Tote Intimidation

Apologies for the very out of focus photo. Right side trimmed, ruler placed to trim the left side.

This happens to me more often than I like to admit. I decide on a project, excitement builds as I get out pattern, fabric, whatever, and then at the first or so decision to be made, I freeze. A simple project turns into something I can't face because for a variety of reasons, I can't take the first step. That's a bit of what happened with my idea to turn the antique quilt remnant into a tote bag. As I stood assessing what I had to work with, I eventually would have to make some cuts, and there'd be no going back after that. So many questions I couldn't answer at the moment shot through my mind. But as the weeks went on and I kept going back into the studio to stare at it, I continued to think about those questions and the first cuts, and worked out answers so I could proceed. Folding the piece in half as it would be in the finished tote, I checked where my limits were on each side (since the piece was not perfectly squared up) and chose to make those border buds my guide two up, two down.

My only question as I placed the ruler for the trim on the left side was, will this leave enough for straps. It did, perfectly. Did it pain me to cut through the applique flower? Yes, a bit. But that was part of what intimidated me about working with this remnant, and I soon got over it.

I had a better piece with that same flower on it that was perfect to make a pocket out of. The top would need to be bound though, along with one side of the tote top - the other side had the original binding still intact. I had the perfect white muslin in my stash that I folded like commercial bias tape and could stitch down in one pass.

Since all these pieces are quilted, I opted for my machine's buttonhole (or is that blanket stitch?) setting to both sew the pocket in place and edge-finish the straps. Key to remember is that this tote will not get heavy use. I found a subtle variegated blue thread in my stash of King Tut cotton threads very similar in color to the blue applique pieces. 

The pocket fills in an open space on this side and works better than if I tried to just stitch the flower onto it. Trust me, I did try to make it fit while it still had its curved stem in place, but I couldn't make it work. Fine - pocket it is and the stem got trimmed away. It couldn't be centered because I didn't want to overlap the leaves on either side. Still, I love the way this looks.

I decided against lining this, again because it's a quilted piece and won't get heavy use as well as because of that one edge that was already bound. I realized I could sew the sides up using a French seaming technique that would encase the raw edges while also giving some heft to the sides. I decided I had enough room to sew across the bottom ends to form a box at the base.

Still a bit flimsy as totes go, but I'd noticed on the Staples promotional bag I'm keeping my downstairs sweater knitting in that it had binding sewn over the side and bottom creases which I think helps hold it up. Hmmm . . . I decided to do something similar by sewing a little pintuck over my edges. 

It does help, not as much as I'd hoped but I still think it was a good move. 

On the flip side from the pocket side, I suddenly saw another gap that could be filled with a remaining applique piece. This one was cut with one side of original binding and boy, did I want to make it another pocket.

Try as I may, I could not find a way to sew it anywhere keeping its pocket shape. Regretfully, I faced facts and trimmed it down, leaving a small allowance of the white background it was sewn to in order to use a zig zag stitch to attach it without stitching on the actual applique. Almost looks like it was always there. Only thing left to do was sew on the straps, which were amazingly the right length just as they were trimmed off the remnant.

Shipping bag in background, quilted tote much better

Now for the test run. My Autumn Wave sweater yarn has remained in it's original tyvek shipping package and I've been anxious to get it transferred to a more suitable bag. Perfect!

And that pocket sewn to the outside is just the right size to hold needles and any other small items. My "new" tote bag may be a little tired and worn in places but so am I - lol. A week's worth of work well worth the time spent. I still can't believe that the person who gave me this remnant didn't think it was very well done. The more I worked with it, the more I admired the workmanship.

This is all that was left over. There are still a few pieces I couldn't find a place for on the tote that I'm loath to toss out. I'm thinking maybe I can cobble together a small accessory bag or something. Waste not, want not . . .

 

What's Next

“Despite all the hand-wringing about distraction, it’s asked less often what it is that we want to attend to in the first place.” David Schurman Wallace

It amazes me how often a quotation will appear that speaks to a topic I've been mulling. Just last week, I noted that I felt at loose ends after completing all the book projects that had been lined up for so long, leaving me with the question of now what? The quotation (which is from a lengthy article in The Paris Review) shifted my perspective a bit and after a quick look around, I have come up with an answer of what I want to attend to. Let's start with the need for a project I could work on at last Monday's charity meeting that didn't require my packing up my machine. Still not crazy about a lot of lifting, but the group had decided to have a free sewing day to work on whatever we wanted, and I decided that the above hand applique project was what I wanted to spend time on. Truly can't remember the last time it was out and fear it might have been as long as ten years ago, although it sits near the couch in a ziplock bag with this small pouch that has everything I need in it to work on this. It's a very old project, using a different applique method I learned from Jeana Kimball that works like a charm - you can watch her demonstrate a bit of it here: Back basted needle turn applique.  I did worry if I would remember how to do it after so much time had passed, and did I really have everything I needed in that pouch? (Yes I did.) But after a fumbling start, muscle memory kicked in, and I was back to soothing meditative stitching. 

