My Latest Wall Hanging Moves Forward

I am working on Romance of the Sea Horses today.  I have lightly tacked down the fabric on this fabric collage.  I think this is how I like it but knowing me, something will be changed.  I will let it sit a day or so and then decided if any changes need to be made.

Its a lot of fun to add bits and pieces and make changes.  I usually add a fairy to my work when I can manage it so I just might add one to this work as I did the first Sea Horse WH.

The pattern you see beneath the pattern paper is just my place mat and not part of the design.  It shows thru the thin paper.

Have a good day.

I Am Waiting For an Order

I ordered some fusible web online on the 10th and I'm still waiting for it to arrive 10 days later.  I know that from Nancy's Notions, Equilter, and Keepsake Quilting, I would place an order and in 3 or 4 days it arrived.  I still await this order from Quilt Warehouse.  Its a good thing I am not on a deadline.  I can start my project whenever the items arrive, but comparing speed, I will not order again if its something I want soonest.  But to save a buck on each package of fusible web, its worth the wait when I can read or catch up on my British Mysteries on Britbox.   Being retired, I am not in a hurry.

Here is my 2nd fabric collage project, Romance of the Sea Horses.  I have pretty much chosen what fabrics I want for this project.

I even drew a rooster that I plan for my 3rd project.  See below.

I just have to get my double-sided fusible web to do them.

Have a wonderful day.

Sea Horse Wall Hanging Finished

I am proud to report I finished my Sea Horse Wall Hanging today.  Or should I say Door Hanger since that's where I hang all my work.

I will call her a 'she' because of the colors and because I have not made this one awfully fat which most males seem to be.   This measures 22" by 33" because I did not add a border.  With them hanging on my door, I want them to fit nicely and not be overlarge.

A closer view.

I have to admit I had a lot of fun making this one.  I did not mind changing it with different colors or arrangements.  The sticky backing was easy to move over my paper pattern as I needed it.
I really have to order more double-sided fusible web online today.  I want to try this method again and again.
Have a nice day.

Sea Horse WH is Pinned

My own small dining table was a bit limited to spread out and layer and pin my wall hanging so I took it to our Gathering Room.  Its the common room where we have pot lucks and pizza parties, Coffee Time and Bingo.  Even Kareoke (sp) Nights  . A place for many to gather.  Sorry, that word is not even in my old dictionary.  I will have to look it up on my computer.  Found it.  Its karaoke.

I used a cutting mat underneath the work while pinning so I would not scratch the table surface.

This should finish up around 22 by 36 inches or thereabouts.  I am wondering what color thread to use around the objects.  Maybe black or maybe blue.  I'm leaning toward blue since the background is blue with what looks like tiny bubbles.

Its very cloudy out today, and sometimes raining, so a dull day and not a good one for me to be sewing in my bedroom.  The lighting is not the best in there and I need good lighting to sew intricately around my sea horse.  I guess its another day of waiting to see how it all works out.

Have a nice day.

Sea Horse Desicions are Make

I finally jigged and tweaked and chose my background fabric.  Those are tiny bubbles.

This will be Sea Horse on its background.  I have to tack down the sea horse itself with glue but the small flowered bits are down in place, and then I can stitch, pin, border, layer and quilt it.  Lots still to come. but it feels good to stop fiddling any further.  I like the finished design.

Have a good day.

I Just Can't Leave It Alone

I was not pleased with the fins so hunted in my stash for something else that would work better.
I found it, but haven't added it yet.

I jigged the tail a bit and I removed all that fin mess.  The other fabric I have will work better I think but that will have to wait til tomorrow.  I have to just stay away from it til then.

This is getting to be fun.

My 2nd Try With My Sea Horse WH

I think this interpretation is better.  I changed my  Sea Horse WH.

 I like this one a little better.  Its still not done but my back is for the day, so I've put it aside 'til tomorrow.  I have yet to decide on which fabric I will choose for my background.  Being an ocean I'm thinking something in the blue range but light.  Right now I'm undecided whether to leave head and tail as it is or add a bit more.

Have a nice day.

Sea Horse Walll Hanging Begun

I took the plunge.  I have to admit doing fusible web makes me antsy.  I always get it turned around backwards or upside down or something, but so far today, its been ok.  Of course I read and re-read the instructions about a dozen times before I began.

Here is Sea Horse.  This is the tentative layout.  I am sure to change it quite a bit now that I see it.  I do not care for the head with that fabric so will make a change there.  I think the tail will be embellished a lot more with flowers.  And I am not satisfied with the little fins behind his back.   It doesn't look like fluttering fins at all.  I will be making changes there as well.
But at least I have made an effort to get this one started.

