... and a pillow for my desk chair

to go with the curtains:

I whipped up a pillow for my desk chair yesterday afternoon, to go with my new home office curtains. My chair is really a dining chair, and I sit on the front half of it while working, so a big fat pillow to fill up the space behind me is welcome. The white Guest of Honor fabric is from the stash, and I consider the border fabric stash also, as it's from the piece left over after making the top borders for the curtains. It's the same on both sides, except that the big white blossoms are positioned slightly differently.

I used a 20" square pillow form, and the "Sunset Button Pillows" pattern from Amy Butler's Softwares. I even read and (mostly) followed the directions! I had to size down (Amy's pillows are huge: 27"), and I skipped the buttons, but did the rest according to plan.

I love how the flanges turned out, and the whole thing was super quick and easy to do. Except for sewing the seam through both sides between the flange and pillow body (so the flanges become flanges, not just a bigger pillow cover) ... in spite of pinning, it was tricky to get the seams lined up just right. I was in my usual slapdash mood and, after considering briefly the pros and cons of doing a super-careful, precise job, did a quickie, imprecise one instead. Unless you look closely, which no one but me will ever do, you can't tell that my "stitch in the ditch" wanders on and off the ditch more than it stays in it.

The only drawback to this pattern is that the pillow cover is entirely sewn on, no zipper or other closure, so it's not removable for washing. I have zippers in the stash, and could have added one. But I didn't want to bother, so I'll just have to be careful not to spill coffee on this one.

Guest of Honor Curtains...

... for my home office! Ignore, please the messy desk. Things got moved aside, and then I was so eager to snap pics as soon as the rods and curtains were up that I haven't even unplugged the power drill yet. My office is the dining alcove: the plants are orchids on top of some storage cabinets that function as a room divider so the space feels less like an alcove and more like a separate room. Here's the view from the kitchen:

It took me a long time to make these. I got the fabric all measured and cut some not too long after we moved in early this summer, and then was distracted by life and other projects. I kept thinking I ought to sew these up, but after getting our bedroom curtains done (shown here, two of the five total made, Amy B fabric, not blogged yet):

I just couldn't face another curtains project right away. Which turned out to be about two months.

But the sun has been inching ever southward as we've inched into autumn, and glare on my computer screen has (as I suspected) become a problem. I didn't want to change my office layout (for feng shui reasons, as well as it's a very small space and options are limited), so curtains are the solution.

These are made from Anna Maria Horner's "Guest of Honor" fabric from her Garden Party line, with borders in two colorways in "Dance Floor" from the same collection. Many thanks to Kerith at Material Girl Shoppe for the fabric, good price, and great service. I look forward to shopping with you again.

I did not make these curtains "by the book" at all. For one thing, they are quilting fabric, which is not very wide, nor does it have the heft and drape a good curtain should have. Well, too bad. I love, love, love everything about this print. So yes, while the curtains do cover the windows when drawn shut, they are not as wide as they should be according to curtain-making guidelines. Sad truth is that 1.5-2X window width for fabric means double the yardage (i.e., cost) plus at least twice the cutting headaches plus finicky print matching on the seams. It just wasn't going to happen.

So, these are just one fabric width wide each. There is barely 1/8" turn-back at the sides, as I didn't want to sacrifice even fractions of an inch in width. Lining is a cheap cotton-poly blend in pale blue. I experimented with using a "clip strip" at the top back, so the curtain ring clips would be hidden rather than grasp the top edge of the curtain, but after doing one curtain I decided I didn't have the energy or patience to go that route. So, visible clips it is, even though I don't like them. They sure are easy, and that's worth a lot to me.

Here are some close-ups of the borders. The top is interfaced (on the lining) for 3", to avoid drooping between the curtain ring clips. So nice to work with coordinating prints, as the color match is perfect. I love how the red border at the bottom picks up the colors of the blossom centers:

Next up, I have some of this fabric with white blooms, and I'm going to use that to make a big pillow for my desk chair. I might even have enough left of the blue "Dance Floor" to trim the pillow with it.

Only problem is that these dress up my office so nicely that my husband has decided that his office needs curtains, too (we both work at home, so we have two full-time home offices). He's right, too. Compared to my office, his now looks bland and blank and white, and in need of some nice fabric embellishment in the window area. I don't think he has anything as boldly floral as this in mind, so first challenge is to get some idea of what kind of fabric he'll be happy with. I really hope we don't have to settle for something traditionally gag-inducing like boring stripes or plaid. We're just not the traditional type, either of us.

"NTG" quilt top is done

It's too hot in my sewing room to do any more in there today, so I'm back to blogging (my office, in the front of the house, is almost cool, with two large windows and nice ocean breeze coming through). I courted heatstroke pressing these border seams so I could show the thing off.

