Design Wall Monday

I'm making great progress on Animal Parade, a quilt for my niece who will turn 4 in October.

A few more blocks have more satin stitching finished around the applique:

This one is completely finished

some details on the butterflies and flower - just need eyes and mouths to be finished

I'm enjoying putting this quilt together and doing the satin stitching - it's not as tedious as I remember it being before.

Here's the overall picture:

I'm linking up to Patchworktimes - go check out what everyone else is up to this week.

Animal Parade Progress

I've made great progress since Monday. Over half the blocks have something satin stitched on them. None have eyes yet - for some reason I always leave that til the end.

Either purple or red thread is going in the machine next. My machine is making noises of protest so I'm going to see if I can get it service quickly.

I'm hooking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced - check out what everyone else is making.

Design Wall Monday

I've made some progress on my niece's quilt. All the animals are appliqued on - now to do the stitching around them. I still need to applique her hand print from when she was 2 - I just need to find it first.

rainbow

teddy

hippo

full design wall

 I'm linking to Patchworktimes design wall - click on over and see what everyone else is up to.

Animal Parade Applique

I have all the animals attached to the fabric so now I'm ready to stitch them on.
My friend L suggested I show exactly what I do to make these blocks so here goes:

1 - find a good image (since I can't draw that well); I use colouring pages I find on the internet and shrink or increase them in size as needed

2 - trace the image out on an adhesive product. I like Lite Steam A Seam 2 - it's tricky to find right now. If you want your image to be the same orientation as the original, trace from the wrong side of the image.

3 - adhere the steam a seam pieces to the fabric as needed. Then trim.

4 - layout the design. The steam a seam has a little tack to it so it will sit where I place it and is moveable until I iron it down. I use the original image as a guide to help with layout.

6 - add stitching lines to add definition - in this case it's the white chalk lines

7 - start satin stitching - I use a medium tear away stabilizer underneath to prevent waving. I use a bobbin weight thread (Wonderfil in this case) and a size 60 needle. I set my machine to zig zag with a stitch width of 2 and length of 0.2. I try to work from back to front in terms of depth - in this case I've done all the definition marks before going around the outside.

8 - some pictures of how close the needle is and how to do inside and outside curves. I set the needle to stop in the down position so I can move my fabric more easily. Going around tight curves is tricky and needs a lot of stop and start to keep the curve smooth.

9 - all finished - except the eye, throat, and tongue - and I might add a few teeth but not as many as the original picture - too fussy to do that. I'll do those when I have that colour thread in the machine. I use a little fray check on the back side to prevent the satin stitching from coming undone and try to overlap seams as much as possible to lock them in.

10 - Finally, tear away the stabilizer. I haven't done that yet because this guy isn't quite finished.

And there you have it. It looks a lot more complicated, when I see all the pictures, than it is to actually do it. It does take time and I like my results. The details add interest and make the little critters seem more alive

On a side note, I painted my front room this morning, had a shower, then went out for breakfast. Sometime when I wasn't watching my cat jumped onto the window ledge with fresh paint on it and she left kitty paw prints

thankfully the paint was only a bit tacky and not totally wet so nothing seemed to be stuck to her paws.

Later in the afternoon the kitty got up in her usual position

right where I'd painted - at least it was dry by this time.

I'm going to have to barricade this section tomorrow when I paint again so she doesn't get up there.

Lots of Animals

Yesterday I went on a little shop hop with my friends C and L. We had a great time. C has give a good shop review so I'm not writing another one. Plus, I'm too hot.  My a/c is not working right so I've shut it off and it won't be fixed until Monday morning. Thankfully it's going to cool off this weekend. But I digress...

Here's what I bought at Bee Modern in Niagara-on-the-Lake

On to the animals...

I finished two more squares of applique prep for my niece's quilt

sunflower

blue bird

all of them to date

There are 4 more blocks to make - I'll go through my process on one of them to show you.

The rest of the animals are of the wild variety - particularly raccoons who visit my roof. I would like them to stop because I'm tired of climbing on the roof to clean up after them. But I digress again...

(Thanks L :) )

A Little More Progress

It's really hot here - so hot that I don't feel like doing anything, including sewing (sad).

I worked a little more on the quilt for my niece and here's the bit I did today:

butterfly and flowers that are added to...

this one for a complete block

and some tulips cause that's what K asked for

It's still cool in my sewing room so I'd keep going except I have to get the oil changed in my car before it runs dry.

Design Wall Monday

Here's my progress to date on my niece's quilt:

I'm linking up to Patchworktimes - check out what everyone else is making.

Animal Update

I've had a very productive day! (and I'm tired to prove it).  I did my painting on the main floor - photos to follow when the new drapes are finished.

Then I worked on my niece's quilt. Here's what I got finished:

Use your imagination to fill in the arms, legs, paws, etc. for the animals. I won't sew that until all the applique squares are prepared, then I do as much of one colour as I can. I would have done more but I ran out of Lite Steam-a-seam 2 - I'll pick some up tomorrow.

My whole design wall looks like this:

Progress on the plans

Last week I made a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish on summer vacation. Here's my progress to date...

Right now my main floor family room looks like this

because I've prepping to paint the back wall. Right now it's a lovely shade of peach, soon to be replaced by "vintage linen" to match the other walls. And new drapes will be sewn by me to grace the space.

To keep the family room company, I did this to the sewing room floor tonight

I'm working on the quilt for my niece. So far, here's my progress

There will be 15 blocks with pictures in them. They'll look better once I've stitched around and added details - the top left is an elephant with a zebra below - and a hippo below that. My friend C will be supplying the dark grey fabric for the hippo (I had to google "what colour is a hippo" to be sure they are dark grey). The hearts actually look like hearts right now. I've been thinking about ways to add details to the pictures with thread cause I'm dying to try thread painting but I'm a little intimidated by it.

I've Made Some Plans...

I am notorious in my family for leaving things to the last minute and under-estimating the amount of time it will take me to make something. I have learned to live with it and plan accordingly.

Not to disappoint myself (nor not live up to my reputation) I have way more things I'd like to accomplish this summer vacation than I have summer vacation time - by about 2 months likely. Nevertheless, I've persevered, planned, and made lists of all the things I want to accomplish. We'll see how far I get and I'll keep you updated on my progress (or lack there of - but I will be optimistic).

One of the projects I want to make is a quilt for my littlest niece - K. She is 3 1/2 and awesome. When her older sister turned 2 I decided to make her a quilt - I finished by the time she was 3 1/2 I think.

I've planned out K's and it looks like this:

The picture is pretty dark but you get the idea. Each block is 12" finished with a 2" and 6" outer border. The colours are light and dark purple, green, and a pink mix fun floral.

This is the quilt I made my oldest niece - the idea is more clear here.

I've gathered most of the pictures I need. Now I just need to get started. Wish me luck!