The Great Pumpkin...Charlie Brown

Okay; don't laugh...at least not too hard.  LOL.  I ran out of regular muslin fabric and didn't feel like running out to purchase more when I have all this old quilting fabric hanging around not being useful.  Sooooo, I used this pumpkin fabric I've had marinating for about 20 years.  I know I got it in Florida.  I remember it being a bit costly at the time, since it had metallic in the design.  I think it cost all of $6.00 a yard.  LOL 

 Pumpkins are apropos for this time of year, no? 

It's a fairly heavy fabric and more able to mimic the wool/cashmere blend I'll be using for the real deal.  I started out cutting the size 18 since I thought the 16 would be just too fitted for me, it just wasn't the case.  When I made it up, the 18 just looked baggy in the shoulder area on me so I re-cut the pieces down to a 16 for the upper body, out to my more normal 18-20 for the hips.   I was so worried my normal 16 would be "too fitted" I caused myself extra work. 

Have you ever done that?  Sigh.

My manikin Ruby is just a touch smaller than I am and there's no help in the photo dept so you'll just have to make do with manikin pictures.  LOL.  I don't know if I want pictures floating around the internet with me wearing pumpkin fabric anyway.  LOL.

Later!

Where do I begin?

All I can say is that I'm tired.  LOL.  Last week was so busy; teaching on Tuesday & 3 long days in OKC (driving back & forth each day spending almost 4 hours on the road).  Don't get me wrong - I loved all of it.  LOL.  But it does tend to catch up with you.  I've made quite a bit of progress on my Chanel style jacket; the muslin was sewn, fitted and de-constructed.  Using the muslin pieces as my pattern, I cut out blocks of the two fashion fabrics for each pattern pieces and now I'm in the process of basting each of the pieces to each other and quilting them together.  I have the back, the side backs and the side fronts quilted.  I'm doing a very easy up and down quilting design.  After I quilt each piece, I'm taking the long threads I left on the starting and ending stitches, threading them through a needle and pulling those threads in-between the 2 fabrics.  Then I tie them off and clip the threads.  With the easy design I'm quilting, there are only 2 or 3 threads on each side to pull to the inside.  Easy Peasy.  LOL.

Its after 9pm and I know I've promised pictures, but it will have to wait for tomorrow when I'll have better lighting in here.

Oh, btw, I managed to stop by Helen Enox, an independent fabric store in OKC, too.  They have some really yummy fabrics there and are so reasonable priced.  I wish I could persuade them to have an on-line presence.  Needless to say, I found a couple of things I just couldn't live without.  LOL.  If you live around the area, you really should visit them.

Later...