Quilting and Sewing

I'm away for a couple weeks visiting grandies. When their parents are away on business, I'll have my hands full for a few days. They're adorable children (if I do say so myself), but I'm making a serious adjustment to the realization that a two year-old boy and a three year-old boy can easily become loud, disruptive, demanding and difficult. Those infant angels can and do make changes. I'm also enjoying shopping for myself - snatching up great bargains on summer clothes - and catching up with friends: Carla of Lollyquiltz, and an Iowa friend who's visiting me next week.

Before leaving home, I managed to get a little machine quilting done on my Beach Cabanas Among Friends quilt - I guess I've just named it!

Taking cues from the fabric prints for the quilting designs, I first quilted the water, then the sand.

Each cabana is quilted differently, just like the friends they represent. I've changed thread color to match each cabana, choosing quilting designs that are similar to the prints. Small "snails" are quilted on the pink cabana, and organic lines on the gold cabana. By the way, I'm not using the BSR for this one. I'm pretty sure I won't be using it much, if at all.

Also before leaving I won Jennifer Paganelli's giveaway of fat quarters from her Happy Land collection. Here are those 23 fat quarters! What a great win! I see some yummy sewing ahead.

I'm as pleased as punch about that fabric, but even happier that Jennifer also generously emailed me a PDF of her new SisBoom "Rebecca" shift dress pattern! It's one I've wanted to make!

Though I was a sewist for many years before taking up quilting, I've never made anything using a PDF pattern. It's been an interesting experience. Just as with a commercial pattern, expect to go through prep work to make the pattern just the right size. I'm making the shift for myself, so I took my measurements first, printed 21 pages for the size 8 pattern, and then cut and taped together the pieces.

A quick check of the little 1" X 1" square on the print-out, ensured my printer sized it accurately.

The pattern called for 2-1/2 yards of fabric for the shift, and to make bias strips for the armhole finish. That was about a half-yard too much, so I'll buy less for the next dress.

All the parts are ready to sew, including pressing fusible interfacing to the back of the facing pieces. The pattern doesn't call for interfacing, but in my experience, it gives better stability to necklines and - in this case - a waistline band. 

The fabric I'm using is "Splurge" by Donna Wilder, a Joann's Fabric purchase. I thought it best to try out the pattern on a relatively inexpensive fabric and save the "good stuff" for a second dress. I hope to use my daughter's sewing machine to sew it while I'm here. Linda