Design Wall Monday 6/23/14

Coming off the design wall:

 Mom asked me to quilt this lap quilt for her.  She did everything but the quilting.  I was hesitant at first because she had already  bound it. But she had SITD around the blocks and just inside the yellow French knots.  That seemed to stabilize these large blocks enough that I had no pleating as I quilted it.  I used Bottom Line Silver on both top and bottom with a 80/12 needle and the tension set at 2 for my Bernina.

 Here's four of the six.

and a close-up of one of the ladies.

Here's the back - she used a purple flannel that matches the sashing and borders on the front side.  Now to bury all those tails.

Still on my design wall is my Soupçon.  I was able to add the two borders of Part 6 and have begun the paper piecing third border of this last part.  These will take me a while.  I figure I have 9 hours left on the other three sides.  My PP section was 3/8th shorter than my top.  So first I squared the top again (one side was off) and took out the papers in the center of the PP strip.  I was able to gently stretch the strip to get it to fit.  If I hadn't removed some of those central papers, I was afraid I'd have some gathering in that blue print border. Phew.

I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times and Marelize's Anything Goes Monday.  Now back to the exciting World Cup games!!

Hexie Weekend 6/20/14

I've been prepping hexie stars as I watch the World Cup.  It hasn't been as productive as I envisioned because so many of the games have been outstanding and surprising.  But what did I expect when the best players of the game have gathered together to go for the Golden Ball.  It has been exhilarating to see them play so well and for 95% of them so sportsmanlike - a far difference from 1998 when I watch my first one and 2010 when the refereeing was awful.  But enough of that - back to hexies. I did manage to prep seven more stars and finish sewing the one I had started.

I was going to mainly use 30s fabrics for these stars but my stash has a mind of its own and its turning out brighter than the first ones.  I did find that the centers I chose are of more contrast to the petals. Not wanting the stitches to show I decided to try invisible thread to sew them together.

I used Superior Invisible Thread in the smoke color and worked over a piece of white paper.  The hardest part was tying the knot at the needle to keep the thread from slipping out of the hole.  I also learned I needed to work with shorter lengths of thread - about 12-14" instead of the 18" I'm use to - to keep from wrapping the thread around a side of the hexagon and not noticing it because of the invisibility of the thread - lol.  What do you think?

I'm linking to Richard's Link a Finish Friday because I did finish one star and also to Can I get a Whoop, Whoop for trying a new technique.  I'd love to see your eye candy - hexie or otherwise; photo link or blog post will do.  Linky below. Remember it can be old eye candy - if it's new to me, it qualifies.

An InLinkz Link-up

Applique Tuesday 6/17/14

Two of the games tomorrow will mark the last of the 32 teams playing their first 2014 World Cup game.  There are a lot of great teams out there!  And Mexico will be playing Brazil! So I'd better post now.  I have been trying to do a little hand work as I watch, but it's hard because I take my eyes off the screen for a couple of seconds to take a stitch and someone makes a goal or something - so actual sewing is out. But I've prepped about six hexie flowers, so that's good - and I was able to do a tiny bit of applique. Today I'd like to walk you through how I'm doing my Anna's Garden blocks.

Make a copy of the pattern.

Number the various pieces in the order needed to be laid down (ie leaves that go under the branch) Then cut out the pieces leaving as intact a silhouette as possible - it was easy with this one. Cut on the center of the black lines.

Now make your freezer paper templates by turning over your cut pieces so the writing( and those dark lines around the edges) are not showing and trace on freezer paper. I put the number and the color of the fabric the piece must be on the freezer paper dull side.  Now iron the freezer paper (shiny side to back) to your fabric back and cut out 3/16th from edges.  Turn the edges over using the starch method. Once well dried, take the freezer paper out.  

Assemble a unit using the cutout pattern as your guide. 

Use small dots of glue on the part that overlaps on top and press together.

I then made the other bird.

Now ready to place these on the block.  Place the cutout pattern over the square (I forgot to take a photo of this stage). I lined it up with the branch I had already done. Add a bit of glue around the figures and set in place.  Let dry.

Here is the block ready for hand appliqueing.

Once I've done that here are the bits that are left to do.

Would love to see what you are doing.  Leave me a comment and I'll come visit.  Blessings to you all.
PS: I'm linking to Esther's WOW, Connie's Linking Tuesday Party, and Judy's design wall Monday.