Square In Squares Done

 And now for some actual I-sewed-something-content!

I was really pleased with how easy it was to make all the square in a square blocks for the Old Town mystery quilt with the new method of paper piecing I've been using lately. Here's some process pictures to somewhat explain.

When you're done, you won't have sewn through your paper at all. I did just a teeny tiny bit, you can see where I repaired the paper at the bottom.

When you're all done sewing, you just peel that finished block off of the paper. Easy peasy, no picking out all the paper bits in the seam lines!

So far this method works best for me on fairly simple paper piecing blocks.  To break down the steps:

Your first step is to fold the paper back exactly on the line, like in the picture above. 

Second, you lightly glue stick the paper pattern to the wrong side of the fabric so it won't shift around.

Third, sew right up against the folded paper edge. But try your best not to sew into the paper. You can see a bit of perforation where I did a little of that, but it's okay. 

Fourth, unstick the paper when done, and re-use your pattern for the next block.

This method is just a teensy bit less accurate than normal paper piecing where you're sewing directly on the seam line. Thus, it doesn't work quite as well when you're assembling a bunch of small sections together. But in this case it worked out just fine. Also, I printed out and used just two paper patterns to make 25 blocks.

Almost done, 18 out of 25 completed.

This one is probably my favorite fabric/color combination.

That's it! They're all done now.

A Banner Of Thanks

 After a year of looking at a stack of large triangles I cut out last year (right before I had hand surgery) for this banner, it was time to actually make the Thankful Banner. 
The size of the triangles I cut out was 10.25" at the base and 13.75" tall.
Since this is to be a double-sided banner, I cut out the number of triangles I needed to spell out GIVE THANKS twice, including one for the space inbetween the two words, which worked out to 22.
Each triangle was cut from a different fall fabric, leaves, greens, browns, corn, trees, pumpkins, etc. 
I had to choose some fabrics to use for the letters.  I decided to go with oranges and yellows so they would show up against the fall colors

 I chose a font that I really liked  the look of (Lucida Handwriting) and printed the letters out in a huge size (350pt).  About two letter per page printed out.  I wanted lots of room around the letter on each triangle.  For this type of project you want a fairly simple letter shape that isn't going to kill you cutting it out and sewing it down. 

 Whoops, I should have printed them out reversed since I was doing the fusible tracing thing. 

 So instead of wasting paper,  I quickly traced around the back of each letter in sharpie pen, so that I could then do the next step.  Learn from my mistake if you do this *print in reverse*.

Traced the (now backwards) letters onto fusible web (Steam a Seam 2). 

 Rough cut out the fusible letters, then fused them to the back of the letter fabrics. 

 Cut alllll those letters out of the now-fused fabric.

Next step was to fuse the letters down onto each triangle.  I decided I wanted them to be in roughly the same spot on each triangle so some measuring was required. Take into account seam allowances and the top inch which will be folding over the ribbon or cord.  Also be sure that the letter fabric shows up well enough from your background fabric. I had a few that I had to switch around to make it work well.

I used a tearaway iron-on stabilizer (Tearaway Magic) which I ironed to the back of each triangle covering the area where the letter was to be sewn down.

Stitched in a zig-zag around each letter.  I was going to do a satin stitch but decided I liked how this looked, and the banner won't be something that I'm washing all the time, so the edges should hold up pretty well.

Here's how the back of the triangle looks after I've sewn down the letter S.

After all the letters were sewn down I matched each triangle up with their mates.  This part can be tricky if you want your banner to be spelled correctly on both sides. So check your work several times. 

Sew the two triangles together right sides together starting about an inch down from the top edge. 

Cut the tips seam allowances down like the picture above.  

Turn the piece right-side out, use a chopstick to poke out the pointy tip and smooth out the seams, press. 

Press in the seam allowance on the remaining 1" up the top edge. 

Fold in about 1/2" and press the two top edges,  to make a casing.

Sew across the top edge and also about 1" down from the top edge.

Do a final press, string onto cord or ribbon. And There it is! Done and hanging in our house!

Too many banners? Yep, adding one to the usual two that are hung in our house did muddy the waters a bit.  Maybe next year I'll just have one up there at a time.

