I have just bought the yarn (cotton/acrylic blend) to make Jane Crowfoot's Fruit Garden blanket.  I've had the book for a while, although the pattern is now available online I believe.



It's not exactly any of the colourways shown, but will have a background of dark and light blue.

I blame Wool Warehouse for having a sale... I think I may be crazy, and this may be one of those lifetime projects... cheer me on, please!!

@Acorn that's gorgeous!  Are you insane?  I can't imagine. What kind of yarn are you using? Fiber I mean. The original choices for it was a wool/acrylic blend or a cotton/bamboo.

My crochet skills are limited. Grandmother taught me how to crochet those cute little raised roses so my brain instantly related to this pattern.

..... and whilst its a good idea to wash fabric first, I've never found that viscose has shrunk.

  it shrinks like the dickens.

@Iminei , first, breathe. Viscose (rayon) is just a little more flexible than quilting cotton and has a smoother surface which makes it seem slippery. It's lovely to sew. Just use a press cloth and not as hot an iron as your cottons.

Remember you are the one who said they are really slippery so you've gotten related answers. Peeps are assuming the worst from this fabric in response.

*It can shrink, up to 25%, usually about 8-10%. Lesser if you only use cold water and line dry, more if you prewash in hot and ever might use a dryer. I make a practice of torturing all my fabric before I sew. It prevents bad surprises later and I don't need to baby anything later.

*The Abakan lady must be a quilter. It's pretty common in my area to clip off the corners of cotton before you wash it. I learned it from an old quilter. It also lets you know if fabric is prewashed or not. I clip off the corners and wash almost every fabric I bring home, unless it's on a bolt. Clipping the corners reduces fraying in that it only frays one row before it reaches the end of the crosswise weave. It can't keep raveling on and on. It isn't really enough for viscose which does enjoy fraying. I'd zigzag the ends together.

*yes, it can be a bit slithery but not always. It needs supporting or it can wiggle off grain. Garments hang better on us if we keep the grain line consistent. The left & right legs of your trousers will mirror each other and the lengthwise grain will usually go with the length of the pant leg.

*You need to support the fabric by not letting it hang off your machine, so use the extension table, the bigger the better. While cutting out use a big table, don't let any fabric hang off the edges. If it's too long, the fabric, accordion fold the excess at one end. I use a big board to press it and Best Press to give it a little more body.

* I've not needed my walking foot but it's a good option. I sew viscose pretty much like I sew cotton. You might want to pin every 4-6 inches on your first seam or two. Adjust from there to your comfort level. Since it's new to you I'd suggest taking some of your scraps after you've cut your garment and do some practice seams, buttonholes if needed, etc.

*Take puzzler up on her offer of overlocking. It keeps your seams pretty. Otherwise get friendly with the overlocking stitch on your machine. It takes forever compared to an overlocker and isn't quite as nice but you simply must finish the seams with viscose. French seams are a good option to use where possible.

* Keep breathing.

@Tiggy a bigger waste of it is letting it sit getting musty in a cupboard or box.

I get it. Every piece of uncut fabric is full of potential and often endless possibilities. Once cut we're committed and heaven forbid we make a bad choice.

Just cut it.

That actually sounds good. I'm always a fan of stitch in the ditch.

How, technically, would you achieve the concentric circles? I think, even with drawn on lines, I would really mess those up. Interested in what your approach will be.

Pretty quilt.

Aw, you've brought back fond memories of learning how to set type, kern text, and run the presses for that matter. Thirteen years later, when I returned, the same professor taught me desktop publishing. On a Mac, of course, because in those days that's what all the creatives used. 

I think you Peeps might appreciate my learning to do traditional calligraphy, with traditional pens, as a left handed person. The tip of the pen nib goes at a 45 degree angle to the upper left corner of the page. To achieve that you turn the page a quarter turn clockwise and you make columns of sideways letters.    It was very challenging. It reduced words to shapes. Fortunately there were six of us plus the professor was ambidextrous. Yay!

   Being the other side of a Big Pond I had to look up what you lot meant by this "full stop" malarkey. Oh. We call that a period. Period.

I’m just about to make the Style Arc Barry pants. Although I don’t like the added fabric for the faux fly so I’m going to cut that bit off.

I’m an Apple shape with chunky ankles so loose and baggy suits me to a T.

@WildAtlanticWay those are nice. Have you made them before? If not I'll be wanting to know how you like them. I'd eliminate the fly front too, as well as that paperbag top. My body doesn't need anything extra there.     I don't tuck tops in anymore. Another tip, this from Louise Cutting and really works well if you have a protruding belly, is when inserting that wide elastic have the front casing laying flat, no gathering. Stitch vertically, securing the elastic, about 6-8" each side of front center seam. If you are using one of the really stretchy elastics it's no problem putting them on. It reduces so much bulk over the belly. Mine needs all the help it can get.

Can't say I've noticed the emails (but I don't check mine very often) but I logged in and couldn't find any patterns, unless I got my dates wrong 

@Missie you had to go there May 11-15 to collect them.


Peeps, bottom of the linked page, same size print as the rest, in the FAQS section it said that by signing up you were also signing up for the newsletter of each of the contributors. Since there were 20 of them the 20 emails sounds right. 

I only knew one of them but my tiny bit of snooping revealed, in all I checked, a prevalence of modern quilt designers. Not everyone's cup of tea.