2/12/17

Busy Morning

This morning I finished the final bits of stitching for Charlotte. Her buttons are done with hot fix nailheads, and I also used them for the wheels on her cart and the clasp on her purse. Isn't she looking mah-velous? A flashy dresser, for sure.


My trusty side kick was right there with me as I selected the hot fix nailheads. He has nerves of steel, let me tell you. Of course, when I walked away from here, he dragged his tail over the little container holding the rest of them and knocked it over. Just being helpful, I'm sure.


 Starting March 1st, I'll be working on Millicent. If you're stitching along with me, however, please feel free to stitch whichever of the bag ladies you like. We're playing fast and loose with the rules here. (Rules? There are rules? There are no rules in sewing.)


But let's back up to yesterday when I peeked into the oven to watch the brioche baking. Ahhhhhhhhh.


When the timer went off, I had three beautiful loaves.


And the real object of my desire, French toast for breakfast this morning. Or...if you prefer, pain perdu (be sure to say that with a snotty French accent).


It only takes half a loaf to make French toast for the two of us, and so there's plenty for future French toast mornings. Life is good.

With Charlotte finished, it was time to make up the next block for the Summer Holiday quilt. As I mentioned yesterday, Road Trip is up. It's actual name is "On the Road," but I like my name better. 


After I whined and complained so much about having to embroider through applique and moaned about my aching hand, my friend Vicki Welch  from Field Trips in Fiber sent me a sample of Mistyfuse. I had the sample packet sitting right on top in the box to remind me.


Sorry for the blur in that image, but the description on the left says that it has "no added adhesives to gum up your needles and it won't change the hand of your fabric." Okay, so I'm going to give this a try. I'm accustomed to using Heat 'n Bond Lite, which has a paper backing. Mistyfuse is more akin to Angelina fibers. There is no right or wrong side, and it looks kind of spider webby.


So the first question was how to transfer the applique templates to the fabric, and freezer paper was the obvious answer. Since the Mistyfuse will be applied to the wrong side of the fabric, that means the freezer paper templates need to be on the right side. And that means the templates should NOT be reversed as they would be if I were using Heat 'n Bond.


So I traced those out and then pressed them to the right side of the fabric. If you're not familiar with using freezer paper for this purpose, then you need to know that the shiny (waxy) side goes against the fabric, and it will adhere with ironing, and yet pull free without leaving any residue behind. (Absolutely amazing stuff, if you ask me.)


So I applied the freezer paper to my chosen fabrics and then cut them smaller, but right away I realized I'd made a mistake. You need to use a teflon pressing sheet for this either way, but my mistake was in cutting the pieces so small. That left the Mistyfuse exposed where it would stick to the iron if I pressed it down.


Not to worry, I just bent the pressing sheet over and ironed over the top of it.


It did stick to the pressing sheet, but I was able to easily scratch and peel it up with my fingers. No harm done. In the future, I'd leave my fabrics a little larger and avoid this problem altogether.


On the positive side, the appliques all came up in one piece.


So you can see now that there is Mistyfuse on the wrong side of the applique template.


All I needed to do then was to fuse it to my prepared background. This one is a little tricky because some of the embroidery overlaps the applique. You can't see it in this image, but the cat's paws are overlapping the edge of the window, as is the dog's dog tag, and the luggage tag on the suitcase sitting on top of the car.


And if you have sharp eyes, you might have noticed that the left fender was applied upside-down in that image above. Doh! Not to worry, however. I was able to peel it up and then reposition it in the image below. Surprisingly, I ran the iron over it again, and it stuck!


So then I top-stitched over all the applique. For this piece, I'm using smoky monofilament to stitch down all of the applique.


Now it's hooped up and ready to go. I'll start on this tomorrow morning.


So, I'll have to get back to you on whether it makes embroidering through applique any easier, but if you're interested in this product, here's the information from the package:


And thank you so much, Vicki! Nice to be able to give this a try without having to buy a whole large piece of it. So far, so good!

