Scrappy Letters

Yesterday I searched for a project that would use up some of the fabric scraps I had left over from the wall hanging I made last weekend. Originally, the fabric came in a bundle of 5"x 5" squares and after putting together a small quilt, some of the leftover pieces were pretty small.  

I finally decided to make a fabric alphabet after finding a source for free letter patterns on the website chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com. Each of the letters is under 2" square and I thought I could use almost all of my scraps.

Letter size

There was an accompanying tutorial from 2009 on the website as well, but I ended up making up my own directions. I didn't want to put magnets into the letters, and I chose not to take the extra step of tracing the letters on the fabric.  I just cut out the letters and then held them down while I sewed around the edges. All the outlining was done in a bright yellow thread and a narrow zig-zag stitch on my Bernina 1230. This was the first time on the 1230 that I used the needle down function for the entire project and it worked very well. Of course, my lines are not perfectly straight and sometimes I ended up sewing through the paper a bit, but I am happy with the finished look.

Some letters ended up with partially sewn edges

I started out with the goal of getting through the alphabet and I knew I had enough fabric for that.

A-Z in fantastic fabrics

When I finished those 26 letters though, I decided I may want to actually use these letters for a toy for my nieces. They're not ready to read or spell yet, but I think they may have fun playing with the letters in the future. To extend the range of words one could spell with this letter set, I decided to use all of the remaining scraps to make as many letter doubles as I could. There weren't enough scraps for a full second alphabet, but I ended up adding 14 doubles. As you can see from the first pic in this post, I played around with various phrases to see what letters would be most helpful. Yes, I did get a second "S" made after the creative spelling in that pic.

This was a fun and relatively quick project.  I'd be willing to try it again when I have a good collection of scraps calling out to be put into service. 

Drunkard's Path Quilt

This quilt has been years in the making, literally. The earliest picture I could find of the top is from 2015, but I know that at that point is was already two or three years old. I was doing all the piecing by hand and there were a couple road trips where I specifically remember working on putting blocks together. The fabrics are a combination of 40's prints, old feed sacks, new reproduction prints, and the odd scrap or two from unknown origins.

March 2015

December 2015

Hmmm, it doesn't look like much got done on this quilt during 2015. Am I done?  Should I baste it and quilt it and call it a day?

January 2016

Oh hey, look at that, I have decided to add a border to this quilt and it's going to be for our California king size bed instead of a lap quilt.

April 2016, the top is finished

This quilt top is fantastic, I love how it turned out.

 Seriously, I am so glad that I stuck with this project and just kept making blocks month after month, year after year.  The majority of the blocks are hand pieced, but as I got to the final color border on the outside, I did start piecing by machine.

Covering one wall of the dining room

July 2017-- Andrea Byerly, my sister-in-law's stepmother has agreed to use her new long arm quilting machine to quilt this for me.

Picking out a thread color

Trying out thread colors with the quilting pattern

Here's a corner finished

Andrea did run into a few surprises while quilting, but she was willing to take out stitches and revise until she got the pattern and stitching near perfect. I appreciate her attention to detail--it feels like she loves this quilt top as much as I do.

This row of quilting was starting to overlap and Andrea stopped to take out the stitches and adjust placement before continuing

Of course, there were plenty of things about a hand pieced quilt that were not perfect, but Andrea did such a remarkable job with the quilting that my errors in piecing will likely not be detected by most admirers.

It looks like I spilled tea on this block.  There was no tea, but the stain adds character.

A little steam action with the iron brought out some of the red dye.  How did we manage to confine that problem to only one block?

Hmm, looks like my piecing was sub par here. It's clearly fraying along one of the seams. It's a good thing that the quilting goes right through to help hold things in place and minimize further damage.

Andrea sent this picture of the finished quilt on Oct. 20. I will need to wash it, trim the border she added to help stabilize the quilt on its frame, and add a binding.  

The quilt will not come back to me until mid-November and it will take a while for me to do the binding, but I am thrilled with how things have gone so far.  Maybe this quilt will be finished by the end of the year or early into the start of 2018?

Bernina 900 Nova

She was on Craigslist for 3 hours before I found her. I figured I was too late in responding and when I inquired as to whether it was still available the seller said that they would let me know soon.  Of course, there were other interested parties. About a half hour later the seller confirmed that I was next in line and that the machine was mine if I wanted it. Of course I wanted it!
Mom and I took 3.5 hour road trip on Saturday morning to pick up the machine from its original home. It had lived there since it was purchased in 1978. The machine was dirty and the owner said that it may or may not work, but it came with many goodies. It had purchase papers, original warranty card, case, power cord, the round foot control, bed extension plate, 5 presser feet, Bernina manual and My Bernina guide, embroidery hoop, ruler, and ten bobbins.
The machine came home yesterday, but I didn't start cleaning it up until today.  Here are a few pictures I took during the process.

Before any cleaning, I want to get that sticker off

I started cleaning under the needle plate, around the feed dogs, and in the bobbin case.

There was still thread on the bobbin when I opened it up

Some lint and dried oil, but overall not too gummed up

Hook is dirty, but there are no scratches or nicks

Clean hook

Opened up

Everything got cleaned and lubricated, as needed, before getting closed up again.

Next, I look off the end panel to check the condition of the belts.

Hand wheel

End panel removed and belts are in very good condition.

After replacing the end panel, I moved on to the top of the machine.  I was so happy to find gears that were not cracked, minimal dirt and dried oil, and very little lint.  More cleaning and lubricating moving metal parts followed.