Antique reproduction 4-patch strip quilt

But I knew I wasn't going to switch to hand sewing for the rest of the week. It was time to finally finish requilting the couch quilt, working on the clam shell quilting in the borders and setting triangles. I may regret this but I couldn't face redoing all of them, so concentrated on securing those areas where the bobbin stitches had broken. Hopefully this mend will be the last I'll have to do. In the meantime, I have another quilt with broken stitches that has been waiting for me to attend to it for quite awhile and darn it, let's just get it done. This one I'd quilted in a crosshatch with YLI Heirloom silk thread. Yes, there's a story as to why but all you need to know is that it was a poor choice, and I let my stubbornness prevail rather than switching to a better thread once I realized there would be problems. But silk is supposed to be strong, right? Maybe, but this fine thread which works well in tightly quilted free-motion designs cannot take the stress of a straight line of it being pulled on as in when you pull a quilt up over you. Like the couch quilt, I'd already spot-mended it twice, and once again I was hearing the pop pop pop of more threads breaking. This time I'm using 50 wt cotton thread and going over ALL the lines of quilting. It will take some time but it will be worth it to have it functional again. After that, I remembered I have a demo quilt block to finish piecing from the fat quarter quilt that is now on my bed. I'm pretty sure it will become a pillow sham. Well on my way from distracted to attending to things.

In the meantime, I had a birthday, one I am not particularly happy about but what can you do? You can feel better as cards like these started to arrive. Look at those beautiful flowers, especially on the card at the right.

In preparation, I checked my grocery store's fine bakery for German chocolate cake, as I've been having a real chocolate craving lately, and also found this small huckleberry cheesecake - how could I resist? Served up on a bone china plate from my collection, that got the week off to a good start.

Then a started working on that single layer cake a few days early. I still have several servings left.

The biggest treat, which may sound silly to some, was to order up dinner and have it delivered. I just never do delivery, except for last year's birthday when I couldn't drive. I'd never eaten at this eatery but besides pizza, they had calzones on the menu. I don't think I've had a calzone since I worked downtown in Tacoma in the 80's, and I would occasionally treat myself to one for lunch. Something small that you could hold in your hand to eat. I'd seen how big this eatery made them from pictures on the website so knew I wouldn't be holding this one in my hand to eat and that I'd have leftovers - that is half of one. I probably could have made do with a quarter of it.

Some birthdays, I try to think of something different I can do to treat myself, someplace to go for a different view, something to see I've been meaning to check out. This year I just didn't feel up to going out and found enjoyment in things at home. Between beverages and meals and desserts, let's just say there were a lot of calories involved and I'm afraid to step on the scales! But I savored every moment and ended up feeling much better about this particular milestone birthday than I expected. Onward!

 

 

Satin Stitching Away

Only a few smaller areas left to satin stitch.

When I made the first Peace quilt, I was concerned about my thread color showing too much. I wanted everything to sort of blend. This is my knee jerk reaction when picking thread color. But on this one, that tan in the border and bits of it on the cranes made me want to choose a color for the satin stitching that would play off that and stand out. I can't tell you how very pleased I am with the results. And the sheen of the twist thread is perfect against the sheen of the sateen crane fabric.

I discovered I still have some of the two green threads I used on the first quilt (can you believe they are still sitting by the side of my machine 2 years later?) and may use these for the quilting. We shall see.

Succumbed!

