Labels & Doodles

Want to be sure your quilt and it's label are never separated? Instead of merely adding the label to the back when the quilt is finished why not use your label as part of the pieced back? That is exactly what I have done with this quilt...sorry can't show you the front just yet.......well....okay how about a little sneak peak.
Since my fabric was not quite wide enough and had to be pieced anyway I decided to go ahead, print my label to incorporate it into the backing.

Have you tried making my homemade Bubble Jet Set solution? you can find those earlier posts here. While my first few batches stayed clear, my most recent one, I discovered, had separated and settled in the bottom of the jar. Not sure why, but I went ahead and shook it up......it was cloudy, sort of like watery milk but it worked fine and was just as effective as before.

Now for the doodles........did you notice my initials on the label? I try to include them on all of my labels.
Jaye is still providing us with our weekly prompt and this week's CPP word is Whisk so here is what I have for you Jaye.

I am INSPIRED!........but not to Doodle

Yesterday, I attended a workshop conducted by Rosemary Makhan who led us through a wonderful day of learning her applique method. Those of you who are regular readers know that not only do I rarely work with someone else's patterns, I generally am not a flowery type quilter. That just might all change after the last couple of days.
Seeing Rosemary's work on her web site is one thing but seeing it up close and personal is entirely different. I don't think you can look at her amazing work and not be inspired. We were treated to her trunk show at guild on Thursday evening .....each time you thought it could not possibly get any better another spectacular quilt emerged. If you ever have a chance to take a class with Rosemary, take my advice, do NOT pass up the opportunity.
My last post showed how I was preparing for this class beginning with my little mock up of the block I would be working on. Well here is my full size block (see the little one in the lower left corner) now ready for needle and thread.
My fabric choices are based on the fact that when the bunnies visit my garden (usually to nibble my favourite plants) it is early morning, so I wanted this piece to have that dappled sun effect.

I have not really been in a doodling mood lately, but I did do this sewing bird for prompt word #52 Sterling Although my antique sewing bird is actually brass there were a few made in Sterling silver.
Prompt word #53 is Magnify........and well, I just thought the one I did for #23 Look worked so well that I decided not to doodle another.

Okay time to thread a needle and see how long it's going to take to achieve those incredibly fine stitches I admired in Rosemary's quilts.

Preparing for Class

Next Friday I plan to take an applique workshop and want to be properly prepared. I have not taken many classes or workshops so I'm never sure that I have chosen the right supplies to take along, I just know that when I get started I'll wish I had made different choices.

Since I can't bring my entire stash with me, I devised a simple way to "Audition" my fabrics for this class. I went online and snagged a picture of the pattern we will be working on. (note, I am not a bunny and butterfly kinda quilter) but I do want to learn technique. I printed the picture ( about 1/4 of the actual block size) and proceeded to trace the elements onto freezer paper. I cut the flowers, leaves, and bunny from the fabrics I thought might work and placed them onto my background. So here it is in miniature and I think I like my choices. The ladyslipper leaf fabric actually reads a little more green in full size. I will take a few of my second choices along as well in case I want to make any last minute changes. I am thinking that I may enhance some of the colours with a little thread painting once the applique is done.

You will notice that I have chosen to use a light background, this is partly because I don't care for the dark background and because I have very few light fabrics in my stash that would work. You may also notice that there is no butterfly in my mock up........I gotta draw the line somewhere, the butterfly is not happening, not real sure that toad will be staying either.
I stitched my mock block onto a piece of stabilizer that could be slipped into a clear binder sheet for easy reference. Now everything is neat, organized & ready to go.

Needlebook

For the longest time I have been wanting to make myself a needlebook......well I have finally done it. I plan to take an applique class next week so this should come in handy.

I started with this fabulous Mark Lipinski print,
( LOVE this black and white) came up with a bit of a plan, decided on a size and then just kinda made it up as I went along. I put magnetic strip here on the inside so I won't be loosing my needles. I dug through some old jewelry findings and using a jump ring, attached a lobster claw to a short length of lightweight chain. It holds my needle threaders.


I have 6 felt "pages" to hold my betweens, straw, and basting needles along with glass head pins & safety pins.

I added a pouch with a flap and a little tiny pocket. This holds my thread snips, leather thimble and even my seam ripper.
For the pocket, I used a tightly woven batik for extra strength.

I made the inner and outer layers separately. The inside has the pockets and pages sewn to it using a piece of cotton on a medium weight stabilizer. The outer cotton print was stitched to a layer of a Timtex like product (at Fabricland it is called Flexi-Firm)
Once that was done I just put the two pieces wrong sides together, finished the edges with a zigzag stitch and added my closure.

Dryer Sheet Applique

Well here is what has become of those paper pieced New York Beauties.

I thought they looked like a spiked flower so I turned them into an applique project. I have never really done hand applique and am signing up for a workshop this month but thought I'd try my own version first. As the title of this post suggests, I used dryer sheets to make the whole process quite easy.
First I layered my partial NYB block right side up with a dryer sheet on top.

