Double Delight

Flowers from my new rose bush, Double Delight.  The flowers are a creamy, pale yellow with a pink edging, and they have a delicious fragrance :). Also, a pendant necklace I made with an evil eye amulet I purchased from a Turkish imports shop in Columbus, OH and beads from the 2013 Tucson Gem and Bead show.

Pieced flannel blocks

Ready to assemble. Five each of twelve different combinations, for a total of 60 8" blocks.

A cycling skirt in reverse appliqué

Another project I've been working on is a knit fabric skirt. I've stenciled some flowers and bugs onto the top layer of fabric, and pieced together two different fabrics for the bottom layer. The top layer is stitched to the bottom layer around the painted stencils, and then the centers of the stencils are cut away to reveal the fabric layer beneath. The design is a bit flashy, but it's meant to be worn over my bicycle shorts when I go out for a ride, and I wanted it to be fun and breezy. :)

No time to play this morning...

...but here's a pic of what's waiting for me when I get home. Making good progress on my pieced flannel blanket! :)

Playing with piecing

I've been learning about piecing quilt blocks recently, and have had an idea about how it might work with circles. I'm sure someone has perfected this already, but it's entirely new to me. I've cut out some pieces this morning, and I'm playing around with some arrangements before I begin sewing. My inspiration for these layouts are patterns found decorating the Ahwanee Lodge in Yosemite Valley.

Trying out a blogging app

...hoping it will make it easier for me to make a blog post now and again :)

Here's what I'm playing with today:
A pieced flannel blanket using repurposed fabric. The quilt block I've chosen is the easy Endless Stairs pattern.

Bringing back Brownie

Made from size XL T-shirts, and entirely hand-sewn



At one of the pre-season games at Brown's stadium this year, I noticed several little girls wearing the cutest cheerleader dresses, and I decided right then I had to make one for myself. The fabric store didn't have jersey fabric in the right colors for the Cleveland Browns, so I had to use T-shirts. When I started, I wasn't sure of the logo I wanted for the front, but was considering using a Brown's helmet I had saved from an old shirt of my husbands.



After un-seaming the shirts (dark brown, orange and white), I needed to work out how to cut them down to size and give them a shape. I experimented with a white shirt, and settled on some princess seaming with inverted pleats around the waist. Once I had worked out the plan with the white shirt, I executed it on a brown shirt.


The length of the shirt was too short for a dress, so I sewed together strips of orange and white to make a border and increase the length.


Now that I had the dress basically constructed, I started work on the logo. I decided that the reason the Browns have been having such a hard time of it is because they abandoned the Brownie, and I thought that bringing back Brownie would bring them luck. I made the logo out of appliques.

The appliques applied to the bodice, before I added embroidery detail:

After embroidering the logo, I finished and detailed the neckline and armholes. This is the dress nearly finished, but before I applied ric-rack to the hem (which is shown in the picture at top). I'm pleased with the ric-rack, I think it adds an extra "brownie" touch. :-)
A close-up of the final logo and neck detail.
The dress was finished and worn for the first time last Sunday...the Brown's first win of the season! Coincidence? I think not! :-)