Free Motion Mavericks - Week 341 - Underskirt Taking Shape

Over the past couple of weeks I have done very little on the underskirt, but it's very nearly there!

It has progressed from the tennis skirt stage and is now unmistakeably an underskirt.  I have added one more tier to the inner layer, with a sewn down fold just below knee level to give a second channel for a hoop.  So far I have put on just one layer of netting, but I shall be adding another tier underneath.  Once that is finished, I can leave the hem and hoops until we have a proper fitting at the dressmaker's next month for the hem of the wedding dress to be taken up.

Slowly but surely the wedding plans are coming together.  Our daughter and her young man have been staying with us for nearly a fortnight so they can do all the necessary admin - seeing the local registrar, getting paperwork filed with the diocese, visiting the venue we have lined up for the reception, sorting out the guest list... so much to do!  At the same time they have been working from home, with daughter on her computer downstairs, and fiancé in his makeshift home office up in the attic.  Between us we have sorted out so much over the past two weeks that we are beginning to really look forward to the big day.  October will soon be upon us! 

 

Here goes for Week 341:-

Many thanks to Gail for linking up with her beautiful wedding quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 339 - Not a Tennis Skirt

How appropriate for summer - not that I ever played tennis.

The underskirt that I am making to go under my daughter's wedding dress is beginning to take shape.  I'm not following a pattern, just making it up as I go along, and hoping that it gives the right amount of fullness to the skirt.  I have yards of net to add to the outside, and still need to add about another 12 inches to the length.  

Today I added the pleated section to the fitted top part, or the pelmet, that I had already made.  It took me ages to fold the pleats, and I made sure there were more pleats at the back than the front.  The fabric I have used is sheeting, and to make sure it has extra firmness I broke the rules by having the selvedge run across the top.  When making a skirt, the warp of the fabric should run from top to bottom to ensure the skirt drapes well, because the weft is less resistant and folds softly.  For the underskirt more body is needed, and having the selvedge at the top of the pleats also meant I had no raw edge to neaten, and so less bulk at the bottom of the pelmet where the two sections are joined together.

At the back I had to remove the bottom button to be able to machine stitch the lower section into place.

At the bottom I have made a one inch hem that I might run a hoop through.  I don't yet know if a hoop will be needed, but if it is, it will be easy to fit through the hem.

Most of the wedding preparations over the past fortnight have been general Mother of the Bride admin - counting up the guests and spending hours online looking for the right place for the reception.  We now have an eye on a place we have visited, and if all goes according to plan we should be booking the reception before the end of the month.  Time is flying - only three months to go!

 

Here goes for Week 339:-

Many thanks to Chris for linking up last time with her autumn quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 337 - It's a Pelmet

The best name for the indecently short skirt that I have just made for my daughter.  I never imagined I would ever make her a pelmet, but I have.  It is fully lined and fits perfectly, and she looks pretty scandalous in it.

It is in fact stage 1 of the underskirt to go under her wedding dress.  It needs some layers of net to give fullness to the skirt of the dress, and the top section is designed to fit snugly on her hips.  At the moment it is creased and could do with a wash before I start on the main part of the underskirt, which will be attached to the hem. 

It fastens at the back.  Rather than use a zip, I decided buttons would be better, because if I got the fit slightly wrong, it is always easier to shift buttons rather than adjust a zip or darts.  The buttons are old mother of pearl buttons that I have had hidden away for years, so I was glad to have finally found a use for them, and also give her something old for the bride's traditional "something old, something new..."  

 

Here goes for Week 337:-

Many thanks to Gail for linking up last time with her animals quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 335 - Not The Dress

Shopping for wedding dresses can be stressful - or not.

My daughter had very fixed ideas about her wedding dress.  She knew exactly what style she wanted, and we both trawled the internet for days looking for her ideal dress.  The only way to be sure was to try a few on, so last Sunday afternoon we went to an off-the-peg shop in town to see if we could find the perfect dress.  I wasn't hugely optimistic.  The shop's policy is to start with four dresses in the dressing room, so the salesgirl took my daughter to look through everything in her size.  Once the selection had been made, we went to the changing room, where the assistant and my daughter disappeared behind a curtain, and then pulled back the curtain for me to see the future bride.