Have a good day.

Romance of the Sea Horses, Another Drawing

I worked on another drawing for sea horses.  This one will be titlednce of the Sea Horses.  I like how it looks.

The next step will be choosing fabrics for the collage work.  I'm thinking one of them in pinks and yellows and the other in blues and greens so they will stand out from each other.
The water around them will hold green fronds and flowery greens on the ocean floor and beside them.  Its a new method for me so it will be slow going at first until I feel more comfortable with the project.

Have a good day.

A Preview of A Pattern I Might Use

I played around with the subject, Sea Horse.  I thought it might play well for my first Fabric Collage project.

I taped together 4 sheets of legal-size printer paper and sketched a sea horse after looking them up on my computer and getting an idea of what they look like.

Next I copied this onto pattern paper where the fabric will be added.

I also had another thought, Romance of the Sea Horses where I will draw two of them intertwining, then use different colors to differentiate them. 

I foresee a couple of fun projects with this subject.

I hope to have fun with this.

Have a good day.

Canada Goose and Toadstool Fairy WHs done today

I have both wall hangings finished.  Actually, yesterday I finished my Toadstool Fairy.

This one measures 13 by 15 inches.   Its not one of my best, but it will work for spring.  My fairy is lying among the flowers on a lovely day.

This wall hanging, tho I really use them on my front door to greet people, is Canada Goose to commemorate the family of geese we get each year on our river.  A pair arrives and hatches out a brood to raise and train and teach to fly before September when the whole family flies south for the winter.  This one is 14 by 16 inches.

This photo was taken last summer when the youngsters were getting some flight practice from their parents.  They needed to use those wings a lot and skip over the ground to strengthen their muscles.  I love watching them grow from little fluff balls to adults.

Right now its deep winter so no geese to watch.  Time for me to get some more quilt projects done.  Next I plan to do some fabric collage.

Have a nice day.

I Worked On 'Toadstool Fairy' This Morning

I worked on my wall hanging this morning, one that has been in my WIPs (Work in Progress) folder for awhile now.  I thought it needed to get done before spring.

This is Toadstool Fairy where she is lying among the flowers with her toadstool cottage behind her.  I wanted another wall hanging done before spring arrives.  I have a few other fairy hangings, but this one has been on hold for awhile now.

As for the next projects in mind, I am thinking Fabric Collage, I have been thinking maybe a sea horse is what I will start with.  I received my pattern paper from Nancy's Notions and I got Fusible Web at Walmart so I am ready to begin once I draw my pattern.  Will it  be Chicken, Penguin or Sea Horse?  That's my first decision before I begin after my 2 wall hangings are finished this week.

I am making steak pizziola for dinner today with spaghetti.  I am also spending the afternoon watching some British movies.  I think Midsomer Murders will be on my menu and maybe a medical show from the Yorkshire Dales in the 1960s called The Royals.  I love my Britbox movies.

Have a good day.

Worked On 2 Wall Hangings Today

I have been keeping busy.  I have 2 wall hangings I'd like to finish soon.

   

My Canada Goose has been satin-stitched up to this point.  Next will be borders.

This one I call Toadstool Fairy where she's lying in the flowers with her toadstool house behind her.  So far I have only tacked down the bits and pieces.  Lots more to go on this one.

Its a dreary, cloudy day but temps have risen to the low 30sF so that's a good thing.  I am not a fan of icy cold winds.

Have a good day.

Canada Goose Wall Hanging Is Started

Its a lovely sunny day today, too cold to go out walking, but fine for sewing.
We did not have any power outages during storm Harper tho' it dropped about 10 inches of snow.

My Canada Goose wall hanging is tacked down with the fabrics I thought work well.  It will not be a tedious design, just minimal. I think he looks like the geese that visit us in the spring and raise their family til September's long flight south.

By the way, I tried making my bundies (Lithuanian meat pies) with store-bought refrigerated pie crusts.  That won't happen again.  The dough has a distinctly different flavor and the thickness of it gives a different flavor as well.  Its a longer job making my pie crust dough from scratch, but well worth it.  I knew it was not the meat mixture because I had some leftover so made a few mini- meatloaves in my muffin tin.  The flavor was very nice as usual so I put it down to the texture and flavor of the pie crust.

I found a fairy wall hanging I had started many months ago and never finished, so I will be working on that today as well.

Have a good day.

'Chicadees in Mufflers' Wall Hanging is Finished.

I finished my winter wall hanging, Chickadees in Muff
lers today.  Its 15 by 17 inches.   I made a wider border for it than the usual narrow one I have done in the past.

