A Story of Three Fabrics

Apparently it is too much for me to haul out the laptop, edit and load pictures, and then write a post. So I'm trying this on my phone to see if that feels any easier to me. Maybe I will update here more often then.

What I'm showing you today is a little quilt that was born of various fabrics coming together.

First I had the little dotted squares. It was a charm pack (5" squares) I picked up because I thought they would make great cornerstones in sashing, especially if cut into four smaller squares. (Like you can see on the far right of the picture.)

Then my mom went on a trip to Pennsylvania with my quilting sister and "somehow" ended up in a lot of fabric stores. Well, the fabric fumes must have overcome her too because she bought some fabric for me, including a fat quarter bundle of the bright semi-solids. (They're similar to a grunge look.) I noticed right away that they coordinated perfectly with my dots. (There was a green too but it somehow got separated and didn't make it into this picture.)

Then sometime in the last year when I was at my mom's, she had some fabric from an aunt that my sister and I could go through. We took turns choosing but we both knew the elephants were mine! :) And then look how well those colours went with the rest. Kismet!

I vaguely debated for a while with myself about what design to do and eventually settled on something simple that would use some of each type of fabric in each block. The size was mostly determined by the size of the cornerstones (2.5"). By cutting the 5" squares into four, each one would work for one quilt block. I paired the dots with the solids and made 16 blocks.

Then I had fun trying layouts.

And decided on this:

It didn't take long to stitch the top together. I alternated all the seams so I could twirl the intersections.

And once that was done it didn't take long for me to find time to baste it too! I had just the right size of a different elephant fabric for the backing and taped it to my coffee table to keep it straight and taut.

I then layered the batting and then the top on top of it.

After sliding my cutting mat underneath to protect the table, I pinned everything that was on the top of the table.

I then took off the tape, slid the layers one way to pin one edge and then slid it the other way to pin the other edge. Now it's hanging on my project board again, waiting for me to quilt it. (Shouldn't take long, I would imagine!)

How to Wear an Elephant

So a dear friend gave me two lovely tea towels for my birthday. She knows I have a thing for elephants and who doesn't need new tea towels?

BUT I could not bear to use them as tea towels. They were so cute. I thought, "I could make a shirt out of these." (I have obviously been reading a lot of "re-fashion" blogs! This one's my favourite.)

And that is what I did!

I started by tracing the shoulder slope from a sleeveless shirt that I liked to wear, and sewed the two towels together:

I then traced the side seam and sewed them together at the side leaving a slit at the bottom. Then I tried it on. I could barely get it on. Obviously tracing a knit shirt to a woven fabric has its pitfalls.

So I ripped out the seam, marked the armhole a little deeper and stitched the back and front together with no seam allowance at all.

I just ran the pieces through the machine with their finished edges side by side. I used a wide decorative stitch and it worked out great. It also progresses beautifully into the side slit.

Here is the back:

This towel was a little longer and had a lace trim as well as a ribbon on the one end. Perfect for a hem of a shirt.

The other towel was a little less busy with a larger motif. In other words, it was perfect for the front.

Ya, that's a pretty big smile.
I'm pretty pleased.

It has a simple ribbon edging--no lace.

I know the shirt is not well fitted and sits a little awkwardly, but I love it and it is just what I was imagining. It is comfortable (it is the perfect crispness for cotton--almost like linen) and has an easy fit. (Once I get it on; it barely fits over my head.)

Later I may cut a rounded neck in the back and redo the front. (A rounded neck? A slit tied with ribbon?) But for now I couldn't bear to cut into the towels and liked the idea of just using the two rectangles to make a shirt.

On top of loving the shirt, I serendipitously acquired two skirts recently that are the perfect shade of pinkish orange to go with it. (Before I got the tea towels. Life just works out sometimes considering this is not a colour I normally wear!) And it's a good thing because I have a wedding to go to today and obviously I was going to wear this shirt for its grand debut. It was nice to have something matching and dressy (or dressy enough for a summer afternoon wedding) to go with it.

Here is a shot of my wedding outfit:

After I had it together, I was looking for a necklace to break up the big space of white on the top. I couldn't find anything the right length and "heft" until I tried this knitted necklace I made last time I went to Squam. It was exactly what I was looking for, except I wasn't sure about the colour. Then I noticed that it is the same tone of greige of the ribbon on the bottom of the front and the lace on the hem of the back. Serendipity strikes again!

I also added some turquoise bangles to my wrist to break up all the orange that was going on. But it turns out I didn't really need to because when I got to church, this same friend had part two of my present ready to give me:

A parade of elephants on a bracelet that will match everything! :)

Block 7: Feed and Seed Block

Ok, is that not the cutest bunny in the middle ever!!
And you can see my frolicking elephant "puppies".

I'm not sure how the block name relates to the design, but that's ok. This was an intricate piece of work.

I stitched it by hand again. I had to work around one spot where the designer had you stitch some pieces together and then cut it apart, but with a little finagling I got it done.

The block ended up "mostly" 6 inches. It is not really square and is a bit slanted. I'm thinking of ways to fix this with the sashing because I really don't think these blocks are going to just sew together nicely. Too much variance. But I have a plan cooking on the back burner.

I love that the pink and greens are the same value or tone and blend together a lot. And then the dark blue adds a little punch. I feel like the block would have been more cohesive if I used orange instead of pink because of the orange tone in the background, but I really didn't want it to be too matchy. So pink it was. (And I was dying to use some of that elephant fabric. Did I tell you I bought it in three colours?!)

Here is the mock layout with the additional block:

_________________________________
Here is Kim's block:

I think hers has a little more punch to it all around. Very dramatic.

Ravellenic Games 2014 Report: Day 7

So I was home Friday because I wasn't feeling great. I felt bad for the new guy who was at the office alone and then especially bad when he called and said that there was water in the basement, but I was also glad I didn't go in because I sure wasn't up to dealing with all of that.

All this is to say that I got more progress done on some Ravellenic projects, even though it wasn't nearly as productive (or enjoyable) a day as Wednesday was.

But between watching mens figure skating live, mens curling (Canada over Norway with an exciting 4-ender), and napping, I finished this bib:

A true quick project as I just started it the day before, and had to ravel the first try when it was half done. (Too small.)

The reverse side. Not quite as nice, but not so bad.

I had the idea to make a chevron bib, since zig zags are still a going craze and I thought the shape lent itself rather nicely to the function.

It's a really simple project and when I have a few minutes, I will jot down a "pattern recipe" so you can use my notes to make your own, if you would like. (In the meantime, notes on the Rav page would give you a pretty good start.)

So that's medals in Free Dance, Junior Ravellenics, Nordic Colorwork Combined and Stash Skeleton. More importantly, it's one bib done for that baby shower!

But wait! There's more...

While I'm talking about bibs, I'll show you the other one I finished on Thursday:

I believe I could have technically entered it in the Ravellenic Games as a WIP, but I didn't bother.

The center section is double knit so you can see the reverse colours here:

I had thought the all-blue side would be the "right" side but now I kind of like the white side better. Of course that is the point of double knitting it--both sides look good even with a colourwork motif.

The elephant is from the Elephant Sock pattern that I used recently. A nice little elephant.

Games Update, Friday, Feb 14:
1. Rainbow Cowl DONE!
2. Rainbow Hat DONE!
3. & 4. Ravel Sweater 1 and Sweater 2 DONE! DONE!
5. Dye Green Yarn DONE!
6. Spinning DONE!
7. Woven Band
8. Baby Bib DONE!

Not a lot of choices of what to do next, is there! We'll see if I can push through one more event.