View from top

Bobbin winder had some thread stuck below the stop, but it came out with tweezers

Back of machine, cleaned up and new felt for the spool pins

Foot control got polished

All clean and ready to sew

The sticker came off the front and while there are a few scratches on the paint, there is only cosmetic damage and really, very little of that.

Cleaned case

The case is missing some presser feet and sewing tools, but I am very happy with what it does include. In the process of cleaning the case, I made sure to take old thread off of the bobbins.  I want them ready to go when I need them. There were 8 different colors of thread on 6 bobbins.

Original case got cleaned and shill has the sticker with serial number on it

I did a few test stitches with the machine and it works very well.  Tension is good and stitches are clean. Sews a bit fast though, so I may need to change out the foot control.  Off to find a project to give this machine a test run.

 

Blue and White Stripe Shirt

This was my second time working with the Vogue 1509 pattern.  I changed the front button panel and played with a different fabric for the collar lining, but that's it.  The fabric was from an estate sale.

Blue and white stripes, classic

Floral was quilt fabric that I decided to use for collar lining and the sleeve tabs

Buttons on tabs are smaller versions of buttons on front panel

 I kept the four button layout so that the collar could lay open a bit.

These buttons are made from shells and each one has it's own subtle color combination

Collar lined with quilt fabric

Front view

Side view

 I'm still liking that extra length in the back. It's nice to have a shirt that comes down over my waistband.

Back view

Trouser Drafting with Kenneth D King

Trouser Drafting with Kenneth D King

This past weekend mom and I drove up to Minneapolis, Minnesota for our first sewing class ever. On Wednesday, we loaded up the car with suitcases, sewing machines, and our sewing tools and I left school early that afternoon so we could drive up and spend the night at my sister's house.  The first two days we hung out with my sisters and my nieces and then the second two days we spent 7-8 hours a day in class.
The class was hosted by the Minneapolis Textile Center and they had a great space to accommodate all fourteen students.  Mom and I showed up a bit early on Saturday, eager to get our space set up and to meet the guest speaker.
There was no sewing the first day, so we ended up not setting up our machines, but we were able to unpack tools for taking and recording measurements and then drafting the pattern.
After introductions by Kenneth himself, who has some of the best stories and one-liners to emphasize his noteworthy skills and resume, we did class introductions and it was so interesting to hear where people were in their sewing journey. There were beginners like me who had sewn few items- none of them were trousers- and there were experienced sewers who were still looking to broaden, improve, or refine their skill set. There were design students, hobbyists, people who sew on a daily basis, and others who are getting back into it after a few years hiatus.
Pattern drafting started with the essential step of taking measurements. For this, Kenneth listed what measurements were needed and modeled how to take them accurately.

Measuring crotch depth, that's a new one for me

Identifying waist and full hip placement

Then we paired off and measured our partner.  Remember, it's just a bunch of numbers, it's not a judgement on your worth as a person.

Kenneth's book, which you can purchase whether you take the class or not, has the drafting process laid out so clearly in pictures and text. He also does a remarkable job of breaking down the process in person, in this case with the aid of a large dry erase board, so that even the math phobic or the "it's been awhile since I've had to do math" among us barely hesitated during the process.

Mom drafting her pattern

Kenneth adjusting individual patterns

That first day seemed to fly by and when we left at 5 pm, everyone had a custom paper pattern for trousers.

Sunday we started a bit earlier than 9 am because Kenneth wanted to get us all sewing as soon as possible. He guided us in tracing our patterns and cutting out the muslin and then we had work time while each one of us put together our first muslin.

Muslin number one

When it came to creating the muslin, things could have gone more smoothly.  First, my sewing machine was not making a strong stitch.  The bobbin tension seemed be off, but after about 10 minutes of fiddling with it I finally moved over to share mom's Featherweight.  There wasn't time later in class that day to fix my machine, so I'll be following up on that sometime this week when I get home. Then, I sewed the first muslin pieces together incorrectly--made a leg from the front pieces sewn together and a leg from the back pieces sewn together. I started ripping out seams to fix that and one of my pieces of fabric tore. I cut another pair of front pieces and then found that the back pieces had stretched after having seams removed and ironed so they no longer lined up with the fronts. A very generous classmate gave me some extra muslin and I cut out a whole new muslin. By this time, most people had completed their first fitting with Kenneth and were having lunch. No lunch for me, had to keep sewing and install the front zipper. Mom, who had helped me redo everything-Thank you!-- and I had our first fitting after lunch.

They started out fitting like loose pajamas, but Kenneth fixed that.

Kenneth made adjustments to the muslin and transferred the changes to our pattern and then we were back to make our second muslin. I felt a bit rushed at the end of class, but Kenneth is a professional and didn't appear the least bit flustered.

Wouldn't you like a peek into Kenneth's brain to see how he organizes all the info and skills he has in there?

It really is fascinating to watch him simultaneously carry on a conversation and flawlessly fit and edit pattern after pattern for hours on end. You learn so much in this class, and yet, you know it's just a fraction of what you could learn from him if time permitted.
As we packed up our things at the end of class on Sunday, we were all leaving with a pattern for our third, and probably, final muslin. Maybe next weekend I will be able to get some more muslin and try out the final fit.  I'm thrilled to think that I'll actually be able to make pants that fit me correctly. I thoroughly enjoyed taking this class and I would love to take another class with Kenneth or participate in one of his sit and sews. This class opened up so many sewing possibilities and it got me excited about tackling those future projects.