Owl tutorial
I thought you might enjoy learning from what I did with the owls. I used a GO die. First I ironed onto each of the pieces Steam a seam. But you could starch heavily or use another product that is sticky on both sides. I cut three of the owl pieces, three white eyes, and three black eyes at the same time. I knew that I wanted 12 owls, so that was what I cut out. The instructions that come with the owl die is for a pillow and they put the owl on a 6 x 6.5 piece of fabric. So that’s what I did. However, I feel the owl looks squeezed into too small a space, so I would probably try an 8″ square.
We put the owls in the color order we wanted them, then proceeded to make the pupils, wings, leaves (we used the wing pattern for leaves) different so no two were alike sitting side by side or up and down. Narrow double fold bias tape remnants were used for branches. I numbered the owls on the back of the owl so I could sew like colors at the same time.
Next I put tear away stabilizer on the back side as I sewed the white eyes and then the black eyes using a zigzag with 2.5 width and 1.0 length on the machine. You can change this. I am making this for a small child who will undoubtedly drag this around and I want the applique secure. This is a great place to use those partial bobbins because they won’t be seen. (This is not a display piece and with matching thread on the front, you won’t notice the eyes aren’t exactly a perfect circle – this is a child’s fun quilt)
You can see at the top of this owl, I’m a bit on the inside of the applique. It is better if you are totally on the applique piece than that you might be half on and half on, because this quilt will see the washing machine frequently.
The tear away is now there for the rest of the sewing and you won’t have puckering. From here on, I put on a thread color and did all pieces with that color, then changed color and repeated until all the pieces were secure. When finished, I took off as much of the tear away as I reasonably could and saved any of the tear away large enough to back a leaf, because there will be a lot of leaves on the brown tree trunk. I could have put different borders around each owl to make the block larger and omitted the tree, but chose instead to use width of fabric in tree color for the length of this small quilt. The width will be about 36 which make it a perfect size for a little one.
If I were doing a pillow, wall hanging, or something that wouldn’t see the wash that much, I would probably take my machine numbers to 1.5 -2 width and maybe a .3 zigzag. You might want to play with that.
If you don’t have a GO and aren’t getting one soon, this quilt is simple enough you could make cardboard patterns and still have the fun of making it.
I’m hoping you will enjoy making a few owls for yourself or a special little one.
Speeding time
I did go to the gym this morning, then came home and sewed on the owl eyes until DH came home from his workout. I first sewed the white parts and then the little black circles. Unfortunately, that was the end for today. This was one of those days that I would have loved to have more time and energy.
This afternoon, I had a doctor appointment to have an ingrown nail attended to. I left early enough to shop two stores before the appointed time.
The doctor wasn’t sure that what she did was sufficient. We will know in 2-3 months. (UGH) She suggested rest for the next 24 hours. Has anyone else noticed the doctors are more often female and very young? This one finished medical school three years ago.
Time to pay the piper
It’s so easy to look back and see what the better path would have been. So today, I paid for yesterday by sitting. It just shouldn’t take so long to get back to par after a surgery. Above are 3 sweet potatoes that I am hoping will send out runners I can plant. If I wait until the seed houses have them in April, it will be too late to plant them in this area (Seattle). So they are sitting on little toothpick legs and I am hoping for the best
Another wash cloth designed by Janet Nogle. We were given about 9 rows a day and I was behind. Janet finished the pattern yesterday. However, sitting today gave me opportunity to catch up.
I started these socks on #4 needles, but they are tight. I need to buy some #5 needles and redo them.
These are photos of this week’s groceries $32.89 and 34.95. Plus we got a gallon of honey from the co-op for 50.50 which made 118.34 for this week. We also ate out last week $23. which I didn’t record and again this week $24. So for this month groceries have been 305.24 and eating out has been $73.00. And it’s going to get a lot worse since I’m needing lots of food for an open house for DH’s birthday next week end.
What a fun day!
Mary and I had such fun today!. First we went looking for a rug for the family room and an immersion blender. I needed something because my VitaMix was taking too long to come back from the company. (Of course it arrive this evening).
Since we didn’t find a rug at that store, we moved on to Costco and found this indoor/outdoor rug which should take some abuse if needed. It really warms the room a lot. DH and son really like it.
Then we came back here to the studio and just played with these darling owls, giving them some personality. They are stuck to the fabric and now, I need to get them permanently stitched down. I will also scatter leaves over the brown so it looks like they are in a tree. It was so nice to just enjoy putting them together.
bn
The owls and a finish
Today after I finished the blocks I was testing, we went to the attorney. Now, I can rest easy as all those end of life things are in writing.
We ate while we were out and when we came home I wanted to do something fun. Just look at these darlings. Aren’t they cute. I cut them with my GO cutter and am planning a baby quilt with them.
A BIG mess
I’m still testing this applique quilt. The cutting table looks like this on both ends with a working area in between and the other photo is the pile of scraps on the floor.
At this point it has been reduced to the point that I can put it away as I have all the pieces cut from it that I need. I have one more block to make and then I will baste the sashing to the blocks to get the photo they want with the report. Then the sashing is coming off and will go into a box with the quilt. And no more testing patterns for at least two months. I can’t say never because I do like to test some of them and they wonderful charity quilts. However, I need to make up a for a lot of time this took. (along with the time I couldn’t walk)
Tomorrow! tomorrow! I’ll be done and Mary is coming over Wednesday. I’m thinking maybe we’ll just enjoy the day or if it is raining, we might sit and knit. That’s always fun. On what projects are you currently working
Quilt testing.
Nothing I can show you until April, but I did spend 8 hours today working with the scan n cut and making 4 blocks for this circus quilt that I am testing. (3 more to go). I am convinced this is the type of thing that ensures one a special place. There are innumerable small pieces that need to be appliqued onto the background blocks. Each block is 14″ square finished. and can have 40 pieces of applique on it. The pieces are put on with a fusible, but someone will need to go back and sew every tiny piece down (after all 9 are fused). or there is a good chance of losing pieces when it is handled and/or washed. This will become a ufo simply because I don’t want – at this point- to sew all the pieces down. I will finish testing the pattern and find it a nice box in which to rest. Maybe someone will want to finish it someday – but I doubt it will be me.
HOWEVER, I have learned the basic steps for my Scan n cut, which is why I agreed to test the quilt. So I’m going to count it a success.
Sailor’s Rib knitting swatch
It certainly needs something to make it square. Yahoogroups monthly dishcloth group has a subgroup where we do a knitting swatch to learn new stitches. I decided about midway that I didn’t like the needle being used, so though I didn’t change the size of the needle, my knitting changed. It does make a difference! It is about 7″ square and still quite usable for a wash cloth.
Mary was here today and we spent the afternoon using the Scan N Cut to make the pieces for this quilt for which I agreed to test the pattern. I put steam a seam 2 on the back of each piece of cloth before we cut it out, so we can easily press them in place and later do all the stitching (which is enormous) The smallness of the pieces makes it very difficult to get the backing off the sticky part so one can put it in place. The blocks are 12″ square with tons of detail. We spent the afternoon and made one block.
DECIDED: Be more selective and we will not be making this quilt twice.
. You will have to wait until they publish it in April before I can show it to you.
2016 socks pair #1
