WIPW - New Starts and A Restart

Work In Progress Wednesday.

The past week has been about starting two new projects (a stitch sampler and a quilt), restarting an old UFO (The Mandala) and of course, continuing with the ongoing quilt (Hexablooms). A bit of garment adjustment was also achieved.

Hexablooms

I added more floral blocks in purple. In total, 75 blocks are joined together. It's getting difficult to photograph...

Mandala

Here is the restart of a shelved UFO. I added more Colonial Knots to the Mandala. Two out of four sections like this are filled.

New! Sunday Stitch School Indigo Stitch Sampler

This is a new stitch sampler for the remaining and future Sunday Stitch School stitches.

I added #301 Wreath Stitch, #302 Triangular Bullion Stitch, and #303 Tacked Herringbone Stitch.

The coarse cotton is lovely to stitch on, but tough to mark. For the orange wreath, I tried to mark the fabric with a yellow charcoal pencil. The markings were not clear enough to guide the needle, but the charcoal stuck to the fabric, and here I am with a yellow stain inside the wreath.

In the end, I had to mark the design on a piece of paper, pin it to the fabric and stitch through the paper.  The result was a very neat wreath.

In the stitch at the top, I also stitched the corners - I ended up with a square wreath!

New! The Baby Quilt

Next month, a friend of mine will become a grandmother, and I want to welcome the Little One with a simple quilt.

There will be pieces of scraps from my stash in it, but I needed a piece of cotton big enough for the larger area and the back. Off I went to a fabric shop where I selected a print with pink cherry blossoms and the traditional Japanese wave patterns.

The first step was to wash the fabric. 

Step number two will be to give it a good press with a hot iron, before cutting it into the desired parts.

Modifying Clothing

A young family member came with a request: "Aunty Queenie, please shorten this secondhand T-shirt I bought online". 

My nephew had bought a T-shirt marked size L. Made in the US, it was considerably larger than a Japanese L-size, especially in length. When my nephew modelled the T-shirt, I thought he was wearing a dress.

Out came my Elna sewing machine and the presser foot for "Super Overlock Stitch". In the manual, it says: "This industrial inspired overlock stitch is excellent for assembling and finishing fabrics together in one step. Apply ribbings to knits and garment retains its shape. Elna invented this stitch in 1982."

I haven't worked with knits or overlocking in a long time, but the machine delivered a good result.

Sorry, no photo was taken.