Oh, the Learning Curve in attempting LE!

or the latest good/bad of quilting.  I made my compass - you saw it on a past post.  Next step was to attach a circle with the 5/16ths dots on it.  I cut my background square, drew the circle and position of the dots, tried some of the dots - worked okay - I was surprised with the needle turning.  Here is my saving piece of equipment that made it possible to answer the question:  How do you applique such a tiny dot?

Yes! - A magnifier.  I remembered I'd gotten this from my neighbor.  You put the strap around your neck and balance it on midriff.  Makes what you're working on 2 times bigger than it actually is.  I don't know the power, but it did the trick and did 8 dots as a start. HOWEVER, once I tried to reverse applique the  circle to the compass - the compass was too big!  And I couldn't tell around the edge if I was sewing it with the right seam allowance.  Arrgh.  Plus the dots wouldn't line up right.  Ready to throw in the towel, I took out the reverse applique (only a bit over a 1/4th of it done before I saw the pending disaster), and drew with my drawing compass an exact 8" circle on freezer paper for the unfinished compass. Then I found the exact center of my compass, and ironed the FP to the Compass. I then cut off the excess fabric from the side where I had very generous 1/4" from point tip to edge.  Then what?!  After some pulling out hair and gnawing of cheek, I decided to just pretend it was 4 joined drunkard's path blocks and sew the seam with my machine. Sort of success -

I forgot to mark the 4 quarters of the circle and at the last one had a little fullness to contend with. Ay de mí!  By taking out a bit of the first quarter circle seam, finishing the seam and then ironing and starching the circle - I got to the above. But now it looks too flat to me!!  It's going to be a longgggggggg 18 months - but I'm learning new things.  That's my good/bad of quilting for this week.  I'm linking to Block Lotto to  commiserate with other quilters.

Look what the Mailman brought!

I won this lovely kit from Carrie at A Passion for Applique!  She hosts the challenge - Nothing But UFOs and as an incentive to get us to keep working on our UFOs monthly she has a giveaway.  In June, I won!  LOL - this would be my fifth applique project I am currently working on if I start it soon.  Maybe I'll wait to start it in August as my NewFO.  It comes with a luscious fabric for the columns between the applique that has all kinds of fancy stitches between the rows.  I love the border!  Thanks so much, Carrie!

Applique Tuesday 7/9/13

Thank you, Billie, for reminding me it's my day to post about applique.  I've just come back from babysitting for 8 hours and I'm sort of wiped out (there was swimming, bike riding, baseball and dinner plus general play with a 2 year-old).  But sure I just need a good night's sleep, and I'll be back to my go self.  I did do some applique this past week.  I hand appliqued the center of my compass (see last post) and I machine appliqued these diamond shapes on this charity quilt:

This will be another VA charity lap quilt and measures 36" by 45". This design is a widely adapted one of Ivory Spring's Watercolor Sketches.  I resized the blocks, removed the sashing, and took off the borders and added the striped design at the top.  Do you think that is changed enough?  Can see this with fussy cut centers.  I'm calling it Old Glory for the stripes and the star design that was generated from the placement of the blocks.  I'll show another version later that was easier than this to make.  I'm going to keep this design handy.

Are you appliqueing?  Have some old, new or completed project you could share? Doesn't even have to be applique - would love to see whatever you're working on.  Linky below.



And I'm linking to Connie's Free Motion Quilting by the River. Check out the goodies there, too.