Pick it Apart, Part II

My last post contained a bit about applique, well I forgot one important part...............what happens with the freezer paper after you attach it to the quilt. 

You will need to applique the piece to the quilt in the method that you are most comfortable with, I chose to do it by hand, I tried sewing two with the machine and the batik fabric is not a forgiving so it didn't look as nice as the piece I did here.  Here is a photo of the leaf being hand appliqued................

 In the above photo the blue leaf is one that I machine appliqued and I think it "shows" too much for my taste,  this quilt will be a great opportunity for me to improve my hand applique skills, LOL. 

Below you can see I finished appliqueing the yellow leaf and have turned to the back of the quilt, the scissor point is on the fabric that is behind the leaf, you need to snip a very small opening in the one layer of fabric behind the leaf, (the freezer paper is just below this layer)  to allow you to cut away some of the fabric under where the leaf is..........

 Below you can see what it looks like after I cut away the fabric, the white is the freezer paper on the back of the leaf, so as you can see you only cut away the fabric that you appliqued onto leaving about a 1/4" from the stitching.

Then you are going to reach under the seam and lift up the freezer paper, if you were good and used only a small dab of glue as mentioned here, it should just come right out.

 Here I have taken the freezer paper out.

I hope that I didn't make this sound too complicated, if you have any questions or notice something that doesn't make sense let me know and I will try my best to answer questions.  Off to stitch more leaves!



Pick it Apart

I know that I have mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating, when you are looking at a quilt that you might like to make........pick it apart, that will help you to see just how easy or difficult it will be to make.  So while I was putting together the June block for the Tonga Rhapsody quilt I decided that it would be nice to show a few photos of the pieces in segments............

In this photo you can see that the corner segments are made up of three half square triangles and one four patch, the center is just a square and the middle segment is made up of a square and a two strip segment. 

 Sew each row together............

 The finished block.

See how easy that really was, I think the combination of the colors makes this quilt look more difficult than it really is, it took me less than an hour to put the whole block together.  Next month I will try to remember to take photos before I do any sewing.  When I look at a quilt that I like I break it down by block then I break each block down to the pieces that make it up, this helps me to see what is involved in the making of the quilt. 

After I completed the above block I moved on to making more of the leaves for the Vintage Scrappy Nine Patch.  Below I will attempt to show what is involved in making these applique leaves, sorry that some of the photos are not the best.

The first step is to trace (from the template in the instructions) the leaves onto the freezer paper and cut them out on the lines, here are the cut leaves..........

Next is to select the various fabrics, in this case I was using batik scraps that I used in the quilt.

I then put a small dot of water-soluble, acid-free glue stick to the middle of the non-shiny side of the freezer paper leaf and place it onto the fabric, making sure that there is enough fabric around the paper to cut a 1/4" of fabric beyond the edges (you will see what I mean in the next photo), then cut around the paper leaving the above mentioned 1/4".

After cutting the leaves I then took the iron and pressed the edge over onto the shiny side of the freezer paper, the shiny side allows for the fabric to "stick" as you see in the photo below.

You will have to use a small amount of the glue stick to "tuck" the flap on each end of the leaf.

The finished leaves.................

 I use a few SMALL DOTS of water-soluble, acid-free liquid basting glue on the edge of the backside of the fabric to attach them to the quilt.

 The "dot of glue" goes on each side and at each point..........

Then put in place on the quilt, now it's ready to be appliqued.  I did try machine appliqueing two of the leaves and don't really like the look of it on the batik fabrics so I will be doing these by hand.

Hope this was helpful, I am certainly not an "instruction writer" but I hope I didn't leave out any major points, if you have questions just ask.  I learned the above "applique prep" from the Kim Diehl workshop, it is also in the front of all of her books. 

UPDATE:  I will be posting how you remove the freezer paper after the leaf is appliqued to the quilt top in the next few days.  Thank you Jackie for letting me know that I forgot that one important step.

Tonga Party

Yesterday was the first of two days of hot humid weather, I got my work done early and spent the afternoon in my sewing room.  I will be doing the same today, tomorrow will be nice with more seasonable temperatures by then I will be ready for outside stuff.  Here is what I got done yesterday afternoon.................

