Round Two

I finished my Wedding Star quilt.  This is a little table topper 30" in both dimensions.  It is a Judy Niemeyer pattern and I do so admire her designs, but I found the directions to be very confusing in some parts.  However, I was able to tough it out without too much waste.  It is paper pieced and I have done lots of that so experience paid off.

In all my years of sewing and quilting this is the first bias binding I have done.  I went straight to Sharon Schamber's wonderful video on how to do it.  She has so many suggestions on how to avoid problems and a really cool method for cutting the bias.    She has some fussy steps in her process, but in using her methods you can avoid errors that might end in a sloppy result.  She also has an excellent video on how to do a straight grain binding.  I HIGHLY recommend that you watch one or both of her tutorials.

"Wedding Star" (pattern by Judy Niemeyer)

Now I am starting another quilt with the same pattern because I have two family weddings coming up and this is my way of celebrating.  I made some mistakes on the first one and I think I can avoid those on this one.  I have plenty of fabric except for one color that I just barely had enough to cut.  If I goof on that one I will have to replace that element with a different fabric.  All the fabrics are from my stash except for 1 yard for background.  That is helpful as the only way I can get fabric at the moment is online.

Design wall with the start of the second "Wedding Star." (testing!)

I hope you are all doing well during this time of isolation.  The virus hasn't changed my life much because we are pretty much a stay-at-home couple at any given time.  I always have plenty to keep me busy at home and soon I will be able to garden.  I feel badly for our 4 graduates this year as they may not be able to celebrate with the usual ceremony, but at least they are able to finish their course work online.  Our two weddings are in August and October, and I really hope that they each will be able to have the wedding of their dreams.  At any rate they will each have a small quilt from Grandma.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you no flu and lots of time to sew.

Viral Quilting

We are all worrying about a tiny virus that packs a wallop.  Many of us are self-isolating ourselves as much as possible.  Some of you will be extra busy with the kids at home.  Others will be at home with time on your hands.  Well, I no longer have kids at home, but I am always busy within the confines of my house and yard.  However, I miss being able to go to the library, I will go to the store only for dire necessities (like food), restaurants are closed, etc.  So, even if I should feel housebound and want to get out, I won't, except for my daily dog walk.  Quilting can be a blessing at times like this to keep our minds on something other than the troubles.  We are so lucky to have chosen a business or hobby that can keep us immersed in something productive, creative and beautiful.  Of course I assume you have a stash to work from.  I could probably supply the neighborhood.

I have been busy getting my little quilt quilted.  Sometimes I plow straight into a project without planning each step.  I got so excited to get the top all together that I busied myself with building the sandwich so I could settle down to quilting.  About halfway through stitching-in-the-ditch I realized that I hadn't finalized my ideas for the quilting.  So now how am I going to mark it?  That should have been done before the sandwich, but now it was too late.  Never fear, where there is a will there is a way.

I like to completely mark my quilting design because I find it hard to see around the needle apparatus to figure out where I should go next with my freeform designs.  If the lines are drawn it is easier for me.  Some of this I can do free hand with the blue or purple marker, but I need a pattern of some sort with which to mark the bones of the design.  If I had thought ahead I would have used a light box to trace the design.  Now it is too late.  You can create patterns with plastic templates, freezer paper, kitchen dishes, and many other items.  I use old manilla folders.  I cut the pieces and trace around them with a blue marker onto the quilt top.  That sets the main directions of the pattern.  The bird is clipart from the Internet.

Manilla folder pattern for main lines of the design.

Then I draw in the feathers freehand.

Incomplete drawing with the blue marker.

I decided to quilt with pale, purple thread.  The background is white on white, but it looked very stark and blah when I was done piecing.  The purple thread will somewhat disappear after I soak it when I am done, but enough will show to outline the quilting and add interest and a little color to the dull, white background (lower right corner).

Now to the sewing machine.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you novelty in finding/designing quilting patterns.  Stay well and wash your hands.

