It’s spring break in our town this week, so I’ve decided to take a blogging break this week too – well, really an all-around computer break – while we focus on some other projects around here…
…including maybe making something like this (photo from here)…
…for someone who as of today looks like this…
So, here’s to getting lots done this week – and having some fun while we’re at it. ‘Til next week then…
| 1. | I drew a flower shape on some fusible web and cut it out. Then I should have first fused the web onto some fabric and then cut out the fabric, staying about 1/4” away from the edge of the fusible web where possible. But no. Instead I cut out the fabric first while merely holding the fusible web against it, which is why—in the photo—the white flower and yellow flower don’t fit right at the corners…) |  |
| 2. | I fused the flower onto the dress, over the hole of course. Then I drew a line as a guide for my stitching, using a colored pencil because it was handy and happened to be the same color as my thread. I tried to draw where the edge of the fusible web was, as best as I could tell through the fabric. |  |
| 3. | I stitched on the line I just drew… or at least, I tried to! (I thought it would be easier and faster to lower my feed dogs and stitch it freehand. Not so easy. Not so fast. And definitely not so pretty. Maybe a darning foot would have helped. And some experience stitching freehand! Good thing I’m an experienced ripper-outer…) |  |
| 4. | I stitched over the line a second time, to make the stitching stand out more. I took my time around the curves, sometimes stopping with the needle in the down position so I could lift the presser foot, turn the fabric, then lower foot and keep sewing. Using a small stitch length also helped me sew smooth curves. |  |
| 5. | I repeated step 1 for a small circle fused onto a red scrap of fabric. Note: in this case, I liked the color but not the pattern of my red scrap, so I ironed the fusible web onto the manufacturer’s “right” side of the fabric so the “wrong” side would be face-up. I’m allowed to do that… |  |
| 6. | After I fused the circle onto the flower (see my iron outline?), I drew another line to be my stitching guide again. |  |
| 7. | I sewed around the teensy circle twice, but my lines were so messy and looked more liked square-cles than circles, so I sewed around a few more times. |  |
Hey, thanks for humoring me in the comments yesterday/today that you were at the edge of your seats. But now the “solution” will be pretty anti-climactic.
I just spread the quilt out on the floor, laid out the medium and small squares in their Lucy-designated order on top of the large squares, then started shuffling them around into a more pleasing-to-Karin pattern.
Tried to think less “Aargh, I already did this once before” and more “Ooh, I love puzzles, and now I get to do one again.” (There’s that “attitude” thing again.)
So here are the squares left to sew on. 60 pairs of them. Now safely out of reach of almost-2-year-olds. AND firmly fastened together with large safety pins. Just in case.
Actually, the hardest part was finding a spot large enough to spread the quilt. See those brown strips? Those are the border strips!!! That’s going to be one big quilt.
Oh, was I supposed to show a picture of the quilt itself? Of it laying spread out with all the colorful squares? Or of the other side, in all it’s wrinkly-puffy-glory where I’ve already added the quilting lines?
Well, I could, but then what would I have to show when’s it actually done? (Deadline: early June when my mom flies out to visit Al, tho’ I hope we have it done long before then.)
P.S. Was going to say something about my “merry little adventure” from yesterday, but she did it much better. And check out the cuties she made for me: Cottontail the Bunny, Flypaper the Frog (with an adorable little fly at the end of his extendable tongue!!!), Sting the Little Bee and Bandit the Raccoon! LiEr/Lorraine/Friend Extraordinaire, you rock!
Been working on the quilt in bits and pieces, but hit a snag.
Remember this photo from the end of this post?
While I had use of the open expanse in the basement of my parents’ place in December, I laid out all the squares in a pleasingly “random” fashion. Not too many oranges in one spot, or too many browns. Made sure same fabrics weren’t too close to each other. So, appearing random, but not really random. Then carefully put them in labeled, pinned-together stacks in the order they needed to be sewn on.
A while ago, little Lu got found my stacks. And started pulling out the pins keeping these stacks labeled and in order. I thought I’d caught her early enough to minimize the damage. I thought I’d figured out which stack was which. And which lonely squares went in which stack.
And the next two rows I sewed on worked out just fine.
But when getting ready to quilt the latest row this week, I found this:
A medium square of monkeys right next to a large square of the same? How did that happen? And farther down the row, the same thing, except with one of the tan fabrics. And a dark green medium squares right on top of another dark green large square – no contrast at all.
Little Lu, what did you do?!?
And now I’m out of time. (Heidi has no school today, so we’re heading on a merry little adventure very soon.) So will have to continue this tomorrow.
[Insert melodramatic announcer man’s voice here].
What happened next?
What did Karin do?
And where did the monkeys go?
Tune in next time…
Maybe there will be a real “update” then… : )
I am SO in the mood for spring and have LOVED the past few days of weather in the 60s. So why in the world did my blog banner still say “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”?!? (Well, other than I’m calendar challenged and easily lose track of time…)
So before:
And after:
Funny, when I first found the stripes for my last background, I really loved them. Now I really don't. I’m sure the same will happen to my current background – I think the grey will get to me after a while. I wish the grey were green. But oh well, I found it fast and it was free (at dryicons.com). So that’s good enough for now.
And just to check that this new template shows bullets accurately, here’s what else I’m up to today:
And that’s as far ahead as I want to think for now…
P.S. Here are the grid pictures we did yesterday:
CAR for Sophie to copy
ROBOT for Heidi (shown in middle; oh, she was SO careful to get it just “perfect”) but then Sophie wanted to try it too (shown at right; a little more free form; she got really frustrated with the knees—more complex shape than squares and triangles?—so I finally drew some dots for her to follow).
