Slow Sew

I've been an enthusiastic machine quilter for about 15 years now, and other than quilt bindings, a bit of beading, and the infamous Sue Spargo project, have pretty much avoided hand-sewing for all that time. But here I am working on this special dress and have had to s-l-o-w down to a crawl, sewing-wise. I've had to resurrect some well-buried skills. And I'm finding enjoyment in the snail's pace.

Claire B. Schaffer's Couture Sewing Techniques is at my side. It has detailed tips for handling skittery fabrics and I'm pretty much following it all to the letter.

This dress is almost entirely cut on the bias, and using a slippery fabric like charmeuse on the bias requires some special handling. A one inch seam allowance is advisable, and I dug out tracing paper (white) and tracing wheel to mark the stitching lines before the pattern pieces were even cut. Now that the pattern pieces are cut, I'm hand stitching, marking on the sewing lines for better visibility. If you look closely in the picture above, you can see the faint traced lines ahead of the needle. Each piece of the dress will get this treatment; that's a lot of temporary hand-sewing.

Once stitching lines are all marked, then everything will be hand-basted together for fitting. I'll be carrying it all to Washington, DC in a few weeks for the bride to try on.

Gearing Up

We have a family wedding fast approaching. Except that it actually happened already.

Confused? OK, here's the story: my daughter's wedding will be September 12 in St. Lucia. Her fiance is not a U.S. citizen, and in order to obtain a green card, needed to produce a marriage certificate. So they were quietly married last August by her boss, a judge in Washington, D.C. Still, they want to be able to stand up before those most important to them and say some stuff. That's what will happen on September 12 in St. Lucia.

This will be a very small affair, with only immediate family and a few very close friends. Neither bride nor groom care to have a huge lavish show. It's just important that it take place.

And now's the time for good old mom to switch into couturiere mode. I have a pattern and 10 yards of butter-soft silk charmeuse awaiting my courage to cut into it. Know the old quilting joke about how the project is free if you've had the fabric for more than 6 months?? We bought this fabric nearly two years ago. So that means this dress will be free. That may boost my courage as I prepare to make that first very scary cut.

Crazy Making

Shouldn't summer reading be light and frothy? For whatever reason, I've been going in the opposite direction.

I listened to the audio version of Madness: A Bipolar Life by Marya Hornbacher, a chronicle of the author's struggle with rapid cycling type 1 bipolar disorder--the most severe form of the affliction. It was an intense but very thought-provoking listening experience. Marya, a hugely talented writer, cycles way up and way down, through years of bad advice and faulty diagnoses. Even a correct diagnosis isn't 100% of the answer, as the patient needs to understand and internalize best-practice plans even when her thinking is clearly at odds. It took Ms. Hornbacher years to come to grips with her unpredictable mind processes and to understand how to best care for herself.

Most of us have it so easy by comparison.

Listening added to the impact of this book. It felt like the chaotic thought patterns were hurtling at me and through me--the reader gets a real sense of what it's like to live in the author's head.

I love the Slate Audio Book Club. I've been listening to the podcast and then reading the books AFTER the discussion, which is bass-ackwards for sure. But it's introduced me to some books I never would have found on my own. A case in point: Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen, another book delving into mental instability and convoluted thinking. A man believes his wife has been replaced by a stand-in, and sets off to find his real wife. Along the way, there are discussions on parallel worlds, messages in the weather, emails from dead meteorologists, and plenty of odd thinking and tilted logic. It was dark and challenging but fun.

The Victoria

Happy 4th of July to all the Americans hanging around here. And a belated happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends. Some in my family got to celebrate Canada Day in style, while I could only enjoy it all vicariously.

Blogging has been lagging, but not due to inactivity. At work, the Summer Reading Program has been in full swing. I'm not our kids' librarian and am only needed in a support and crowd control role. It's been busy and fun. But I arrive home in the evening fairly wiped out.

And so I've been knitting. The body of the Victoria Shawl is completed.


This shawl is from the book Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. The yarn is Rowan Kidsilk Haze in the colorway Dewberry. This is my third shawl from this book; I think I'm getting my money's worth! And it could keep me busy for some time to come--there are about ten more shawls and scarves in Victorian Lace Today that I would love to make.

I have the lace cast-on for the knit-on border done and ready to go.


All that's needed is a bit of unbroken time to sit down and work through that first scary repeat of the yarnover-filled border. After a couple repeats are done, I think the pattern will make sense and I can sail along. Relatively speaking, that is.


I know I'm making progress with lace knitting when the pattern diagram for the border notes that there are no stitches in some areas. And I understand what that means.


