Bonus Blocks!

Hello, everyone. There were bonus blocks leftover after the patriotic centerpiece was completed. They found their own purpose for existence. 

Several of these, on being stitched out on the white twill, proved not to fit into the petal template for the centerpiece. Also some are thematic in that they have lines from "My Country 'Tis of Thee" embroidered on them. (Not all the lines of the first stanza got embroidered. And one had far too dense of stitching in its test and has joined the scraps pile.) 

I had gotten the white cotton twill for making  Christmas gifts...still on the To Do list...it worked out reasonably well for this. The backing of these little flags is cotton from stash. 

Photographing something at the top of a window was tricky. I finally resorted to doing it after dark, using the room light for illumination. During the day the sunshine shone in and overruled the pennants.

Finished a new project

Hello, everyone.  I finished the Fourth of July project.

This began with a picture on Embroiderydesigns.com, which I looked all over the site and couldn't find it. I did find a similar shaped centerpiece with flowers. So began a hunt for directions and for suitable designs to put on it. 

This was all before they made the patriotic one available through their blog. The blog listing includes the suggestions for designs. The designs suggested are nice, but some of them also somewhat densely stitched. This seems to be a tendency in the "cute patriotic designs" category overall. I used two layers of stabilizer under most of them.

Oddly enough, this year the classic "spirit of '76" image has not been popping up.

It was fun to make this.

New Sewing Club Project

Hello, everyone.  We're in normal summer weather in this region: partly to mostly sunny, and if it doesn't rain, the day's high temperature will be in the 90's F. 

In this weather, what we call "air conditioning season" we enjoy indoor hobbies during the afternoons. Like sewing.

This large quilted bow was our meeting project at Sewing Club. I finished the ladt topstitching and assembly after getting home. This purchased pattern required tons of 4" squares to make the bow pieces. It also involved fusible fleece batting for the support of the "ribbons." 

In the execution,  I discovered that maybe the seams of the piecing should have been pressed open, instead of to the side for nested seams like I did. The seams did nest, but they were very thick. Also there was a lot of bulk in the bow tails; maybe leaving out the fusible there would have been wise. 

Topstitching the edges meant stopping to walk the needle over almost every seam. 

After completion, though, the bow came out pretty. I suppose I could see doing another in a different color assortment. It does clear out stash fabrics.

A new project is completed (edited for spelling and to add link)

Hello, everyone.  It's almost Easter-time, and I found a little decorative project in the "to be made" pile, with its fabrics already chosen, and decided to finally do it.

This is one of the Sweat Pea designs. It's a machine embroidered applique, made in four parts. I elected to use Minky scraps and some fake-suede for the animal bodies. 

The second little fabric tree is done

Hello, everyone.  When I posted about the fabric table top tree a few days ago, I mentioned that the pattern makes two trees. The areas between the pieces of the bigger tree provide also three more triangles for a companion tree.

It's about half the size of the first tree.

Decorations are once again sequins, pailettes, and beads from stash. There was a little mother of pearl butterfly which got tacked onto the center panel (the "front") for a bit of an accent.

It's nice to have finished one of the "gonna-do" projects in the sewing room.

Merry Christmas!

Hello,  everyone.  On this Christmas Night, may the blessings of this wondrous day be with all y'all.

The curved-ruler pieced tree is decorated

Hello,  everyone.  It's been busy around the home place, but we're in a calm spot for a few days, so there's time to make a post.

Last year I made a wall hanging Christmas tree. It wasn't decorated--no time, and no plan! This year, a plan grew for decorations for the little tree. First rule of the decorations was that they have to be light weight. The gorgeous rhinestone brooches would make the tree too heavy to be held up by tape on a door. Fortunately, there were a lot of little Free Standing Lace mylar light bulbs left over from the Kimberbell Christmas quilt project a few years ago. I also have a cute little Starlight Mint coaster/ornament pattern from Designs By JuJu. They're about 4" and the free standing applique is very light weight. A couple of FSL ornaments turned up in the Christmas boxes, too.

Now it really looks like a Christmas tree.

The parrot is finished

Hello, everyone.  I might have put up a project progress report a few months ago on this bird. It's from a quilt pattern by Quilt Fox Design. The wall hanging version was a class project at RGV Sew and Quilt, a little ways down the road. The class was a lot of fun.

I was so excited to have this finished that I hung it up even before ironing the rumples out. (Sorry) Much of the quilting was basically echoes of the fabric shapes, with a couple of areas done in straight lines. I did change the thread color to go with the fabric substrate so that the bird would remain the focus of the project. 

The pattern, in case anyone wants to make a pieced parrot.

Detail photo on the quilt

Hello, everyone.  The other day when I posted about the quilt, there was a detail of the center panel that I wanted to post, but the Blogger app insisted on turning it sideways. Even after cropping to get it wider than tall. A couple of days later it appears that the revised shape of the image has settled in.

The silhouette of the cowmen and their horses is what I think attracted DH to fall in love with the wall hanging in the store. This detail also shows most of the star blocks.

The white frame around the panel is linen from the stash. The prints, while I love them, are very monotone and the highlight really helps punch it up. IMHO.

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.

Burlap ribbon color play for Thanksgiving

Hello, everyone.  It's Thanksgiving week in these USA and I was inspired to try some things.

Color Play in the dining room:

The runner was a Sewing Club project from way back, using fusible to applique the scrappy pumpkins. The ribbons (from Walmart crafts department,  I had dropped in to get Thanksgiving paper napkins and hit the crafts aisles on spec) are different widths and were cut to an appropriate length by eye.

Color Play at the breakfast nook:

The same ribbons,  draped on the light fixture. Note that the ribbons are not in contact with anything electric. The runner, which actually fits the 60 inch long table, has moved over also.

