Quilted Case

I played with the zipper case pattern again. I used the fabric I'd quilted as practice last week. It was handy; literally a foot away from the sewing machine when I decided to play.

This time I changed a couple of things by completely ignoring the instructions for the fabrics and only used the assembly instructions. The result is a sturdy bag with quilted sides and a "loose" lining. You know, like purses have.

I'm much happier with this version in terms of the visual and textural look and feel. I still love how the case goes together, so I'll be making more of these in the future.

Late But Here!

Fuzzy Husband and I just got home from a quick trip south. We went to St. Louis to meet up with many other Twitch live streamers and community members and had a wonderful time!

So backing up a bit, last Monday I was pondering working on a new dress for myself. However I decided that it was time to finally look into upgrading my sewing machine. I've used the same one for 27 years and quite frankly, it makes sewing more work than play.

I went and looked at some options, got information, and came home to negotiate with Himself. Tuesday I went back and came home with this:

I have to say that I'm in love with this machine. I can do so much more with attention to detail without spending extra time on a project.

It quilts like a dream. I quilted together some random fat quarters to test it out. I can also do free motion quilting, but I need lots of practice!

So I finally started my new dress on Wednesday night. I picked this Burda pattern.

It did need about 4 hours of alteration.

Artie just had to help, of course.

But the final result is perfect! Himself was suggesting I make pouty faces and other foolishness whilst taking photos. Silly man.

I got it finished at 3 am Saturday morning, so I was able to wear it to the Twitch meet up. Good to know I still have the skills, even though I had ignored them for a while!

That's all for this week. I will be doing some heavy cleaning this week. Making up for time lost while I was sick. I'm hoping to play a little bit this week though. See you next Sunday!

Infested

My trip around JoAnn's when I bought the cool Dr. Who fabric resulted in me coming down with some sort of nasty cold or flu virus. I've been fighting it for about nine days now. Low grade fevers that won't bugger off and lots of fatigue.

Mercedes is bored with my level of inactivity and keeps trying to coax me into the yard to romp with her. Poor pup. After all this time, I can't blame her. I want to play too!

Happily I'm only 0.3 degrees above normal now... closer than I've been since two Thursdays ago. Here's hoping I can get back to fun soon!

A friend gave me stacks and stack of old American Miniaturist magazines, so I've passed the awake hours perusing them.

I'm going to get back to the fluids and rest now. See you next week!

Some Little Things

Wandering around JoAnn Fabrics last week resulted in a pattern and fabric catching my eye.

Artie "helped" of course.

I still need to clean up some threads and topstitch around the zipper.

I followed the pattern exactly and didn't like a couple of things. I'm going to make another one with some changes and see how it works out.

Saturday was our mini club's workshop day. Instead of doing the N.A.M.E. project like we usually do, we all worked on things for our hat shop.

The straw hats were actually make by Kat the Hat Lady years ago. I bought a handful of them undecorated. The purple hat is one I started as an example when I taught everyone that style of hat. I spent a good portion of my time teaching everyone (one on one) how to make silk ribbon roses. 

That's all for now. Time to find a bite to eat and ponder what to do for the rest of the day.

Respite for Mourning

A friend of ours unexpectedly passed away last week. FuzzyHusband and I have taken this weekend and gone away for a bit.

See you next week.