I'm Torn Between Inside And Outside

Bing bing bing almost a 1/5 of the way complete. Here is the 10th in a year long, weekly series of six-word memoir journal quilt(lets).The words say:

"I'm Torn Between Inside And Outside".

Which is a bit of a cheat using the contraction "I'm",but too bad, I can cheat at my own rules now can't I? But I truly am torn between spending time inside vs. outside. Happens every year around this time...As the garden greens up and the weeds go into overdrive, my creative spark is lit anew with the arrival of Spring.

I took pictures as I experimented with coloring a used dryer sheet with some FabricFun dye crayons. After getting some colors down, I first tried to curl it up with the iron, that didn't work. so then I thought maybe it would melt onto some fabric. No luck, just transferred a teeny bit of the color onto the fabric.Ok, fine then, I'll use it as an overlay as part of the quiltlet then.

As I worked with it, the torn edges of the dryer sheet ended up inspiring the words for the week. It looks good stitched down over the shiny green cotton.
Also, you'll notice that my red bobbin thread is showing in-between each stitch. Sometimes I do this on purpose to get tiny flecks of color on a quilt surface, but in this case it was just me being lazy. It turned out that my machine needed to have the bobbin case cleaned out thoroughly (again!). But I liked how it tied together the small amount of red colors in the crazy print in the left hand corner into the whole overall green/blue of the entire piece. So I didn't pick out any of the stitching. Sometimes sheer laziness prompts an interesting design choice!

Barcelona Bark Shirt

As promised here is what I made to wear out of Marion's Barcelona Bark pictures. There was a light and dark version of her picture, so I tiled them using Microsoft Word. Then I printed the image out on a t-shirt transfer. Remember if you are using text to reverse the image when you print, otherwise you'll have backwards letters! Mine happens to be Xerox brand, but there are of course tons of alternative choices out on the market.



I had a plain white t-shirt that I had been planning to dye, but had otherwise gone unworn since it was boring and I just don't do boring very well. So I am counting this as a Wardrobe Refashion, which is: taking something you have, transforming it, and making it even more wearable!


My trick with transfers is to first iron the t-shirt really really smooth


And instead of just using the ironing board which is kinda squishy, I put an old cutting board which is nice and smooth inside the shirt. That way you won't get anything transfering through to the back of your shirt, which can happen with some of the transfer brands.


Follow the directions, each type seems to be different, some want steam, some high heat, some not.


Once it has cooled a bit start peeling at a corner. If there is a lot of resistance, you probably haven't ironed enough. Try a bit more heat, and attempt to peel off once more.


Voila' a new and interesting/mysterious shirt to wear!

Paper Quilting

Just for fun today, here is a how-to on the subject of paper quilting.

First I started out with a piece of white construction paper, layering torn pieces of colored tissue with white glue. As a last step at this point, I laid a white piece of tissue paper over the top while it was drying and then tore it off. This kind of muted the colors and made even more surface interest.

Definitely let it dry for at least a day, there are a lot of layers and you don't want to be sewing through wet glue(not good for your sewing machine!), or damp paper (it will tear).

My next step was stamping over the top with a large motif stamp that I carved a while ago. Just with regular ink.
Definitely looking interesting at this point, don't you think?

Next, I decided on a flowery garden theme based on how beautiful my deck flower bulbs were at the moment. I snapped some closeups of open tulips, and then some rosemary just for spice. These were cropped closely in a photo editing program and then printed out on silk. Arranged on the surface, then held down temporarily with glue stick.

For some reason, a Good Earth tea bag paper tag caught my eye, and I added it to the composition. I love their tea, and I love the little quotes on the tags. Plus if they get the tea on them, the paper looks cool when it is stained.

Make a quilt sandwich with your paper piece on top, batting, and backing fabric.

Now onto the stitching. Using an old needle (why waste a new one on sewing paper?), and your stitch length set on the longest possible length, slowly stitch away. Yes it is a little stiff, perhaps a little noisy, but it works.

When you are happy with how it looks stiching-wise, then cut it to the size you want, and zig-zag the edges. Voila', done!

