Project: project runway

Kat and I have set out to play a little game. We are skipping the audition phase, and going right to prime time. Cut to the WORK ROOM. Project Project Runway. We will follow along at home and do the challenges that they do on the show. But we will do them with dolls.

Challenge 1: Sew It Begins
Challenge: Create an outfit using an item of clothing that came with your doll. You can use other fabric in your outfit but that piece of clothing must be distinguishable in your final garment.
Feel free to show what accessories you would use from Piperlime
Time: You have 5 hours to make your outfit.
Post Date: Wednesday, August 4 (Workroom photos can be posted before that date)

On show #1, the models were randomly assigned to the contestants.


The selection at the local target was not vast, so I was almost 'assigned' this doll. (This is the first Barbie I have ever owned! )

Time to get to work on the outfit.
I'm off to Mood!

progress post - a quilt is born

Inspired by the Chirp Chirp quilt, I set out to make something that was a little bit more contemporary. And I stridently avoided the math and worrisome perfection of sewing multiple identical squares. (that leaves the hairs on the back of my neck bristling! Fear. I cannot set out to do something, and not know until the end that, oh, its not going to work because you are 5 inches bigger at the bottom.) (I had a baby, for crying out loud, I am five inches bigger on the bottom!)



My requirements became the following:
It needs to work out.
It cannot demand perfection.
It needs to have a purpose. I have the GREAT good fortune in my life of having more than one crib quilt showered upon me at the birth of my daughter. !!! So the idea of yet another one, competing with the amazing, generous LOVE that has already been shown to her/us seemed ‘wrong’.

Even though the smart choice would be to do a small project first, that is 'crib size', and I would like to have this quilt last a little longer than "crib". I decided to go “lap size”. And I looked around for what that meant formally. I found several different dimensions, and that suited me just fine, because then what ever size this comes out, that is “lap size”.


We have a niece in England. She was the long awaited girl baby, born to a family with 3 older brothers! So I decided the quilt would be for her. She just turned a year, so it will be her belated first birthday gift. It has made it all the more fun to ‘talk to her’ and think of her while I work on it.

The unlikely quilter

My motto in life is "if you can't eat it or wear it, don't waste your time with it" so quilting and cross stitch have both been held at arms length.
Until now.
I was inspired watching Kat. Earlier this year, she did a quilt along, and I vicariously did too. She started here. And followed the tutorial from "I have to say". It was fun to watch.

On our family vacation up in Minnesota this June, the ladies took a field trip to "Back Porch Quilts", and I saw "the Chirp Chirp" quilt.

"Chirp Chirp" quilt
Originally uploaded by craft room

I fell in love. It looked less intimidating to me than some of the traditional quilts done in blocks. If you are even one sixteenth off, and you have many blocks, you can be miles off by the end of the quilt. This project looked more forgiving. It also looked more modern to me.
There was quite a bit of planning and calculating done in the shop. But in the end, the unfortunate counter help, and complete sticker shock sent my back to my family without any fabric.
I came home from that vacation, and went to my sewing area at home. I must have been destine to quilt because I had ALMOST enough fabric for the top of a quilt already in the house. I have been collecting little pieces of sweet fabric to make little girl clothes for a year and a half now. And lo and behold, the stash began to form a quilt in my head.
I'll show you how it's coming!