| « | March 2016 | » | ||||
 |
||||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
I was actually glad when I realized that I had taken this class before!
I remembered the first step but couldn't remember what came after that or why we did it. Couldn't find my old notes either.
Now I can use this information on how to create bias striped fabrics from strips and use them on quilts or as inserts in garments.
Yay! One class I found worthwhile.
Ddd
I was disappointed that the instructor, Peggy Sagers, only gave a very hurried rundown of the things she has taught on her PBS show Fit To Stitch.
Just let me say that I think someone else should listen to the class ant then write the title and synopsis in the catalog for these classes.
She did NOT cover how to fit yourself by yourself! To me that means just me, myself and I trying to pin darts on the back of the muslin while it is on my body - without someone else to take the tucks.
Her solution... a full length mirror, a hand mirror, and taking the garment on and off till you like how it fits!
She also directed us to her patterns and whe booth SHE woould be in - but there were no patterns there.
Disappointing.
Ddd
Another class I took at the Sewing and Stitchery Expo was titled Ultimate Upcycles.... really?
We had a slide show and some samples passed around. These were 99% pocket purses, handbags, etc. made from old jeans and leather coats that she gets at the thrift store.
There were a couple that I would be seen with but not much.
This is another where I have nothing to show for my time but a ticket stub:
If you are interested in her work, she has an upcycling board on pinterest.
Ddd
The 'selling point' to this class was that we would learn how to make mariner's compass without paper piecing...
Um, yeah... the answer is to buy her rulers and book.
The finished compass is the appliqued onto the quilt front.
NOT INTERESTED.
That is why all I have to show for this class is the ticker I got in with!
At least I had a place to sit down for 45 minutes.
Ddd
At the Sewing and Stitchery Expo I decided to get some patterns for pants. I had three pairs of thin fabric pants for travel last year but one pair was ruined when I fell. You think I could find them again... NO!
So I've decided to make them while applying things I have learned about fitting on PBS shows.
I also bought some pants elastic in white and black (for light and dark fabrics).
I will do the fitting and make 'muslins' for both patterns before buying my fashion fabrics.
Ddd
The 2016 Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyalup Washington has come and gone and a good time was had by all.
This year, eight ladies from our quilting group carpooled up and started in with classes right after noon on Thursday.
There was time for shopping between classes and I had a short list of things I wanted to pick up.
After our dinner (at the Chinese Buffet) we all meet in one of the hotel rooms for show and tell.
We share what casses we took and any especially neat techniques we learned from it. Then we share our purchases.
This year I picked up a bodkin which is used to thread materials (ribbon, elastic, etc.) into casings.
I picked up a tailor's awl which is used as a stiletto when sewing to keep fabric going straight and prevent the seams from flipping over the wrong way.
I got a hara marker which is a sharp edged plastic that, when drawn across fabric will create a crease. This can take the place of marking the fabric with pens or pencils.
I bought a new foot for my sewing machine that has a 'blade' aligned with the needle, making it easier to stitch in the ditch.
The last tool I picked up is a french curve. This is used to make smooth transitions in garment sewing (waist to hip, armhole, etc.)
I'm sure I'll 'need' something when I go back next year.
Ddd
I'm headed off to three days at a Sewing and Stitchery Expo out of state with a bunch of ladies from our quilting group. In addition, it was time for a new manicure.
MASHUP!
I decided to do some funky nail art and gave myself bright blue nails with yellow dots in a 'fabric' imposter theme.
Since I'm reading a quilting novel right now, too, I decided to include that in the photo-shoot.
Some fun, huh?
The blue polish is one I got at the dollar store. The yellow was 50 cents at a yard sale.
Ddd
I did not realize how many dotted fabrics I had used until I gathered up all the scraps to use in one quilt. I found a tutorial on the Missouri Star Quilt Company site that uses a 16-patch center in some traditional stars.
Along with my dots, I used muslin for the background fabric. I only needed to buy an additional dot for the sashings and for the backing and outer border.
I think there are 14 different dots in the 16-patches. The stars feature different colors of the same dotted print that I got in fat-quarters in a 'fabric-by-the-pound' bin.
Here you can see the quilting, which is loop-the-loop meandering using cream colored thread.