Here is a detail that shows the writing that I did on the lumpy surface. The words are the botanical names of the flowers, their meanings in the Victorian flower language, and what they are used for in herbalism.

Wardrobe Refashion Re-pledging

I am officially re-pledging myself to the Wardrobe Refashion (this time for a period of 4 months). I think it begins in June, but I'm practicing already, so it'll be 6 months by the time I'm through.

So, why pledge to not buy new clothing for a period of time? To use my time and creative energy in this way?

I think the idea of refashioning the stuff I have already into something I'll actually wear and enjoy wearing is a good way to practice what I preach. You know, the whole reuse,recycle mantra.

What better way to celebrate Earth Day?!?! Think of how much energy it takes to get that new shirt to you, to grow the cotton, to power the factories, not to think of the pesticides,etc...So since the stuff is already made, bought and in my hot little hands, I'm using it.

Here is what I made on Friday afternoon/eve (woohoo, how fun am I?). ahem. Well, I was also hosting a sleepover at the time. And we had pizza instead of me actually cooking. The funny thing was all the menfolk in the house at the time actually noticed the shirt when I appeared wearing it instead of the usual t-shirt. And they complimented me (smart move on their part!).
I started with a really nice shirt of my husband's. He recently tore out the elbow (never got the story on exactly how that happened, hmmm....). I'd always liked this shirt, it is a nice light grey, and the fabric has a beautiful sheen. It is a Kenneth Cole Reaction brand. So first off I chopped off the sleeves with my trusty pinking shears.


Then I thought of what a good spring fabric that I have, I knew that it had to have grey in it somewhere, and probably something floral. Came up with this gazania print out of my box of florals. My first stopper was how to figure out how big to make the new cuff additions. So I measured the sleeves I'd just lopped off. Here you can see the rip that got me this shirt to work with.

I decided to have smallish "cuffs" on the sleeves and cut a strip 5" wide and about 2"longer than the needed length to make it around the sleeve. Ironed it in half lengthwise. Sewed right sides together. An action shot:

Pressed open the seams, turned the cuff right side out, and folded in the ends. I also turned under the raw edges of the existing sleeve and sewed a small hem.

Next, I pinned the cuff-to-be on and sewed it on just on the edge of the sleeve end. It overlapped very nicely and I did a little decorative stitch (flowers!) to tack it down on the overlap.


So here is how it looks with the sleeves done. But bleah, I don't like wearing a structured collar, too scratchy and binding.


Cut off that collar! It was worn out anyways. And waaay too pointy for me.

The collar was replaced with the same floral fabric used on the cuffs, and in pretty much the same fashion as described above.


Here are the former sleeves and collar. Don't they look funny without the shirt?

No, I haven't yet thrown them away. Look for them appearing later in a project coming to a blog near you!

Here I am wearing the finished product. A very comfy shirt, that looks nice too.

I'm thinking of replacing the original dark grey buttons with either fabric covered ones (out of the same floral, how matchy-matchy!). Or maybe these hand-dyed ones that are a nice lilac color that goes with the flower petals.

Window Banner

Thought I'd post a how-to demonstration of making a window banner. I made this up yesterday!

















First I started with some silk that had been flower-pounded a long while ago and pulled some likely supporting fabrics. I didn't want to quilt this silk, I wanted the light to come through because it shows up the details so much better. My idea was to have fabric around the silk so that the heavier fabrics would hold the weight of the piece.Oh and by the way, give the flower pounding a try, it is super easy and fun, as well as quite cathartic!













I then took a yellow hand-dye and folded it in half, sewing a silk piece to either side. One side has the raw edges showing, since I like that look.











Next I cut two strips of a purple print and folded them in half, with the raw ends meeting inside the fold. After lots of pinning those are both sewn on the long sides.



















This is how it looks so far against the window. I obviously am not worrying about straight lines, wanting a more organic looking shape to go with the natural looking flower-pounded blobs on the silk.

Lastly I took a green/purple hand-dye and an orange-yellow hand-dye for either end to finish it off. Both folded in half and stitched onto the silk ends, then up the sides, stopping at 3/4" from the top or bottom so that a hanging rod can be inserted.