Quilting addendum...

That which goes without saying is often that which most needs to be said. Or that's the gist of what my wife just said to me after reading last night's post. She rightly pointed out that while adding two inches all around before quilting is well and good, I neglected to mention that after quilting, you trim away a good deal of those extra inches to get your quilted piece back to the correct size for the pattern piece.

I guess she was picturing that oversite on my little blog here starting a wave of John Travolta Saturday Night Fever doublets made from white polyester with huge honkin' quilted butterfly collars.

"You can tell by the way I move and the way I walk,
I'm a renaissance man, and no time to..." Oh, forget it.

So yes, the Tip Of the Day is: Please trim away the excess after you're done quilting. Big collars are scary. Only you can prevent renaissance liesure suits!

Sigh

A short one...

Quick Update...
Sadly life is not all four-day weekends and garb-o-thons, so this one will be quick and not incoporate a great deal. Mainly I have been cleaning up my quilting and handsewing the back seams.

TIP OF THE DAY:
If you're quilting something add two inches on all sides to account for 'quilt shrink'.
or, better stated:
Consult your experts before you start.

My wife is an avid quilter so I'm lucky. I may not claim to be an expert, but I'll call her that with no hesitation. So my quilt consultatn is in the next room when I need to ask a quilting question that will save me a boatload of fabric and stitch-pulling headaches. Remember that, folks... two inches of what she calls 'Quilt Shrink' as the quilting stitches pull the fabric down into the 'ditches' and thereby cause the fabric to contract and appear to have shrunk. Which turns out to be functionally true.

Anyway, I also sewed the peplum on so the thing actually looks like a jerkin now. Here's a quick picture before I head off to bed...

Wise Spaniards

My friend Rachael sent me a card recently. On the cover it pretty much outlines my view of a perfect world in the words of what it calls an "old spanish proverb""

Las cosas claras y el chocolate espeso.
translation: 'Ideas should be clear and chocolate thick. '

Can't get much clearer than that.
Back in a bit with a real update... Scott