Everything But . . .

This week I’ve been working on a few smaller things and packing for a mini sewing retreat with a friend. It’s amazing how getting ready to go on a sewing vacation can unearth some interesting things. Read more below.

In all the packing hubbub, I am happy to say that this little project found a home in my sewing room. The hummingbird pillowcase was a gift. Jennie (the gift-giver) lives in Australia and they use the metric system there. Here in the US, as you know, we’re still stuck on Imperial measurements. So finding a simple pillow form to stuff inside didn’t work. Not to worry. Went to my stash, found some plain white fabric, cut it to size, seamed around it, and stuffed it with fiberfil. And Wallah! This comfy pillow featuring my beloved hummingbirds has a home in an easy chair in my office where it makes me smile every day! (Thank you Jennie for your thoughtful gift!!)

Kitchen Sink Sewing

Every summer about this time in July, my friend Gail invites me to her camp about an hour’s drive north of my home. We set up sewing machines either in the garage or on the dining table inside depending on weather. It sounds like we’re ‘roughing it’ but it’s really quite nice and we treat ourselves to yummy meals, like seafood and salads, and healthy-ish snacks while we work on a variety of projects.

It’s four days of *basically* non-stop sewing - a typical quilting retreat. But you know how this goes . . . you start to select the projects to bring and pretty soon a few days of sewing looks more like a few months-worth of projects.

I usually try to bring non-work-related projects so it really feels like a break from the daily stuff that I do. Translate this to: I raid my unfinished project stash and target some projects to be finished or to be elevated to their next step. With still a few days to go before I leave, I’m hoping to finish up a couple of these before I pack up the car.

Let’s see what I unearthed.

1. These little four-patch blocks and some matching border stripe prints. These are just a few steps away from getting done.

In fact, I took a little tangent from packing. (I guess I am easily distracted - and I’m not leaving for a few days yet, after all.) I threw together a quick place mat, four-patches in the center, border prints on top and bottom. Layer with backing and batting, sew around the edge . . .

 . . . Turn. Sew around the edge again, this time with a decorative stitch. Quilt. Done

Wow, this packing is getting off to a good start. Better find some more projects.

2. How about these four patches, they’re already sewn together. They need a border, backing, and quilting. Cute table topper. On deck.

Uh-oh. We hit a snag. What in the H-E-double toothpicks was I thinking when I started this? Dull boring colors. Bleh-h-h. This one is coming out of the undone project stash. Reclaim those appliqué pins. All those background squares will cut up nicely into my ScrapTherapy bins. . . NEXT!

3. Now we’re talking! I think we’re back on track. Fun colors and a zipper (from my friend Brenda). I think I need to make a little bag!

4. Reds, greens, and creams. Holiday prints. Never too early to start on this year’s holiday card stuffers. Might be fun to do this outside of the early-December-panic-mode tactic that I usually employ. What would I do without all that holiday stress this year. . .?

5. Gads. We’ve taken another treacherous turn. I had a weak moment and purchased this tissue paper paper-piecing pattern a few years ago at a show. I put this away and take this out on a regular basis. It’ll be a nice wall-hanging some day. I love the fabrics, but I just don’t *love* paper piecing. it’s coming anyway. *Cringe!*

What else can I find?

6. A trip down memory lane! Once upon a time I thought the starch method was the best thing since sliced bread when it came to hand appliqué. I started this project from a kit of hand-dyed fabrics. It will be stunning. But a good chunk of the appliqué pieces are only partially prepped for appliqué. So that means adding more starch (yuk, not happening) or trying to make this work with my preferred appliqué method (back basting appliqué - scroll down a bit to the appliqué cute). Or I suppose I could abandon it entirely (I think my heart just skipped a beat) - nope! I must persevere.

7. (Seven? - how did we get to this many?) Ahhh! This one makes my heart sing! Lots of tiny pieces, wonderful Liberty prints (from the London store thanks to Jen’s recent business trip across the pond). Each of the 6” blocks in the book only has the pattern illustration - no instructions, no appliqué, all piecing. And I want to patchwork piece each one. Some have 30 or 40 complex pieces. Lots of figuring. Love a good puzzle!

In case you were thinking, ‘she’s insane!’ No I’m not insane, only Nearly Insane - the book title says so.

8. The Sampler quilt I used last week to show you my little pin tip is all done and bound. I just need to hand-sew the binding fold to the back. So close to the finish line. This one HAS to come with me!

9. The girls (Doodle the Sun Conure and Woodstock the Jenday Conure) need a new cage cover. And I want to play with a new Dresden ruler tool I bought recently. And I’m starting with this fabric for inspiration.

That’s it. I’m not going to add ONE more project to the list! However, I still have a couple of days before I leave on Saturday. Jus’sayn!

Here’s one thing that’s certain, no matter how many projects I bring, I’ll touch each one at least twice - once to get it in the car, and once to get it out of the car.

It’s completely possible I’ll go rogue and come up with something off the list. . . .

At least I’m not planning to bring a kitchen sink . . . Everything but, though!