Would it surprise you to know that Mike and I have been spending our evenings sitting in the camper? Yesterday, we hung the two little homey items I contributed to our little home on wheels. These came out of the old camper. We hung the little camper stitchery on the wall above the theater seating.


Remember this one?


And the little "Happy Trails" sign is above the future kitty window.


Sue gave this to me. It's the invitation to her husband's retirement party. I thought it was so cute, I put it in a frame, and it lives in the camper now.


We also hung some hooks and did a little bit of organizing yesterday. Then we sat down we looked at one another and said, almost in unison, "Let's Go!" We already had a trip planned for mid-March, but Mike has a three day weekend coming up. We decided to see if we could get reservations somewhere, and found a spot at Nehalem Bay State Park on the Oregon coast. Cool! Nehalem Bay has special significance because it was our first camping trip after we'd been married several years. Erik was just a baby then, and we used a borrowed tent. We had so much fun that we vowed to purchase our own camping equipment, and we became die-hard tent campers. Until we got too old. And then...die-hard RV campers. The dying is less hard in an RV. So, the new camper will have its maiden voyage next weekend...a full month sooner than expected. Yay!

So it's been a busy couple of days, and I've barely done any sewing beyond hand sewing. Today for sure I'm going to get a start on the new little wall-hanging for the camper. Maybe I'll even get it finished for the trip this coming weekend.

12 comments:

Quilter Kathy said...

Wow you made my mouth water with those loaves... they look so delish!
Love those bag lady blocks with so many sweet details!

claudia said...

Oh you two kids!!! Have a blast on your Maiden Voyage!
That was a great run through on the Mistyfuse. Now that I have done just a tad of applique, I may have to spread my wings and try a little more. Of course, it will be a learning curve for me, you make everything look so easy!
I love your camper artwork. I hadn't seen them before.

Vicki W said...

Looking forward to the rest of your report on Mistyfuse!

quiltzyx said...

Interesting about the Mistyfuse, it does look like Angelina fibers.

Charlotte looks mighty fine with her fancy buttons & all!

And the brioche French toast looks so good too - I know you're enjoying it!

gpc said...

I suspect you can be as snotty as you want if you make that french toast for someone; they wouldn't be listening anyway. Yum. Your embroidery is always so pretty, someday I will show mine just to make you laugh. And the new camper -- how fun!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Charlotte looks fabulous! Yummo with the french toast. Dressing up the camper had to be a motivator for a maiden run - enjoy.

WoolenSails said...

That design just makes me smile and a fun way to embellish it.
Of course your bread makes me hungry, how I wish I could eat baked goods again.

Debbie

Dana Gaffney said...

I think Smitty showed amazing restraint not batting those little pieces all over the place, Kudos to Smitty who can't be held responsible for that super long tail may do.

Ioleen said...

Read your post while having my morning coffee. I think I may go back to bed, I'm tired from all that you have done lol. Love your hand stitching and your campers in your RV. Enjoy your maiden trip.

Brown Family said...

I have used Misty Fuse before, but I have never tried to hand sew through it. I am making good progress on Charlotte. The only problem is i have sore fingers. I make very tiny stitches using a tiny needle. The eye end of the needle has punctured the pads of two fingers. I have a hard time using a thimble. I never learned and am still uncomfortable. I am having to learn to protect my fingers!

I love the little camper embroidery you hung. You had a cute idea of re-purposing the invitation!. It was too cute to just recycle!

Lana said...

Thanks so much for your great info about Mistyfuse. And that French toast looks divine! What time is breakfast being served tomorrow? Lol. And I can just picture you and Mike hanging out in your new camper.....in the driveway! Glad you're already enjoying it.

Kate said...

The french toast looks really yummy. You've made lots of progress on the hand stitching projects. Sounds like you and Mike have a nice plan for the campers maiden voyage.