The Wonder Stuff Called Glue

I have been working on a double wedding ring table table topper.  It is full of curved seams, and I have done them many times.  Picture a dozen pins holding it all in place.  Force it under the presser foot.  Try to keep the puckers out.  Try to remember to pull the pins out before they interact with the needle.  Saliva is useful to remove blood from the fabric.

Two pieces to sew together in a curved seam

My pattern is from Judy Niemeyer and she simplifies much of the process...with glue.  I have used glue on tricky seams many times, but I hadn't thought about it for this pattern.  Wow!  It takes all the work out of sewing the curved seams.  I used 3 pins:  one on each end and one in the middle during the gluing process.

Pin Placement.  Glued together.

Press to set the glue (it will wash out later).  Then I pulled out the middle pin leaving only the ones on the ends...just in case. The sewing went so fast I couldn't believe it.  I did have to address a couple of tiny puckers but they eased out without trouble, and I did a LOT of curved seams.

Inside

Outside

I use Elmer's clear glue.  You can also buy a glue stick, but I have a needle nose, screw-on top on my bottle of glue.  I got that top at a local Woodcraft store, but I am sure they are on the Internet somewhere.  You don't even need to keep track of a cover for the pointy top.  This glue does not like plastic and does not stick to it.  If there is a little glue left on the tip it may get rubbery, but is pulled out easily with a pin and you are ready to go.  No muss.  No fuss.  No lid to lose!

All those tricky seams are done now and I am ready to free-motion quilt.  Well, first I will stitch in the ditch of every seam.  On this quilt I can do that with my dual feed foot, which makes that process easier because this is a very small quilt.  I don't think it would work as well on a large quilt so you would have to FMQ.  As you see, I am all for easy where possible.

Together

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you success with glue and curved seams.

Time to Get Things Working Right

You probably noticed that I changed my blog theme...again.  The "new" one was so pretty, but drove me crazy - I didn't like working with it.    This one is not as dramatic, but it suits me much better.  I'll keep it for awhile until I get restless again.

My new project was moving right along until the directions got ultra complex and I got so confused.  I see now why Judy Niemeyer hires people and trains them to teach her classes.  There were two booklets of directions for this pattern.  The first was a dozen pages of general directions, which I skimped on (bad move).  There was an extra pattern piece with no explanation of what it was for so I sat down and read through everything - carefully this time.  Apparently it was a way to cut one part of the pattern to sew without foundation piecing.  If it is something else, I will eventually figure it out!

In another place I was told to cut through the middle of a foundation piece when initially cutting it.  Later, it was insane trying to foundation piece it.  One piece ended up having no seam allowance marked.  I have now scanned the whole pattern and can print more pieces if I need them.  I'll do that piece my way!  You can't beat experience.  I am thankful for all the many hours of foundation piecing I have done over the years.  Whether the directions are clear or not, I can eventually figure them out.

I made an annoying miscalculation in a color gradation.  That was my own fault!  What to do?  Below is an extra piece I began to put together before figuring out that I didn't need as many as I thought.  However it is a perfect demonstration of a piece gone wrong in the gradation.  It looked fine in a stack of large pieces of fabric, but it created a sharp demarcation between light and medium dark that looked terribly wrong to me in the strip of small pieces.  It sat behind my machine and just glared at me.

The offending piece is the paisley 3rd from right.

 I had 24 of these graded strips all sewn together so I pondered.

I looked again.

I strongly disliked it.

I pondered some more.

I tried to use paint to darken the piece.

Yuuuuuk!

I finally used an Inktense pencil to color lightly on the left side of the of the offending piece.  Then I used water to blend the color across the piece like painting in watercolor.  Heat set and hope it holds.  It blends perfectly now!  I also washed the test piece with soap and water and it maintained its new look.

Can you see how well the paisley blends now? Compare with the previous image.

Thank goodness I didn't have to do these strips all over again.  This is a project from my stash although I did have to purchase the background fabric.  I have lots of whites, but not enough of any of them so I got a pretty white-on-white.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you gentleness as you blend your life.

