Month: April 2020

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Introduction

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I’m in charge of my quilt guild’s block of the month for 2020, and then the pandemic happened and we haven’t met to pass out the information, so I’m going to post it on my blog and let it go out into the world.  I put together a somewhat simple quilt for this sew along, mostly because 1.) It’s my first time being in charge of a block of the month and I figure it’s better to go a little simple your first time ’round, and 2.) This block of the month is starting a little late in the year and I wanted it to be able to end by December, so fewer blocks makes for a quicker quilt.

Behold: Sew Many Stars!

Crystal Quilters BOM Christmas

I have a sincere love for the humble Sawtooth Star block; I love its simple beauty and I love that you can practice getting technically better at a lot of piecing skills with it–flying geese, matching seams, and not cutting off your corners.  It also lends itself to a lot of creative uses because you can swap out the center square for another quilt block, which I’ve done throughout this quilt.

Crystal Quilters BOM RW&B

Because we’re getting a later start, we’ll power pack the schedule for the first little bit, which means the schedule is as follows:

End of April: Introduction (this post)
May 1: Block #1
May 15: Block #2
June 5: Block #3
June 19: Block #4
July 3: Block #5
August 7: Block #6
September 4: Block #7
October 2: Block #8
November 6: Block #9
December 4: Finishing Instructions

Crystal Quilters BOM Rainbow

I’ve mocked it up in a few different colorways, because it’s makes me happy to do that, but I’m also including an outline version, in case you want to print it off and do a little coloring of your own:

Crystal Quilters BOM Outline

This quilt will measure approximately 64.5 x 64.5 inches.

I’ll include some yardage estimates, but your particular colorway could change your specifics:

Background fabric: 2 – 2+1/4 yards
Sashing: 7/8 yard
Border and sashing squares: 3/4 – 1 yard
Assortment of prints for individual blocks

I’m looking forward to what everyone sews up!

You can keep up-to-date on the Crystal Quilters Quilt Guild on their blog, Facebook, and Instagram (new!).

 

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Renaissance’s Easter Dress

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I finished it a while back, but she wore it for our Easter church service at home, and I finally remembered to snap a couple of pictures of her.

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I’ve had this pattern earmarked for a couple of years for her.  I’d purchased some great dresses from Lands End about four years ago for Emily, and then they were handed down to Ren, and now to Rachel, and they are such a great silhouette that I started keeping an eye out for a comparable pattern somewhere out there in Sewing Land.  It appeared one day in the form of Butterick 6450–a bloused bodice with an elastic waist, short sleeves, and a swingy skirt.  It works really great for a growing girl.

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This is View C, sewn up in a cotton lawn from Miss Matatabi.  I underlined the bodice with white cotton voile for modesty, and attached the same fabric as a lining beneath the skirt.  (Note to self: Don’t mix and match underlining the bodice with a lining for the skirt in this pattern in the future–it got messy when it came to attaching the zipper versus the encased elastic waistband.  Pick one method of under/lining and go with it for both the bodice and the skirt.)  I did not do the gathering on the sleeves, and I was surprised that I ended up using the full length of the View C skirt.

The skirt is seamed down the center front and back on the bias, which is something that I’d like to avoid in the future because I want to sew up a couple iterations of this in gingham prints, but that bias seam will cause all sorts of headaches with a gingham. I know it will be easy enough to throw a different skirt onto the bodice in the future, but sigh…more thinking ahead.  It worked well enough with this abstract print, and the skirt has turned out really well and fluttery without the danger of flipping up in a wind gust, à la a circle skirt.

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Construction was easy, with no weird head-scratching moments.  I like bias binding on my edges, so I really love that bound neckline–makes me so pleased everytime I see it!  The instructions on how to hem the skirt were really good and gave a nice finish.  The zipper instructions were a mess and I ended up just hacking the stupid thing in there, but that’s just because I am missing the gene that lets me understand how to put a zipper into anything.  Good enough.

I’m planning to sew up this pattern, with a few design changes, at least two more times this year.  It’s a great dress!

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