Preparing for Slow Stitch Sunday

   

I have plans for more hand appliqué tonight.  But, before my Slow Stitching Sunday can begin, I've been doing some preparation.

I love needle turn appliqué and that's my normal way to go.  But there are exceptions and I thought I'd confess and share.

Last weekend, I blogged about my do-over, when I really didn't like how my attempt at needle-turning some sunflower-ish shapes made from a thick, coarsly woven vintage table cloth turned out.  The alternate technique was successful, so I decided to use it for some more appliqué flowers on my tea towel challenge piece.

I learned the technique in a workshop with Jane Sassaman.  I never had a reason until now.  You use lightweight fusible (one side only) and a glue stick to produce appliqué components with smooth edges, suitable for machine or hand appliqué.

1. Trace the appliqué shapes, reversed onto the fusible.
2. Cut out the shapes on the line.
3. Fuse the shapes to the wrong side of the fabrics.





4. Cut out the shapes from the fabric leaving enough to turn under–for me, that's usually between 3/16 and 3/8 inch.
5. Carefully fold it over the edge of the fusible smoothly, gluing it to the fusible on the back.

Now, I'm ready to go . . .  as soon as I make some skinny bias stems for those cone flowers . . .

Another alternative appliqué preparation tip I learned from a friend was using coins for preparing circles.

Did you know that you can use a US quarter to create a one inch appliqué circle?

1. Use the quarter as a template and cut a circle, adding some allowance to turn under.
2. With needle and thread, make a running stitch around the circle.





3. Pull the thread tight, with the quarter inside.Press it with a hot iron.  Steam and/or spray sizing are appropriate to use here.
4. Let the fabric and coin cool, then remove the thread and coin, being careful to maintain the shape.
5. Pin in place, ready to stitch.


  

If you need to make a smaller circle, dimes have a 3/4 inch diameter.  And if you need more sizes, a trip to the washer aisle in your local hardware store will offer you metal templates in many sizes.  After being shown this technique, I stocked up on multiples in a range of sizes.

I started playing with coins before mylar circle templates were available for quilters Because they are very thin, the circles you prepare from them are more precise, but the nice thing about using coins or washers is when you need to make A LOT of same-sized circles, you can prepare them assembly line style, using many quarters, dimes or washers of a specific size.

Of course, today, all I needed was one, to dot an "i" on a word block, but it's still fun to use a quilting tool that only costs a quarter :-)

Marching On

The perennial UFO is off the design wall, replaced by my work so far for Victoria's Tea Towel Challenge.

It's my pick for a Lovely Finish in March. 

The fabrics are laid around the finished sections where they will be dominant so I can check for overall balance.  I'm not sure that mottled green square near the bottom right will make the cut.  The pale gold at the top is from a vintage tablecloth with interesting woven texture. I plan a couple more pieced sections and more appliqué ... all finished with a scrappy pieced border. None of the sections are sewn together yet ... there could be more shuffling before I'm through. 

The rules for the Tea Towel challenge are:

Build a quilt around a tea towel

Check.  As much as I loved this (new, from Moda Home) tea towel--the subtle coloring is a challenge.  It would be easy to overwhelm it with brighter quilting cottons.  I've decided to stay within the four colors palette in the towel and am trying to let the towel be the star at the center of this medallion-style quilt.

Incorporate made fabric

The black fabric behind the appliqué is made from scraps from my black bin.  The hens are also made of made fabric using cream scraps.  I plan more made fabric in other sections.

Find one new technique  

The appliqué prep technique I used for the thick coarsely woven vintage tablecloth (at the top of the design wall) that I used for the sunflowers was new to me.  I have some more appliqué planned with that fabric and will share how I did it.   I also have plans for one more new-to-me technique in this quilt. 

Ta Da!

I was motivated ... well into the night.  The extra Wonky Rose blocks were made and borders were added. Here's my Lovely Finish for February.

   

This quilt embodies many of the things I love about group quilts.  I am looking forward to quilting it, but until my sewing machine problems are resolved, I'll settle for the knowledge that my perennial work-in-progress is no more.  I finished a few other projects this month, but this 11th hour finish feels the most satisfying.

Since everyone seems to be talking about the rose blocks, I plan to put together my notes, which were previously published here and on the Block Lotto and create a print-friendly document for anyone who's interested.  Leave me a comment and I'll be sure to email you when it's ready.  These blocks really a great way to play with scraps.


If you made some of the word blocks for the Block Lotto that I won three years ago and don't see them ... they could be part of my plan for some back art for this quilt.

Updating to join the linky parties, Weekend Update on the Block Lotto, Fresh Sewing Day on LilyQuilts and Can I get a Whoop Whoop on Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Where does it come from?

How do we completely lose interest in a project ... or suddenly feel the urge to pick it up and work on it again?