Pillow Panel includes 2 of these printed squares

If you've been paying attention, you know I've become a real fan of Angela Walters and how she presents machine quilting techniques and designs per her many videos and challenges. These are all free, but she is quite candid about the fact that she can only do that through the support of at least some viewers purchasing the panels she designs for the challenges as well as coordinating fabric lines and thread collections. Generally speaking, I haven't been that drawn to her designs and certainly have plenty of thread on hand so am not tempted to participate in the challenges by practicing the quilting on her products. However . . . there's a new challenge starting in about a week called Free Motion Fillers Quilt Along which will present a LOT of different designs, and her thought when designing the panel was that when finished it could make for a handy reference when sitting down to quilt other quilts. Ahhh, that rather hooked me, along with the fact that I kinda liked the design which was done up in colors I like AND I didn't have to buy a big panel (a little pricey) but could opt for the pillow panel (which appealed more for several reasons). "Oh, I can't believe I'm ordering it," I thought to myself as I added the pillow panel to the cart, and then added one of the coordinating prints. I can come up with several rationalizations, but I needn't tell YOU about that, I'm sure! The panel and extra fabric arrived yesterday, and I am just as thrilled with them as I was when I saw them on her website. Anyone want to join me?

In the meantime, I have found my curved scissors. I swear I had looked in that spot on the shelf surround of my machine more than once. I can't even remember what I moved from that spot in preparation for the next step on the Peace quilt. When I turned back, there they sat and I swear they were smirking. Glad to have found them because the applique pieces of the second Peace quilt have been arranged and permanently fused, ready for satin stitching around their edges and I prefer using them for thread snipping over a regular pair of snips. 

While so much of my memory seems to be failing me lately, I was very happy to find it had not failed me about a certain thread I was sure I had that would be a good color for the satin stitching. I still had the sample I'd stitched out when deciding on thread color, width and tension for stitching on the first Peace quilt so I didn't have to rely on my memory for test settings. I did change one setting but at least I had a starting point. What I wasn't sure about was whether I'd put any stabilizer on the reverse side of the quilt top or if the Misty Fuse adhered to the applique provided enough stabilization. This is one of the reason I like the way I blog, because I could go back to the posts about that part of working on Peace I to see how I had done it. Yeah!  No stabilizer. Ready to sit at the machine and work my way around all those raw edges that Misty Fuse does not hold in check. The upper thread matches the tan in the print along the side and is the no longer being made Sulky Ultra Twist. The lower thread is more yellow and will be backup if I run out of the other thread. It is the replacement Twist thread produced by the company that bought out the original. It's close but just not the same.

Rhapsody

Here's the next "finish" project, the one I alluded to as my next work-on-while-watching-the-news handwork. It was started in a Suzanne Marshall workshop which featured one of the blocks from her award-winning quilt "Rhapsody", probably around 2002. I didn't start blogging until 2006, where I found a post about it when the applique was complete and I was readying it for quilting. In that post, I talk about the value of working from patterns, and as I reread what I said, I find I still feel the same and I think it's worth a read. You'll also find links to both Suzanne's website and a photo of her Rhapsody quilt.

https://idahobeautyquilts.blogspot.com/2006/02/training-wheels.html

The only other post about it is in 2008, where I was planning to take it along to a retreat since I couldn't take my machine. Apparently, I'd not touched it since the 2006 post when I was marking a feather pattern in the corners. They were so faint that I had to find the pattern for the feather so I could remark it darker.

I vaguely remember quilting on it a bit during the retreat but I think most of my time was spent prepping the applique on sashing for a different quilt. I know I quilted on it after the retreat, getting those corner feathers done and starting the quilting along all those applique pieces, but there's no more mention of it in the blog that I can find, although if I wanted to take the time to leaf through my engagement calendars I could track down my progress and the last time I actually worked on it. What I do know is that it has sat in this hoop-on-a-stand in a part of my livingroom with a sheet thrown over it for protection since I moved into my current rental in 2012 - there was no where else to "store" it. So this UFO is not a case of out of sight, out of mind, as I saw it every day, while sitting on the sofa watching tv, passing by it on my way to the front door or the stairs to the second floor. For whatever reasons, lame or valid, it has awaited my return in a patient daily stare. Wait no more.

It has been so long since I've hand-quilted on anything that I wondered how it would go. Would everything feel foreign and awkward? Would I even be able to track down my tools and thread? Turns out the latter was more difficult than to get back into the rhythm of rocking the needle through the sandwich. Were those first stitches nice and even and not too large? Well, of course not! But not nearly as awful as I expected, and getting better with each session. I've gone around those teardrop shapes above the blossoms and up the left side of the stem and calyx of the central flower. When I make it around all the applique, I believe my intent was to fill the background with a 1/2 inch crosshatch. Lots more to do before it's ready to hang on the wall. 

