Only two quilts to go

I did start on the skirt, but was thwarted by the darts.  I couldn't find any help anywhere online on how to adjust darts if they weren't working, any advice?

The material was puckering underneath the darts when I put the skirt on, I tried making them longer, no help, shorter, no help, I stopped for sanity's sake.  I will take it to work with me tomorrow and ask the woman in our office who recently graduated with a fashion degree, she should be able to tell me what I'm doing wrong.  

The instructions on how to make a pattern were quite clear, and I had this wrapping paper with 1" grid marks on the back, that was tremendously helpful.  I will refrain my judgement of the overall quality of instruction until I get the dart thing worked out though.  It wouldn't be fair at this point.

So I went back to sewing things that don't have to fit...I finished, finally completely finished, my godson's quilt and it is ready to go in the mail for his birthday in August.  I also finished (to the point that all that has to happen is the handsewn binding) 3 -THREE- quilts, two baby quilts and one that has just been in the queue a long time.

I quilted the boat quilt with a darker blue thread in a diagonal pattern.  I was going to make diamonds on it, but 1. I ran out of the thread and 2. I'm afraid it would obscure the pattern.  I think the thread was a little darker than I should have gone, tho it's hard to tell in this pic.  This stuff is a lot of trial and error at first like everything else, I guess.

And I worked a bit on the next quilt.  I think I mentioned I'm doing a lazy 9-patch block?  Lazy in that the blocks will be 12" blocks and there will be solid blocks in between the 9-patch blocks.  Right now I'm just trying to get this stuff churned out and this one is for a 5 yo boy who loves plaid flannels, so I thought this would suit him and something fancier and more complicated would possibly make it less well liked.

The blocks are all ready to be sewn up the next time I have some time, which probably won't be for a few weeks.

After that, one ONE baby quilt to do and I am DONE.  Until there are more babies of course, but as I will have caught up with all the pregnancies at least I will have some warning and time to make those!

I found a pesto recipe to use with my garlic scapes this weekend.  It was pretty powerful, we had it for lunch and we both felt like we shouldn't get too close to anybody.  But on the bright side, we didn't see any vampires all weekend, so it must have kept them away.

 

YUM!  I think they are probably almost out of season though, I doubt we'll get any more until next year.  

I was off today, leading to a much more productive weekend than I would have otherwise had, I spent most of today sewing and I'm sad to go back to work tomorrow b/c I feel like I"m on a roll.  Oh well.  It must be done.  How else could I afford to buy more fabric?  ;-)

Comments

[Susanne]

The very end of your dart should be catching only one or two threads, then tie them off and press evenly. You shouldn't have any puckers if you are gradual about sewing down to the point of just barely catching those last two threads...hth

[trek]

I should come visit you, then I could learn how to make the points all line up neatly and I could make a quilt too.

:: suffering from point envy ::

[Lorraine]

Try less fabric at the seam edge of the dart. You seem to be less round than the pattern/dart thinks you are at that point.You'll probabaly have to put that extra fabric into a seam.

[Rosalia]

Hi,
Glad to see you are attempting one of the skirts in this book. I've been meaning to check it out and see if the formula actually works. I agree with Susanne, the end of your dart should be only catching 1-2 threads of your fabric. Hope you can get this dart thing straightened out and will post on your blog the final product, for those of us looking forward to your skirt experiment. My daughter makes this awesome pesto, which we love. I use almonds or whatever nut I have available, as well as parmesan cheese, olive oil and a jalapeno - which gives it a good kick. Can't wait to see your finished skirt project!
Rosalia

[Jocelyn]

The quilts look fabulous! I'm very impressed :) And your pesto looks yummy -- I've been craving some, and I think it's about time I indulged my craving...