Wednesday WOW – November 30

If today is November 30, then December must start tomorrow!  Christmas is fast approaching, but am I working on Christmas projects?  Of course not!

I’m working on a doll – er, sort of.  I can hear you thinking, “ that looks like . . . “

Yep!  It’s an octopus!  I can’t tell you how much fun I had stuffing those eight octopus arms!  LOL!  I’ve been wanting to do something a little different, and this pattern spoke to me.  It should be interesting to see how it evolves.  It could go Christmasy, but I’m thinking not.

About the only thing I have that could be Christmas are these leftover blocks from the Comfort and Joy quilt.  I may do something with them . . . eventually.  Right now, they are just decoration.

What do you do with orphan blocks?

Stick-y Sunday

Or maybe the title should be “Stabbed Sunday” because today I used a sharp implement, and I always manage to puncture myself when I’m around sharp things!

Today’s technique is needle felting.  That photo is not really fuzzy . . . the subject was fuzzy!

OK, does this look better?  This is about half way in my afternoon with wool and a felting needle.  Felting needles have barbed, triangle shaped tips and you use them to stab into wool roving so that the fibers attach to a surface and/or to each other.  They are very sharp!

I’ve used felting needles to attach or style doll’s hair and earlier this year, my doll club had a felting session where I made this pseudo-pug.  But today was my first serious attempt at felting onto another piece of fabric.

After I completed the flower, I made a couple of wool beads.

And, yes, I stabbed myself.  Several times.  But I didn’t draw blood!  At least not today and that makes it a good day!

It’s All About the Y

If you have done much quilting at all, you have run across something called a Y-seam.  Basically it is a point where three seams come together, forming a 3-pronged line. . . kinda like a “Y”

There are tricks to stitch this junction so that it is smooth and even and it isn’t really complicated.  But I guess there’s no other way to say it . . . I HATE Y-seams!

In the past, I have found many methods and techniques that I struggled with and did not particularly enjoy doing.  But, by sticking to it and practicing, I can usually conquer said method or technique so that it’s not so bad.  Sometimes I’ve even learned to enjoy what I previously avoided.

Not with Y-seams.

And guess what?  This little beauty has TWELVE of them!

What was I thinking???  Um, I guess I wasn’t.  At least not about Y-seams.  I was so focused on getting all those spikes to lay right and match up all the points in the lone star – I didn’t think about how it would all go together.

But, go together it did and I’m really tickled – er, pink!  I can’t stop looking at it.  It is so worth all the work.

All except the Y-seams.

Wednesday WOW – November 23

Kind of a lazy day, but I did get a postcard made.  Here are some of the fabrics I selected for it.

And those are some of the others.  The theme is “hands” – thus the hand pieces you see there.  I did some fusing and some stitching and it is almost finished.  No mail service tomorrow, so it won’t get mailed until Friday.  Once it has arrived at its destination, I’ll show you the end product.  I have a few postcards to show you from the past couple of months.

And tomorrow is Turkey Day in the US!  The holidays are upon us, people.  What have you got planned?

Soggy Sunday

The soggy part, however, is at the end of this week’s technique.  So, let’s back up a little bit.

The technique is Thread Lace.  The book breaks the methods into two types:  grid and lace.  I did both today.

I cut a piece of water-soluble stabilizer (BadgeMaster in this sample) just a bit larger than my hoop.  I dropped the feed dogs and used a Supreme Slider to cover the surface, then began stitching a grid. 

Then I drew some hearts and stitched around the perimeter and through the insides.   Instead of a grid, though, I experimented with circles and other shapes.

Then, I went for something more complicated!  I found a heart-shaped wreath pattern in one of my embroidery books.  Using the general shape and feel, I sketched leaves and berries and used several different colors of thread.  This piece took much longer to stitch than the other two, but it is also much heavier as well as detailed.  Because of that, I used two layers of the soluble stabilizer.

Then I slipped them all into a basin of water and let them soak for awhile.  If I were doing this again, I don’t think I would put all four sheets in at the same time.  That water got pretty sloppy!

I spread the pieces onto a clean towel to dry overnight.  If I got all the stabilizer out, they should be nice and soft and flexible.  If they are too sticky/stiff after drying, I can soak them again.

Looking at the two smaller hearts, they are pretty successful.  The one on the right was especially good at holding its shape.

This one did not fare as well.  It came out of the water all curled up and you can just barely see a few heart shapes inside.  I stitched each internal shape twice.  Apparently that is not enough!

The leaves turned out almost perfect, though.  I’m quite pleased with this one so far.  Because there is so much thread in this, it held its shape much better than any of the hearts, yet there is still enough showing through the leaves to suggest the lacy quality.

I will be adding these to backgrounds or using them as inserts or something.  I’ll let you see what I do with them, so do come back.  And come see what’s in store for next Sunday!

Wednesday WOW – November 16

It was a very busy day, but I got quite a bit accomplished.

The lone star units are all stitched and paired.  Almost all the points match!!  I was amazed!

Then I got all four side pieces stitched.  Not without a struggle, though.  My trusty seam ripper got a workout today.  LOL!  Too many distractions, I guess.

Next are the corner units.  Those three pieces are not stitched yet.  I took a look at the ‘Y’ seam and decided late afternoon is the worst time to tackle it! 

It’s amazing that this whole project is essentially these three segments – four of each.  At this point I can ignore the fact that it took five days to get here. 

So, that’s what my worktable/design wall looks like today.  Between this, roofers, cable repairman, and dog duty, it was really quite a day.  I’m heading for my easy chair!!!

What I Did on My Vacation

Well, maybe “vacation” is not the right word.  After all, I did not leave home, except during the day.  I went to a 3-day quilting class conducted by my local quilt shop.

They are certified to teach and sell Judy Niemeyer patterns and that was what they did!  These quilts are made using foundation paper piecing and they look very complex.  Frankly, I had my doubts about being able to make one of the six patterns we had to choose from.

See what I mean?  (I snagged this picture from the shop’s web site.  Hopefully they won’t mind!)

I chose the design called “Summer Solstice” and here you see the beginnings of the lone star that is the center of the quilt.

This is what mine looked like at the end of the third day.  Just imagine there are four corners on the outer edge, and eight sets of spiky blocks.

Yesterday, I finished sewing all the lone star elements and now I am ready to start sewing sections together.  It has been exhausting!!

Here’s a candid shot of our group getting settled in.  We haven’t started making a mess, yet!  There were thirteen of us, but I don’t think it was an unlucky thirteen!  It was great to have other stitchers to share the misery and celebrations as we learned a different method. 

I want to say publicly that Mary, Connie, and Mark did a great job of setting up this session.  We were fed very well for three days and got complimentary massages, some wine on Saturday night, and a lot of laughs.  Oh yeah . . . and we sewed, too!