Sporadic Handsewing

Every once in a while I manage to get myself organized enough to do some hand sewing. I have been slowly making blocks for Project Seventy-Two and I have even come up with a more solid plan of what I will do them.

Project Seventy-Two is an English Paper Piecing project that I am designing myself. The name comes from the basic requirement I have given myself for each block in the design, as each block contains 72 half-hexagons. Maybe when I am all done I will have a more clever name, but for now this is what it will be. I am also making setting triangles out of half-hexagons to put between the blocks. The half-hexagons have 1 inch sides and the full blocks are 6 inches on each side.

Block 5 - Cube (The first one with a name)

Block 6 

Block 6 was sewn completely in one weekend while I was away without the kids, it felt great to finish something so quickly. It was a fun one to sew up and has made me want to make more of than one of these blocks every 2 or 3 months.

Here are the first 6 all together, bottom row is sewn together and top row is still in pieces because making new blocks is more fun than joining them.

Thanks for having a peak. I am linking up with Linking up with Sarah at Sarah Did It! for HeLP for Hexia-aholics and Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social.

I am posting progress photos of these blocks on Instagram: @geomamaquilts

GeoMama

I have created a 4 year old dress snob.

Shortly after our wedding and finishing my first Peppermint Swirl dress for Monkey the LQS store had their half-price fabric on sale even further, and while I wasn't really looking to buy anything I couldn't avoid getting at least a little bit quilting cotton for $4/m. I found a lovely blue floral print that would look great on my blue-eyed, blond haired niece who was about to turn 4. I paired it with Northcott solid blue and turned it into another Peppermint Swirl Dress.

As we took this one to the post office to mail to my niece Monkey asked me to make her another one for her birthday.  Shortly after that a friend was clearing out some of her fabric stash and had 2 gorgeous pieces that were each 1.5 m long. Adding a 3rd colour to get enough yardage was easy and I sewed up my third one in the nights leading up to her birthday.

Hope 2 twirly-whirly dresses will be enough for her for a while, but she has said that she thinks she should have 3. Maybe I will find another smoking sale and get some more fabric for a 3rd one.

GeoMama

Tranquility: A Quilt Finish

 After our wedding GeoDad and I figured things would be a breeze, our basement was going to be repaired and re-finished and we no longer had to plan a wedding. Anyway, life has funny way of giving people a big middle finger when you start thinking that way and throws curve balls in your face.

Shortly after the wedding life happened.

Anyway, there is nothing about the situation that I can change myself. So I did what quilters around the world do. I sewed.

I took an afternoon off work and pieced most of a quilt top.
Spent the next week of evenings adding borders and making a backing.

Then spent 11 hours on the rental longarm at my LQS quilting.

It took about a week to get binding sewn on.
And this is the biggest quilt I have ever made and it took start to finish less than 3 weeks. (A bit of a whirlwind if you will and I had a deadline, it was getting on plane with me to be gifted to someone when I arrived). 

The embroidered label is simple, it says "May this bring you tranquility where ever you are."

Quilts Stats:
Name: Tranquility
Pattern: Majestic Beauties by Daphne B.
Fabrics: All from the Majestic Beauties Collection for Willington Prints
Size: 96"x98"
Quilted by me on a rental Handi Quilter Fusion 24
Thread: Pieced using Presencia 60wt,
Quilting top thread Isacord Embroidery thread, color Old Gold,
Quilting Bob Thread Wonderfil DecoBob in light grey
Notes: The pantograph I used was called Peacock Palm, it seemed fitting and I wanted it to have feathers, but have never quilted feathers before. The pantograph was very forgiving because nothing had to line up to closely. I didn't realize how much quilting it would be when I started. It is quite dense for a pantograph and very time consuming for such a large quilt. I used more than 2 km of thread between the top and bottom threads for the quilting on this one.

The quilt was gifted to half of the couple it was intended for while the other was out of the country. Now that they have both seen it they are planning sheets and decor to match. I know it will be treasured and I hope it brings them tranquility. 

GeoMama

I Married GeoDad! Part 2: The Peppermint Swirl Dress

A while before wedding plans got rolling I came across a beautiful pattern for a little girl's dress. It was called the Peppermint Swirl Dress by Candy Castle Patterns. I was in love and thought that Monkey would be too.

After we pick the tuxedos for the GeoDad and Groomsmen I decided to make Monkey's dress in pink and gray. Since I was using Art Gallery Fabrics  Nature's Elements and Floral Elements for the wedding flowers (see previous post for those photos and info), I thought it would be nice to have Monkey in the same fabrics. The dress uses a ton of fabric, and takes lots of time but it is so worth it.

Photo Credit: Digital Path

Photo Credit: Digital Path

Monkey adores her twirly-whirly dress and asks to wear 3 or 4 days a week. She is getting tons of use out of it.

It's a little girl's dream dress, the twirling never ends.

I will say that the amount of time and fabric is totally worth it because she loves wearing it. Also, I may have turned my daughter into a dress/skirt snob; no others are twirly-whirly enough, and she will occasionally throw a tantrum if she puts on another dress and tests it twirl and it doesn't measure up. 

Thanks for reading.

GeoMama