August NewFO Linky Party and Giveaway

It's been another busy month here at the Three Cats Ranch. We've spent a lot more time processing fresh fruits and vegetables than sewing up new projects in the sewing room. Next month will be even busier since we'll be taking off for Colorado on the first Saturday in September, and not returning until the last Sunday. And please note: because of our travel plans, I'll be closing this linky party off on Wednesday, September 4th at one minute before midnight, so no dawdling!

But we're not here to talk about September. We're here to see what's new for August! Everyone who links up for this month's challenge will be entered to win the August llama needle nanny.

Pretty cute, huh? So here's what's new in my sewing room for August:

Earlier in the month a dear friend from high school came up to spend the weekend, and she wanted to learn to quilt. I figured the best way to cram a quilting lesson into a weekend project was for each of us to make a doll quilt. Mine was going to be unspoken for, so I made a quilt to order for a special little girl in Colorado. I was informed that she liked pink, blue, and Hello Kitty, and this is what I came up with:

 This was a start *and* a finish, but finishes are never required for the NewFO Challenge. All you need to do is start something new!

Then, last weekend, I made this Wine Waiter from a pattern I found at Sew Happy Me.

Yeah, sorry. That's a finish too. It's a housewarming gift for a good friend. The party is tonight!

But here's my official NewFO project for August: Block 1 (Laundry Day) for the Wind in the Whiskers BOM. Each block in the quilt can be made individually, but since I'm making the whole quilt, I cropped the borders off for purposes of this image so that you can see how far I'll be taking the block before it's finished. This next image is from the pattern cover. I'm a long way from this point.

This is turning out to be a challenging project, and I spent several hours just studying the pattern and organizing the fabrics to be sure I had put the right fabric with the right applique piece. There seemed to be two background pieces for the sky and the grass, but eventually, I decided that the sky was the actual background for the whole block. I hope I'm right because I gulped hard and cut out the background.

The fabrics included with the kit are lovely. Because some of the appliques span more than one block, it's been a bit of a challenge trying to decide what I can fuse and what I can't. For example, I can't finish off these dogwood blossoms until I make the leaves and the branches in the top left corner. And I can't do that until I make the block above the one I'm currently working on. Still, I fused the flowers to the fusing medium, and I could fuse the flower centers to the flower. I just left the paper backing on the backs of the flowers until I'm ready to use them.

When I'm ready, I'll use wax paper templates to help me with the placement.

That was fine and dandy for the flowers, but this would prove to be more complicated yet. The little chickadee below is made up of eight pieces, three of which are teeny tiny. When I read the pattern originally, I recall reading that a product called The Applique Pressing Sheet was recommended. This product is new to me, and so I wasn't really sure why I needed it until I tried working with all the pieces of the chickadee.

If you look again at the image above, you can see that the bird is perched on a branch. Even so, I couldn't see how I could just partially fuse the bird. Then, I remembered the recommended product. Supposedly, I can fuse the overlapping pieces to one another so that the whole bird and branch become one unit. With the pressing sheet, the overlapping pieces will fuse to one another, but not to the pressing sheet. I can just peel the whole thing of the pressing sheet and set it aside until I'm ready for it, as I did with the flowers. I asked for expedited delivery so that I can have it by Tuesday of next week, and I can continue on with my block. For now, I have the pieces safely stored in a little envelope. I'll let you know how the product works when it arrives.

So that's as far as I got with my new project.  Now, I'm ready to see what's new at your end.  Here are my easy-to-follow, friendly guidelines.

1.  Please link-up with your newly started projects from August, finished or not.  If you feel like it, show us the progress you've made on any other previously posted NewFO projects.

2.  Please link back to this post from your blog.  Also, please link to your blog post, not your blog.  Links to entire blogs will be edited or deleted entirely.  Also, this is not a place to advertise your Etsy shop or some other event.  To be clear, you may include references to other events in your post, but there should be something related to your NewFO's as well.  Links provided for the sole purpose of promoting other events or shopping experiences will be deleted without apology.  (Sorry, but some folks can't seem to resist crashing the party.)

3.  Don't have a blog?  Upload an image to this FlickR group and link to that.  If you have questions about how to do that or about how to link up, please email me.  If you're having trouble posting your image, email it as an attachment, and I will be happy to post it for you.  Also know that it takes a bit for your thumbnail to appear, so don't despair.  It will appear eventually.  You might need to "refresh".

4.  Obviously, I need some way to contact you no matter how you link up.  No email address and no other way to contact you equals no entry in the giveaway.  Email me separately if you need to.

Because of our travel plans, I'll need to shut this one down a little earlier than usual on Wednesday, September 4, 2013.  Winner of the needle nanny will be announced on Thursday, September 5, 2013!  We will ship anywhere in the universe, so international and interplanetary participants are always welcome!

Let's see it then. What's new?

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