By the way, I have the patterns for all the other blocks in Suzanne's Rhapsody quilt. We had the opportunity to purchase them individually or as a set and the practical part of me said, "You'll never get around to making any more of these, let alone all of them," while the also somewhat practical part of me said, "But if you don't buy them now, there no doubt there will come a day when you regret it, ready to make more and the patterns no longer available!" And truly, I do think the chance of me making even one more of these gorgeous blocks is pretty slim, yet I don't regret hedging my bets.

Goldilocks Returns

Just like my ample fabric stash, I have an ample thread stash. Seriously, I have a lot of spools of threads of different thicknesses and fiber content and colors and values. And yet, when it comes time to find that perfect thread for the project at hand, the perfect one I have in mind is not in my collection. Too dark, too light, too shiny, too matte, it shades too much toward green or too much toward purple. Rarely do I find the thread that is just right. Even with stitching out samples, the thread I thought would work suddenly changes its characteristics on the quilt. Suffice it to say, choosing thread is not one of my favorite parts of quilting.

And the differences between the threads are often subtle, so subtle that most people would not understand why I am dithering over my choices. Chalk it up to experience, to quilts in my collection that still make me cringe at a thread choice that wasn't quite right. I persevere to get as close to right as I can. Clicking on the picture should help you see my test of threads as well as width of satin stitch and tension. The top one was too reddish brown and too shiny - sorry that it does not show up well but you can see the spool of it here. The black was, well, black, and this fabric really isn't black. It has a lot of reddish brown undertones in its darkness. Maybe a grey would work, but my darkest grey was way too light. I rooted around some more in my thread rack and by chance noticed several spools of dark brown twist that looked slightly different from the one I had tested. It turned out to be a much better match due to the fact that the twist included a strand of black with the strand of brown while the other one was just browns. That black toned it down and it was not as shiny either. It still wasn't exactly what I had in mind but I decided it was close enough. And it was a big spool, no worries about running out.

 

I was right in my suspicion that the Misty Fuse would be stabilizer enough so I got to satin stitching around all those raw edges of applique. I was nearly done with the long sections when I ran out of bobbin thread, and lucky thing that I did. When I pulled the top out of the machine, I noticed that my stitching now looked black instead of brown. A trick of the light? No, there's definitely a change of color. What happened here? I have my suspicions but have not had time to test them out yet. Just glad I only stitched about 8 inches this way.

 

In the meantime, I decided it was time to get my thoughts about quilting out of my mind and into something visual I could study. I scanned the pattern photo of the quilt, changed the colors closer to "my" colors in Paint Shop Pro software and started adding quilting lines. Very rough, not to scale of course, but it gives me a general idea of how my ideas will actually look. This is my first idea, simple, straightforward and not detracting from the design. Probably done in the dark green twist thread which would show up on both light and dark fabrics, although maybe more than I would like on the light side.

 

In the meantime, I'd been going back over that mark making exercise with circles and realized one of them could be adapted here if I turned half of the lines vertical, ending around the big circle encompassing the Chinese character. I didn't want to make all the lines vertical because of the bars in the upper left. And I didn't think I wanted to continue lines through the circle.

 

But I'd also wondered about treating the area outside of the applique frame like a separate border. Any thoughts or preferences? All input welcome. 

The Peace Quilt

background & applique panels pinned & ready for cutting

It's the last day of July and I really thought this quilt would be finished by now. Actually, I thought I could complete it during the week bracketed by the anniversaries of my husband's death and our wedding day. I usually pick a special project to concentrate on while I isolate myself in contemplation and memories, but isolation has become a way of life lately giving the week a different feel. And then I entered a war with my smoke alarms that took up my sewing time several days that week. Best laid plans, as they say, but at least I got a start on it. Above you see the pattern marked out ready for cutting. I taped the large pattern to my patio door glass and added the dark fabric over it. I could just make out the pattern and there were only a few misguided lines.