I am going to keep this one where it will live on the guest bed. It is the exact size of the queen mattress.
It's been nice to decide lately to keep some of these quilts for myself as, up to now, I have only made banners to keep. I now have spring, fall and Christmas quilts for decor as well as this guest throw. Hubby has the king dog quilt, too.
Hmmm, a blue winter quilt and a summer quilt for decor and I will be all set.
Ddd
I'm still shaving cards off the stack of backgrounds.
This one was pulled after I added that 4th color to the mix so it has a brighter green feel than the last two (which were more teal).
I pulled some rose stickers that wre purple and peach and arranged them in a fall down the side.
The silver peel-off sentiment sticker overlaps the blooms slightly making the design look integrated.
The base card, though purple, is not nearly as bright as it appears. It actually matches the purple roses.
Ddd
The shaving cream backgrounds are back.
On the one I used today I added a peel-off sticker white doily as the centerpiece. I had a pink sticker of a grouping of roses that was placed in the center of the doily.
The base card I selected is pink to match the roses.
A silver peel-off word provides the sentiment.
Ddd
Remember those shaving cream backgrounds? I made some cards using them for backgrounds.
Today's uses some vellum pansy stickers over a paper set in landscape. A bit of white peel-off sticker trim and a silver peelloff sentiment sticker make it look very feminine.
The purple base card reflects the vellum pansies.
Ddd
If you know art supplies you've probaably heard of Gelatos which are water soluble pigment in a stick form. They come in a holder that looks like a lipstick tube so you can hold it and smear/scribble it on the paper.
However, the ones I have are NOT name brand. They are some cheap version that I bought in a tourist gift shop at the coast. I used them one time, years ago, and then put them in a drawer for 'some other time'.
I couldn't remember what type of base I had used them on before but I figured, "water soluble = watercolor paper".
I made a pencil sketch using the magnolia stamp I used yesterday as a guide. Then I scribbled the crayons onto the various areas where I needed the color.
I used a flat watercolor brush to add plain water to one color area at a time and blended out the pigment. With the rough texture of the watercolor paper the wash areas (sky and ground) did not blend out smoothly.
After the whole piece was dry I went back with a permanent marker and drew in to define the outlines and sketch details. I used a bit of cross-hatching to create shadows.
I cut the image down and used colors from it to build borders and added a black peel-off sentiment sticker.
Ddd
I had another image on watercolor paper stamped with scattered straw ink. This was done with masking as the actual stamp only has one flower on it.
I continued on with the no-line watercolor technique, mixing my own greens and adding a blue wash for the sky.
I added a bit of pink to the petals and used paynes gray for shadows.
I trimmed into the blossoms to create more impact as it makes them appear larger when they won't fit in the frame.
I bordered the painting with gray and pink thenlayered it on green - picking up colors from the image.
I added a silver script sticker for text.
Ddd
I have been doodling for as long as I can remember. It got me in trouble when I was in grade school as I used to use up my tablets with doodles instead of with my practice of printing and arithmetic.
In class lectures in high school and college I had just as many doodles in the margins as I had notes. Fortunately, I could look at what I had drawn and remember what the teacher had been talking about.
Later, sermon notes included many little designs that later became cards or scrapbook page sketches.
I am not one to carry a sketchbook along with me (just one more thing for an already heavy purse) so I don't sketch much 'on the fly'.
I do have a sketch pad that I can use when I intentially sit down to do some doodles, though.
I use an eversharp number 2 pencil because I can't stand the way regular pencils get dull so fast. I use a Mars eraser as it is easy on the paper surface.
When I have a doodle or sketch I like I use permanent marker to ink it and then erase the pencil lines.
These get clipped out and filed for future reference.
After refining further, they might be turned into a sketch for a card, a rubber stamp to carve, or a watercolor design.
Ddd
One of the groups I am on issued a challenge to use the shaving cream technique to create backgrounds and use them to make a card.
This is what is needed to do the shaving cream background:
Besides the tray, reinkers, shaving cream and a skewer you also need some cut pieces of white cardstock to 'print' on and some paper towels for cleanup.
To begin, you spray the shavig cream into the tray and flatten it out with the skewer. Then you drip reinkers onto the cream and use the skewer to swirl it around. The cardstock is pressed onto the surface, lifted away and wiped off with the paper towel.