Yes that is the Spanish IGN map of all of the Caminos de Santiago on the wall. It's easy to refer to it , now that it's framed, when talking about routes or just daydreaming. 

Since there is still some burlap ribbon on the spools, I think there will be some burlap accents added to various small projects. 

To all of my American readers, I wish a happy and blessed Thanksgiving. To all of my readers, as the season of Advent is approaching fast, may you have a wondrous Advent and Christmas season.

Tried something new

Hello, everyone. Sorry it's been so long between posts! Things are getting busier as Christmas season gets a little closer.

This past week I tried out a new machine embroidery applique pattern.

As y'all can see, it didn't come out tiny! I decided not to stuff this not so little owl as it seems to me more like a dangling decoration. This is from Sweet Pea. There are two others that are similar that I haven't tried yet.

All fabric is from stash: assorted quilting cottons. I did put Shape-Flex on the back of the main body pieces because the quilting cottons are all so thin. I got into that habit from making so many little, and larger, bags.

A sewing club project

Hello,  everyone. Today's post is the most recent sewing club project. 

This is a design from Designs By Ju Ju. It's machine embroidery panels which are assembled with the regular sewing machine at the end.

The front:

The back:

I did depart from the instructions a little at the end. I wanted to try making triangle pockets for hanging, which are concealed on the back and allow the piece to be a table topper if desired.  This decision required a separate binding instead of the fold over binding the project designer had recommended. 

I chose to use a pieced binding, using various fall tones. Instead of a bias connecting seam at the end, since the pieces weren't connected by bias seams, I used a straight seam for the connection. 

All fabrics, batting, and threads are from stash. There's a little hand beading on the pumpkin square, also using up a bit of stash.

Lessons learned in this project: use matching threads for the tackdown stitches in the applique. Be extra careful with the quarter inch seam allowances as it's hard to take out hidden stitches that accidentally end up showing.

 

Reconditioning Old Balls

Hello,  everyone. It's a cool day out around here, but there is plenty of indoor work to do.

Shiny, glass ball ornaments, as we all know, eventually start losing the even shine they came home with. The ornaments are still fine, they just begin to tarnish or otherwise look shopworn.

Here are some that were found to be getting grubby when the tree went up. In this picture they have received a coat of matte Mod Podge (glue) and a coat of glitter. They spent the night drying and this morning they got an overcoat of glossy Mod Podge.

It's my hope that the gloss coat will stop the glitter from shedding all over the place, and make the blown glass balls more durable as well. Not that one should attempt to juggle them! But ordinary existence in the being on a Christmas tree should be easier now. Nothing like 2 coats of glue to reinforce things!

After they dry, the cap will be glued in place and the little wire loop reinsert. Then they will be ready for use.

Working on Christmas decorations

Hello, everyone.  The Christmas season is compressed this year: the Fourth Sunday of Advent is also Christmas Eve.

We're trying to get the decorations up in a bit of a rush as a result.

The living room tree, with the Christmas quilt on the wall.

The library tree, mostly decorated with eggshell ornaments, with the quilted tree skirt. Bowl full of pincushions in background is just incidentally there. 

The nativity scene, with a new strand of lights. (The old string was dead.) 
These are the progress thus far.

Update on the quilt

Hello, everyone. 

This is a progress report on the Building Blocks quilt.The rows have been assembled and sewn together to form the center of the quilt. A border in a coordinating gray print has been added. It will finish at 1.5 inches after the binding is added.

The quilt is ready for basting, quilting,  and then finally binding.

I think a simple geometric quilting design will allow the colors to come into their own.

The pinned on bit of paper marks the top left block.

Another new finish

Hello,  everyone. 

Today there was a need for a little, lined basket. Fortunately there was a suitable basket around the place. 

This is for a drop-off basket.

All of the fabrics are from stash. Poly woven, lace from the bin, ribbon leftover from wedding years ago.

A bowl filler

Hello, everyone. The fabric scraps called to me again. This time it was a set of gray and white strips--fairly narrow strips--that had already been joined into a block.

I used my Creative Grids circle cutting template, the smallest one, to make ends for the tube. The green dotted fabric was left over from the Road to Round Top themed table runner, where it had been used to make sashing between the blocks. The beads on the ends of the little cylinder are just for fun.

The Creative Grids templates are part of the loot from the Houston Quilt Festival trip last fall. 

The table runner is done

Hello, everyone.  The table runner is done. This is my first modern-quilting style project and I'm not sure how I feel about the concept.

This morning,  ready to have the binding sewn on.

And it's done. 

I'm not feeling the love for extra-skinny binding. Next time I will cut it wider and let a little more binding color  show.

The binding does punch up the accent squares, but at this size the little reddish dots don't do much to echo the flower colors.

I did free motion quilting in the larger squares in the blocks, and simple geometric lines for the rest of the quilting. 

Color Play: binding

Hello, everyone. This is the table runner in-process. I did use the extremely modern pattern involving squares, several of the Road to Round Top fat quarters,  and a revolvers-on-stone accent fabric. 

The quilting is done, but the final wash will, of course, wait until the binding is sewn in place. Today's post shows auditions of binding fabrics.

various views of the runners and candidates for binding. 

The choice comes down to whether the binding should be as low-volume as most of the fabrics, or contrast with them.

I'm leaning toward the darker gray with little reddish dots all through it. The orange floral from the fabric line come off as either too brightly orange or too pale, and the lighter grays have the same lack of contrast. The crackled-wood look of that one across from the grunge print stands out too much, wanting to make itself the star of the show. The darker gray floral is nice, but I think the little reddish dots will play up the flowers in the middle block. The dark gray "Grunge" at one corner of the top photo is just too much sharp contrast for me here.