Project update - Spring "quiltie" exchange

This is all you get to see till the recipient receives it some time in April :) After that I will share with you what is going in the pocket.

Postcard Pizzazz - Tertiary Colors

I did an experiment with the background.

The hearts are exactly the same. The greens are from different sections of the wheel but still tertiary.

(The pictures loaded sideways.)

Textile Corner - Thread Society swap

Look what showed up in my mailbox on Saturday !!!!! I absolutely love it, made me grin from ear to ear :) Thanks Ann H.

At the moment it's hanging in my sewing room till I retrieve my tool kit from the basement and give it a more permanant location.

Hope y'all have been enjoying the Online Festival of Quilts. Be aware that a couple of the later entries link back to my blog (not my doing and Amy already knows about it).

Textile Corner - "How Many Times Round the Block" - completed

I've added the rick-rack and am calling it done :)

I tried different buttons for doggie eyes and did not like any of them. The "googly" eye ones looked too silly for my genteel dog.

Now to finish up the 4 seasons Scottie Dog wall hanging. I'll tackle that one next week. I have a number of swaps to finish up first.

I've also finished a mystery 8"x10" fabric piece for a fundraiser but I am not ready to reveal that one yet. (I'll explain why in due time.)

Textile Corner - My favorite time of year

My favorite time of year is Easter. I get to celebrate the birth, life, atonement, death AND ressurection of our beloved Saviour, Jesus Christ.

I've signed up for a number of Easter/spring swaps and here are two in process. The postcards just have to have the back finished and the 6" quiltie is getting a hanger and an edge finish.

I enjoyed taking the same background fabric and doing different designs on top. What is the background - a batik with resist shapes that reminded me of eggs and colors that reminded my of gorgeous sunrises/sunsets.

There are a number of religious imageries within the pieces but you would have to know my life in detail to know what they are and what they represent :)

Lunchtime tutorial - applique heart - supply list

Fabric for block
Fabric for heart
Lightweight fusible interfacing
Rotary mat and cutter
61/2" quilt block template
5" heart template
scissors (yes they are Fiskars kids AND they are VERY sharp), embroidery scissors would also work well.
pencil and/or pen for marking lines
needle and thread (to match the heart fabric)
sewing machine and point turner.

Why am I doing this mini tutorial. Because Barbara at the Lady of Steeles Hand Embroidery Group asked me how to do it and I'm also making an Easter quiltie so I'm "killing two birds with one stone" so to speak :) AND all the spring cleaning I'm doing is starting to bring on my allergies (now you know why I have dust bunnies.) AND I needed a break from revising beginner Spanish. Excuses, excuses I just wanted to sew something !!!!!

Lunchtime tutorial - applique heart - machine sewing

Mmmm, well that up-load did not work the way I wanted it too.

Place the two hearts together with the dotted side of the interfacing facing the right side of the fabric.

Take them to your trusty sewing machine and sew 1/4" seam ALL the way round.

Lunchtime tutorial - applique heart - the tricky part

Now comes the "tricky" bit.

Trim back the fusible interfacing close to the stitch line then clip all the way round the fabric heart. I cut a notch at the top and bottom of the heart to make it sit better once it is turned. Make a long slit down the middle of the interfacing so that you can turn everything right sides out. Be very careful NOT to cut into the fabric heart. I usually cut a tiny notch into the interfacing then cut the slit on either side of it. I always go from top to bottom since for me it makes it easier to turn the heart.

Lunchtime tutorial - applique heart - turning and ironing

Now that you have turned your heart smooth the seam out, very carefully since the interfacing rips easily, by using your point turner - and yes I forgot to put that in the supplies picture.

Next turn your heart over and put it on the block in whatever position you want, take it to the ironing board and PRESS in place. Your fusible interfacing, if you have sewn everything correctly, should have the "glue" side facing the fabric block.

Lunchtime tutorial - applique heart - the block

The block ironed together, and no you are not getting to see my ironing board. The cover looks waaaay to ratty at the moment :)

That's it for today. Next time how to sew the heart to the block.

P.S. my "quiltie" is going to be on point when it is finished.

Addendum. It is now the next morning and the block is sewn together. Due to some technological failures i.e. VERY fuzzy photos I won't be posting how I sewed the heart to the block :( Basically I doubled my thread with the loop at the end, did a "catch the loop" stitch at the back of the block, pulled the thread through to the front just behind the heart, did lots of little slip stitches round the heart, and secured the thread on the back of the block by doing two small back stitches and a long stitch between the layers. 

Book Corner - Beginning Applique - because enquiring minds have been asking :)

I absolutely love these two books and one of these days I will buy my own copies instead of borrowing them from our local library on a fairly regular basis :)

Hand Applique by Mimi Dietrich and Machine Applique by Sue Nickels.

Textile Corner - "Pink Butterfly" wall-hanging - a work in progress

I have a number of quilt blocks sitting in a drawer that I am turning into small wall-hangings - approx. 12"x12". This is the one I am currently working on. I have some more hand embroidery to do to the center block and I am contemplating doing some beading along the bottom edge. Mmmmmmm seems to me I now have a number of small projects waiting for me to get the beading done :)

Textile Corner - Scottie Dog madness

A few days ago I finally found an applique pattern for a Scottie Dog that was the right size. Yesterday I was playing around with some of my small quilt blocks and decided to use the pattern. I was so pleased with the finished result, in darker colors than I normally use, that I got going on another one. For the second one I used some of my Mary Engelbreit fat quarter stash and it turned out quite Christmassy looking. Now that I see the two of them together I feel inclined to make some seasonal variations :)

"Boston Grandma" sent me a fabric card as part of our one-to-one exchange at Postcard Pizzazz. It is a really gorgeous fan on a purple background. It arrived last night and we all ooohed and aaahed :)

Photographs of everything to come.

Speaking of photographs - my Snapfish quilt album came in the mail today. It turned out quite nicely for a first effort and I learned that I need to take some sharper images.

I took a jaunt over to Joann's this morning and ended up having a lesson on machine embroidery. Quite fascinating, but at the moment too expensive for me to justify a purchase.