When you do borders this way, you need extra backing so you can pull fabric forward doubled.

To give you an idea of how this works:
First you need to pin together batting and backing to your subject.  I always like to cut the batting and backing just a bit larger than needed.  Its easier to trim it down to size that try to accurately cut them so precisely later when its been quilted.

I wanted a 1 1/2 inch of border so my batting was trimmed evenly to 1 1/2 inches beyond the edge of my subject fabric.
My Backing fabric was trimmed 3 1/2 inches beyond the edge of the batting.
That meant the backing for this 12 x 14 inch work of art had to be 22 by 24 inches.  I like being able to turn the borders twice for some substance, hence the double length of fabric beyond the batting.

In the above photo I have turned the backing down a second time over the batting. You want to cover the edge of the subject fabric so when you sew it down, there are no raw edges.

I also like to mitre my corners.  To do this, after folding down the two sides evenly and pinning in place, I now fold over the corner at an angle just to the outer edge of the batting for the first turn down.

For the final fold over, I turn the backing down over the mitre corners once, then evenly a 2nd time and pin it in place.   I always have my iron handy to press things evenly into place.

Using my Blind Hem Stitch, I stitch all around, even down the mitred corners.

Add a label on the back and you are done.  If you need a hanging sleeve, you need to get that down also.

I have some Fabric Collage in mind so I ordered some Swedish tracing paper, which is actually pattern paper, that I ordered from Nancy's Notions.  While I await its arrival I will work on my Canada Goose.

Sunny day here but cold only in the 20sF.  At least we have not had snow for several days.

Have a nice day.

My Chickadees WH Keeps Moving Forward

I worked on my current wall hanging today.  I added the satin-stitching and some greenery to look like a fir tree.

I like how its looking so far.  I have to think about the eyes which may just be a dark spot with a lighter spot inside it to denote light on the pupils.  I will have to consider that idea.
Then there's the border to add and then finishing the whole thing with backing.
Its come right along so I can get it hung on my door while winter is still here.

Have a good day.

Chicadees Wall Hanging Is Coming Along

I finally chose my fabrics for this wall hanging and took a big step toward its design.

I took this idea from a Christmas card I received from a dear friend.  I loved the idea of the birds with mufflers and thought I should make something for the cool season but not Christmas.  This is what I have so far.  Its just roughly tacked down (with stitches) and later I will satin-stitch the subjects as well as add their feet and eyes and a bit of greenery to give the idea of pine trees.

I am finally feeling my quilting mojo is back so the ideas keep percolating in my brain and I keep making rough sketches.

The newest idea is from a Fons and Porter Program #3202 dealing with Fabric Collage.  I fell in love with the idea.  I shopped thru my fabric shelves and found several fabrics that will be ideal for fabric collage.   I drew some sketches of their program ideas and so far I have a penguin, elephant, pigs, flamingo that should make into nice collage.  These were all subjects shown in the Fons and Porter Program that other quilters had finished.  I loved them all.

 I have made rough drafts of those drawings but will have to make them larger and on possibly some stabilizer or lining fabric to work with in adding the collage.

Yes, my mojo is back!   Hooray!
Have a nice day.

New Wall Hanging Ideas, Chickadees and Canada Gooose

I am finally tackling another project or two.  I have some new ideas for wall hangings.
My first was from a Christmas card I received, a chickadee in a muffler....

I found the card adorable and also the little chickadee, which is our state bird.  This is a rough draft.  Its also one of my favorite birds.  I used to watch them a lot at my feeders, flying in to grab a seed and immediately flying off to crack it and eat it on a nearby branch in safety.

My idea is two birds in the forest.  The background fabric is yet to be chosen, but hopefully something with some pine tassels or what look like pine branches.

For two summers I have been watching a pair of Canada Geese raise a family on our river, from tiny fluff balls to sturdy adults looking much like their parents before flying south to warmer climes.

I chose this idea for my goose.

For 2018 we actually had 2 families of geese being raised.

Decisions are tough for me.  I dilly dally on backgrounds especially and then the fabrics I need for the subjects.  I often lay them aside to see if they capture what I am feeling.  I have a habit of changing them and being undecided for days at a time before making the final decision.  Its fun but it sure puts me behind in my tasks.  Luckily I am retired and can take as much time as needed for these decisions.

I am off now to play with fabric.

Have a good day.

Fabric Collage is the Subject Today

I just saw a Fons and Porter Show on doing Fabric Collage.  I love making wall hangings and this is a new style for me.

Its a new idea for me so I think I will try it.   These would make ideal wall hangings on my door featuring different animals and other subjects.

I need something new to grab my interest and make me start sewing again.

Have a nice day.