After stitching around the outer edge, make a slit in the dryer sheet, trim, clip and turn



Then it was onto the tricky stems......well, not so tricky after all. I pressed the freezer paper shape to the right side of my fabric, again layered with a piece of dryer sheet. After stitching and trimming they were a snap to turn because I stitched across the paper at the narrow end and by gently pulling the paper it turned quite easily.




The leaves were done in the same manner as the "flowers" The vine is simply a bias cut strip that has been stitched folded and pressed.

Makes me think SPRING!

Prompt #51

This week's prompt word is Hand. Back at #12, I doodled this hand, it is still one of my favourites so here it is again.


But I thought I should have something new to show for this prompt, so here is a look at my hand quilting.
I purchased one of those pre-printed panels a couple of years ago to learn to, and practice hand quilting. It is about 16"square and I did manage to get roughly 9 - 10 stitches per inch. Want to examine it closer? click on the photo.
Unfortunately I did this before I learned that batik is not the best fabric to use as a backing for this type of quilting.
I really enjoy the process though and hope to one day develop my own design to stitch.

Everyone is welcome to join in The Creative Prompt Project, it doesn't have to be a drawing/doodle, it can be a photograph, short story, poem......learn more by clicking on Clara the cow on my sidebar.

Prompting Paper Piecing

This week's prompt is a little different, instead of a word, Jaye has asked us to post about something we have seen and been inspired by.
I have been inspired by Kathy of Kathy's Quilts who did a piece called the Internal Sun.
I absolutely love this piece and it has inspired me to try some paper piecing myself.

I decided to work on a New York Beauty block. First, for prompt #50, I did this black and white block instead of my usual doodle.




Tendinitis makes it very difficult for me to remove the paper from the back so I thought I'd see if I could find something to use that did not have to be removed. I used a product called "trace a pattern" that is sold at Fabricland stores. It is inexpensive, easy to see through, is lightweight and soft enough to be left in a quilt.




I cut the point sections out of a paper version so that I could audition the fabrics I thought I would use





You will just have to wait for my next post to see what these are going to become.

Postcards

Recently, I wanted to send a Birthday card off to a creative friend and thought why not do a postcard with some of my "Inchies"
I began by choosing a beautiful fabric, practiced a free motion stitch and added a few favourite inchies.............I just hope I got it into the mail on time.

What do you do with greeting cards you receive? Really.........is it possible to keep them all? I decided that I will start to"re-purpose" some.
This year, I received a Christmas card with 9 of these cute little snowmen on it. I simply cut them out, placed them on a wintry looking fabric and covered it with a layer of tulle. I first stitched closely around all of the snowmen and then did some simple stitching. Added a couple of silver snowflakes and I have a card ready for my guild's postcard exchange tomorrow evening.

Row #1 and Opportunity

I finally got around to doing my row for the start of the Row Robin group I am participating in. I decided to keep it fairly simple. I love the look of scrappy quilts and thought this would be a great Opportunity to begin one of my own. I will provide the off white ( see earlier post) to be used in the background along with my row so the team members should have lots of choice as to what they'd like to add. Simple blocks, applique.........whatever they most like to do.
I don't very often do traditional blocks and there may be a good reason for that...............me and numbers, we just don't get along. The group has been asked to keep our rows somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40 - 44 inches in length. I thought that seven of these 6" blocks would be perfect, 7 x 6" = 42" right? Well yes, except that I put them on point and totally forgot that the measurement changes ( they were now actually 8" blocks) so my 7 block row ended up measuring 57" needless to say I had to do a bit of un-sewing. This is the row that will be handed off at our guild meeting next week.


The Creative Prompt project continues with this week's word, Opportunity and when it comes knocking you might want to be quick to unlock the door so I doodled this key.

Dye with Paint and Fireworks!

Sometimes white just won't do. I am signed up to be part of a row robin and I plan to do a very scrappy row with an off white background. Problem was I had purchased a nice tone on tone at a great bargain a few weeks ago........... 102" wide for only $8 a metre.........but it was white, a real stark white. I knew when I bought it that it would be getting a makeover.
So here is what I did. I began with a little Setacolour fabric paint (and I do mean a little) probably no more than a teaspoon and diluted it in roughly 12 cups of water because I wanted just a little colour.
Once I was sure the paint was completely dissolved, I added my damp (pre-washed) fabric. I moved it about to be sure it was being saturated evenly and really only left it in this solution for about 3 to 5 minutes. Using paint does not take near the time dye does.
I wrung the excess out, put that piece aside and repeated twice more.
Unlike with dyeing, with paint, your colour stays the exact same strength every time you introduce a new piece.....( with the dyeing process, your colour will get increasingly lighter)
I had cut the fabric into more manageable size pieces for ease of handling and because I wanted a piece to use now, (42"x 50") one to save for later (25"x 100") and another one measuring (42"x 50") to send along with my row for it's row robin journey......so you see, you can do some fairly large pieces.

This is the end result even after the whole works had been dried, then washed with detergent and dried again. The white on the bottom is part of the original piece I started with, the colour is permanent and will stand up to regular laundering.




The CPP prompt word #48 is Fireworks
Want to join in or learn more about The Creative Prompt Project? .....click on Clara the Cow on my side bar