Progress report 2 on maintenance

Hello, everyone. The last post showed shirt #1 ready for Fray Check and soaking. Shirt #2 has been basted and stitched now. 

This is the view from the front.

Both shirts have been dabbed with Fray Check and are now dry. Today it's time to soak off the Sulky Fabri-solvy from the underside of the stitching. After this dries, there will be testing try-on. 

User tip, you really do need to stabilize the dickens out of the damaged area with both a backing fabric and basting stitches. The basting stitches also allow you to check the thread color for compatibility with the fabric. 

On both of these tee shirts I ended using a different thread than I expected. The light playing on the merino wool wanted the shades I ended up with. (Stash has now increased by several spools of fine polyester thread.)

Another item that was extremely helpful, in addition to the embroidery hoop and the size 28 tapestry needle and ball point straight pins, was the Ryobi battery powered magnifying light. It gave me a good look at the winds of the yarns. I'm so grateful to DS for giving it to me!

Progress on maintenance

Hello, everyone. The holes in the previous post are almost done. All they need is to have the Fabri-solvy to be soaked off and a bit of Fray check to discourage the bits of yarn from making runners.

The front and back work on shirt 1. I got a really good color match on this one. The front work is close to where the backpack strap goes. There will probably be test fit later. 🤞

Commencing on shirt 2.

The damage is more structural with this one, the one hole is at the shoulder and cuts 2 seam lines. The ball point pins came out because getting the shoulder to lie flat in the embroidery hoop was going poorly. And keeping the strain on the knit fabric as even and gentle as possible matters. This cut crosses over where the backpack strap will lie, making it even more important. 

There are 3 different threads in use for basting: the remnants of the earlier work at the neck, a darker shade, and the darkest, which looks like the best match: "Tree Bark" polyester thread. I basted the shoulder seam line straight before beginning to stabilizer the rest. Then I basted down the point of the cut to nest into itself.

The cut line is not only long, it also curves. At the end I will remove all of the basting that is not covered by the repair stitches.

Hiking also means gear maintenance

Hello, everyone.  To day I will talk over with y'all the latest gear maintenance project, a part of preparation for walking the Camino again.

This shirt encountered an accident. I contacted the maker, VOORMI, and sought advice. They were super supportive and recommended me to use a whip stitch, fine needle, and very fine thread. About in the 80 to 100 weight thread, actually, in polyester. 

I had some 80 weight Aurifil cotton in the house but I don't think mixing cotton and the wool will be a super good plan. I do know that the spiffy fine cotton thread, with the right (wrong) encouragement, will break. So I ordered new thread spools from Red Rock Threads and Ripstop By The Roll. 

I'm about to set up my embroidery hoop for floating the shirt on top of a light water soluble stabilizer. Probably the heavier one of my 2 Sulky wash away ones. (The lighter one, Solky Solvy, probably can't handle being the support layer on the bottom.)

I'm thinking the DMC size 28 tapestry needle will be the way to go. 2nd choice, the Bohin size 26, a tiny bit thicker, and with that amazing Bohin polished surface. Third, a new packet of needles I found at Walmart, branded Singer a mix of sizes 24 and 26, also tapestry tips. The tapestry tip needle is the hand sewing version of the "stretch" needles sold for machine sewing. It will work it's way between the strands instead of piercing them. And gently does it is the theme for this extra fine Merino wool shirt.

I will use tacking stitches to hold the knit steady while I work on the tiny, tiny whip stitches. That is why I called this floating,  it's the equivalent to floating projects on the embroidery machine.

We got rain!

Hello, everyone. It's surprising how busy we can be with nothing on the calendar. I'm hip-deep on a big quilt right now, and the on ramp has several more projects incoming.

But it was very exciting recently when we got a slug of rain. Probably we got around 8 inches over a couple of days.

This street was temporarily blocked due to urban street flooding. They say it was 30 inches deep for a little while. It all drained nicely, it just fell too fast for the pipes and built up for a little while. 

We're grateful for the rain. Everything was dried out to crispy brown at some parks, and our yard was also. 

More color play with the parrot

Hello, everyone.  In between working on the cowboy quilt, I have been working on the parrot wall hanging. This is the photo that turned sideways in the last post. (Bad Blogger!) I'm thinking about the binding now.

And this time it's right side up.

Both the purple batik and the assorted oranges speak to me. There is some question whether there is enough of the oranges. I estimate needing 10 feet plus miters for the length of this binding. 

I do think that a little flange of orange would look nice with the purple batik binding. The orange in the eye, the gold in the wattle, and the golden spirals in the wing would play with it, and the varied shades in the batik would work with the perch and the greens.

New project, and color play

Hello,  everyone.  I went to a class at a quilt shop down the highway a ways (RGV Quilt and Sew) and have gotten the face of the class project put together.  But, before putting parts together,  we all took turns working out a fabric palette, different for each student, and did practice layouts of our chosen prints. 

This was mine. Of the pieces here, two were already in my collection.  (The yellow and purple grunge fat quarters) The greens, the Kaffe Fassett fungus, and the brown speckles were pulled from the shop shelves. Likewise the peach-colored marbled print which will be the background. 

Here is the assembled face of the wall hanging:

Sadly, the Blogger app turns this photo on it's side. The parrot is having a little  nap, I guess.

 I have the fabric clipped onto the cabinets in my sewing room, using some photographer's clips, because that's what I have for a try-out wall. And the old chip clips just didn't grip the melamine doors like these ones do.

