Monday, February 20, 2017

HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY, SEWING TIP & PLAYING WITH MODERN ART IN FABRIC

HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY

I hope everyone is having a great vacation...either for the day or for the week. The weather has been warm and sunny this past weekend. Lots of folks out walking, hiking, bike riding, etc. I keep having to remind myself that this is February. But the forecast for the next week is warm weather...warm weather in New York City...in the middle of winter!  

SEWING TIP

You know that I always use cellophane tape when I sew...

I attach it to my sewing machine for pieces of fabric and thread...

But this weekend I really needed to use it.  I had to rip out a lot of stitches...lots and lots. So, after using the ripper, I had lots of little pieces of thread. Best way to pick up all those itty bitty pieces of thread was with a piece of tape. SEWING TIP: KEEP CELLOPHANE TAPE HANDY

PLAYING WITH MODERN ART IN FABRIC

I follow lots of fabric art blogs. One I especially like is Ellen Linder's Blog Adventure Quilter. She was working with spirals and circles and squares along with strips. So, I decided to play around with the idea.

Most folks know how to make these inserts but just in case, here's a brief tutorial. First of all, lay the two fabrics you are using on top of each other, right sides up on both pieces...

Using a sharp scissors, cut through both pieces in whatever way you want...

Match the pieces (In the photo above the yellow piece on the right side of the cut would match to the bottom piece on the left side and vice versa.) and pin right sides together with several pins...

Sew together. One way that I keep gathers from forming is to use long pins and draw them out just before the needle gets to the straight pin...

Once sewn, iron the seam...

Depending on what type of strip you want, you can either use a marker and draw out the cutting line...

Or you can put the inserted piece over the other side and repeat the process. The blue strip in the first photo of this tutorial was created that way.

So after I played with the inserts, I wanted to play with other shapes. Here's the first piece I worked on...

The first time I made the spirals, I simply cut out a circle and then cut out 1/4" spiral out of the circle. I used glue to attach it to the fabric before sewing. I realized there was an easier way by using an iron on adhesive bond.  It was easier to attach the spirals as you can see in the following piece. I used the same bond for the squares.

I had a lot of fun playing with these two pieces. Try it, I bet you'll like it as much as I did.  Tomorrow I will be going out of town. I hope to enjoy breakfast at a Waffle House.

Thanks for dropping by...
Talk to you tomorrow...