 The Scrap Basket Blossoms (above) designed by Kim Diehl is now officially a flimsy!  I really had fun learning machine applique and will be making many more of her designs in the future as well as using the machine applique in many other projects.

I got the second Tonga Rhapsody block done and today I will get the third one finished then I will be "caught up" with this BOM.   Below are the fabrics for month three, this one shouldn't take very long to it is mostly half square triangles along with simple squares and I think a few rectangles!

I am not sure what I will select to work on after I get the Tonga block finished, may be the Scrappy Vintage Nine-Patch, I have lots of leaves to get done, or maybe the Garden Basket blocks, still have lots of stitching??

Well off to get a little laundry done and a little housework done then into the sewing room.

Coop Site

Here is what we have done thus far on the coop area........

 I painted the trim to match the house, not sure if I should do the top of the nesting box with the brown or not, what do you think??  We still have to move it ahead a little and then level it in position.  Next step will be to make the cage area for the outside, we are hoping this area will be large enough if not we will expand at a later date!  I have some "landscaping" plans the finish up around the area, but that is the fun stuff and has to wait until and the other stuff is done, LOL.


I will take photos of the inside another day, we have a few little things to finish up inside, like the screen that will cover the window (the one that came with the window is not secure enough) and we think we need to make some kind of window on the large door so they will have more ventilation in the summer.  The next few days are going to be triple H days outside so we may not get much done, not sure yet.   Some of the minor stuff may get done after they have begun occupying their new residence!

Stay cool.

Machine Applique

I spent the afternoon yesterday working on the machine applique project I started at the Kim Diehl workshop I attended last month. 

 For those of you that find cutting the back of your applique, it's really not that scary, LOL.

 Here's what the center looks like this morning, I will be adding the borders soon, each corner has a pieced block.  In the right corner of the photo below is the first block from the Tonga quilt, a reminder to me that I need to work on months two and three!

Kim Diehl's machine applique technique is very easy, the prep work can be used whether you decided to hand applique or machine applique. 

Have a wonderful day!

The Best Yard Sale EVER!!

The plans for today were to stay home and putter..........I had one errand to run so I thought I would check to see if there were any yard sales near where I was going, there was one that advertised "country/primitive crafts" so of course I had to check it out!  It turns out that I knew the woman  and she had some wonderful stuff, she also pointed out that she had fabric that she was selling for a friend!  Within a few minutes I realized that I would need a box to put all the yummy fabric that I was finding, I managed to limit myself to two boxes, LOL. 

Here's what I found........

 There are lots of pieces that were over a yard, many 1/2 yard cuts and many that were fat quarters size or somewhere in between.  I also found a few nice pieces of wool.  I found a few pieces of batting that were large enough to use to practice on "Miss J" , my new mid-arm quilting set-up.

The pieces in the above and below photos are completed and ready to be quilted!

 A completed tea-stained stitchery.

There were also some partially completed things, a bag full of half square triangles, a BOM that hasn't been touched, only the border is missing.

I also found this group of goodies at the same yard sale, I collect salt glazed pottery so of course I had to have the lamp and Christmas plate, there are two Longaberger baskets, the cloth liners are not my style, but I have lots of fabric I can use to make new ones.  The lamp and one of the baskets are sitting on two pairs of black plaid curtains, found some candles, a fun little wooden box, a ladle, and some dish towels and fabric napkins that I didn't include in the photo!

I also found this cute little dress, the hem and neckline are not finished but the rest is finished.

Here are some goodies that I found yesterday at a yard sale, I really liked the frame and thought that I could use it for one of my finished projects at a later date.

Coming soon.......updated photos of the progress of the chicken coop area. 

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Something to Crow About

When Rudy the rooster first arrived at our home I wasn't sure if he would stay........well last week he showed me that he had an important job to do and that he takes it seriously (no it's not fertilizing the eggs, lol).  I heard loud "different" squawking coming from where the chickens are located, when I opened the back sliding glass door what do I see about 10 feet from the chickens.........a fox!  Thankfully, with all the loud squawking that Rudy was making I was able to shoo the fox away this time, sorry I don't have any pictures but I didn't have the camera nearby and I really didn't want to give Mr. Fox a chance to have a snack.  The weather has been cooperating and we have worked on the new coop (ya I know you're probably thinking that I should have it done by now) and hope to have it in place later in the week or early next week.  The new coop will be up closer to the side/front of the house, for some reason the dog just didn't smell the fox the other day, but with the new location they should be better able to see/smell a fox.