Happy Stitching!
Joan Ford

Butterflies and a Pin Tip

I’ve shared that I often bring my laptop out to my front porch (I call it my summer office) when the weather is nice. My house doesn’t have central air so my desk can get pretty steamy when the mid-day summer sun shines through the skylights in my office space.

Working outside has its hazards, though. For one, I can be easily distracted by birds and critters that make their way into the yard for one reason or another. This time of year, it’s butterflies that grab my attention. The cone flower bed is thigh-high with blooms, and the butterflies find this plant irresistible! In the last day or so, I spotted and captured pictures of four different butterfly varieties that stopped by to pay a visit (and sup on the flowers’ nectar).

There’s this yellow swallow tail - I think it might be a tiger swallowtail.

And this pretty orange one. A Fritillary, maybe? The butterfly field guide reveals quite a few varieties that look similar. Might it be the Great Spangled Fritillary . . .

This primarily black species had bright blue spots on it. It was a fast-mover, so the picture is out of focus, snapped quickly before it fluttered away.

And the mighty Monarch. Sadly, this species is in trouble, therefore my husband (he is in charge of the garden around here) has allowed the milkweed to carry on in the flower beds as they are the Monarch’s main diet and nursery.

A Quick Pin Tip

After getting a few projects done, I’ve shifted back to finishing up my Splendid Sampler quilt. When I start to see the end in sight, for any quilt, I usually start some sort of count down—X number of blocks left to quilt, X number of in-the-ditch lines to quilt, etc.

For this 100-block quilt - I am quilting it on my BERNINA 750, I started with some ditch-quilting to outline the blocks, then I’ve made three passes from block to block with free motion in three different thread colors - cream, blue, and brown. What do I mean by ‘passes’ - ?? I started with the cream thread, loaded it in the machine and bobbin, and evaluated the blocks one at a time - if cream thread was called for then I quilted the cream parts. Same thing with the blue thread.

Now I’m ‘on’ the brown thread - the last color. A couple of days ago, I spread out the quilt and placed a safety pin (the same ones I use to pin-based the quilt) and stuck a pin in the to-be-quilted block or its border.

As I finish the brown-thread quilting, I remove the pins one block at a time. So the pins become like a count down. A visual one.

50 pins left . . . 45 . . . 35 . . . I’m now at 20 pins left to remove.

Seems (or ‘seams’) very do-able! I guess I’ve always been a numbers kinda gal!

At the close of a quilting session, I place a brightly colored covered pin on the block where I left off. That way I’ll see exactly where my starting point is for the next session.

Once the blocks are done, there is still border quilting, binding and a label (piece-o-cake!). I bet I’ll be able to add this project to my ta-done list in about a week or so.

Sweet!

Happy Stitching!
Joan Ford

A Sticky Situation

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been preparing for a series of workshops I’ll be leading during a trip to Alaska next month. Alaska isn’t exactly around the corner for me, here in Syracuse, so I’ve been engaged by three guilds who will take advantage of my being in the area.

For their workshop project, one of the guilds has chosen the "Sneaky Peek Project Pouches" from ScrapTherapy The Versatile Nine Patch. It's a really fun project!

To prepare for the class I’ve been making the smaller of the two sizes in the book to illustrate the various stages in the assembly process. There’s a fair amount of scrap sewing, using the Middle Scrap Grid Interfacing to make 3-1/2” 9-patch blocks (have I mentioned that all three interfacing sizes, Mini, Middle, and Little Scrap Grids come in 10-panel packs?)

Once the 9-patches are sewn, they are ‘wonkified’ with a bit of trimming.

There’s a vinyl window involved in the construction. This project is designed so you can store in-progress blocks, embroidery, cross-stitch, supplies -- or whatever -- and see what’s inside the pouch.

For most of the construction, the vinyl is in between layers of fabric, but there’s one seam that requires that the vinyl interact directly with the presser foot. And this is where things *can* get a little sticky.

You see, metal presser feet and vinyl get along swimmingly. Unfortunately they get along SO well that they have a tendency to stick to each other. This is a problem if the metal presser foot can’t advance because it’s stuck to its best friend, vinyl. All you get is the needle going up and down in place, creating a hole in the vinyl that can’t be mended. Or worse, a line of close together little holes that form a big hole. Not good.

(How do you like those neon green nails - hey, it's summer, a girl's gotta have some fun!)

There are a few solutions to this sticky situation. One is to buy a teflon presser foot. But I really want to use my walking toot because this particular seam has about a ka-jillian layers. I could also insert tissue paper between the presser foot and vinyl. I’m sure there are a few other savvy options to keep presser foot and vinyl from being best friends while you’re trying to sew . . .

The solution I prefer is to use a little common painters tape. If you cover the presser foot guides then metal and vinyl won’t meet. However there’s a trick to this . .

You don’t want to cover the parts of the presser foot that keep the layers of fabric moving forward (red arrows) . . . . only the metal parts.

So get your scissors out and gather a little bit of patience and cut really skinny strips of tape to cover each presser foot ‘glide.’ I equate it to Goldilocks putting socks on her skis. You don’t want the socks to be too big, or too small, but ju-u-ust right!

This should create a happy relationship between metal and vinyl and keep your stitches nice and even . . . unless your socks fall off!

Happy Stitching!
Joan Ford