The pattern presents 3 approaches to this two panel applique quilt: hand applique (which was tempting but I didn't want to spend the time), raw edge applique (also tempting but I wasn't sure the cut-away pieces would be usable on a second quilt) and fusible applique (tempting because it might be the quickest and give me the best leftover pieces). After several nights of mulling before dropping off to sleep, fusing won out. This whole cloth cutaway method (rather than cutting out the individual motifs and arranging on a background) is one I am familiar with through my lessons learning Baltimore Album block techniques but I've not tried it with anything but hand applique. Of course, one can't go straight to fusing but the applique panel does get fusible ironed to the back of it before it is layered and pinned to the background fabric. This took more nights of mulling - which fusible to use - and I concluded that Misty Fuse was my best bet. Once again, I found myself muttering about how much I hate working with Misty Fuse. I really do, although I keep finding good reasons to use it in some circumstances instead of my more favored Steam-A-Seam Light. Pins go in the sections that will remain as applique motifs; care must be taken not to get confused about what stays and what goes. I did anticipate how fussy getting the fusible on would be, but I did not anticipate how fussy and time consuming the cutting would be. It took several days.

I could use small applique scissors for cutting curved lines but I didn't trust I could accurately cut the straight lines with it. It had been difficult to trace those lines off the pattern. I'd run across that nifty tool for use sewing half square triangles that I couldn't find when I needed it (the long narrow yellow thing at the top) and found it was the exact width of those long straight "strips". Cutting along either side of that tool with a rotary cutter was a great help. Slipped between the background and top panel, a small cutting mat (just below the small ruler) kept from cutting into the background fabric.

Accidental slit ready for Misty Fuse patch

Well, almost. When I was all done cutting away the excess, using a Clover mini-iron to tack the applique as I went, and was inspecting my work, a small gap appeared next to one of those rectangles in the upper left. Apparently I'd gotten too exuberant after lining up a ruler to make sure the rectangles' ends were even with each other and went beyond the little cutting mat in this one place. When I gave the piece its final fuse, the edge was slightly caught under the end of the rectangle but I don't trust it to stay there or not to fray during the next step so I will fuse a patch over it on the back.

There have been additional nights of mulling before dropping off to sleep over that next step. If I had used Steam-A-Seam, I would not have to worry about finishing the raw edges. But with Misty Fuse, one does. Satin stitch is the most obvious remedy but that doesn't keep me from considering other stitches. And then of course, what color thread, what kind? And since there is fusible between the layers, will I need a stabilizer underneath to keep things from drawing up? Well, only one way to know, and that is with a sample and the auditioning of threads. And as long as I'm going there, I may as well start thinking about the threads I'll use for quilting and how it will be quilted. So here are some candidates for both: two old Sulky Ultra Twists (no longer available) and one Superior Threads polyester twist (Ultra Twists' replacement), and a polyneon. You'd think after all these years I'd quit deluding myself that ANY quilting project would be simple, straightforward and quick.

Chance

Results of a "I don't care" printing session last year

Chance: adjective 1. fortuitous; accidental

I'm well on my way to finishing one last piece for ArtWalk, one that has been fun to work on because every step along the way has been a matter of chance, and I often work best when solutions present themselves by chance rather than by me actively seeking them out. The picture above shows some of what happened when I abandoned my carefully planned stamping placements on specific fabrics and just grabbed some odds and ends that I'd put in my paint area for expending paint on brayers and brushes and testing prints. I truly did not care if any of these worked, and so they all mostly did, exciting me more than the prints I'd spent so much time working out. The one in the lower left has been on the design wall for a year, and as I worked on Sway, I thought its colors would work well with the other pieces I'll have in my exhibit. And because it was so small, I trusted I could actually get it done in time.

"Yes. Chance has always been my best assistant." Director Agnès Varda in Faces Places.

Sway played a part in choosing a border fabric. Frankly, I hadn't decided yet how I would approach this little 10" x 18" uninspiring piece of batik I'd stamped over. But when I put Sway up near it to audition binding fabric and moved a small piece of handdyed fabric from a collection auditioning for something else on another part of the wall to a spot in between the two, I suddenly saw how well it would work as borders for what I was thinking of as "Float". Certainly not enough for Sway binding but would it be enough for "Float"? Just barely; I could cut three 2 inch strips from it, one for each long side and the third cut in half for top and bottom. Close, very close.

“Chance favors the connected mind.” Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

From the get go, this piece had a problem. Because I was just stamping with no real intention, it ended up with nothing going on at the bottom. I've spent months wondering what I could put in there that would look like it belonged with the stamped features. I may have solved the border issue but I hadn't solved how to balance out the bottom. That is, until I was taking a quick look through a basket of batiks for a fabric I've used as piping in the past. Again, it was Sway that led me there, the piece I thought I might add piping to the binding of to spark it up a bit. It was total chance that I saw the leaf batik while fanning through and made the connection that the colors and size of the leaves might work on Float, piling up at the bottom and maybe floating alongside the leaf clusters. I spent some very happy dithering while cutting and arranging.

