Alex Anderson, A Bit of Progress, and Some Plans

Today I went to G Street in Falls Church, Virginia, to attend a lecture by Alex Anderson. I had a lot of fun. I got there early enough that I could get a seat close to the front just behind the chair Alex came and sat down in while waiting for the time to start, and we had a lovely conversation about Bernina sewing machines. A Bernina representative was sitting next to Alex and joined in. I never expected to have time to chat with her, so this was an added treat for me.

Her lecture was entirely fun and very inspiring.  She told us about her life centered around quilting, family, and quilting friends, and how many times she had taken one step at a time to learn something new for her books, for her quilting, for her job as a show hostess.  In all of that and in clear statements she encouraged us to try new things and take one step at a time no matter how difficult they seemed at first to accomplish, learn, improve, and experiment in quilting.  I loved her speech, I enjoyed meeting her, and found myself wishing that we lived close so I could become a good friend of hers.  Thank you Alex for such a fun time today and all the shows and teaching you have provided.

I have been slowly building a network of really fine quilting friends across the country and occasionally I meet them face to face.  I hope to continue this as the years roll out in front of me.

Anyway, as to the progress on my clothing project.  I have now finished making the black embroidered reversible vest and embroidered slacks.  The vest fits nicely, but I’m not as happy with the slacks.  I have one idea for improving the slacks, and will do that, but I think I’m going to have to improve my slacks pattern before I make the other two pairs.

I also finished the silk brocade vest and it fits to perfection.  I will make the black blouse and slacks next, and hope I can improve the slacks pattern enough to be really happy with them.  If I can, I have at least one more pair I will make, and I found a nice piece of Rayon Batik I had stashed in the closet that will make a great loose casual lightweight jacket.  I’m going to make at least one bag and then I’m going to stop with the clothes for a while.  Later on, I want to use one of my four nice pieces of heavy wool I have to make an overcoat.  I even have all the specialized interfacing and lining for two of them and some faux fur to make cuffs and a collar.  But I will do that closer to winter.  I think I’ll blog the making of the overcoat when I do.  It should be interesting.

I have two quilts I want to make.  One has an end of the year deadline, and I will wait until early in the new year to tell you about it.  The other one is a quilt based on some line drawings by the Wright Brothers of their planes that I found on The Wright Brothers organization site and obtained their permission to use for the quilt.

The Wright Plane quilt will be one in my line-drawing series.  The first of that was Perspective in Threads, which has been juried into the Houston special architectural quilts exhibit this year, that will be traveling for a year.  The second is Dad’s House Plan that will soon be in AQS Chattanooga.

Sew I’ll put in a few pictures of my clothes when I get them done.

Sew happy! Teach someone to sew or quilt…your BFF, your brother, your daughter, your pets.