Inspiration into Reality

Faux Flowers within Skirting

Original Dress per
Zulily's Website

The other day I was casually shopping online and I saw a beautiful little girl's dress.  The dress was white with a faux flower at the hip and then some petals trapped within an organza over skirt.  A traditional mother would have been inspired to buy it for her little girl, instead I was struck by the dress and instantly inspired to create it as a dog dress.  Or in my case two dresses.

It's a dreary overcast day, so I can tell you the color in my flowers is off, they are actually vibrant royal purple flowers.  Originally I had thought to use some 1/4" purple trim that I have, but when next to my purple flowers it wasn't a solid match so I went with the silver instead.  I can hardly wait to hear what my friend has to say!

Mandala From the Inside Out

Mandala Quilt Grows from the Inside Out

Tell me, please what have you been up to?  This is what I've been doing.  Working on the Mandala Quilt, circles, triangles, and squares, what fun.  The border of half square triangles had me wondering if I should rename this quilt to Viper's Poison instead.  The second folded border was a little tricky and then the applique border thankfully went on with just a bit of pinning.  I'm almost sad that I'm back to another folded border, and then even more half square triangles.  I've decided the next folded border is going to be blue.  Should I go with the medium blue and teal or the darker one?   Right now as you see it the quilt is about 40".  Which isn't what it should be but I made an error in my HST's accidentally made them smaller than the original plans called for.  So I'm thinking a fat impromptu outermost border might be in order...

Mandala's Applique is Complete

Yesterday was an amazing day for my applique!  I hand stitched all of the smallest applique circles as I had finished the larger circles the night before, so now it's time to spend a bit of effort thinking the thin border around the large center circle.  Should it stay raspberry as I'd originally intended?  Should I demo another color?  Green perhaps?  What do you think?

All Applique for Mandala Quilt is done

Mandala Going Well

Two posts in one day, isn't that a shocker?  I just finished up three more of these applique circles.  I'm on a roll, hehe.  No more tonight though, someone has decided they need cuddles and stitching does not go with cat cuddles!

Here are the pieces I have so far.  You can see I have appliqued the entire top row of large circles and have  also finished the one there underneath on the left.  The center is finished and is exactly as shown.  While I do have many, many HST's shown I wont update them into the layout until I start sewing them together.  

Layout of Mandala Circle Quilt with completed details

As Always feel free to click on any picture to see it in better detail.

Mandala Quilt Progress

I've been working on my Mandala Quilt!  Currently I have the center as well as the two large Spirographs in the upper corners fully appliqued.  I plugged the pictures of my real work into the layout so you can see how that's coming along.  All of these circles are being appliqued by hand and I've been surprised the going isn't as slow as I feared it would be.  Currently I have five other large circles pined and ready to stitch, so I'm ready to sit and sew this evening.  Anyone want to read my book aloud so I can sew and enjoy my book at the same time?

Can You Sew a Curved Line with a Straight Stitch?

As some of you may have known I planned to piece the straight lines on the Mandala Center Quilt Block, then applique each ever growing ring.  Well for some reason today I changed my mind and instead decided to put the rings together by building up each wedge - piecing the curves first.  I can see why the directions don't tell you to do it this way.  As it's especially tricky there at the end, but I loving the results.  Besides there is something about that moment when you know each curve is coming out just right and then the wedges sew together until your on the final one and open it...

Pieced Mandala Quilt Center

Have you been up to anything good?  I hope everyone who is covered up under snow has a snow blower to help get themselves uncovered.  Boy did I hate shoveling snow as a teenager!

A Special Weave

I have been making smaller versions of dog dresses I've already made, this time for the puppy.  The dress below was a big challenge because the purple lilacs were to honor a departed family member.  The first time I made this dress it was trimmed with a delicate purple lace.  There was only enough lace for the one dress.

Woven Ribbon trim

When it came time to make the twin of that one I wasn't sure what to do.  It had to be something special.  At first I thought to combine a royal purple and a lilac ribbon, but as they were two different thicknesses I wasn't sure how to go about it.  A little online digging and I came up with this.  It is a Hawaiian weaving technique.  Isn't it lovely?  I am so glad I waited to embellish this dress until the moment was right!

The Dog Dress Zone

This week I just worked on dresses.  I cut fabric when I wanted to, I sewed when I wanted to and just all around enjoyed the week.  I started and finished these 9 dresses, and I also made 14 others.  Those are technically finished but are waiting on embellishments to put them over the top.

I enjoy making these, as they are quick to finish and each one is unique as to which ribbon and how to make the skirts etc.  Perhaps this is why people like crafting quick results that look good.  While I'm not one of those people I certainly find the joy in having a bit of music and watching these beauties come out of the sewing machine.  Pay no attention to the dirty floor, I was in the zone!