Here’s how to make a working link: video that shows you how!
Or, you can view the video right here in the blog post:
Archive for April, 2012
How to make a working link
Monday, April 30th, 2012A Productive Week at the CLH
Sunday, April 29th, 2012by Ann
Last week, while we were at the CLH celebrating the official end of Tax Season, my first order of priority was to finish the 1920s period dress that I started to work on about 2 years ago when Marty helped me alter the pattern. Then I decided to make a muslin. It fit just fine. Then I cut out the fabric and discovered that I had cut the facings backwards, (in my defense, the pattern doesn’t have an obvious right and wrong side) and I didn’t have enough fabric to re-cut them. So that meant purchasing more fabric in a matching solid navy because so much time has elapsed between the fitting and the muslin and the cutting that I couldn’t find the original fabric. And then more time elapsed before I got around to cutting the new facings. I finally resumed work on the dress around Christmas time (I think), and I was determined to push to completion. Which, as you can see, I did!
I really like this dress. Much better than my other 4 period dresses. It fits well; it’s simple; and it doesn’t have any mended tears or holes. I’m tempted to make another one before I forget how, but if I do, I’d like to make it in a tone-on-tone print with a matching calico band instead of the rickrack. And that would involve making yards and yards of double fold tape. And I really prefer piecing projects.
So when I finished the dress, I treated myself to Fun with Fabric. I was intrigued by the “Chopping Block” article in the March-April 2012 Quiltmaker. The technique involves making a basic 9-patch block or a 9-patch variant, cutting the block into fourths, and rearranging the pieces into a new block. I wanted to try the Hourglass or Grecian Design block, but I couldn’t come up with 3 fabrics that would work well together from the assortment of fabrics that I had brought with me to play with, so I tried out the “Disappearing Nine Patch” instead. I liked it, which meant that I then wanted to make it into something useful and decided on placemats. To convert the square block into a rectangle, I made another Disappearing Nine Patch, cut it in half, and stitched the half and full blocks together. Again I liked the result, so I made a third Disappearing Nine Patch to go with the other half of block #2, and had two placemats. Here they are:
Obviously they are not identical. Neither are they the same pattern with the fabrics reversed. I think that is fun. The top placemat is displayed on top of the fabric that will be used for the binding. It is the same print in a complementary color way. The backing, which has yet to be purchased, will be a tone-on-tone cream/beige, and I’ll quilt in the ditch around the print patches with brown thread that matches the background of the print. I like them.
And so, obviously, does Pug. (-:
Baby Quilt Completed
Sunday, April 15th, 2012Last night I went out to dinner with friends and was able to present them with the completed quilt for their second son, who is 5 weeks old today. This might be a record in terms of quilt completion time after birth – at least for me. The pattern is pretty basic, but I like letting the animal print be the focus – after all, I did a bunch of fussy-cutting for those squares!
And here’s a detail picture with a better look at the focus fabric. Note that the solids are more crinkly post-quilt-washing than the focus fabric. This is likely due to the fact that I forgot to pre-wash the animal fabric so it shrank along with the batting (my usual cotton+rayon from bamboo) when I washed the completed quilt.
The backing is a brown plaid flannel.
The Crackpots who were consulted for advice on Big Brother gifts should know that the wheel-featuring present (a couple Little People cars) was appreciated by Adam. I can also report that baby Kyle is adorable.