That's what I've been wondering as the urge to turn these blocks, this perennial WIP, into a quilt has taken hold in a big way.

I put the word blocks together last night and pulled out the large rose blocks today to begin work on the border. I have a bunch of blocks–many sent to me by friends from the Block Lotto–but I'll need a bunch more.

Will this urge continue?  Will I have the time and inclination for a Lovely Finished top for February after all?

I'm linking with WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced and Esther's Blog.

Word Scramble

I thought my loving words quilt needed some blocks with darker backgrounds, so I pieced these letters with red backgrounds for another block to add to the quilt–can you guess what it will be?

UPDATE:  Hilda and Kate got it right away: 

Did I Jinx Myself?

I probably shouldn't have referred to this as my perennial project at the beginning of the month–perhaps it was a self-fulling prophecy, because today my design wall looks like this.  I hang y head in shame as I link up with Design Wall Monday on the Patchwork Times.

Life and other distractions have been in my way.

It seems unlikely that it will become a lovely finish by the end of February, but stranger things have happened . . .

In the meantime, Oscar, the cats and I had a productive evening.  I added hanging sleeves to three quilts, including this one.

Begun in a workshop in North Carolina in the Spring of 2007, finished a couple years ago in Dallas, Texas where I quilted and bound it.  Last night I added a hanging sleeve so it can hang in my guest bathroom ... today, I realized I never took a photo of the finished quilt.

The pattern is Split Nine-Patch. It was a great way to use a lot of scraps.

It's approximately 36 inches square which means a lightweight promotional yardstick makes a perfect hanging rod.

Stitching with Oscar (and the Cats)

I don't know if I'll watch some/all of Academy Awards coverage tonight, but I'm thinking about hand work to have on hand–I have more appliqué sections planned for the tea towel challenge and there are a couple quilts that need hanging sleeves so they can be hung on the wall.  Or maybe I'll start a new knitting project.

I don't know what I'll work on tonight or what I'll end up watching on TV,  but I know the evening will look a little like this:

Me, in a comfortable chair, feet up and covered with a quilt, with a cat snuggling on my lap.  Sometimes it's Johnny Be Good, other times it's Grace Hopper, who will often race me up the stairs and into the den when it's that time and impatiently watch me get organized and settled and make a lap for her.


Whomever is first, it won't be long until they are joined by their partner in crime.

There will be some jostling for position. Sometimes one, or the other, decides it's not worth the effort and will give up and go stretch out on on the carpet–my cats love the warm floors in this radiant heated house–or the nearby chair.

But usually, the rest of the evening looks like this, with me knitting or stitching and two cats dozing on my legs.

It's their ritual and part of my Slow Sunday Stitching habit, too.

Finished?

When you do you consider a project finished?

Is a quilt finished when the top is complete and it's sent off to a longarm quilter or added to the to-be-quilted pile? When it's quilted and bound, label and hanging sleeve added? This little quilt, pieced in December is now, as Amy once called it, "done, done."

For more details about this little quilt, and measurements for making your own mini-Tall Shoo Flies, see my post on the Block Lotto today.

Is a knit project finished when the knitting is done? When it's sewn together? How about when you wear it for the first time?  I finished the cowl to match my Aran hat last weekend–unfortunately, as a feared, the  yarn requirements in the pattern were wrong and so there will be no matching fingerless mitts.  I am otherwise happy with how it turned out and have been wearing it out in the cold and snow this week.  The cable pattern was easy to remember and fun to knit.

Last Fall, I finished another knit, the lacy mystery beret, Meret. When I failed to find a right-sized plate or platter in my kitchen to use to block it, I tucked it away ... until earlier this week, when I was making a stir fry and looked at the cover of my wok in a new away. It was perfectly sized.  After blocking, I added a ribbon inside to keep the edge of my extra-slouchy beret the correct size. Now, this one also feels REALLY finished and ready to wear. 

I'm joining the link list on Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?  Check out how productive quilters in blog land have been. 

Do Over

Speaking of yellow blooms  . . .  this is the first folky sunflower-like bloom I added to the chunky pieced black background for my tea towel challenge quilt.

I like the color and texture of the gold vintage table cloth, but my needleturn appliqué skills were no match for the loosely woven, thick fabric. I just couldn't make the curves on the ends of some of those "petals" look good.

So, for a few days, work on this project stopped while I considered my options.

Last night I remembered a technique for preparing appliqué learned in a Jane Sassaman workshop many years ago using fusible interfacing and a glue stick.  It's time consuming to prepare the pieces . . . but I think it's going to produce nicer shapes.  The two smaller flowers pinned in place on the left were prepared this way and are ready to be sewn.   The original appliqué will be removed and replaced ...