A New Project - An Old One Finished

Sewing time has been scant to non-existent.  There have been so many things to be done and other things I wanted to play with.

I had my DNA done some time ago, but didn't really know what to do with it.  I heard about DNA Painter and then a cousin wrote about her efforts to locate the family of my ggg-grandmother using DNA so I got busy, learned the program and added my DNA to the project.  We still don't have an exact answer, but all indications point to a family that is probably hers.  Waste of time?  No, it is challenging to learn new things and keep the aging brain active.

I am one who does not collect UFQs (unfinished quilts), but I just kept making fusible stuff when my machine was in the shop.  I ended up with three UFQs hanging around and it was hard getting back to work to finish them.....until.....I saw a table topper on Facebook that would be a lovely shower gift for two upcoming brides in the family.  It is a Judy Niemeyer pattern that has been discontinued.  I got one of two left!  It is energizing to begin a new project even though I still have two UFQs.  They'll get done at some point!

I made myself finish "Sweet Lady" the collie while I waited for the pattern to arrive.  I puzzled about the binding.  With the red bow on her head I felt I needed a little something red somewhere.  Red binding was clearly not the answer, but I put down some red rick-rack under the black binding.  I think it really makes the quilt pop.  The binding is 1/4 inch and the corners were really hard because of the bulky rick-rack.  I couldn't trim it much because it frays so badly.  So the quilt has bulky corners.  I may take a hammer to them with a piece of fabric under the hammer to prevent the fabric from getting shiny.  We'll see.  This is not for show and it is far from perfect, but I am happy.  I am happiest to have finished at least one project.

Sweet Lady

Sew some happy seams today.  I wish you the thrill of a finished project soon.  Continue your learning process to keep your brain healthy.

Catch the Light Correctly

Last week  I painted the catch lights on my collie's eyes and nose.  I had to be sure the paint was well dried before dragging it around under my needle.

Do you know how to do catch lights?  They are the reflection of light or flash from the shiny cornea of the eye.  If you quilt, draw or paint people or animals they are very important.  They make the eyes come alive and look at you.  In people the catchlights are in the same place in both eyes.  That is, they are both at 2:00 or maybe 11:00 depending on the position of the head or the light, but always the same in both eyes.

Digital painting of my grandaughter.  Catchlights at 11:00.

Dogs are different.  Their catch lights are the mirror image of each other.  Thus, if the right eye has it at 1:00 then the left eye will have it at 11:00.  It makes them look a bit crosseyed sometimes, but their eyes are positioned in their skulls differently than those of humans so the reflections are different.

Zoey's catch lights are both closer to her nose than to her ears.
(Digital painting)

With dogs I go from a photo.  Lady, the collie has hers really weirdly located, but the camera doesn't lie.  She really looks crosseyed, but collies are like that!

Photo of Lady.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish that your portraits will not be crosseyed (unless they are supposed to be that way).

Happy New Year

It is a New Year and my blog has a new theme.  This will take some getting used to as Blogger has made some changes and I am not up to speed on them.

Sewing?  Not yet.  We spent Christmas in Salzburg, Austria, and it was magical to explore some of old Europe.  We attended Christmas Day service in the old, gothic Salzburg Cathedral.  We walked through catacombs cut into a cliff, toured a Fortress high on a ridge, and joined the crowds at the big, outdoor Christmas Market where vendors sold local food and gift items.  We drove into the Austrian Alps to visit Hallstatt, a quaint, salt mining village.  We rode the funicular up to a high point on the mountain for a stunning view of the mountains and lake. Most of all we enjoyed being with family.

Catacombs

Main alter in Salzburg Cathedral

Hohensalzburg Fortress

Austrian Alps

We came home and immediately came down with the virus that my oldest grandson shared with the family over the holidays.  It was a miserable cold, but I'm feeling better now.  That is why I have not been sewing.  I just didn't have the drive to work at it.  Now I can't move forward until I get some batting for that forever quilt that I have been working on since the beginning of time, but it is ordered.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you health, happiness and finished quilts this year.