Top border sewn with a partial seam

I'd been doing math in my head, enough to know that the horizontal border strips would not be long enough to span across the quilt with borders sewn on both sides. Visually, if one is not going to miter a border (and again, not nearly enough fabric here for that) then it's better that the top and bottom borders runs all the way across rather than the sides running all the way to the edges. As I kept playing with the strips for best placement of the fabric color changes, a chance placement reminded me of a block technique that staggers the beginning of each side. The top and bottom border strips were just long enough to span the quilt and one side border, so that became my solution.

You work your way around, each border starting flush with the edge of the quilt and catching the end of the preceding border until you are back to the start where you've left a partial seam. Once the last border strip is sewn, the first strip's seam can be completed.

"More conservative minds deprive coincidence of meaning by treating it as background noise or garbage, but the shape-shifting mind pesters the distinction between accident and essence and remakes this world out of whatever happens." Lewis Hyde, in Trickster Makes This World

And there you have it, a small quilt progressing all by chance, and ready for quilting. This is the most color accurate photo.

Of course, I'd been thinking about using the same dark burgundy thread to quilt around the leaf clusters and lattice as I'd used on others printed with this same color of ink. A little dull and boring but that was all I'd come up with except the possibility of a light green like the batik. It was that leaf batik that showed me there were other options, time to try something different, and here are the threads I pulled for consideration

I was leaning toward the golden browns when I realized I was playing safe again. Yes, I said it again - go bold or go home! The yellow/red variegated King Tut thread won out and is really brightening up the quilt as well as tying in with the rust in the border fabric.

I've started quilting the lattice with the burgundy and it is really doing great things to sharpen up the design. I'm holding off on any more quilting on the leaves until that is all done. Perhaps you can see that faint blue of the print on the batik that is echoed in the batik leaves I fused in place. Depending  on how it looks when all other quilting is done, I may add some blue/green quilting to the leaves. It's a decision I think will be ok to make by chance. 

Raw Edge Applique Sans Fusing

"Oh man, I hope this wasn't a mistake." This was my thought as I started "collaging" my fabric onto the muslin base. I really didn't want to use fusible this time, especially since we'd been instructed by the person who will be doing the quilting for us to stitch the edges of all applique we might use on our slice. Doesn't matter that my fusible of choice does not need this step as it stays put, even along the edges, even through a wash. She's obviously had trouble in the past so I don't want to make her sigh unduly by not following her wishes. I've done applique without fusible or needleturning in the past, I think with satin stitching around the edges or taking care of the edges during the quilting process. I've not done it before quite on this scale where I will NOT be doing the quilting and where I don't really have pattern pieces to mark and cut out. Just trying to do some freeform cutting here. I also didn't want to "tack" pieces in place with glue stick or basting glue. I just wanted to lay down the pieces, pinning as I went (as I found in one tutorial), and then stitch along all those raw edges. Boy, I sure hope this is going to work.

 

And to my relief, it did work pretty well. The bush and grass definitely started looking better when I went from rough-cut blobs to releasing some of those leaves from their background.  I used invisible thread and a size 60 Microtex needle because it doesn't matter how invisible the thread is, the needle still leaves holes, so they may as well be as small as possible.

That batik at the bottom is one of my very favorites for portraying grasses. I have it in two colorways but both are eight yard cuts - long and skinny and not much overall. So I use it judiciously and couldn't resist adding it here. I'm wondering if I should add branches or slender trunks to the orange blob like I am seeing in the photo, but frankly, that's the sort of thing I would do with quilting. Until you are not responsible for that last step, I don't think you realize just how much you depend on it to add details and bring the design to life. Maybe the need for branches will seem obvious to our quilter. She did a great job of quilting our barn slice quilt, bringing all our individual quirks into a cohesive presentation. But before I can send my slice off to her, I still have that bridge to build. You can see I've gotten out some threads to try out on a sample.

Speaking of the barn slice quilt (scroll to the bottom of this post to view it), our group had decided that after it had toured some quilt shows, we'd eventually donate it to a charity for auctioning.  We chose Empty Bowls in the Eau Claire, WI area (where the other members of the group reside) which recently held that auction at their yearly event. To our great surprise and delight, it raised $400! So often, quilts go for a pittance at auctions, so this was exciting news and has renewed our enthusiasm for our current endeavor.

