Kaffe Fassett's Tumbling Blocks revisited.

Everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving have a good holiday? I hope so. Ours was quiet but nice. Better than I had anticipated. I was actually sort of nervously dreading it. The first holidays without a family member are always harder. We did have great food, though. My mom always makes cornbread dressing from my Grandmother's old southern recipe. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it. :0) Mmmmmm mmmm, good.


It keeps growing. I thought I had finished with one striped border. I was mistaken. Once I put the backing down to see if I had enough yardage...well...as you can see...it begs for another dark border to frame it. The pink stripes blend into the quilt a little too much for me. Anyway, I will get more backing soon and the quilting process will begin. I am going to quilt it by hand...so don't look for this to be a finished object in the near future.....you all know me too well for that anyway, don't you?




So what are you all working on for the holidays this year? Anyone already finished with their knitting for the Christmas season? hahahah That's laughable, isn't it?

Psssst, look here...

Here is the Season of Darkness and Winter Light in a crappy picture...but that's about the best shot I have right now. Once it is lined I will get a better modeled shot. Right. I am finished with the sewing now. Finally! I will still add some velvet lining as the pattern calls for....but I had to do a little try-on dance and show you guys. I may be a hermit, but I am still crafty. ;0) Please, for the love of God, don't judge me on my wallpaper.....I am trying to find a paint color to match my garish tiles and counter top.






I really enjoyed this pattern, but it was very time consuming to sew. LOTS os seams. I used the mattress stitch on all of them except the back grafting and I like how neat that seaming stitch can look even with a lot of fudging. These seams cannot be lined up one to one as it is horizontal against vertical.





I have discovered Amy Butler. How did I ever live without her fabric? The colors and the patterns are just mouth watering. Here are a couple of her purse patterns I tried out. The patterned Velma purse is her fabric and her design. The skulls are her Madison design but the fabric is Alexander henry, I believe. The patterns are very well written and super easy to follow and get great results. AND I only sewed through my finger once. Yes, through. With a sewing machine. It's a good thing I don't work in a factory or on a farm with large equipment. And it is amazing how horror and shock can keep you from feeling pain and give way to the utter curiosity of viewing your own finger skewed on a sewing machine needle. Oh, to have had my camera nearby........







Quilt in progress. Blocks are done and now I am piecing the strips. I am fearful of whether the strips will match up. Very fearful.




This is a jacket pattern I located after drooling over one I had seen on a student in a high school hallway. That is where I go for my fashion ideas these days....just randomly roam high school hallways......no! I was teaching music lessons.......but hey, I get my ideas where I can. And I assure you I need all the fashion help I can get, especially when I spend my income on yarn. Anyway, I digress. I searched high and low and found this.




This purple will be my test run as I found some vintage silk from Hong Kong from around the 50's. Wanna see it?



Here it is-all 5 yards of it. Great marine blue and I am scared as hell to cut it. I had seen it in an antique place this summer and when I saw that jacket I knew what had to be done. It was still waiting on me to come and rescue it......or destroy it...whichever comes first. I know, you are thinking about the sewing machine incident, aren't you? Is it hard to get blood out of silk?



Cuteness. She doesn't LOOK like Satan in this pic. Don't ler 'er fool ya.