroidery threads that I use when embroidering designs on my Viking sewing machine.  Aren't they luscious?  Also, 3 of my favorite "sewing" candle houses (part of the Blue Sky collection by Heather Goldminc)  are right where I can see them as I sew.
 These threads are used for garment sewing.

 And buttons, they're pretty important, too.  Here are just a few jars in my collection; some are vintage, some are new, and some are just funky.

 I like to surround myself with all my favorite things while I work and this seasonal candle holder is one of my favorites.   It's another Heather Goldminc piece.

Here's another one entitled The Thirsty Flamingo.

 This is where the real work happens, two sewing machines surrounded by loads of natural light.  

 Of course there has to be room for reference books and patterns stored in the drawers below.   Every little nook and cranny in this room has to be efficiently organized.

Thank goodness for the computer armoire, desk and my little tv that keeps me company.  Hope you enjoyed the tour.  It's a space that makes me happy and always puts a smile on my face when I'm in there.

Time to get back to work,

Debbie