So the verdicts on each dress were:-

Number 1 - Marks, 6 out of 10, badly fitting bodice which didn't particularly suit her.

Number 2 - 7 out of 10, very classy seen from the front, nice silhouette, but too much of a plunge at the back.

Number 3 - Amazing.  My jaw dropped.  A timeless classic look.  It is now at home hanging upstairs, and is therefore Top Secret.

Number 4 - Didn't stand a chance after Number 3, so much so that in comparison it looked trashy.

A quick and painless search if ever there was one.  I had offered to make her dress if we drew a blank at the shops, but I cannot pretend that I am sorry to have been saved the trouble.  My contribution will be to make her underskirt and her veil.

When we came home we announced to my husband that he was not allowed to see it - even if he had he wouldn't have been able to visualise it on her, and would probably have forgotten what it looked like within about twenty minutes.  We want to keep it as a surprise for him on the big day.  However, he was treated to seeing her in my wedding dress, which I hauled out of the wardrobe for her to try on.  Totally not her style, but despite the messy hair, she looked pretty in it - and I was relieved that it hadn't been attacked by moths!

So now you know my sewing plans!  Underskirt, veil, perhaps a dress for Mother of the Bride, and then wedding quilt, in that order.  Provided the churches aren't locked down again, and important guests can travel to England, we shall be having an exciting Autumn!

 

Here goes for Week 335:-

Many thanks to Rebecca Grace for showing us a repair job that would fill most people with paralysing dread.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 333 - Still in the Archives

It's another dive into the archives today, after a wonderfully busy two weeks.  Our daughter arrived home on Monday 24th May for a week's holiday from work.  On the following Wednesday we took a day trip to a glorious beach in South Wales, then on the Friday we travelled to Surrey to stay with my brother.  We hadn't seen each other since New Year 2020, so there was a lot of catching up to do, with plenty of visits from his children and grandchildren.  It was a busy weekend, long overdue, and brought home how much of a rut we have been in during the past few months.

Sewing?  Still not got started again, but I will have to before long.  There is a wedding on the horizon.  Where do I start?  Quilt or outfit?  I shall have to make my mind up soon.

 

Here goes for Week 333:-

Many thanks to Gail for linking up last time with her African place mats .  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 331- Looking in the Archives

How time flies when you're busy!  Which is another way of saying that I have done zero sewing, and won't get much done in the next ten days or so.  My daughter is due to come home for a visit, and we should be making a visit together to my brother in Surrey.  Finally we are catching up with friends and relatives that we haven't seen for ages, and it is an absolute delight.  

Now that things are moving again on the family front, it looks as though I have a big creative project in the offing, so I can think about which free motion quilting designs to use again.  All my favourite designs are based on plants, and this poppy head has to make a reappearance.  I am thinking this project will be a good opportunity to devise a pomegranate design, which will have to be on a larger scale than the poppy head.  A quick internet search has shown me that a pomegranate tree has a very simple shaped leaf, which should make life easier!

 

Here goes for Week 331  :-

Many thanks to Rebecca Grace for linking up last time showing a top made by a 90 year old lady and which was quilted for charity. I want to be like that when I'm 90!  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 329 - A Sandwich

This is the first sandwich done for the latest batch of little quilts, and I was glad of the opportunity to use the blue gingham print for the backing.  It is the first time I have used it, and this is the perfect top to go with it.  For ages I have wanted to do a quilt with mainly spots, stripes and checks, and with this colour combination it gives a lovely fresh, clean, uncomplicated look.  I have already chosen the binding, and am looking forward to getting it all done.

Meanwhile, I am still working like a Trojan at the allotment.  We have had rain, at long last, after an exceptionally dry April, so from now on everything is going to grow really quickly.  The asparagus season has started, and I cooked the first of the crop earlier this week - too delicious for words.  It was cooked about two hours after it was cut, and the flavour was exquisite.  As for the potatoes, they have all come up, and should keep us stocked up from late summer until about Christmas.

   

Here goes for Week 329:-

Many thanks to Andrée for linking up last week with her A to Z challenge, which included her strings quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.