Sewing for Houston

This is the time of year I get busy sewing garments for my work at International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston, TX.

The Education Team is given fabric from one or two manufacturers each Fall to create our choice of garments--jackets, tunics, blouses, dresses, even aprons, whatever we want. to make. We wear these garments on specific days, looking similar but not the same, as colorways and garment designs are individual.

This helps identify us as "staff" on the 3rd floor of the huge George R. Brown Convention Center: Here is a group photo from 2015, when we used a bright pink from MODA in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness:

These garments sure help with "what to wear" for the 12 days I am there. Several pair of black slacks, a variety of tops, and I'm good to go. This year I will wear 6 different garments over those days.

This year I made one of my favorite patterns, one I have used twice before:

It is an easy, kimono-style jacket. I usually line it and that makes it faster to construct, no need to finish the inside seams. Added bonus with this pattern--no buttonholes. This time I made the first one without a lining, using Metropolis fabrics, from MODA:

Now I know I really do prefer this jacket lined so the second one has a lining. The fabrics are Road Trip and Kaleidoscope by Allison Glass for Andover Fabrics:

Since we wear these for 3-4 years, I create labels for everyone to add to their garments--it helps to remember which garment was for which year. It is always fun to see the various garments everyone makes--there are 20 of us on the Education Team.

My friend, Lori D, has just started a Quiltalong on her blog:  Humble Quilts. As this is a small project, I jumped in. She says hers is only 18" square, we may decide to add more borders to our own. She gives instructions once a week, just little steps over time get the small quilt made. She is using French General fabric from MODA. I have a layer cake of French General's Rue Indienne so decided to see how far I can get with that--each week is a mystery. Here is my Part 1, 8.5"  square at the moment::

Now that the garments are done, I can concentrate on a few upcoming quilt projects that need work.

One other little thing that has kept me busy--our grandson was born a couple weeks ago in St. Louis--we took a quick trip up there to meet him, 8 hours each way. Meet Sam:

Big Sister Stella is doing just fine:

Let's quilt!

Barbara