Alright, y'all -- I finally finished those two little appliqué blocks for my Stonefields quilt that I was prepping at the end of May, and good riddance to them! Behold, my design wall displaying meager progress:
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| 29 Blocks Completed for Stonefields Sampler Quilt by Susan Smith |
Stitching the stems was fine, but needle turning these flower shapes was a wretched and miserable stitching plan that I regretted almost immediately.
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| One Stupid Flower Stitched, Beginning the Second One |
Not sure how well you can see what's going on in the photo above due to poor lighting in the hotel room where I was stitching (kicked out of my own home while the hardwood floor refinishing filled it with poisonous fumes). See below. I made a plastic template for the flower shape, traced around it on the right side of my fabric with a fine mechanical chalk pencil, then pinned with 1/2" sequin pins. Before pinning the flower down, I did remember to finger press all along the chalked outline to try to "set" the memory of the curves into the fabric. However, the unwashed Tilda fabrics were horrible to work with for needle turn appliqué. There is some kind of slick sizing or other finishing on these Tilda prints that makes them want to remain flat and smooth and they fought me with every stinking stitch as I tried to turn those curves smoothly and the fabric wanted to make awful pleats instead. I can't say for certain, but prewashing this particular fabric line probably would have made it behave much better for needle turn. Alternatively, I could have used a prepared edge method. A crisp, tightly woven batik would have been a lot easier to work with, but I am stubborn and I wanted Tilda prints in this quilt, not batiks. Whatever. This is how I did it, and it was no fun whatsoever, and that's why I tormented myself in small increments and took an entire month to finish these two piddly little blocks.
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| Chalked Turning Line, Sequin Pins, Clipping Deep Vs As I Approached Them |
Something this nitpicky and time consuming ought to look way more impressive than this once it's finished! Thank the Lord there are only two of these blocks in the quilt and not three.
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| Hidden Birdies In the Bathroom, But No Toilet |
In other news, the remodeling continues at my house and the end is in sight, although new setbacks appear on almost a daily basis. The photo above was taken with a wide angle because it was the only way to get a photo at all of this tiny powder bath, about the size of a coat closet. I am delighted that the tile, vanity, sconce lighting, and WALLPAPER have been installed -- especially the wallpaper, which has little birdies hidden in the foliage. The birdies make me very happy. There is no toilet because they ordered one with the wrong size rough in, whatever that means, so now we need to wait for a new toilet that is not in stock. That makes me less happy. And so it goes!
We are hoping to have this renovation adventure wrapped up by the end of July, and I think my One Monthly Goal should be SURVIVING until the final walk through when the builder hands us our keys and leaves with their dumpster and port-o-potty. All sewing will be for therapeutic purposes, and if some days I need to just come down to the sewing room to pet the fabric and whimper for a little bit, that counts as "sewing time," too.
Hope all of my American friends are enjoying a wonderful 250th Anniversary Independence Day weekend!
I'm linking up with some of the following linky parties:
MONDAY
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Musings at Songbird Designs
TUESDAY
To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
FRIDAY
Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre
Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty
TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday
SUNDAY
Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué
Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts
Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework
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