Here's my something to crow about.........

In the past few years I have been on the lookout for a "mid-arm" quilting machine set up......I found this one on Craigslist.  Last week I went and checked it out and liked what I saw, the woman that owned this had barely used the Janome 1600P and had only set up the smaller size of the frame, it was essentially brand new and she was willing to negotiate so here it is.  I did lots of research before I went and looked at it, I was able to find several places online that will help me to troubleshoot, etc.  I am working on getting the tension, etc. right on the sewing machine BEFORE I set it on the frame and start playing with it that way.  I am also trying to remember that I need to go outside and work in the yard on the nice days so it will probably take me a few weeks to get this figured out.

Off to work outside!

Congratulations and An Opportunity to Educate

I'd like to start off by saying congratulations to my youngest son Nate, he received his Associate Degree in Applied Science today.

We had an almost three hour drive to get there so we had to leave bright and early, 6am!  Of course we also realize that with my hubby in a wheelchair it requires that we make sure that we check into proper seating accommodations so we do like to get where we are going a little early.  We usually try to park our van at the end of the row, it has a lift for hubby to get in and out.  The lift requires about an 8 foot clearance for the lift to come down and allow him to get off and on the ramp, there is a large sticker on the window that states to leave the 8 foot space and since we parked at the end we felt that would not be a problem..........

Jump to us sitting in our assigned seats waiting for graduation to begin, a woman arrives and sits behind me and states how terrible the parking was, etc. and how she parked next to a van......she proceeded to say that she noticed a sticker about the 8 foot clearance and says "like we are supposed to leave that space", well that is when I perked up and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to "educate" yet another person on the reason for this.  I told her that it was probably my van that she was parked near and went on to explain why you need to leave the space, I mentioned that in my husband's case he had someone that COULD get in and move the van for him to load up if SOMEONE parked where they were NOT supposed to park (remember we parked at the end)...........I went on to explain that in some cases the person driving the van is also the person in the wheelchair and if someone parks in that space they would be unable to get in their van!  I explained that yes in my husband's case we could move the van but if we had to leave in the middle of the ceremony, and it was raining, he has to sit outside and get soaked while I get in and pull the van forward, (I wanted to say and resist the urge to DROP THE LIFT ON HER CAR), how fun would that be??    Of course when I turned back around I heard one of the people she was with say "gee it's not raining right now is it?" I just shook my head, although I wanted to bang my head  against the wall, LOL. 

A few weeks ago while on our Quilt Shop Hop we saw a lady with a large van like ours and she had spray painted on her van door in large letters the message to allow 8 feet for the lift,  if others would realize that this simple little thing allows her to be independent........how would you like it if someone parked so you COULD NOT IN ANY WAY get into your car?  Thank you for listening to my rant, but I thought it was a perfect opportunity to educate, the next time you see a van with the above sticker what will you do?

Making progress

Here is what I did yesterday,  I just need to stitch the two gold berries and the green piece on the blue flower.  I will get those done later today and then make the "quilt sandwich", baste, I will be hand quilting this one. 

This is my new work table that I can take into the living room and work on some of my projects.   I can also take it along with me to classes, the height is adjustable and it is quite portable.  It makes a great ironing station or just a place to put extra stuff (not the sewing machine).

Have a great day!

I will not start a new quilt, I will not start a new quilt.............

Okay, I need to tell myself that I will not start a new quilt or project until at least 2 projects are completed or "caught up" to the correct month!!  The hard part is seeing new fabrics or projects ideas and getting excited and not wanting to wait to start a new one.  As I have mentioned before I sometimes like to start and finish a little project in between larger project, I just need to get back on track before I do anything else.  Stay tuned  to see if I am able to stay on track, LOL! 

Here are a few of the things I need to get "caught up" on.......

