Eagle Quilt

I took a class last weekend on surface design- using thickened dyes to paint on fabric. (Confusing to call it painting- because it is definitely dyeing, not painting...)

Anyhow- I "invented" (someone has probably done it before me) a technique to make a variegated

line. I took a squeeze bottle and stacked yellow and red, so it would squeeze out yellow, red, and shades of orange.  Then I drew a stippled  line all over a piece of fabric.

When I got home I had this idea to stipple all the white space. Following the curve of the line I stippled about 75% of the quilt, all but inside one big blog near the bottom. I thought it would look cool to pebble that- if you look closely you can see the change of texture.

This was my idea for a finished project, but it didn't look like anything.

So I thought I should overdye it.  I overdyed in a light orange dye bath.  Now you can see the white quilting lines better, but it still didn't look like anything.

I had the idea to make it into a sunset. I went through Kevin's animal photographs (I wanted a giraffe, but couldn't find just the right one) and found a gorgeous eagle sitting on branches, and went to work in photoshop tracing it as a silhoutte.

I used freezer paper to cut it out of fabric backed with fusible, and fused my eagle onto the quilt. It is just fused, not stitched, so super easy raw edge applique. My freezer paper didn't want to stay attached, so cutting the fine detail was a bit tough.

It still needs binding, but I am so happy that my sunset silhouette turned out nicely!

Halloween shirts

Oops, I forgot to post last weekend.  I finished the one block wonder kaleidoscope quilt top.  I might quilt it tomorrow, I'm not sure.  I need to do more with triangles- they are so hard.  This actually turned out fairly well, but there are a few areas that are puckery.  Lack of pre-washing really should take care of it though.

For Halloween, I embroidered shirts for all the nieces and nephews.

Initial shirts for the young-uns.

And a super awesome design for the grade schoolers.  (This may be my favorite design ever; it turned out really nicely.)

Because embroidery supplies are so freaking expensive, I only have one hoop.  It is very difficult to hoop t-shirts in it (though I've done it before, with sticky backing and lots of pins) and these shirts already had a really long involved stitch-out, with lots of taking the hoop off the machine to put in new fabric; so I decided to take a short cut.  Each of the designs is embroidered on black fabric, and then the fabric is put onto the t-shirt like a patch.  I really don't think you can tell from a few feet back.  I also don't really expect season kids shirts to get too much actual use.

The other issue with them is the little kids shirts have pockets.  I debated removing them, but worried it would leave thread snags in the t-shirts, so I just left them, half under the design.  It was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find black short sleeve t-shirts in September.  I wanted t-shirts because Texas is usually warm until Halloween, and gets a cold snap that night, just in time to ruin your costume. I found some specialty websites, but shipping cost like $15, so I ended up with these Old Navy shirts- the little kids cost $2.06 each, the big kids $6 each.

I really hope the kids like them!  (Also, if you are into machine applique embroidery, I highly recommend PlanetApplique.com  I'm not affiliated, didn't get compensated to say this, but these are their designs, and I just LOVE them.)

Just a few more embroidery projects

Just a few more things I embroidered for my nephews before going to see them.  Sorry for the awful photo quality. All designs are from planet applique.  I just love them.

First: Fourth of July t-shirts.

Next: Crayon pillowcase

.Finally: Surf Board pillowcase

Cole already had a pillowcase, so now each boy has 2.

The t-shirts were my first time doing t-shirts.  The B is too low on the shirt. I also haven't washed them since embroidering (I washed before embroidery) so I don't know if they will be a one time use thing.  I didn't buy the special backing for them, so I might get some complaints about them being itchy- we'll see. But the issue of getting the t-shirt hooped and the spare t-shirt out of the way was not as bad as I thought it was. The small t-shirts are size 3T, I could maybe do a 2T without problem. Smaller than that, it would need to be a very small design, and that doesn't seem worth it.

Crafty Weekend...

First up: A contribution from Kevin. (He also did all the photos...)
We picked up the blank for this pen while we were in Fort Worth during Christmas. It is Dymondwood in Bubble Gum. What's interesting is I have Bubble Gum Dymondwood knitting needles too! Those are darker than this is, but really, I cannot think of a wood that is a better fit for me. I love the cheerful colors of this pen!

I'm still having some issues with my wrist. I mentioned before I can't open and close scissors. I did get spring loaded scissors, but it is still too difficult. The opening action is too wide for my hand to handle, so while they are better, there is still some pain. But I found out I can use small scissors. Small scissors mean one thing: applique!

This bib is for my new niece. I also made a secret project but can't post a picture until I hear that the recipient has it.