The Christmas Gift

Master pattern for Silhouette Trees

Remember the silhouette trees I was working on for a Christmas gift? Well, it didn't get done in time to be received by Christmas. Heck, it didn't get DONE by Christmas. In fact, I just barely got it to my friend before the year ended, the package arriving around 6 p.m. on New Year's Eve - that's cutting it close. But he loves it (and the candle) as I knew he would, and I am very pleased with how it turned out, very glad I opted for the photo view looking up through the branches at the sky. That's my master in the photo above, the areas of the photo to be used all blacked in with a Sharpie pen.

Traced Steam-a-Seam on fabric ready to cut out

I also did some blackening on the reverse so I could see better to trace the shapes onto Steam-a-Seam, my fusible of choice for this sort of thing. It has a tackiness to it that holds applique pieces onto the background as you arrange them but not so much that you can't reposition pieces. It also does not require stitching along the edges once fused in place. I knew I would not be stitching on these pieces, many of which would be very small and narrow, so this was a must.

Karen Kay Buckley's "Perfect Scissors"

I remembered how tedious and somewhat difficult cutting the zig zagging reflection pieces for my Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea quilts was and had taken someone's suggestion to try a pair of applique scissors with serrated edges. I tracked a pair down, Karen Kay Buckley's "Perfect Scissors", in a small applique size that also had Teflon coating, but I had not yet had the opportunity to try them. Oh, what a difference! I could definitely tell that the serrated edges were making the cuts with more ease and precision, and I found the large openings in the handles so much more comfortable - no rubbing after extended sessions of cutting.

Just goes to show that the right tool can make all the difference. I could easily get into all those tight spots and small curves. And these "Perfect Scissors" were not very expensive as good quality scissors go.

My master pattern slipped under the piece of hand-dye for the background, and I could just make out the shapes to help guide me with placement of the applique pieces. Did not have to be exact but boy, did that help move things along.

When I'd traced the very small openings in the parts of the trees that would be in opposite corners, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get in there and cut them out, and I was willing to live with that if that was the case. But the very sharp points and thin blades of these scissors allowed me to get in there and remove even the tiniest of them, even through the fusible and its paper backing. Very different from the Teflon Fiskars applique scissors I've been using.

Once all pieces were in place and permanently fused, I penciled in the rest of the branches that were too small for applique and would be stitched. I used basting spray to hold it to the felt taking the place of batting, and the stitching began. I stitched alongside but not through each branch and out onto the background to make the spindly branches. This quilting of the little branches reminded me of a journal quilt I made many years ago, an abstraction of sorts of a winter scene looking into a thick wooded area that was all bare branches. I found it very enjoyable stitching.

Here it is all done and from the back so you can see just how much stitching I put in it. The color of the felt, by the way, ended up to be important as the hand-dye was transparent enough to be altered by what color was underneath it. I tried several and like this brown the best.

Now for the mount and attaching the quilted section to it. After all those batiks I had strewn about the table as possibilities, I soon realized I just needed to go with black, either the same hand-dyed black of the trees or... I looked through my commercial black stash and found this wood grain print which read just the slightest bit lighter than the tree black. No need for fussing with the thread either. I used the same Aurofil 40 wt cotton thread as in the quilting to satin stitch the edges before centering on the mount and attaching it with a straight stitch right next to the edge of satin stitching.

Here's another view of some of the stitching. While I was working away, wouldn't you know I kept running across other people's photos of bare trees in silhouette against sunset skies - on blogs, on Facebook, in books. In fact, if you are a tree nut like me, you might like to track down my latest find at the library, taunting me from the "new books" display: Ancient Skies, Ancient Trees by Beth Moon.

"Silhouette Trees" by Sheila Mahanke Barnes ©2016

Once mounted the quilt measured 13-1/2 x 15-1/2 inches, and in my mind is the perfect compliment to the candle, just as I had envisioned. Whether or not they will be displayed near each other is in question, but I'm so happy that candle inspired me to work up this design, and that I chose a photo that did not duplicate the candle itself. (Click on photo for a larger view.)

I ended up not working with the second piece of hand-dye concurrently as I thought I might so can make another of these right away if I choose. But I'm thinking I won't want to make an exact copy after all, but choose another photo and view to work from. I'm quite pulled to a photo with a vertical orientation but also like one of the landscape oriented ones too. We'll have to see what strikes my fancy when I get organized and back to serious studio work.