Garden Baskets - I should be working on blocks 9 & 10, I only have 6 done. 

Simply Charming Fat Quarter Quilt - remember this one.............no one "picked" the other flowers they just haven't made it into the picture, LOL.

Tonga Rhapsody - just need to get month 2 done, this one is NOT behind.

Civil War Tribute - I still have lots left on that one.

Civil War Chronicles - I should be working on month 5 but I still have to get months 3 & 4 finished.

Vintage Scrappy Quilt - this is one of those that I started recently, I just need to make the rest of the leaves (about 90) and stitch them on, this one can be worked on in the evening as well.

Scrap Basket Blossoms - This is the square quilt that was started at the Kim Diehl workshop and will be worked on at the next "fourth Saturday" sewing group, since most of us went to the workshop.  I have already prepped all the applique pieces so this one should go quickly, especially since it's machine appliqued.

These are the ones at the TOP of the pile, I still have some projects that I haven't started but have all the supplies...........

Yesterday I enjoyed the Wednesday sewing group that I attended, I can see myself attending fairly regularly, it was enjoyable to spend time with a group of ladies that enjoy quilting.  I spent the entire time prepping the wool for the above mentioned Garden Baskets.  I may try to use these days to work on the Civil War Tribute, another lady was also working on hers so I'm not the only one still trying to get mine done!

Oh and did I mention that sometime I need to get outside and work in the garden, LOL.  I did finally get my egg count updated as well as the daily reflection, I will work harder to keep the reflection updated. 

Hope you have a great day wherever you are planted!

Better..........

Dad's still in the hospital, hopefully he will be home later next week.  Thank you for your kind words and prayers, they mean so much.

While things were a little crazy with dad in the hospital I did manage to get a little sewing done and attend a workshop  & trunk show with KIM DIEHL!  I have four of her books and have been wanting to try her technique for applique with my sewing machine, WOW, I can't believe how simple it is.........The most important part is the correct thread and setting your machine on the correct settings.  I know that I will need to practice, and the workshop did include a project, we also learned the way she preps her pieces for applique, it can be used for someone that is planning on hand stitching as well.  I am working on a quilt that has over 100 leaves so I will get PLENTY of practice on prepping, LOL.  Here is a photo of the pattern that we began working on in the workshop....... 

These are the books that I have.........

Sorry that I didn't take any photos at the trunk show or at the workshop, I had enough just making sure that I was learning what I needed to know in order to be sure I could do it later!  But believe me when I say that I really did attend her class, LOL.  I will take more  photos as I work on the above project.

This is another quilt I am currently working on along with a photo of the book by Lisa of Primitive Gatherings.......If you love little things you should consider getting this one.  I will take more photos of this quilt as I go along.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

I'll be back..............

I haven't dropped off the edge of the earth.........my dad is in the hospital.  I'll be back when things quiet down.

Who Knows Where This Will Lead.........

Hi all, today was the last day of the weekly quilting class that I was attending with my niece.  She finished two baby size quilts and I can honestly say she did 99.9% of these two quilts.  Next week they will be on display and I will try to remember to take photos of them.  She is keeping the very first one for herself and she is giving the second one as a birthday gift to a young girl has been battling cancer.

Lately I have been doing a lot of reading, which can sometimes lead to trouble, on ways to eat healthier, etc.  Specifically, about raw milk both goat and cow (I have tasted raw cow's milk) so now I wondered what goat's milk tasted like........well today I got to taste some, it was raw which is even better, I was surprised that it really didn't taste different from cow's milk.  So who knows where this will lead, I know that I still need to get Rudy and the girls moved to their new home, add a few more hens to the mix....I am thinking next summer I might set myself up for raising some meat birds (no I won't kill them myself, I'm too wimpy).  By fall I want to have a garden area ready for the spring of 2012, and fence in the whole area.   I will do some serious research and visit a few places that have goats and weigh out the options, meanwhile I will probably find a regular source of raw milk be it cow or goat........I'm trying to remember that I need to take baby steps and work at being successful ONE THING AT A TIME! 

On a completely different note, I won the drawing at the local quilt shop on Saturday afternoon.  Here are the goodies that I got.