Single Girl Quilt – Miss Celie's Pants

The Single Girl and the Five-Year Break

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Miss Celie

Guys. Don’t ever take a five year break from a quilting project.

This is my Single Girl Quilt by Denyse Schmidt. I’ve had it in a plastic bin in the dark reaches of my basement since 2008. Why? I couldn’t remember. I started cleaning my sewing space this weekend and decided I wanted to finish this project. I rarely use my dining room, so I figured I’d set up my Singer Featherweight and make that a quilting area. That way, I could work on it when I felt like it and didn’t feel like it would be in the way of other sewing.

But, guess what? My quilt is a mess. Allow me to explain.

I don’t have one single square complete. Even the ones that look complete, like these four, are missing the white outside border/backing in the lower right quadrant.

Most, don’t have a section made to be able to complete the block (they are sewn in quadrants).

Or, don’t have entire halves to sew

And, more importantly, I have three (?) color palettes going (dark brown, light pink, dark pink)

I laid these all out today so I could figure out what’s going on. It seems I need to take a quadrant each and go to the quilt shop. I don’t have a lot of these fabrics left and I need to buy some material in the ‘right’ color zone to finish this out.

But, this does remind me about the one thing I don’t like about quilting. Picking out fabric. I get so incredibly overwhelmed. I tend to just want to buy a kit or let someone pick it all out for me.

So, again I tell you, don’t take a five year break from a project.

Quilting Progress

Posted on June 28, 2009June 28, 2009 by Miss Celie

It’s been a while since I chatted about the Single Girl Quilt — which I think I’m going to name ‘Put a Ring on It’. When I last left you, I was piecing together the circle quadrants. I ran short of fabric for the last quadrant, but Cynthia at Fabricworm has sent me a fresh shipment!! ** All print fabric from Fabricworm.com. I rather like quilting. No fitting and very therapeutic.

Today, I worked on the inner and outer background pieces.

The inside border piece is solid and shaped like a pie. The outside piece is sort of like a fingernail. When sewn to each quadrant, they form a square. Four of these squares are sewn together to form the full circle.

To cut the border pieces, I traced the template with pencil.

Using my rotary cutter, I cut the straight edges.

If you sew clothes, sewing the curved pieces will not be an issue. There is some easing involved but easy enough when pinned. I found that the border should be on top when sewing the inside so that you ease the circle and vice versa for the outside border.

Now, I just have like… 30 more to go 🙂

For those worried about my poor IKEA drawers — fear not. I heard your warning and moved them into this plastic container. This also holds four years worth plus a slew of Knip Modes.

quilting

Single Girl Quilt at Pottery Barn?!?!

Posted on April 2, 2009April 2, 2009 by missceliespants

Sisters. Emily just sent me this bit. Pottery Barn is carrying the Single Girl Quilt by Denyse Schmidt! The twin is $299. Queen $349. Sham, $69.

If you recall, I’m working on my very own with Anna Maria Horner prints from FabricWorm.com. Which, is not taking as long as I thought it would. This is a great kick to pick it up again this weekend!

Oh, and speaking of Anna Maria, she has some REALLY cute new patterns out (clothing too!) including this free quilt download .

And, haircut a great success. No photos yet. But, I’m sure over the weekend. I also didn’t have time to make up new pants and I had to turn in the pattern today. And, next week is spring break. So, the new muslin will have to wait for another week.

Design School, sewing

Drafting a Basic Collar

Posted on March 15, 2009March 15, 2009 by Miss Celie

So, here’s a quickie on drafting collars. I’m going to do my best here…

Above is my drafted collar. Darn, it’s labeled wrong. Ummm. Ok. Below is the draft on the fold.

From A down is the height of the collar. Generally, collars are 3 inches tall. A down is the Center Back (shown a D in the first photo).

B to C in the first photo equals my total neck measurement. You get that that from measuring the neckline on the front and back of your sloper / pattern
B to D is the center back to the shoulder

The roll line (in green) is half the width of the collar, tapering to ½ inch from the center front (C)
F is the point of the collar, and that extends past line C, the collar front, by a minimum 1 inch.

To do the undercollar, just trim about 1/8 from the collar edge graduating to nothing in the corner.

You my friend, have a collar

I’m starting the last of the four ring quadrants on the Single Girl quilt! I have made two cutting mistakes during construction, but since I’m not a hardcore matchy matchy girl, I think it’ll all be ok.

This week I worked with the darker prints I got from fabricworm.com. More browns. I’m not sure yet if I’ll make all dark (below) and all light circles (above), or mix the two together so each circle is half light and half dark. Either way, I’m like 1/8 of a yard short of each print to finish the final quadrant! That’s what I get for moving from a crib (4 circles) to a twin quilt (12) and just assuming the fabric would work out!

I didn’t have time to call Joanns today. I had to work for a few hours in the middle of the day. I’ll do it tomorrow. That was great advice. I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me to call them!

sewing

Rebooting

Posted on March 8, 2009March 8, 2009 by Miss Celie

Hello Kids,

I did something really odd on Saturday. Nothing. If you know me, you know that I get up around six or seven on the weekends and go about my weekend. Yesterday, I slept until around 11. Went to the Walters Art Museum around 1:00 p.m., came home at 3:00 and crawled right back in to bed. Slept until 7:00 p.m. and went back to sleep at 11:00 p.m. and got up at 8:00 a.m. Normally, this kind of behavior would freak me out (I worry that people who sleep all day might be depressed — I was a Resident Assistant at my boarding high school and lived in an all girls dorm in college. Talk about bird’s eye view of disorders and depression). And, I haven’t let myself slow down the last month or so. But, yesterday felt glorious and I feel truly awake for the first time in weeks.

So, what took me to the Walters? Baltimore is pretty awesome in that our two largest art museums are FREE to the public. The Walters and the Baltimore Museum of Art both have amazing textile collections.

This time though, I went to see the ‘ArtBlooms’ exhibit — Garden of Eden theme.

And the St. Johns Bible exhibit.

The Walters recently let several staffers go and closed about 16 positions — all in an effort to keep the museum free to the public. I think that’s a pretty painful sacrifice to make and I don’t take enough advantage of the resources I have living in a City. Like FDR said, ‘Artists have to eat too.’

Today: Well, I should have worked on my AB Weekender or my summer dress, but instead, I tackled my Single Girl Quilt by Denyse Schmidt. And you know what? I forgot that I actually REALLY like to quilt! Seriously. I was totally in the zone today just cutting and piecing. This is my first time making something with templates. Which was easier than I thought.

You can cut in layers and you can use a rotary cutter! Each ring is divided into quarters. Below are quarters 1 and 2. Quarters thee and four will be a mix of 1 and 2. I’m going to have four like this, and four in another colorway, etc. These are so fresh and bright, I can’t wait to get a full quadrant done to show off!

The prints are from the lovely Cynthia at fabricworm.com. They are:Lizzy House and Anna Maria Horner.Two fabric designers you’ll be seeing a lot of here!

That’s it for my weekend! I still have a homework assignment to do. This week we drafted princess seams and yoked bodices. Now, I need to make them up in fabric for school.