What is left behind is a marbled-look pattern on the cardstock surface.
It works best to use harmonious colors of reinker so you don't get 'mud'.
The first few 'pulls' may have ink that is too dark - mine did - but the more it is stirred and printed the more muted the ink will become.
Here are mine:
When the patterns were too subtle, I added another color of ink:
I ended up with 10 sheets of cardstock off of one shaving cream tray. LOTS more cream in the can so there is hope for more to come.
Ddd
OK, this is not technically quilting YET. What I have been doing is playing in Electric Quilt (EQ7) to design some quilt tops that I MAY turn into real quilts someday. They may look just like these or they may (more likely) be refined and edited when the fabrics are chosen.
I design quilts in several ways:
1) Find a pattern I like (free in a magazine or on the internet) and choose fabrics from my stash or purchase to make that quilt
2) Start with a pattern I like and change up the size of the blocks or the number of blocks (or both) before choosing fabrics
3) Choose a block I like and design a quilt layout around it
4) Design a block in EQ7 and then build a quilt using it
5) Grab some graph paper and start sketching patches until they form a block I like and then build a quilt around that
Here is one I started as a block on graph paper and later recreated in EQ7 so I could see what multiples would look like:
On this Pastel Plaid I recreated a single block I found in a magazine and used EQ7 to duplicate it so I could see what multiples would look like.
Once I went back to EQ7 AFTER I had made all the blocks to try out different layouts without having to keep moving them around on the design wall. I saved this layout to use some other time and did something else with the blocks I had on hand:
I had bought some fabrics that went together well and then started drawing and combining blocks in EQ7 to try for a layout I liked. As it turned out I used these fabrics for my last mystery quilt but I still have this nice design to use in the future:
This is one where I chose blocks I liked and then added fabrics and then worked on a layout that looked good to me:
I chose several paper-pieced blocks built in to EQ7 to create a possible garden layout:
And finally, I wanted to see what a paper-pieced sampler might look like if I changed them all to the same fabrics:
Oooh, I liked those corner block so much I created a layout using only them:
When I get ready to stitch one of these, EQ7 will tell me how much of each fabric I need, Give me instructions on paper-piecing, template patters and/or rotary cutting and finished sizes for the blocks and the quilt.
Can you tell I like EQ7?
Ddd
I can't remember where I read that the quilting site on 'about.com' was going to have a mystery quilt sewing day on Super Bowl Sunday. I zipped right over to investigate and found that the designer has done this before and also does a New Years Day mystery quilt every year.
Well, I immediately selected some fabrics that I had purchased without a project in mind and cut up the pieces specified. The cutting instructions were issued over several days leading up to SBS.
We needed 5 fabrics: a dark, another dark or bright, two mediums and a light. All needed to contrast with each other. I chose a beautiful floral for my bright, and to match the colors in the print; a dark green from the color of the leaves, purple and coral from the flowers for the mediums and butter yellow for the light - also matching one of the flowers.
On Super Bowl Sunday the instructions started being posted early in the morning. I had to go to church and then prep food for guests so I didn't get to start my sewing until kickoff time (3:00 local time).
As I proceeded there were places where I wanted to use a different one of my fabrics for a border and these pieces had not been pre-cut so I was able to do so. I changed the inner border to the purple fabric and I changed the flying geese border to feature the floral.
Unfortunately, I misread the instructions and installed a set of corner blocks backwards but I liked the result so I left it that way.
Here is the wide view of this 48-inch quilt:
Can you say "Spring?"
I thought the solid green blocks were too bold so I did free-motion quilting over them in the style of the flowers in the print:
The rest of the quilt has free-motion meandering.
With a Christmas quilt and a Fall quilt now in my personal collection, I decided to keep this Spring one for the house.
In season, it will display in the living room, across a cedar chest in front of the window.
I guess I need to make Summer and Winter quilts so I have a full set for seasonal decor.
Ddd
I was fortunate enough to get another coupon from Shutterfly - this time for a 20-page hardbound full-color book. All I had to pay was a small shipping fee.
The website allows you to choose a 'theme' for the page backgrounds. I selected solid black pages with white text.
