Circles and Squares

As you might guess from my grocery shopping enthusiasm of yesterday, I stayed home and spent the day sewing yesterday. Big surprise, right? Which, of course, means I'll have to go today. I could put it off another day, but that would mean going on the weekend, and the thought of it fills me with dread. So anyway...I'll take a video as I move through the store today because I know you're fascinated with my grocery shopping expeditions, and you won't want to miss a single second! Or maybe not.

So here's the thing. I went into the sewing room intent on finishing up the next three colors worth of square-in-a-square pieces when a no-time-like-the-present flash came to me and I decided instead to try my hand at making the applique pieces. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going to do hand applique on this quilt for no other reason that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I took a hand applique class when I was attending guild a while back. It was taught by Connie Sue Haidle, who does beautiful hand applique. You can read my post about it right here. Her method is really better suited to Baltimore Album style quilts. It won't really work for the cardinal because of the many seams of the mosaic. (You'll have to read my earlier post to understand why.) So the method I used yesterday involved a technique described in this book,

using this product.

The product isn't exactly the one described in the book. The book method used a product called "Rinse Away," which I wasn't able to find. It's an embroidery stabilizer that washes away with water once the embroidery is finished. And frankly, the product I used looks identical to Sulky's Sticky Fabri-Solvy. I'm hoping you can see its nubby texture in the image below.

I looked for my package of Sticky Fabri-Solvy to compare the two, but couldn't find it anywhere. Frankly, I'm not sure I have any right at the moment, and I was a little too frightened of Fibber McGee's closet to venture too deeply inside. Anyway...the method in the book says to put two sheets of stabilizer together by activating its rinse-away qualities. This is done by spritzing it lightly with water and then waiting for it to dry before proceeding. The product I use was even better in that way because it had a peel away sticky backing. I just peeled off the backing and carefully stuck two sheets together...no water or spritzing required.

From there, I traced the applique templates onto the Wash-Away sheet and then cut them out. Here, I must caution anyone foolish enough to try this using the instructions I'm about to give you, to-wit: Be sure to cut away all the markings as you cut out the shape. I had to remake a couple of mine because the markings transferred to the fabric. So, continuing on...I had something that looked like this.

Then I traced the shapes onto fabric giving them a quarter-inch allowance for folding under.

Then I used a bit of glue stick to stick the Wash-Away to the fabric and then clipped all around in preparation for folding. (It occurs to me as I'm writing this, that I could have stuck one sheet to the front of another, preserving the sticky backing of the second sheet to stick onto the fabric.)

Here's where the carnage problems began, and I abandoned all efforts at taking pictures. Nevertheless, I remembered to pick up the camera again when I had three of them made. I put a little glue around the outside edges of the stabilizer and then folded the edges of the fabric over and stuck them down. They aren't as round as I'd like, but they aren't bad. I was thinking I could probably round those little pointy spots better when I sew them down, and I'm still optimistic about this.

When all was said and done, I'd made six holly berries, and two pieces for the eye of the bird. I used spray starch to give them some heft, and then pressed them flat. The book specifically states that this method works best with circles that are dime-sized or larger. The holly berries are about half-dollar sized, but the yellow piece was more dime-sized, which means the black one is a little too small. I had the hardest time with those two.

And just for grins, I put the black one on top of the yellow one so you could see how the eye will look.

I considered sewing all of these to the bird, but I was so traumatized by that time that I was afraid I'd give myself PTSD (Post Traumatic Sewing Disorder) if I continued. Instead, I went back to my original intention of sewing together the square-in-a-square blocks. Phew! That was a close call. By lunch time, I had all the medium red ones sewn together. There are 16 of those.

It was time for lunch by then, but I wasn't finished with the day's self-flagellation, and so I took the two eye pieces and the tiny little sewing needles that Connie Sue Haidle likes with me. Connie Sue likes to sew her hand applique with kimono silk thread, but I had some 100 weight Invisafil in the right colors, and so I used that.

So intent was I on self-abuse that I sewed the eye pieces on even before eating lunch. Self-abuse is most effective when done on an empty stomach. When I was finished...ta-da! Not too shabby.

It's probably the worst hand applique ever, but since it's the first time I've done this, I can proudly say it's the best I've ever done. I'm certain you'll agree. You do agree, don't you? Be careful what you say right now.

Then, I laid out the bird, and also laid out the holly berries. Those haven't been sewn on yet, but here's how it will look.

And I just happened to hit the right day of the month for

So, I'll be linking up there today.

After lunch, I finished up 16 more of the light red square-in-a-square blocks.

And now, I have almost all of them finished.

Today, if I survive my trip to the grocery store without getting arrested for murdering someone, I'll make the lightest red. There are 12 of these.

And then there are the four corner blocks made from the darkest and lightest reds.

When those are finished, I'll be ready to sew them into borders and add them to the quilt.

Yesterday's activities were all performed under Smitty's disapproving gaze.

The only other fiasco yesterday was my runaway starter. When I came upstairs from the sewing room, I caught it just as it was beginning to run over the top. I stirred it down several times yesterday afternoon, but when I left it unattended for a few hours after dinner, it had its way and overflowed its jar, making a big mess. Fortunately, it's sitting on a plate. I might be crazy, but I'm not stupid.

It hasn't been fed yet this morning. I might wait until I get home from the grocery store because I fear it will misbehave while I'm gone. I'd hate to come home and find the entire house encased in sourdough starter. I'm not ready to bake bread with this until Sunday. However, yet another person has told me how much they like sourdough pancakes, and so I'll use a little bit of it on Saturday to make a "sponge" for sourdough pancakes on Sunday. That oughta get a rise out of it. (Ha! Get it?)

Okay...so if it isn't already obvious, the day was stressful yesterday what with unruly sourdough starter and bird's eyes...not to mention cat's eyes. Hopefully, today will go a little better. Although with grocery shopping in the mix, it's hard to imagine how that's going to happen. Wish me luck.