On Saturday I made this mug rug for a ravelry swap.
Can you see the bump on the top where I joined the binding? I can't remember how to do it on a diagonal, so I get a ton of fabric :( I also managed to do a fairly good job of mitering 3 of 4 corners.

I also added another row of border to the quilt I'm working on for my Mom. Kevin had to cut the strips - it hurts too much to put the pressure on the rotary cutter. I managed to cut the rug above to square it up, but it is very tiny- a quarter of a placemat...

Final Christmas gift

And with this, Christmas presents are done.  Here is hoping we have good weather for the drive.

In other news, I am making a pencil skirt and the muslin looks like crap.  But I did do my first invisible zipper...just two misses before I got it right. (once I sewed through all the teeth and spent an hour unpicking threads. Then I sewed it to the outside of the skirt).

Are you done with your Christmas crafts?

Two more down...

Gifts, that is.

Kevin made the older nephews a baseball wall bracket thing (pictures after our trip! They are neat) for Christmas, and they were going to be tough to wrap. I made both of the boys a pillow case, and the brackets fit in them nicely. Added bonus- new pillowcase!


As you can see, both boys are very into baseball right now! (The blue pillowcase is bent a little- the C isn't distorted...)

I had a difficult time hooping the pillowcases. Getting the hoop exactly centered was really rough. Then my machine decided to be a pain in the butt- despite the tension being less than 1 (I normally use 2 for embroidery) and the hole in the bobbin tail being threaded, the bobbin thread was STILL pulling up.

In the end, I did most of the satin stitch for the red by "hand" (machine, but me doing it) and all of the satin stitch for the burnt orange. My machine does a really nice satin stitch- but I still haven't figured out how to make corners look nice.

It is MUCH easier to let the machine put down guidelines to cut on, then try to trace and cut letters myself. That is my favorite part of machine embroidery!

As for school, I have everything turned in but my final self evaluation paper. I am about half done with it, and taking a break to embroider the very last of the Christmas presents (oh, and then I need to knit for Courtney...)

Rylee is getting an appliqued Minky pillow. (Can you tell I like applique. It is so much cooler than regular embroidery.) And- today, my machine is behaving just fine. I used colored isacord in the bobbin rather than the seraline I usually use, just in case it pulled up, but then none of it did! Go figure... The applique is done, so now I need to make up the pillow- but I have to write that paper first! Pictures later this week.



Did I mention I started knitting a sock? I can't remember the last time I did that! I miss knitting- it's fun!

Stressed...

The statistics class has definetly been my hardest one yet. I'm still doing well in it, but I'm feeling overwhelmed. For reasons I don't understand the last week is also always the busiest. I'm kind of going crazy.

I'm also not sleeping well, which doesn't really help the stressed feeling.

Then, I have Christmas presents to finish up. Need to make R's gift, 2 pillowcases to wrap the Cs's gifts, and hopefully at least two more kitchen towels.

I'm looking forward to seeing family for Christmas, but wish we weren't going to Austin. I'm so worried about the weather for the drive (17 hours is a long drive- now imagine it with snow...), and upset that I won't get to spend ANY of my vacation from school sewing. If you've been keeping track of the fabric purchases, I clearly have some projects planned. Going home is so tiring- I need a vacation from vacation.

I do have to say, I'm super glad I went with the sewing machine with embroidery (I've been having some buyer's remorse and wondering if I should have gone for the top of the line Brother rather than the mid range Bernina). Here are some kitchen towels I've made. All designs are from PlanetApplique.com

Day 6: Applique

Okay, back off the machine embroidery again, I'll have more to show tomorrow (I think there are 2 more projects left). This is a 12" x 12" applique quilt I made yesterday. This design caught my eyes months ago, it is from the magazine "Quilting Celebrations" and I just love the designer, Patrick Lose (he designed the fabrics too!).

I finally had the guts to make it. This is my second satin stitch applique project, you might remember the "let it snow" mug rug. I can't believe how much better I did this time around.

This quilt was so easy to make, and I think it looks amazing (oh, and the walking foot really does make binding so much easier- I can't believe the difference). I made this little wall hanging yesterday afternoon, just a few hours!

I'm going to hang it up at work next to my Coneflower wall hanging (I'll be the crazy quilt lady in no time!)

In other news, I had a 25% my entire purchase coupon at Joann's so I went to go see if they had stabilizer. Not only do they, it is part of the notions wall, which is always 50% off!!! So I got it 62.5% off with both discounts combined :) I bought the sticky kind and the wash-away kind so I can make towels, and also bought some tear away for other projects. It was SO much less expensive than what the quilting store sells, so I am excited to play. I only have a large hoop, so there is a bit of waste, but at this price, it makes more sense than buying a smaller hoop (expensive).

But first, laundry....