I love the problem solving aspect of quilting and that there are always multiple ways to solve the problem or accomplish your design/vision.

I'll be glad to finish the blooms ... so I can add some leaves on those skinny stems and get busy with a couple of other sections I know I want to add to this quilt.

Updating to add links to:

Weekend Update on Blocklotto.com
Pat Sloan's Show & Tell

Neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow ...

Nothing seems to have an impact on this blooming cactus near here. Over the past few days, we've had high winds, cold temperatures, hail and snow ... and yet it continues to bloom.

Lately, I have been much less resilient. Life is kicking my butt and the last four years of challenges, moves, unemployment and bad employment are taking their toll.  Oh yea, and my Bernina stayed "fixed" after the trip to the dealer in Albuquerque for 2 whole weeks before it was dead in it's tracks again.

Here's the long view of this little cactus that could on the edge of a nearby arroyo.

Update:  Ignorance may be bliss, but , as Hilda and Daryl have pointed out, those aren't flowers.  Those optimistic, resilient yellow blooms that I noticed on the Cholla cactus are actually the fruit of the plant, which turns yellow in winter.  From the DesertUSA.com web site: 

CANE CHOLLA
Opuntia spinosior

Grows from desert floors to grasslands to lower mountain slopes, developing a thick trunk and with purple jointed joints.

Desert: Chihuahuan Desert of southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico
Height: Up to 8 feet
Joints: Thick, tubercled, covered with gray spines
Flowers: From deep purple to yellow and white
Fruit: Flesh, spineless, yellow in winter
Elevation: 2,000-7,000 feet

First the Stems ...

Here's my plan for stitching while watching TV tonight ... some stems on my black chunky made fabric background for the Tea Towel challenge quilt.

Blossoms and leaves to follow.

Check out the links on Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday post to see what other kinds of handwork are going on around blog land.

 

Playing with Parts

When my Bernina died only 2 weeks after having it repaired, I just didn't feel like working on quilts and it's taken me a while to get back into the mood.

I've been playing with parts.  I made some mostly cream crumb fabric ... and turned it into hen blocks (based on some I had admired in the blog header image of the Polka Dot Chicken blog.) My hens still need eyes and combs.

And then I pulled out the bin of black scraps and used some bigger chunks to make some larger squares ... maybe for a background for appliqué on my tea towel challenge?

The layout may likely will change, but here are my parts and my progress on the tea towel challenge. I have a vintage damask tablecloth that I plan to play with next and add to the mix ...

I've Been Knitting

I've made some knitting progress this week–some of it while waiting for the tow truck and riding in the tow truck (until the sun set and I lost the light).

 

I'm not sure I'll add the pompom to the top of the hat which is otherwise finished–I'm thinking about making some icord and using it to tie the sides together at the top of the hat.

I may not make the fingerless mittens because it looks like it will take twice as much yarn to finish the cowl than the amount listed in the pattern.   (Don't you hate when that happens ... and you don't have any more yarn to account for the difference?)

It's what's on my needles today. Follow the link to the post on Patchwork Times to see what others are knitting.

Starting things ...

I made a trip to a local new-to-me fabric store yesterday and came home with the beginnings of two projects.

A tea towel for Victoria's Tea Towel challenge on 15 Minutes of Play. 

(After a couple weeks of looking for an interesting vintage tea towel in resale shops, I settled for this new one, based on a vintage design)

Some striped fabrics for my piece for the All About Me blog hop. 

These textiles are the inspiration for these two projects.  What comes first for you?  The design idea or fabrics that whisper, "use me?"

Not the Update I'd Planned

I'm waiting for a tow ... 150 miles from home.



I'm thankful someone finally stopped--he has a cell phone booster in his truck and thought I might need it.

Cell service was almost non-existent.  It took getting out of the care and walking around a bit to find a signal.

(It 's kind of incredible how many cars and trucks did not stop to help the old lady on the side if the road.)







Two hours later someone else stopped to ask if I needed help.  Turns out he owns a AAA tow company in the next town.  He asked, "Why didn't they call me?"   I wondered the same thing.  I waited three hours for someone who was two hours away.  AAA told me it would be a 45 minute wait.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Perennial UFO

This is an old photo, but that's OK, since no progress has been made since I last admired these blocks.

Whenever February rolls around, I am motivated to pull it out and put it up on the wall and work on it ... and yet it remains unfinished.

   

The word blocks were won in the Block Lotto three years ago. The wonky rose blocks were made by me and others from the block lotto community to help me get this quilt together and yet I haven't been able to make it happen . . . yet.

This is my February choice for a Lovely Year of Finishes, organized
by Melissa of Sew Bittersweet Designs and Shana of Fiber of All Sorts.

It's an ambitious choice for me–I have some other commitments for February that will also have to be finished, but ... I'm up for the challenge.