A Large Quilt!

Well, I think this is officially the largest thing I've ever sewn. It doesn't fit on the floor, and it juuuust fits on the wall. I think it's about 108" x 108" I'm going to have to bring it to school to baste it on the print tables. Right now I'm waiting to purchase the backing and batting (since I'm pretty sure those will cost way more than the quilt itself did) I was going to back it with muslin, but I realized it's so big I'll have to turn the edge down on my bed, so I want to get something a little more decorative. 

And here's me for size reference. I'm looking awkward! On the bright side, it is certainly big enough for both me and my boyfriend. All my previous quilts have been sort of one-person sized. 

So I worked on the quilt the majority of this week (I'd really like to finish before it gets cold) but I also did a little dying--I still have a lot of this silk/wool blend from the first Mariah coat. The top row are the colors I dyed originally, the bottom ones I just did. There's a bunch of regular cotton thread left too, I really want to dye a full range of colors and get back into embroidery. Because I need another thing to be working on. 

Current things-in-progress:

-Irish Chain Quilt (top done, needs to be quilted)

-Braid Coat (still making braids)

-Dear Jane Quilt (nearly done Row D)

-Red Cableknit Scarf (haven't been taking pictures, but it's about 2/3rds done)

-Repairing old Cape (going to start over)

I'm sure there's other things I'm forgetting too. And I'd like to make some clothes to wear for fall too-I donated/threw out a lot of clothes due to our short-notice move. 

Lots of Progress, Not a Lot of Pictures

I've been working quite hard this week, but mostly on rather slow-progressing projects, so it doesn't look like much!

The braid coat is starting to look like something! Very exciting to see it start to come together, I had lost a bit of steam on this project--so labor intensive--but seeing this is getting me excited again. Imagine the middle of the 'long' strips is the shoulder seam--the short ones end at the neck. So you're seeing a vest laid flat, basically, with the side seams open. Just one more 'long' strip and four 'short' ones. Then we'll see how much silk I have left, which will decide how I tackle the sleeves. 

Broke out the colorwash Irish Chain again too. I'd really like to finish this before it gets cold. That seems  long way away in the 90 degree heat we're having now, but I know it'll be here before I know it. So another diagonal row was finished this afternoon. It's definitely going to be big enough for our queen bed, the only problem is that it's so big I don't know how I"m going to baste it together!. As you can see, it doesn't even fit on my studio floor as it is. 

Summer School Is Out!

As much as I had a fabulous class this semester, it's going to be nice to have a little bit more free time for myself again. At least the prep for the fall class is mostly already done! It was just trying out a totally new project this summer that really ate up time. But it was worth it, I'm really pleased with how it worked. And the fall class is 4 sessions (12 hours!) longer, so I think it'll work even better. As a reminder, all of the students started out with this: 

And through dying, seam ripping, new pattern drafting, gathering, and adding elastics and zips, we ended up with these radically different garments:

Students were really into the poof this year, lots of gathering! And of course the one time I just decide to go ahead and draft them trouser bottoms to begin with, they all want to make big skirts. Oh well!

But now I'm back to my various (too many right now, I think) independent projects. Dear Jane is still chugging along. D-9 was a nice easy put-together. One of my favorite color combos too. 

D-10, on the other hand..well, I made a mistake, the little HST patch in the lower right hand corner is upside down. Don't care enough to take it apart and re-sew. 

Dyed a bunch of things black. I've had a hard time finding nice sturdy cotton/linen thread in black or gray, so I dyed a few different types, probably for use in the shoes I'm working on. The tape is for the braid coat, to join the panels. I found the perfect thickness and material of tape-at Jo-Mar of all places--but it was a sage-green color, so I top dyed it gray. 

Speaking of shoes (I mentioned I have too many projects right now?) I dis-assembled the prototype shoe and marked everything out. 

I started cutting out the soles and adding the groove to stitch them onto the upper. I know a lino cutter isn't exactly the proper tool for that, but it gets the job done pretty well.

A little more frivolous, but I worked a sidewalk sale in Haddonfield, NJ recently, and there was a fancy yarn shop there selling weird half-balls and bits in grab bags for cheap so I bought a couple random things. I normally can't bring myself to spend money on fancy (read: new) yarn but it was really cheap! So I made myself a Waffle Hat for when it cools down. Still need to finish my poor neglected cable scarf, I'm just a little afraid of trying to figure out where I left off.