Intimidation

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Remember that Carly Simon song, "Anticipation"? Maybe not. You'd have to be old. Some of you might even be saying, "Who's Carly Simon?" Shut up. Anyway...substitute the word "Intimidation" for "Anticipation", and you'll be singing my new theme song for the Wind in the Whiskers quilt. Oy. I'm already wishing I'd never started this. On the other hand, it's going to be fantastic if I can finish it. I have no doubt that I can finish it...if I live long enough. What I fear is that I'll be a raving lunatic by then.

That's a picture of me six months from now. I should probably ask Mike to remove all the sharp objects from the sewing room, but that might make sewing extremely difficult.

But before I go on, let me give you a brief rundown of my morning. I did my usual stuff...drinking gallons of coffee, doing some embroidery, coming up with excuses not to go swimming. I came up with some really good ones this morning--I thought--but in the end I went. I was glad too because I did a little more than I've been doing with less knee pain. Then I braved the pre-Thanksgiving madness at the grocery store. Then I came home and put things away. Then, I did everything possible to avoid going into the sewing room to the Wind in the Whiskers block that awaited me.

Allow me to repeat myself: Oy.

I decided I would just focus on getting the pressing sheet figured out so that I could show you how it works. That seemed a little less daunting than considering the whole block. Oh yes, the whole block looks like this:

Keep in mind that this is just the first block. The clothesline and the things hanging on it are all three dimensional...as if it weren't already complicated enough. For all the whining I'm doing about it, I'm also realizing that it is going to help me grow as a quilter. This will definitely be the most complicated applique I've ever attempted, but there are other new challenges as well. So, I tell myself, quit complaining and get going.

So when I worked on this last, I had cut the fabric for the background. That's probably the last bit I'll be able to do without great consternation. Feast your eyes on it.

Then I created the first of the flowers.

Then I created the pieces for the little chickadee, but it became apparent that I was going to need to invest in the recommended pressing sheet. I hate to even think how long ago it was when I stopped at this point, but it was at the end of August.

So, I ordered The Applique Pressing Sheet. I got mine at Amazon. It's the 13 x 17-inch size. "As Seen on TV!" the cover boasts. I must have missed that show.

So today, I took it out of its package. It looks like this.

It's made of silicon and while it appears opaque, it is somewhat transparent. So the way this works is that you place it over the top of your applique placement diagram...

thus...

So now I have a surface where, theoretically, I can fuse all the pieces of the chickadee together, but then peel them up off the pressing sheet for permanent placement onto the background fabric. We shall see. Here are all the individual pieces. I laid the tweezers down there so you could see how really tiny some of the pieces are.

Then I placed them on the pressing sheet in their designated spots according to the placement diagram. This was no small feat because, with the pieces overlapping, eventually I couldn't see the placement diagram any more and I was flying blind. (Get it? Flying? I'm so punny.)

Eventually, I was satisfied that they were right...or maybe I just got tired of messing with them...I forget. So then I used the iron to fuse them to one another by ironing directly on the pressing sheet.

This is the part where I held my breath a little, especially with those tiny little feet and beak pieces. I wasn't entirely sure I could peel the whole thing up without pulling it apart. It took a little bit of scratching and very careful tugging, but it all came up in one piece.

Will wonders never cease? There it is...the chickadee sitting on a tree branch.

Cool! So that's only the first of many of these. It took me so long to get my bearings again after leaving this for months. I had to read and re-read the pattern again and figure out which fabrics went with which pieces, and figure out the identification strategy for all the different pieces, and just basically figure out the whole freaking pattern again. Here's what the whole quilt will look like when its finished.

Beautiful, right? Well, if you've ever done a McKenna Ryan pattern before then you may know what I've had the misfortune of learning with this one. They are extremely difficult to work with.

For one thing, the templates and placement diagrams are printed on both sides of big newspaper-sized sheets of paper. That means that you can't use a lightbox or any other kind of light source to do the tracing. I can live with that. But the pieces are confusingly identified. For example, the flowers are identified as pieces E1 through E5, but the tree trunks are also identified using those same letters and numbers. Also, the dress. Also other pieces are identified using identical lettering. And the instructions are also printed on the same sheets with the templates. Also, the fabric key is printed on the same sheets. Oh yes, and don't forget that there is an errata for the instructions. So, as you're working with it, you're having to pick things up and flip them over and try to find what it is your looking for with each step. All in all, it is the most confusing mess I've ever seen. It's extremely annoying to be spending so much money on this block-of-the-month to have it be such a nightmare to work with.

I will get through it, but it will necessitate brushing up and practicing all the four letter words I know. Loudly. And did I mention it would be a good idea to remove all sharp objects from the sewing room?

Now that I've figured out my place again, I think I need to at least get the pieces fused down to the background before I can quit. It's a little like picking up a big juicy hamburger. You know how sometimes you start on the hamburger, but then can't put it down again? Because if you do, it will fall all apart, and you'll need a fork to eat it.

Yes, it's exactly like that. But, hey, the pressing sheet is great!