"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.