Monday, January 9, 2017

TABLERUNNERS, DESIGN WALLS, 2017 GOAL, SEWING TIP 1

I think the high may have made it into the twenties, but barely. I did have a dental appointment at noon but after talking with my son about walking to the subway, I rescheduled it. He said it was pretty much icy most of the way. And the last thing I need is to fall and break a leg or an arm...they just don't heal that fast at my age. 

As cold and snowy...yes, we had about six or seven inches yesterday...as it is today, they are talking about 60 degree weather in a couple days!!! No wonder that piece of ice the size of Delaware is about to calve off from the main ice with weather like this. Can you imagine what it would be like to see that iceberg coming at you. The size of Delaware, folks...it would be hard to get out of it's way.

TABLE RUNNERS

I had some fabric squares left over from the round robin project that I thought would make a nice spring table runner. So, I sewed them together and created this runner...

I had one extra square left which I thought that in case only a single piece in the middle of the table was desired, this would work...

I still had scraps of the same fabric left over, enough to make a smaller table runner and this is what I made...

All three are backed with the same beige fabric that I used above as a border and I used the stitch in the ditch quilting technique. One additional note, I did not use any batting for these. In person, they appear much softer but I simply could not capture that quality with my camera.

But, hanging these creations off my new set of shelves and taking pictures led me to two goals which I want to accomplish.  Actually, one goal and one project.

THE PROJECT

Well, I discovered how nice it is to hang things off my selves for easy access. For instance...

you can see my ear buds and small fabric cutting board. And it was easy to hang the table runners off the shelves using binder clips. So, I thought, why not hang a 'design wall' off the shelves that could also double as a photography background.

I have two large painter's cloths, one of which is going to be used to cover my wingback chair...yes, folks, this is the winter it will get done!!! But, since I gave my other wingback chair to one of my sons, I have an extra painter's cloth. I will be taking that out and cutting it to size and hemming it. (It's really, really large..9' by 12'!)

I will be cutting out two pieces.  One piece will be a 5' square designer wall. I will cut what remains into a large rectangle and use it as a background for my photos. With binder clips, they will stay put easily. And I can clip the design wall in an area that will still allow me to see my fabric.

What do you think of that idea? I think it's great because, folks, if I missed anything from my previous apartment, it was the design wall. Now I will have it back again!

2017 GOAL

This is the first of several 2017 goals I have decided to work on. What is this one?  Well, just take a look at my photos and you can see. I need work on lighting. Believe it or not, I seem to have better success with my iPhone than with my Cannon EOS. I have mastered a lot of the digital manipulation of the photos but correct lighting seems to escape me. So I am looking for a site with free tutorials on photography, especially setting up and lighting a still life.

SEWING TIP 1

This just may become a weekly regular addition to my blog, Probably many of you know about this. I would bet that all of us know about it, we just don't practice it. My machine was jugging along just fine while I was sewing, but I did notice that the fabric seemed to be tough for the needle. It sounded like the needle was getting caught on something. Well, to make a long story short, I had not done something in well over a year. I had not changed my sewing machine needle. Guess what? When I changed it, there was no problem with the needle going through the fabric...it was a smooth as can be.

So, my sewing tip for this week is:  CHANGE YOUR NEEDLE!  If you sew a lot, you will need to change it more often than if you just do some occasional mending. When the needle seems to struggle going through fabric, it's time to change it!

Well, that's all for today folks...
I hope you had a great weekend...
I enjoyed my football even though the games were a bit of a dude...
Final college playoff is tonight...
Thanks for dropping by...
Talk to you tomorrow...