Sewing While Barely Sewing

There was just a brief moment of sunshine for our walk yesterday, but no rain. The clouds are fine, but I really hate walking in the rain. Even my rain gear doesn't make me any less crabby about it. As I was driving to the community hall where we park our cars, I noticed one of the barns we pass along the way and decided to get a picture of it. As we passed by the first large oak tree, I turned around to snap this image.

Farther down the road, this hawk flew over head. He was perched a good distance away. I zoomed way in with my camera and steadied my elbows on Sue's shoulders. Not a bad shot considering the distance. I was using my Nikon point and shoot (my camera of choice). It does a pretty good job on these far away shots.

At the top of the hill, we could see the wispy fog settled in the valley.

Here's another shot a little farther down the hill.

When I got home, I filled the bird feeders. As I walked by the living room windows, I noticed The Watcher looking at me. He was put out that I was filling the bird feeders before filling his treat bowl.

Also, I noticed the daphne is covered in flower buds. It's one of the first things to bloom in spring and it has the most fragrant blossoms. I can't wait for these to open.

Once I had everyone fed and snack bowls filled, I spent some time icing my knee, and then made my way into the sewing room. It was time to get started on Cricket's pawtrait. A few of you have asked me how to get started with these. I'll tell you that my technique is culled from a lot of different things I've read and classes I've attended. A good place to start is with June Jaeger's book (or a class, if you're lucky). This is her book:

You probably won't find this on sale anywhere except where I bought it, at the Stitchin' Post quilt shop in Bend Oregon. Here's a link, if you're interested. I've been through this process before, but it's been a while, and so I'll show you how I do these as I go along. This is the image I have of Cricket.

I use my photo-editing software to make a "posterized" version of this. The only photo-editing software I'm familiar with is Photoshop Elements. If you have something different, you'll have to figure out how to do this. In Photoshop Elements, you click on the tab at the top that says "Filter," then "Artistic," then "Poster Edges." With that, I can define the edges of the gradations of color in the fur.

From there, I use a plastic transparency and a fine point Sharpie to draw in the "islands" of color. I use the word "islands" intentionally because you want each piece to be a complete circle. This will be fusible applique, and so there must be a defined piece to trace, cut, and fuse.

Don't be scared when you see the finished "pattern." It's not as complicated as it looks.

The pieces can be large with smaller details laid over the top. As an example, the dark fur on her nose and right cheek can be all one piece with some lighter (or darker) pieces added over the top.

Also, I note which is the "right side" because I'll be using the mirror image to make the applique templates. By adding that notation, it's immediately obvious which side I'm working from.

With that part done, I sorted through my scraps looking for colors that might bring out the details in Cricket's fur. I won't use all of them, but as I do these, I'm picking through to find good gradations of color. The green toward the bottom in the image below will be used for the eyes.

Also, I'm appalled at how my scrap bins are bursting at the seams. I have bins for the tiniest scraps, bins for larger scraps, bins for uncut fat quarters, and bins for uncut yardage. The bins for the tiniest scraps needed some cleaning up. Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking when I saved some of those pieces. During yesterday's purge, I tossed anything smaller than about 3 x 3 inches, anything contaminated with fusible web, and anything cut in such an odd shape as to render it useless. Smitty thought this was great fun.

Also...WTF? No idea...

And if you want to kill your enthusiasm for a project, spend a couple of hours sorting through your scraps first. I didn't do anything more with Cricket yesterday, but I did get to work top-stitching the shamrocks for the Emerald Isle table runner. I used a double blanket stitch to bring them out from the background, and I think that will help.

Smitty thinks this makes an excellent background for showing off his lovely paws.

Recently, I discovered I can't lower the feed dogs on Big Bertha. After she was in the shop for repair last time, I noticed a new noise...something akin to a the sound a spring makes...whenever I raised or lowered the presser foot. Everything seemed to be working fine until I tried to do some free motion quilting the other day and realized that I can push the button to lower the feed dogs all I want, but they won't stay lowered. They just come back up as soon as I take my finger off the button. And, yes, I could use an index card to cover them, but I can't use my Bernina Stitch Regulator, and it's an invaluable tool when I'm making pawtraits. After all the fabric is in place on a pawtrait, the thread painting at the end is what really brings out their realism.

So...all of that to say that I won't be able to finish Cricket until the feed dogs are repaired on Big Bertha. I'll take it in on Monday. In the meantime, I want to finish up this top-stitching since it's far too painful to do on Pfelicity. For today, my goal is to spend a good long time on the slow-stitching for Appalachian Memories, finish off the top-stitching on Emerald Isle, and then get started with Cricket's pawtrait. I can lay down all the fabric and then finish her off when Big Bertha gets back from her vacation.