I do like the way the cabinet doors hold up the pieced fabric. As long as the quilt is not bigger than a short twin-sized, this system works fine.

Happy Cactus

Hello, everyone.  One of the potted cacti is blooming. I usually keep it on an east windowsill but the flowers are too pretty not to enjoy in the kitchen. 

When the blooms fade, it will go back to the window sill where it is a happy plant.

The Christmas cactus is a shade plant, so I can't plant it outside. The bright sun would kill it.

Color play: baby edition

Hello, everyone.  Today's post is looking at colors for a baby quilt. 

The little paper square in the middle is the concept. I'm thinking of the pinks as background and the teals as main color, with a central block of the turtle print.

I tried putting it into black and white: 

Some of the prints are interested in being the star of the show. That daffodils and Easter eggs print isn't sure if it's a pink or a teals!

A closer look at the idea. It's from the Moda Chains quilt, making only one quadrant and adding a couple top and bottom borders to get the blanket into a more oblong shape.

Trying out new things:pillow edition

Hello, everyone.  It's been chilly and the days just get consumed by this and that. 

I have a set of embroidery designs that calls itself Damask. They're all monochrome florals. 

This incorporates 2 of them. I did it in 3 colors but the 2 whites are pretty much the same color. Base fabric was not from stash. (!) I got some brown upholstery fake suede for this. It's a 12 inch pillow, very usable size. 

It did take over 70 minutes to stitch out. And the fabric required a size 14 needle.

It was fun hunting down something to put on a 12 inch pillow. Designs stash for the win!

Tortilla de verduras con gambas

Hello,  everyone.  We miss so many things about the Camino. And some of them are not really practical to recreate at home.

Tortilla, fortunately, can be made at home. 

Yum.

Back on track with walking

Hello, everyone.  We're having pleasant weather this week, and we're getting back on track with walking. 

Yesterday we returned to one of our favorite training walks, the Mission Hike and Bike. This trail has a paved track with gentle inclines along the way. We walked 3 miles there yesterday and it was purely relaxing.

We also saw a little bit of wildlife. There was a first-time sight:

He or she had crawled out of the burrow, probably because the cloudy sky looked like evening to a "little " fuzzy spider.

There were also some roadrunners.

Today we walked at Bentsen State Park. We had a good pace and the 4 miles were so peaceful. 

Color play: reverse side edition

Hello, everyone.  Today's color play is a test layout of the reverse of a queen-sized bedspread. The yardage alone isn't big enough to get the job done, and an assortment of blocks are posing with it here.

This isn't going to be the final, but it's looking good as a start, in my opinion. Here is the black-and-white version:

It seems like the values are reasonably spread out. 

Study of the small blocks reveals that they're not 4.5 inches, mostly, they're 4 inches. This calls for either switching them out or adding sashing strips.

As these are all orphan blocks, this counts as a stash festival. 

The cold snap arrived

Hello, everyone.  The arctic air is here in a big way and so we have put some freeze protection on some tender plants.

The Caribbean tree cactus, a tropical opuntia, is a cutting from the one that came with the house. (That one froze in 2021.) 

We put incandescent Christmas lights around the pads and wrapped the plant in an old sheet. There was extra length on the string of lights which got draped on a nearby basil.

The dragon fruit, a tropical pitaya that makes hot-pink fruits, is also tender.

More Christmas lights and two sheets.

We did what we could for the avocado. 

Three strings of lights, as far as we could reach. 

Lights and sheets have been helpful many times during short frosts. The lights must be incandescent or they won't make any heat for the plant.

Trying a new recipe

Hello,  everyone. It's cold outside, so it's a good day to do sewing and baking.

Well, it's determined to put it in sideways. I think y'all can see reasonably well. The recipe is from Cherry Republic's web site, Sharon's Cherry Scones. I didn't like the way her recipe says to shape them, and it looks a lot like a buttermilk biscuit recipe, so I patted and gently rolled the dough to 1/2" thick and used my 2" biscuit cutter. With this system, I got 28 round Cherry flavored biscuits. 

I sampled one with some cream cheese and it was good. Also very tender!

This one looks like a winner, and it helps to use up some of the dried sour cherries that are in the pantry. 

Starting a new quilt

Hello, everyone. It's a chilly, wet day in South Texas. Fairly typical for this time of year.

As the title says, a new quilt is in process. The design is sketched out on graph paper requires 14 star blocks. Here are the first few.

Thanks to the advice on the internet from Mr. Appel! These sawtooth stars are 4.5 inch unfinished. 

As y'all can see, the theme will be Western. I was able to make the centers of the whole set of stars from one print, a few strips of 2.5 inch fabric that was in the stash. 

Cold weather has arrived

Hello, everyone. It's really chilly out today, it was yesterday,  and it's supposed to be tomorrow, too. We call it "winter", no fancy names needed. It's warmer than a lot of places farther north, but it is in the 40'sF. 

I had some tallow in the house, left over from making chili, and I melted it and poured it over some birdseed. 

When it firms up it can be broken into chunks for the poor little birds outside. 

Final finish of 2024!

Hello, everyone. Happy New Year to all of my readers!

The final finished project, just under the wire yesterday! is the panel quilt.

The reverse is in a cream colored Australian aboriginal style print, no fancy piecing or creatively used orphan blocks, just getting the job done.