I'm not going to pretend that it's a perfect rectangle, but will claim it's not quite as wonky as it appears here. This was a "full-body assault: slap and spread" attempt to get the thing to stick to my flannel wall long enough to snap a photo. Position adjustment was not an option.

"NTG" stands for "nothing too girly". This will be, if I finish it in time, a Christmas gift for DH. I did mention my intention to make him a nap quilt, and I could tell by his expression that he thinks "quilt" equals "girly." Can't entirely blame him, as I'd just been showing off my pink lattice project in progress.

This is approx. 48"x72", which should be large enough to nap under on a lounge chair out on the desk, without being too big in any dimension. I love how adding the pumpkin orange and maroon borders changes the balance of color power. It was very blue+green without 'em.

The 6" blocks turned out even better than expected, in terms of fabric/color combos. Here's a detail shot; the flash was not kind to the lighter bits, and the colors are slightly off, but you get the idea:

The layout is simple: "A" blocks are a 4" center + 1" blue border; "B" blocks are a 3" nine-patch+1/2" maroon border+1" green border. It's 100% from stash, which limited some choices.

Here's another peek:

Don't know yet how I'll quilt this. I'm teetering on the edge of using an ancient "monkey wrench" UFO (which will never be completed full-size, more on that in a future post) as the back, because geeze it sure would be nice to use those blocks for something. Part of me wants to go start that right now, but I have a few other things to turn my attention to for a while.

Vogue 8232 - version 1

Finished this wearable muslin of Vogue 8232 last week, but didn't get DH to snap a photo until today. Fabric is a quilting cotton that has been in my stash for, oh, let's see, maybe 15 years? It's a water-color-y mottled abstract print, as you can see, with hints of aqua and lavender among the dark blue, and has a lovely polished finish even after several trips through the wash.

I think it needs some kind of embellisment (some fabric flowers at one side of the neck, perhaps?_ but fat chance I'll ever get to that. A silver belt and strappy sandals would dress it up nicely, too, but I don't own either of those and am not ever likely to.

The fit, after two bodice tweakings in real muslin, is one of my best efforts in the home sewing department. It could be tailored a bit more, but given the Hilo climate a little breathing room is a good idea. I narrowed the skirt slightly, by folding out about 2" (at the hem) of each quadrant, tapering to nothing at the waist. In a drapier fabric that wouldn't have been necessary.

My biggest question, now that I see myself in this, is: Where did my waist go?

I used to have one, a decade or so ago.

I can't decide whether I love the dress more than I'm appalled at how much I look like my grandmother.

Oh, those glorious days of youth, when I was only appalled at how much I look like my mother.

Wadder resurrected

October 10, and we're having the warmest, sultriest weather of the year, pleh. I hate feeling sticky. Maybe I should have kept that in mind when I decided to move to Hilo where it is always humid . But it's not usually sunny and warm humid. Usually it's overcast and not-so-bad humid.

Anyway, this sultry weather is the reason I pulled this wadder from the back of the closet. If the fabric weren't so hideous I'd have cut it up for scrap a long time ago. It's a "wearable muslin" of a self-drafted pattern from sometime in the spring, when I wanted to see if I could turn the top part of Amy B's Cabo Halter into a sundress. I did not self-line the bodice (edges are finished with bias strips), used narrower ties, added a 2" midriff band, and cobbled together a very slightly gathered two-tier skirt.

Results nothing to be proud of. The fit isn't great, but the halter style is comfortable on a hot day. The quilting-cotton fabric was super cheap, which is about all I can say about it, other than it was purchased with muslin use in mind because, as I've said, it was cheap.

I'm not showing my face here because seriously, this is waaaaay more cleavage than anyone my age should display, so I'm pretending someone else is modeling this. I wouldn't even answer the door in this dress, so why I'm posting a photo of it to blogdom I can't say.

Design Wall is up...

...and it's got something on it.

This will be a lap quilt for my husband so the primary design consideration was "nothing too girly." Hence the dark blue and green theme.

Blocks are small (6"), so this center will be 36"x60" when assembled, with a 6" burgundy border. This is not the final arrangement, just all the blocks stuck up there to see what I've got. I have 4 extra "A" blocks (the ones with the blue border) and can already see two I'm going to replace. (Hint, they're both in the second row from the top.)

The blue and green block borders are fabrics that I know for sure have been in the stash for over 10 years because they pre-date my move to Hawaii. Nice to finally put them to use. Other prints incude a bunch of Kaffe Fassett and Moda "Nest" charm squares plus more this and that from the stash. As usual, I took a crappy photo, not quite in focus, so close-up shots will have to wait for some future stage of project documentation. I'm delighted with the individual blocks, layout needs further tweaking.

