Seascape Continued

Well, I didn't finish this yesterday like I had hoped:



Yesterday was my dad's birthday so went over to my parents house for a few hours. It was so cold outside! Much the same as today. The cold just zaps me physically and mentally. I honestly can't stand it when we have these extreme temps.

When we got home, I parked myself on my sofa with a quilt and just sat and watched the Superbowl. I'm not a huge football fan but I've always liked the Superbowl. Probably because it's the last football game of the season that I have to listen to! I was honestly hoping our Bears would win but at least they made it to the final game. Which is more than I can say for my Cubbies!

I'm about done with housework and chores for the day so I expect to complete the stitching on this later and if all goes well, I should have a ton of finished items to share with you tomorrow.

Blackwork & Seascape

Last night, I completed the 2nd Blackwork Cellphone pouch:



The black on white certainly makes for an interesting piece! I plan to sew this up tomorrow and get it ready to ship on to it's new owner.

It's a cold one here today! I think it was 12 below over night. Ewwww......these terribly extreme temps make me restless. I've been up since 3 am and started on this piece:



I didn't crop this image down because I wanted you to see how I mark my foundation. I use a permanent marker. It shows on both sides so I know where to cut and where my seam line is. On regular CQ's, the piecing covers it up so I run a basting stitch along the inside line but I didn't have to do to that on this one. I leave 1 inch between the seam line and the outside line. Honestly, I don't know why I do that, I just always have. When the stitching is complete, I trim down to 1/2 inch seams, sew my piece and then trim the seams to 1/4 inch. That allows for fraying and shifting that may occur during sewing.

As with my last Seascape piece, this is one of my painted dryer sheets ironed on with Heat & Bond.

After a few hours of stitching and couching, this is what it looks like now:



Scott just drilled the holes in my seashells for me so I can now add them and start adding the beads. I'll probably have this completed later today.

TAST - The Chevron Stitch

This another stitch that I don't care for all that much. I've used it, but sparingly. It is however, a good candidate for perfect spacing using waste canvas:



As you can see, I couldn't leave it just plain! I had to add something interesting to it so I added my beloved little fan stitches.

I've charted out the pattern for the basic Chevron along with the pattern for Chevron with Fans like I've done here:





Click on any of the images to go to my Flickr site where you can download larger versions of the patterns.

I hope to complete the stitching on this cellphone pouch today. I have a few errands to run and then I'll curl up on my sofa, watch movies and stitch.

More tomorrow.....

Assembling A Crazy Quilt Piece

I didn't get very far on the 2nd Blackwork Cellphone Pouch so I'll have an update on that for you tomorrow.

Since I don't have much in the way of stitching to share today, I thought I would talk a little about machine assembling.

If you're like me and have a tendency (or rather a bad habit) of putting beads and buttons too close to your seam line, you might want to give the Zipper Foot for your sewing machine a try:



This is quite a handy-dandy little item! I actually use this foot more than my all-purpose foot. And I've never done a zipper!

I use this foot not only when sewing CQ blocks up, but also for adding piping and twisted cording to my doorknockers. It attaches to the machine like this:



Be sure to move your needle over to the left:



My needle is right up against a large bead. The All-Purpose foot will not allow sewing on the seam line due to those beads because it won't go over them but the Zipper foot will run right up against them.

I hope you find my suggestion helpful!

You may notice that my seam is 1/2 inch rather than 1/4 inch. I do this because of the piecing with various fabrics and because some fabrics like Brocade tend to shred on the edges. It allows a little extra room in case there's any shifting or shredding while sewing. Once the sewing is complete, I trim the seam down to 1/4 of an inch. I only do this with Crazy Quilts pieces. For all other sewing, I only allow for 1/4 inch seams.

I'm off to piece some blocks and then I'll be stitching!

The White Peacock Purse is Complete!

I'm running late today. But better late than never!

I did alot of machine finishing yesterday and totally completed The White Peacock Purse!



I really hate to part with this one, but I can't keep them all! So I've added it to my Etsy shop. I found wonderful vinyl lavender colored handles for it and I backed it with a tan upholstry fabric. I used some heavy weight interfacing on the inside for stability and it's fully lined with a light green floral cotton print. Because I use my purses all the time, I prefer the sturdiness of cotton for a lining. There's more photos over at my shop if you'd like to see them.

I also did the machine finishing on the Blackwork Peacock Purse and the Victorian Lady Cellphone Pouch. I still have the hand finishing to do those which I'll start on later this afternoon.

I had a request for another Blackwork Cellphone Pouch so I pieced the block yesterday:



I picked up another fan button today while I was out and about and plan to start stitching on this later today as well.

Also, I'm offering a 20% off sale on all Vintage Lace, Embellishments, Cross Stitch Pattern Booklets and Fabric in my shop.

Ok, I'm off to do some more finishing. Stay tuned!