As you go through the process you get to specify how manu photos you want on each page. You are then presented with sample layouts that have that number of spaces as well as a text block on many of them.
Whenever I had a layout without a text block I made sure the facing page had one that I could use to reference across the gutter.
I had SO many photos from out trip to the UK last spring that I decided to use them to create a book documenting it.
You even get to put your own photos and text on the front cover:
My first page was all about our day in London. This was an excellent layout to include a dozen photos. You can see where I and typed out some placeholders ("XXXX") where I needed to look up the official name of a landmark. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the end of the book layout I forgot to go back and fix those placeholders. So when I got the book, I used white dots to cover up the Xs with a number and added a label next to the photo with the name written in.
Since the facing page is blank I may add a map that shows the locale of each of the sites.
The rest of the book follows in order of the places visited. This spread includes Stratford-upon-Avon and Coventry Cathedral.
Thi spread documents our walking tour of York and visiting Hadrian's Wall:
Moving up into Scotland, this spread shows 'The Angel of the North', Jedburough Castle, Edinburgh and the Royal Yacht Brittania:
On the left are St Andrews and Blair Castle and on the right are MacBeth's Castle and some battlefields and memorials we visited.
This spread is all about the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands:
On the left side is the walled city of Chester and the right takes us to Ireland - Dublin, the Book of Kells, the River Shannon, the city of Limerick and a local pub. You can see another of those placeholder boo-boos:
On the left is Boyle Abbey and on the right is Mountbatten's Castle, the Beleek Pottery Factory and Donegal Castle:
Some sights around the southwest of Ireland. You can see one of the pages (right side) that does not have a text block:
Blarney Castle, Killarney and Waterford on the left. Cardiff, Windsor and Wales on the right:
Four photos from Bath, England:
And there is another opportunity to feature a photo on the back cover:
You can see by the hand in the photo above the size of the book - the pages are 8x8.
I have no association with Shutterfly - I'm just a satisfied customer. They have lots of products to choose from - larger books, mugs, postcards, greeting cards, and more - all featuring your own photos.
If I have another opportunity to use them for Books or Calendars like I already have, I will definitely do it.
Ddd
I've shared before the plethora of animals that live around our house. Some new ones of late are the chickens that belong to neighbors up the road that tag along on our walks, like little dogs. There they follow down the road behind us... cluck, cluck, cluck. Last week a rooster joined the three ladies. We're still not sure if:
1) he was there all along but didn't like to go walking
2) he is new to the flock OR
3) he belongs to another neighbor and has just now discovered the new girls
Since the lady of the house has started back to work, the four of them now have started roaming the neighborhood all day rather than just coming out of their own yard to walk along. You never know which of 4 to 5 yards you'll see them in.
They do go home to sleep and to lay their eggs, though.
ANOTHER new guest to these here parts has been living in the pond on the property just upstream from ours.
This neighbor has always had a small pond, but this winter we noticed we could see it more clearly than ever before. We assumed that a few trees may have come down to open up the view or maybe it was attributable to the record rains we've had.
Then, the Mister was looking through the binoculars for an odd colored duck we've been seeing out there. WHAT?!?!? look at that freshly downed tree!
That is on OUR side of the pond which is the downstream side. You can tell by the pointy top on the stump that some beaver has obviously been felling trees and building up the blockage at the outlet of the pond.
This would explain why the pond is larger AND why the creek seems to flow through our pasture instead of flowing to the culvert like it used to.
Makes a mess out of our pasture, reducing the use of it to stick-dry summer. But, the wildlife in these parts have the 'right-of-way' so there's probably nothing we can do about this (also, the pond is not on our property so the beavers are under the jurisdiction of the neighbor anyway).
Mostly, we like the wildlife. But, gnawing beavers and gross-ugly nutria are NOT welcome here.
Ddd
Watercolor painting again...
I used a quarter sheet of watercolor paper from a pad and stamped a hummingbird/floral image using 'scattered straw' Distress Ink.
I have no green watercolor pains so have to mix these using my two blues and two yellows.
The bird has browns mixed from ochre and umberwith blue shadows.
I painted the flowers in washes of three reds as well as a purple that I mixed for shading.
I forgot how much the colors become muted when they dry. It is difficult to get vibrant tones in watercolor.
I need much more practice.
Ddd
