Clover pants

I have started to work on my Clover pants but I haven't taken any pictures. Frankly, I'm not sure I should.  I've read a few blogs out there who claim to not be interested in reading about the actual process of sewing.  They are only interested in seeing the finished product.

At any rate, I'm using a lovely navy blue stretch twill and they are coming along nicely.  I will post as soon as I have them completed.

I've also found a quilter to quilt my quilt.  Hmmm. Say that three times fast.  I have to put together the backing so I will be finishing that up this weekend.

In the meantime, I've been watching Mad Men (who hasn't??) and loving all the fashion.  I can't say I'm a big fan of Megan's wardrobe although this dress was a lot of fun:

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I much prefer Peggy's wardrobe although we didn't see much of her clothing this episode.  I think this is my favorite.

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*sigh*  I love this show.

What I did on my St. Patricks Day...

I worked on my quilt.  The storm that's blowing through Southern California has given me a little time to work on it.

Some of my squares came out looking great!

Some of them came out looking wonky...

No matter what I did,  they would line up.  Luckily, there are more that turned out correctly than wonky and since this is my third quilt in about 20 years, I'm not too distressed if it isn't perfect. I'm not entering it in a county fair or anything like that.  It seems that apparel sewing is a little more forgiving.  Quilting takes more precision. 

The quilt has turned out to be a bit small, though.  I wanted it to be more blanket size but it's closer to lap-blanket size.  I got some matching kona cotton for a border to enlarge the quilt somewhat...

...but, I'm angsting to get to my Colette Clover pants that I've put off for far too long and adding more to the quilt will take longer - but not that much longer.

I think Sanguine needs to learn to enjoy the process instead of rushing to get to the end product.

The quilt is looking fine and it will be a warm addition to my house, regardless of the size. 

Have a great day and keep on sewing!

Quilt Making, Gift Giving, Freinds Gathering

And so begins the journey to Temecula Quilt Company, a fabulous little quilt shop in Temecula, CA.  Owner, Sheryl Johnson opened her shop in March, 2007 and has made this place a meeting ground for classes, fabrics, and friends for the past five years.  You can see her blog here.

The shop is decorated in a lovely turn-of-the-century-turns-modern-day store.

 Many gorgeous quilts are on display.

I have to say, I'm becoming fascinated with quilts and quilting.  I just love the way they look and feel.  I could watch quilting for hours.  In fact, I'm looking at some of my fabric stash to see what fabrics I can use for quilting.

I spent the other night piecing together my blocks for my hodge-podge quilt.  It looks like it's going to be a nice size, although I don't know how large yet.  It should be about a twin size blanket. I'm going today to look for some nice backing fabric for it.  Pictures to come!

Have a great day and keep on sewing!

Yes, Sanguine has been absent from the blogosphere of late.  It turns out that relocating to a different state and transferring to a new job takes waaayyy too much time away from sewing and blogging.  This is not a good start for a new blogger but drat the luck, life just gets in the way! Things are not settled down yet but Sanguine has decided to take the bull by the horns and control this demon!  Some of it has been the fact that I want to sew and blog and some of it has been the fact that I need to sew and blog.  Go figure!

I did finally find time to buy some clearance Lisette fabric at JoAnn's.  These were $6/yard and I have been coveting them relentlessly over the past year.  I just couldn't bring myself to spending the $12 - 14.99/yard for them.  Then, using coupons from my JoAnn's iphone app and my 10% off card, I was in the money - er ….fabric, I mean.

I've moved back to the lovely Temecula Valley in Southern California but, one thing I had forgotten was that it's cold here!  Well, cold for someone who has lived in Arizona for the past nine years. Anything under 70 degrees and I'm looking for my heavy coat. One of the things about Southern California is that you always need to dress in layers because the weather could be cold in the morning, warm mid day, blustery in the afternoon and cold again in the evening. Layers are an essential component of life in California.  But, I discovered that I didn't have any decent warm blankets. I'd be sitting on the couch at the end of the day and I was absolutely freezing.  I'd cover myself with my thin fleece lap blankets but they fell woefully short of keeping me warm.  Turning on the heater was my only recourse. Hence, it was time to pull out all my fabric scraps and quilt kits in my stash and begin to make a quilt for those cool February evenings.

Now, I've only made two quilts in my life - one was from a kit I bought and I still use it for my son.  The other was for my Dad to keep him warm in the hospital before hie died.  Both were easy, quick and fun but I never really considered myself a quilter. I still don't.  I prefer apparel sewing.

Then again, any reason to go fabric shopping, right?

Well, this is what I'm going to start with.  I bought this kit three years ago and never made the quilt.  The directions tell me to put all the squares in a big paper bag, shake them up, and just grab and sew without any thought to pattern.  Simple enough, right?

I have some fabric that I absolutely love left over from the quilt I made for my dad.  I'm going to cut those down and add them in.  They may not really match the theme but  I love the fabric too much to leave them sitting in my scraps pile. 

This quilt is supposed to be a hodge-podge anyways. I don't have the backing yet nor the batting but that will come in time. I don't want to quilt it myself because I don't really know how to yet so I just might hire someone with a long arm quilting machine to do it for me - if it isn't too expensive.

So, tell me friends.  Do you ever find yourself sewing things out of necessity rather than pleasure?  Did you like doing it or did you find it to be more of a chore? Or, do you even care what you sew, just as long as you can sew?

Have a great day and keep on sewing.