… my miscellaneous projects!
I decided to start a new blog where I keep all my quilting activities separated from the rest.
It’s right here, still new and shiny 
sorting
Posted by manuela on February 1, 2010
Posted in uncategorized | 1 Comment »
a reversible coat
Posted by manuela on January 13, 2010
I signed up at Wardrobe Refashion for life and this is my first piece, a reversible coat made from fabrics I had in my stash for … years!
I used an out-of-print Vogue Elements pattern 7146. It’s a pretty easy pattern and didn’t need any adjustments.
Originally I wanted to make this fun Purrfection coat:
I found the pattern, already cut out, I found the fake fur for the edgings , but I could absolutely not find the actual coat fabric and the lining. So my cats got lucky.
Leo likes his new throne, even though it’s just an old cardboard box covered in fake dog fur 
Incidentally, my wardrobe adventures fit the Creative Every Day (CED) challenge theme for January “body” perfectly. I love the physicality of sewing and fitting my body. You get to know your shapes and curves and hollows intimately when fitting a garment you make yourself. And you get to appreciate them, too.
Doesn’t it make more sense to view your body as just right and the clothes as either well or ill fitting, rather than the clothes as right, but your body as “wrong”?
Posted in CED2010, sewing, wardrobe refashion | Tagged: 7146, coat, sewing, vogue | 2 Comments »
quilt top finished
Posted by manuela on January 5, 2010
It seemed to take forever, but the top is done – unless I decide to add a really dark blue border. What do you think?
If you find the mistake I made, you’ll win the eagle-eyes award!
And since I’ll be on vacation next week, I just might get it finished then.
Posted in CED2010, quilting | Tagged: quilting | 2 Comments »
what i learned last week
Posted by manuela on December 28, 2009
I definitely learned that piecing a quilt top is much easier than sewing a blouse! Especially if said top consists of only squares. So it’s coming along and will be finished over the long New Year’s weekend.
The shirt is another story. I started with this:
and it went downhill from there. I do OK sewing pants, but I have yet to sew a shirt that did not end up in the dust bin. So what did I learn from this exercise?
- don’t hang bias-cut fabric on your dressform if you don’t want it to grow overnight.
- if the pattern says that the interfacing is optional – don’t believe a word of it!
- basting tricky seams (and they all are!) is a good idea.
- if you want better odds than a snowball in hell in finishing a wearable blouse, don’t pick the most slippery fabric in your stash.
- if per chance you have overcome the obstacles resulting from ignorance of points 1 thru 4 and all that’s left to do is sew the collar, do not, under any circumstances, iron your polyester fabric on cotton setting.
- try again (this would be my New Year’s resolution)!
On the bright side, I now have this nice yellow fabric, that would be perfect for a purse lining.
Posted in oops, quilting, sewing, wardrobe refashion | Tagged: oops, quilting, sewing, shirt | Leave a Comment »
merry christmas
Posted by manuela on December 24, 2009
Just in time – I finished this table topper at about noon today.
A big thank-you to Quiltjule at the Quiltfriends forum for the treeskirt tutorial that inspired it!
May you all have a wonderful Christmas!
Posted in quilting, sewing | Tagged: christmas, table topper | Leave a Comment »
quilting away
Posted by manuela on December 16, 2009
I pulled a project I started over the summer out of the UFO closet and I hope I will finish the top by New Year’s.
So this is going to be me for the rest of the evening:
E. Hopper: Girl at Sewing Machine
Posted in quilting | Tagged: girl at sewing machine, hopper, quilt | Leave a Comment »
back to quilting
Posted by manuela on December 14, 2009
at least a little.
Baby Jane E6
My mother and I started working together on our Baby Janes at the beginning of the year. And got a little sidetracked by other things. Must.Learn.Impulse.Control.
Posted in quilting | Tagged: baby jane, quilting, wips | Leave a Comment »
new skirt
Posted by manuela on November 29, 2009
I made this simple skirt from a 15 year old sweatshirt. It had a nice heavy textured cotton knit fabric, but came in an unflattering sack shape. I just cut off the sleeves and neck, turned the top edge for the waistband, and – done. I think it needs a lining, though.
Nov 29
Sorry for the lousy picture. My camera is ready to give up its ghost and the mirror shows its age (it’s not dirt, really!).
Posted in AEDM, sewing, wardrobe refashion | Tagged: recycle, refashion, skirt | 3 Comments »
reading
Posted by manuela on November 27, 2009
So there were a few days that I did not do anything creative, unless you want to count creating new synaptic connections in my brain by reading an excellent book.
Said book being Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Brain, where argues that skills considered “right-brain” become ever more important for personal and economic success. He makes a pretty good argument in an entertaining way and each of the skills has a section in the book with suggestions for further reading, links, and activities. Love those exploration sections!
Anyway, any book shelved in the psychology section and called “my favorite business book” by the-world-is-flat- Mr Friedman has me interested!
I did play a little, though:
Nov 22-27
Recycling a store bought picture that I don’t like anymore. I’ll spare you the picture of a (now) all white canvas .
A few sketches:
Nov 22-27
Nov 22-27
Nov 22-27
and for watching TV in the evenings a scrumble:
Nov 22-27
Can you even see the tiny bit of crochet in the middle of the yarn?? What can I say, not much TV watching going on here!
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
Posted in AEDM, reading | Tagged: crochet, recycle, scrumbles | 1 Comment »
nine patch
Posted by manuela on November 21, 2009
Even though my one of my inks ran out, I was still able to print a set of green contact photos of the lines&shapes blocks. It actually helped seeing only the values rather than all color. After quite a bit of arranging and rearranging I decided to stick with a traditional nine-patch grid for the lay-out. I won’t be centering them on the grid, though, but align them so that the darkest values in the blocks form lines. Does that make sense?
I tried to show this with the dashed lines connecting the blocks.
Nov 21
Piecing the white background and quilting will hopefully establish a few more relationships. I am pretty curious to see what will happen!
But first I still need to make another 3 blocks.
Posted in AEDM, quilting | Tagged: quilting | 1 Comment »
