Monday, January 27, 2020

Making leggings

I am determined to get my leggings pattern accurate!  I've made two pairs off my pattern, and they are still too loose in the legs.  I'm guessing that by the time I get the pattern just right, leggings will NOT be in style any longer.  Oh well, us old ladies usually lag the pop culture dress styles.  I never did like the "cold shoulder" look, did you?  And definitely not the cut up jeans, which cost close to $200 at Nordies.  What??!!!

I downloaded a free pattern from Mood Fabrics, which has a lot of extra pieces and am comparing that pattern to the one I've already used.  I think it just might be easier to go and peg the first couple of pairs, then measure and draw my own pattern!  I'm not that hard to fit, usually.  I do have long legs, so I know that I need to add length to every pattern.  And I have that old lady flat behind, so I have to take out some length at the waistband center back.  Other than that, the pattern should be good to go.

Later - I decided it was just better to peg the leggings that I had already made, and skip the idea of an ideal leggings pattern for now.  I had to take out about 2" from each leg, and remove some depth of the crotch.  It's the negative ease on stretch knits that has me slightly baffled,  Make them one size smaller?  Two sizes smaller?  Well, in the end, it was just easier to measure a pair that fit and use that measurement to alter the pattern.  Who cares what size they are anyway.  As long as they fit.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Quilting design and start of quilting

I finally landed on a quilting design for Emily's quilt.  In a previous post, I lamented the fact that I hadn't drawn anything that I liked.  So, I hit my collection of books, and friends gave me inspiration from some of theirs.  Here is what I landed on overall and the center motif:





I'm marking the design lightly on the squares, using a circle template and a straight edge, along with a Bohn water erasable blue pen.




And here are the tools that I use while I'm quilting the design:  both of the quilting templates are from Jamie Wallen, Quilters Apothecary. There is s 3" inside circle and a straight edge.  I really like his quilting templates because they have handles to hold the template steady on my sit-down long arm machine.


And here is what the block looks like all stitched out, which is slightly different than my sketch.





  I hope it will feel young and bright!  What do you think?

Monday, January 6, 2020

Polka Dots and Spots - Final - "Circle Mania"

I finished the polka dots and spots quilt and named it "Circle Mania".   Too bad I forgot to take pictures along the way.  Oh well, most of the techniques have been covered in other blogs on other quilts..... I hope.

After I finished quilt the top, I evened up all the edges.  Then I took my rotary cutter and made the wavy edges and rounded corners.  I made a 3" wide facing, which is wider than I usually make.  It needed to be wide enough to take care of all the large dips in the edges.

Here is a picture of the finished 50" W x 69" H quilt:

Circle Mania by Joanne Adams Roth

I hope you like it. And huge thanks to Jody Bowyer, who made the center medallion.