Wish I'd had more medium greens for the "B" blocks outer border, as I can see now that the darkest green is too close to the blue. But that's what happens with a "100% from stash" project. I came up with this pattern because I didn't have enough greens for the several others I'd contemplated.

I'm already in love with having a "design wall" -- although that seems a rather grand name for what is just a large piece of white flannel stapled to the wall. Next "wall" project will be the border for the pink lattice lap quilt I'm making for myself. But really, I should tackle office curtains next. And I haven't done the bias finishing on Vogue 8232 yet, either. I'd better stop blogging and go sew...

What I'm (thinking about) working on

I don't have a photo to show today, so am sharing my current sewing projects list, mostly to scare myself into making serious progress on something this weekend. Here's what's piled up:

1) Vogue 8232 #1: “wearable muslin” (dark blue cotton from stash); this has been almost done for a week but I don’t have enough fabric to make the facing (and don’t have the patience to play around with necessary pattern adjustments after several muslins) so need to find a close-enough fabric in the stash from which to make bias strips with which to finish the neck and arm raw edges. When this is done, I will wear it around the house for a day, to see if it’s comfortable enough to be worth making another one. If so...

2) Vogue 8232 #2: maxi version, pink and blue butterfly fabric. Fabric is pre-washed and ready to go, and I found both zipper and thread in appropriate colors in my stash (always nice when that happens). Sewing time during the week is a few stolen minutes here and there, and weekends go by fast, so getting around to this may take a while.

3) Curtains for my office. Seriously. I’ve had the fabric for months, and the farther we get into fall, the more glare-on-the-computer-screen is going to be a problem. I really should do something about this. Soon.

3) Modifed “buttercup” bag for my mom for Christmas. I know, that's months away still, but I've got a bunch of things going and only so many sewable minutes in a day/week/eon. I’m making a few adjustment to this pattern, too, including adding a side/bottom strip, fusible fleece interfacing, and a zipper. Figuring out how to do it as I go along, one teeny tiny step at a time. I’m somewhere in the middle of this, nowhere near done.

4) “Pink Lattice” lap quilt: center top has been done for a month. Need to: decide what I’m going to do about a narrow inner border (pink? orange? both?), finish sewing up “piano keys” outer border pieces (inspired by this one) to approximate size, and finish/affix both borders. That will get the top done. Still clueless what I’m going to do for the back, unless Vogue 8232 turns out not to be the “TNT” dress I’m hoping for, in which case I will use the pink/blue butterfly fabric here.

5) Lap quilt for DH (no photos yet). All “A” and “B” blocks for the center top are done. Next up is to play with final block layout, which requires the installation of a flannel design wall in the sewing room. I have purchased and seamed a large piece of white flannel, which I plan to staple to the wall, but first I have to do a little clean-up in there and rearrange all the furniture. And find the staple gun. And the box of staples. Hope to get to that this weekend.

6) Some kind of tunic. I have several patterns and plenty of fabric in the stash, but have yet to make a decision about which fabric/pattern combo to first. Would very much like to get at least one tunic done before the end of the year. That might not happen.

7) Bird Christmas ornaments. I’m fooling around with the Spool bluejay pattern, which is nice, but not really what I have in mind. The plan is to make up a bunch of these for those “impossible to shop for” friends and relations. Reality is I may end up buying a whole lot of gift assortment boxes of goodies at Big Island Candies instead, as I did last year...

8) Our two papasan chairs need new cushion covers. I’ve had the fabric for this project for a couple of years, but it has not been a priority. Then yesterday the chairs got set up in our bedroom reading nook, with beach towels thrown over the grotty old cushions, which is not the decor look I’m going for (as much as I am “going for” anything decor-ish, which is hardly at all). Time to inch this one closer to the top of the list. Probably not this weekend, though I might get as far as re-measuring everything, finding the fabric, and trying to remember what it was I'd planned to do.

9) We have one set of placemats. They're lovely, but new ones would be nice. Just a couple, and some napkins to go with. It's not like I'd have to go out and buy more fabric for 'em, given the stash situation around here. Don't know when I'll get to this, but I think about it often.

10) A Birdie Sling bag for me. Oh, the possibilities! Too many possibilities. I can't seem to make up my mind which fabrics to make this from, which I guess means I haven't hit upon the perfect combination yet. A day will come when I'm seized with inspiration and drop all other projects to make this, but it's not likely to be today.

I could go on, but I think I'll stop here.

I should go sew something now, but I feel a nap coming on. Just thinking about this list (and it's just sewing projects! not even the tip of the iceberg of everything else I'd like to get done!) has worn me out.

And this blog needs a new banner, too.