More Circles and More Squares

This is the problem with getting old: your mind begins to fail you...memories fade. That's why you need to blog incessantly and depend on blogging friends to remind you which house is yours. After my sad, sad tale of circles yesterday, my good friend SJSM said:

What about sewing the stabilizer to the fashion side of the fabric then cut a slit in the stabilizer and pull it inside out? You can flatten then stitch to your mosaic. 

And my friend djquilting seconded the motion. And, Facepalm!

Yes, that's an actual picture of me. I told you I was old.

So, anyway...yes! Duh! And, why didn't I think of that? I make my quilt labels that way all the time. I even wrote a fricking tutorial about how to do it! (If you click on that link, you can see the fricking tutorial.) Thank you my friends for reminding me how forgetful I am.

But djquilting's comment brought up an old story because she said she employs an "old dryer sheet" to do hers. But here's the old story...and make no mistake, you can remember the old stories when you're old...you just can't remember the new ones. And besides, telling the story gives me an excuse to post this baby picture of 5-month-old Erik.

Awwwwww...I'm not sure why he looks like he has eye shadow on in that picture...he doesn't. I wonder if that's something Sears added when they developed the picture. Whatever...so to get back to the story. I always thought one of the best things about having boys was getting to dress them in little corduroy overalls. And, believe me, my two boys had them in every color except pink. And when I washed them, they came out all wrinkly, which was kind of a bummer. So, on a visit to Mike's folks' house one time, we washed some of Erik's overalls, and they came out nice and without wrinkles. And I asked Mike's Mom how she did it. Her reply was, "Oh, I don't think anything works as well as Downy." I was an instant convert. And all of that to say that I really don't use dryer sheets very often. (Not a paid advertisement for Downy. Just a hopeless and true believer.)

So...with that stroll down memory lane complete (pathetic, isn't it?) I'll just come back to the present and tell you that I managed to get through my grocery shopping without murdering anyone. I think my fellow shoppers were all people who were trying to escape the coming weekend madness. I saw fear in everyone's eyes...and not because of me. And I was home just a little after noon. I had some lunch, and then headed straight to the sewing room because I wanted to start again with those circles.

So here's the deal: I'm using the same iron-on stabilizer that I use to back my embroidery. I put the iron-on side out so that when I turn it, it'll be on the inside.

Stitch all around the outside, and then cut a slit in the stablizer. (Be careful not to cut the fabric).

Before you turn it, cut that seam allowance down. It'll give you a cleaner finish.

Then turn it inside out. A stylus or some other rounded tool pressed all around the seam well make it as nicely round as possible.

Then, you press it down. Use a not-too-hot iron and the stablizer will adhere to the back and give you a nice flat finish.

And that was so much easier than what I did the day before, that I just redid all of them. I'll take the old eye off the bird and sew on the new one. I'm just glad I didn't get overly exuberant the day before and sew everything to the quilt. I can have the eye switched out in just a few minutes.

Also, I finished making the lightest red square-in-a-square blocks for the border.

And then made the four corner units. They use only one corner of the darkest green. The reds are the lightest and darkest values of red.

And now they're ready to be sewn into borders and sewn to the quilt. I'll probably sew the applique on first.

And I was kind of tired of everything by then, so I went back upstairs and enjoyed the best view in the house until Mike got home.

When Mike got home, I took the Appalachian Memories barn out of its hoop and pressed it so he could see it. I love how this is turning out, and I'm glad I decided to color in the quilt block. Now I can't wait to move this farther along so I can see all the barns stitched up this way.

Now it's hooped up and ready to go. Before I move the hoop again, the whole barn will be stitched.

In my rush to get to the grocery store yesterday morning, I missed my morning slow-stitching. I'll give myself extra time today to make up for it. It's going to be a good day of sewing. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself too.