Will this be done by my self-imposed deadline of September? We'll see.

Benefit

A very dear co-worker has been undergoing breast cancer treatment over the last 7 months. It's been a real education for me. Brenda's taught me a lot about dealing courageously with such a diagnosis, and also about the many ways a serious illness like cancer lays you bare to the world--physically, emotionally, financially.

Brenda is uninsured and this weekend was a big community benefit in her honor. So many people and such enthusiasm! The benefit was a rousing success and a lot of fun too.

I was asked to contribute something for the big raffle and this is what I made.


This table runner is the piece using the Hoffman Christmas prints that were so tricky to color-match.



Brenda is thoroughly contemporary in her tastes--she even has a lavender kitchen--and I worked to that idea, knowing full well that this piece would end up with another owner. But somehow it seemed that making it look like Brenda was a good way to imbue it with healing and positive thoughts for many more healthy years, for her and for all of us.


And in a wonderfully serendipitous touch, it was won by a former co-worker, who's been through lots of quilting with me and who, although she doesn't really sew at all, knows the value of a quilt, even a small one like this.

Loving Bias

Here I am, working at my usual snail's pace, doing the hand-stitching on the binding of a table runner.
There's been a lot of chatter around the blogosphere lately about binding--tutorials and lots of opinions. I'm opinionated about quilt binding too.

I will admit it. I'm a fool for bias. I love bias-cut fabric in all its sewing applications, but especially in quilt binding.

I almost always use bias strips to bind my quilts. The only time straight-grain strips enter the picture is to take advantage of the design of the binding fabric. Hmm. That would be a grand total of ONE quilt in my career. Otherwise, it's bias for me, hands-down, all the way.

There are fancy ways to cut bias strips but I don't use them. Re-inventing the wheel doesn't interest me. I start with a bit less than half a yard of fabric, maybe 15 or 16 inches (any longer and I have to butt one ruler up against another to cut the strips, which requires a third hand. Note to the quilt notion people: I would buy a 3 inch wide yardstick).

I cut the bias strips and seam the strips together.


The seams are pressed open, then the bias strip is folded in half the long way, and pressed. (I always make my binding so that it's doubled when sewn onto the quilt.) Then the folded bias is stitched to the quilt top, keeping all the raw edges even.


What's left is to wrap the binding around to the back side of the quilt and hand-stitch the folded edge along the machine stitching line. With a project like this, I'm good to go for a couple evening's TV movie viewing. I stitch as I go--there's no need to pin or clip down the binding in advance of the stitching.

I like narrow quilt binding. I almost always cut my strips 2 inches wide.

If I hadn't outed myself as a total needlework dork before, here is proof positive: what I love most about bias binding is the subtle rounded-ness of the finished binding as it lays on the quilt.


And binding cut on the bias is supple and yielding. It's simple to ease around curves or other shapes.


The look of quilt binding is a small detail for sure, but sewing is full of tiny details that give great pleasure. And this is one of my favorite tiny details. I especially love to use striped fabric to bind my quilts and I'm always on the lookout for interesting stripes.


Bias cut binding should wear better on a quilt too, as the straight fabric weave isn't receiving constant direct abrasion. That's something to think about, for sure, on a quilt that will get heavy wear.

Bias strips take no more work to make than straight-grain strips and the finished product is a small thing of beauty.

Off to finish this little table runner...

Hard Wired

It's funny how terriers are hard wired for rodent detection. Lucy likes to stand and watch out this window. A bird can be hopping around on the ground, close enough that she could swat it. No reaction. But let one chipmunk or gopher appear in the grass outside and Lucy gets the shakes and paces and barks and squeals. NO evasive maneuvers on our part are enough to distract her.

The rest of the world may be crashing in upon us but we feel we're safe from any chipmunk invasion.


And me--hard wired for quilting? That may be, but I've been avoiding it. This is my first quilting this year. Can't believe it's been that long. Life is short--must get more quilted.


This is a weird little table runner--Christmas table runner actually--that will be part of a benefit for my friend/co-worker who has been undergoing cancer treatment since last fall. Labor of love.


And if positive quilting thoughts have any power, the word cancer is hereby banished from her life forever.


This runner is based on a couple gorgeous Hoffman holiday prints. But let me tell you, you don't realize how fleeting seasonal quilt fabrics are until you try to find go-togethers for Christmas fabrics from several years back. The palette of these fabrics is mauve-y and seafoam green. Good luck finding holiday fabrics in those colors this year!



I had to fall back on old reliable batiks--the best bet for matching odd shades of any kind. With luck, this piece will be bound and completed this week, just in time for the benefit next weekend.