Monday, April 11, 2011

Home from Cincinnati and Spring Happenings

We four Frankfort girls had fun in Cincinnati at the International Quilt Festival. I took pictures, but the rules for sharing photos have me scared to death that I will break some copyright rule and be hauled off to prison.

My thinking is this: I keep this blog for no other reason than to record the stuff I'm working on and to share it with a few people. It's sort of a public diary or journal. I do not make any money or advertise for any company or individual. So as long as I identify the maker of the quilt and the festival where I saw it, why would anyone care that I shared a picture? Or two? Or twenty?

All this mumbo-jumbo about what's legal and what's forbidden has me somewhat gunshy! I'm going to be bold and show this picture, which was the quilt photographed on all the literature for the festival. It's called Basket of Tulips and is made by 4 women: Andi J. Perejda, Joan Bruce, Barbara Collins and Rene Jennings.

Since I'm too wimpy to show the other pictures I took, I will simply explain that I mostly photgraphed the tradtional quilts, as opposed to the art quilts. I guess I take pictures of quilts I am likely to make; I don't ever see me making anything that would fall into an "art quilt" category. I appreciate the workmanship, but have no desire whatsoever to attempt any such project.

I did a lot of shopping and even more browsing. I thought the place was very warm, but it might have been just me and my power surges. *g*

After busting the bank account on fabric at the festival, I am home and redirecting my focus for a couple of months. I don't know if I've mentioned it here on the blog or not, but Emma and I decided that we are making her prom dress. She showed me what she liked in the magazines, and her favorite one seemed really simple. So we went shopping for a pattern; believe it or not, the first one I suggested to her is the one we bought! It is going to be pretty easy to make (however, I've never put boning in a dress bodice before, so we shall see how that goes). It's a McCalls pattern.

The color is champagne, and we are using shantung as the underfabric and organza as the overfabric. It is all very flowy from the empire waist down; the strapless bodice is ruched and the midriff will be trimmed with some beading.

I've constructed a practice bodice today (minus the boning) and am waiting for Emma to try it on. Once we are certain that everything is going to fit properly, I will hunker down and get to work! Prom is April 30.

In addition to the prom dress, which is an immediate need, in June I am hosting 2 events here at our cozy abode - Emma's graduation party in early June, and a bridal shower for the daughter of a dear friend in mid-June. I've got some mighty big lists to work through in order to be ready for these shindigs!

 Both events will occur here on our screened porch, and we have some serious cleaning and sprucing up to do in the meantime! This is an old picture of the porch; at present it still wears it's winter layer of grime and dust. I will need a warm sumny day this week to get out the hose and get to scrubbing.

3 comments:

  1. I think it's so sad that we can't feel totally free to show photos from quilt shows any more. My thought is that if someone puts a quilt into a show, she expects people to look at it, so where is the difference between seeing it in person or seeing a photo? World's gone crazy I reckon.

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  2. When it comes to quilt show photos the most they will ask you to do is take them down.

    It sounds like you have some fun and busy days ahead!!

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  3. I understand when someone doesn't want a photo posted of a new idea, a design about to be published, something like that. But I also walk that tightrope of wanting to share wonderful quilts I've seen at shows, as long as I give credit to patterns, etc.

    I used to be a seamstress for others, and I've worked with boning. As I remember, boning is bought by the yard, and it's encased in a fabric tubing. You cut it to the correct length and remove the casing. Round the ends a bit so they aren't sharp.
    The gown directions usually say to sew the outside and lining together at the side seams and sometimes up and over the bust line, making a channel for inserting the boning.

    Biggest mistake I made, more than once, was sewing that channel too narrow. If the channel is too tight, you shove and push and risk hurting the fabric, trying to get it inserted. However, you don't want the channel so wide that the boning could roll over inside. It needs to stay in place. I made practice channels with leftover fabric, figuring out the best width. All fabric combinations act differently.

    Good luck! The gown for Emma will be lovely!

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