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I realized that I had not posted a picture of the finished vest. I took it in to the Shelburne Arts Cooperative to put it on display this past weekend.  The person who was working that day was definitely a size small so I had her try it on.  I could see by the way it fit her that it would also fit a size medium. 

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry I was not happy with the way the tabs themselves were coming out....they were not uniform and the angles were not correct.   They were definitely wonkie.  I would rotary cut them out, come in 1/4" from the edge and sew.  The next one I would cut it out and then would draw the sewing lines on it  1/4" from the edge thinking they were wonkie because I was not maintaining a 1/4" seam allowance.....none of this worked.  Sometimes when I sleep on a problem, a solution will present itself the next morning.  What I saw the next morning is that I obviously was not cutting it out properly, the angles were off so what I needed to do was NOT cut out the tab until AFTER I sewed it together, to draw the sewing lines on the fabric, sew it, and then cut it out.  I knew the tab was to be an inch wide, how long it needed to be and there were 45 degree points on each side so I took my square ruler and a white colored pencil and did the lay out (see photo). I carefully stitched it leaving an opening to turn it right side out through, THEN I cut it out and turned it right side out and though it was not perfect, it was defiantly better.  This is the method I used for cutting out the other 4 tabs I would need. 

Yesterday I finished assembling the crazy quilt blocks for the patchwork side of the vest.  When I am sewing together a large number of blocks that need to be in a specific order I find it t best to approach it as an assemblyman working on the line.  I always work from top to bottom and from left to right.  I put little stickers on the row vertically (in this case, 1-6) and then I chain stitch the top block to the next block or in this case 1 to 2, 3 to 4, and then 5 to 6.  I then clip them and then attach the pairs to each other.  I put a pin through the top block.  Many times I have gotte

As I mentioned above, I planned on using a crazy quilt design for my next vest.  I Like crazy quilt blocks because they lend themselves to whimsy and also getting rid of scrapes.  The single most important decision on any project is what fabrics are chosen.  My crazy quilt block will have 4 segments so only 4 fabrics are required but I will use more to give the blocks a random feel and visual interest.

I did indeed make an entry into my blog yesterday but it did not post so let's try again.  I recently changed the name of my business - from Creative Endeavors to New England Fiber Arts - with the catch phrase "where fabrics come to play.  Same person, same quailty, a bit more of a discriptive name.  I am now searching around for a name for my blog.....which will be about sewing, fabric, design, current projects and working at home.  A place to share and give other people a place for input.  I definately encourage comments.  Input for me is the main reason for having a blog so please feel f