A Mermaid Skirt for Me

 Things have been bus around here lately. I have been sewing, lots. With seemingly little to show for it. Not many finishes at the moment. It's all about process, slow and consistent, with lots of lesson learning long the way. I am currently working on two Holiday quilts, both of which I would love to have finished for upcoming C-day. (That day which I should not be referring to or even hinting at, no Sir.) I may or may not have a few handmade gifts in progress too.

But today I wanted a mermaid skirt. Yesterday I had a revelation. I am fairly small, therefore I can actually make a wearable skirt with only 1/2 yard of quilting cotton. I'd always assumed I would need two widths, but apparently not. So I worked out a plan for a stupidly simple skirt last night. I would love to make a tutorial, both to remind myself of the process and to help anyone else who wants a really easy pattern free skirt. Hopefully I will find decent light in the next few days and be able to photograph the process.

My skirt is made from a Spoonflower Heather Ross print on Kona Cotton. I'm not entirely sure that its the same as the version on the HR Prints CD, I printed mine a few months before the book came out. The kelp stripe is original Mendocino. I had a bit of trouble with the top-stitching on the hem and waistband. Not sure why but my Pfaff doesn't take well to top stitching. I'll try to figure out why for my next skirt.

Two Little Quilts

I have spent much of last month making and quilting small quilts. At this point I am not sure I will ever be entirely comfortable with quilting big quilts myself, but I have enjoyed completing these smaller projects and have many more planned for the next few months. I'm still trying to scale myself up to the point where I can balance a lap sized quilt without problems. Not quite there yet.

My first baby sized quilt finish was this little patchwork blanket in Aneela Hoey's ' Cherry Christmas' line. I added a few co-ordinating fabrics, all in a cherry red, pistachio green, turquoise blue, grey and white palette. It is definitely Christmassy, but hopefully not too much so. I would happily have these fabrics in service all through the wintery months anyway. I still need to figure out how to finish off my own Cherry Christmas Quilt. I used all of the fabrics from my quilt in this mini version. The back is a print from 'Little Apples' on white, which I'l be using on my big quilt too. I quilted along the seam lines with a grey-ish blue thread and used Kona Caribbean to bind.

My second small finish is the Battenburg Squares quilt. This time I tried quilting slightly wonky horizontal lines, with a few hand quilted lines here and there to add interest. I actually love the back of this quilt even more than the front. I didn't have enough of the Amy Butler wavy stripe fabric I had planned on using, so I use some leftover blocks from the font an improvised to fill the space. I really really enjoyed this part and love how it turned out! I used Moda Bella Solid Citrine for most of the front. Prints are a selection from my stash in pink and apricot tones and I used Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Raspberry Pink to bind.

Both quilts are listed in my etsy store now :)