A Few Finishes

What a difference a week makes! Last Monday we had snowflakes and today we are expecting over 80 degrees! I have been working on finishing up some of my EGA projects, but have been somewhat distracted. As I started pulling the projects out I began to reorganize and rearrange things in my sewing room. I started boxing up things that I knew I would never use. I have been going through my books as well. Some I sold at Half Price Books. Others will be traded at Paperback Swap. The books that are left I have been slowly adding to my newest app, Home Library. If you have the newest iPod Touch with a camera or an iPhone, you can just take a photo of the barcode and it will input all of the info about your book. If not, you can just type in the ISBN and it will do the same. All in all, it’s a nice way to organize your library of books and a handy way to carry your inventory around with you so you will hopefully not purchase a book you already have.

 

But back to my projects! I have finished one of my more recent projects from the Heartland Region Seminar I went to in Kansas City in March/April of this year. It was a one day class and we learned how to make these adorable little stitcher strawberries. The patriotic version was a practice piece so we could assemble one quickly. The light blue one was stitched with one strand over one thread. The top of the strawberry is done in Hardanger. The instructor had ironed fusible web to the back of our stitching pieces. It was a good way to prevent your tiny little over one stitches from slipping through, however, if you made a mistake it was almost impossible to take your stitches out. It was also difficult to stitch because the needle didn’t slide nicely into the fabric hole from the back as it was covered up with fusible. The stitching was even more difficult on the Hardanger piece. I did try to remove the fusible from that one, but it was fused on tight and the part I did remove was super sticky.  The fusible may have worked for the instructor, but I wouldn’t use it again.

 

My next finish is from the Heartland Region Meeting in LaCrosse, Wisconsin I attended in October of 2009. The project was a three piece stitching set designed by Crossed Wing- a needlecase, a scissor holder and a scissor fob. The fob was the focus of the class. It is made of French knots and colonial knots. The instructor had us begin by doing a few French knots on the edge of our fabric. She then showed us her method of making one and had us do a couple of those. Now, I have always liked my French knots and thought they looked pretty decent, but when I compared the two my first knots looked like they were on steroids! She taught us how to create these knots using one strand of thread, so they were very tiny. The body of the bird is created using French knots and the background is done using colonial knots. We were told it takes 8-10 hours to do one square inch of French knots. I think it takes at least that long! We used Weeks Works overdyed floss for the background, so it has a nice subtle color change to give it some dimension.

 

I have a couple of other pieces I’m trying to finish up and hope to have them done by the end of the week. We’ll see if that happens. I ordered some new storage containers for my sewing room and if they arrive I will be once again distracted with reorganizing. I also need to go out and sand/paint our bird condo. I may get that done today if the predicted thunderstorms hold off for awhile.