Talent Tuesday

Postcards made last month for 4x6ers swap - Buildings theme

 
Today is a good day to expand an existing talent. 

Whether you like to sew, paint, jog, swim, bike, or whatever.  Push yourself just a little out of your comfort zone today.  Experiment with a new recipe, try a different route, speak to someone you have never spoken to before.
 
I'm taking an art class today... in watercolors.  I haven't had an art class since I was 14, so this is scary! 

I might find out that I know a lot less than I thought I did.  Maybe I really can't learn everything from the internet.  Who knows?  I'm going to try - really give it a shot.

And tomorrow, I'm going to try gelatin printing.  I've already mixed the gelatin in a pan - it is in the fridge getting firmer by the minute.  I'm giddy with anticipation.  Will it really work?

I won't know for sure until I try!  The theme for the next 4x6ers swap is 'Free Choice'.... I wonder where the muse will lead me?

Curved Piecing Tutorial

The first step in curved piecing is to put a fresh sharp needle in your machine.... choose a Microtex, size 70/10  you want a fine needle to minimize needle holes in your fabric.

Choose fabric with a tight weave - you will be sewing a very narrow 1/8" seam, and a loosely woven fabric will just not hold up....  I'm using batiks and hand dyes in this sample...

My fabric is cut in assorted strip sizes from fat quarters, some are a little longer than others. 

Layer two strips the same length - if they are different widths, it doesn't matter at all.  I use a long ruler to hold the layers together while I cut the curve free hand with my rotary cutter.... the cut should be straight at the first and last inch, and  make sure there is at least 3/4" of fabric on both sides of the cut so you have enough to add another strip to each side without cutting into your curve (although cutting into curves is a possible design choice!)  The pic above shows two sets of strips that have been cut at the bottom, and above that are similar strips that have been separated and arranged side by side showing the cut edges aligned.  You take the right/left layers and switch them to get the sets....  in case that wasn't obvious.

Pin each set of strips at one end to keep them paired up.   Set your stitch length a little shorter than usual to make the curves easier and keep those narrow 1/8" seams from pulling apart!  Note placement of fabric on inside of presser foot - if you are using a regular presser foot, measure from the center to determine where the 1/8" seam allowance is on your presser foot.  Most sewing machines are marked in 1/8" increments on the sole plate as well.

Align the straight inch of the strip set and sew the first inch of the seam - stop with needle down - adjust the strips as the edges start to curve, keeping the raw edges together - sew another inch or so until the edges are not aligned.  Stop with needle down, realign edges, and continue to sew.  Do this in very small increments - sew, adjust, sew, etc. until you reach the end of the strip set.  I didn't say it would be fast, did I?

As you reach the end, you might discover that the ends don't meet exactly - don't worry about it!  The important thing is that the curvy edges are together all the way along the seam.

Once you finish the seam, check to make sure you have that fabric caught the whole way along - and don't ask me how I know that it's important to check....  trust me, it is!

see that narrow 1/8" seam?  yippee!  I did it!  Excuse me while I do my happy dance.....

Now press seam allowances to the 'dark side' and lay all the pieces out on the table while you celebrate!

These can be joined along the straight edges, or you can overlap the edges by an inch and do more curved seams to join these together.
I did some postcards with mine.... with an OCEAN theme!

Let me know what YOU would do with your curved seam piecing.

August again - sharing the Process

It's been a week of quilting - FIVE charity quilts are quilted - thought I only had one more on the line, but in tidying up the sewing studio, found 2 more!  so, my goal for this week is to finish the one on the frame, and the three remaining charity quilts before Friday.  This is going to keep me busy - that's 11 quilts all together - these were already pieced and waiting (all winter) to be quilted - and I'm handing them off to others for the bindings.  They (QCE guild committee members) meet on Friday afternoons, hence the urgency to have these all done by Friday! 

Several people have asked me.... "How do you decide on a quilting design?"  Yes, a good question....

Sometimes, I admit, it is a matter of instinct - if there is a very busy quilt top where the quilting won't show anyway, I tend to go for one of two goals -

1, finish the quilt in allover stippling. or

2, practice a new design on a piece where the mistakes won't show anyway! 

After all, if I never practice, I don't improve!

Now, the hard part about practicing a new design on a busy fabric is that I can't see what I'm doing as well as if I were practicing on a solid with a contrasting thread, which is the best way to practice a new quilting design.  That way I can easily see my tension settings, stitch length, mistakes, etc.  If I can't see my mistakes, I can't improve.  It's a bit of a conundrum.

Several of the quilts I've been working on the past week have alternating plain white blocks - this has given me the opportunity to practice some of the new Follow-the-Line quilting designs by Mary M. Covey V. 4.  Her designs are printed full size for tracing, or whatever.  I usually use them with my laser pointer for the first  row, then put the pattern on the metal shelf in front of me with a magnet to use for reference.  By the time I've done that design for 8 rows - it's well memorized by my muscles and I don't have to look at the pattern, I can just look where the needle is going.  Not where the needle IS, mind you - but where it's GOING. 

Sometimes I get ideas that just don't work - they are too difficult for my skill level, so I keep those ideas in the notebook and try them again when I'm feeling more confident.

Here (finally.... I know you've been wondering!) are some pictures of the recent quilting efforts:

 this crib quilt has been waiting a long time for stitches!

took a long time to decide, but finally decided to practice these little 6" feathers... or plumes, or whatever...

a little hard to see the quilting on this one - I used a bright multi-colored tri-lobal polyester - which the machine seemed to love - - - 

I tried to reverse the direction on each row ....

of course the stitching came out a little differently on each block -
I'm a human, not a machine!

So that's it for today - I'm working on a curve piecing tutorial for my next post.  Check back in a day or two!

Thanks for stopping by!

Granny has to run some errands now.