October OMG C'est fini !

October OMG is finished.  My first wool adventure was so much fun.  Thank you Paula for your encouragement to embark on projects in wool applique.  I learned that you need to use lots of pins to keep the applique flat.  My socks and bat are a little rippled because they were not well pinned.

First I big stitched the table runner. I had the binding mostly done and I realized that I had not put on a hanging sleeve and the quilt was not lying as flat as I would like, I took off the binding and removed the quilting.  I had been cleaning up my quilt bookcase when I found this candy corn free motion design that I had used on another Halloween quilt.  I switched up my quilting plan and fired up my Tiara.  I tried my new glide foot for the free motion.

I have not had the chance to quilt on the Tiara for quite a spell.  I am a novice.  I made a rookie mistake.  I put on the foot and thought that it was loose so I tightened it with a wrench.  In the process the needle no longer was aligned with the whole in the foot.  BIG OOPS!  I recovered.  My next challenge was to set the tension.  I had to loosen the bobbin tension a bit.  When I started working on my practice sandwich, there were skipped stitches so I started to adjust the top tension.  I had purchased this device to help with the top tension and did not really use it so I decided to remove it.  After I reassembled, the stitching was worse.  Hmmmm.  I took it apart again and put the tension monitor back on the machine.  Then went online to check the order of the parts to correctly reassemble the top tension assembly.  Could not find anything to help me.  I looked closely at this one part and noticed that one side was smooth and the other was grooved.  I matched it up this time correctly with the knurled knob and it stitched much better.  A few more passes on my practice sandwich and the tension was in fine shape.  I am not so good at free motion but I enjoyed stitching my candy corn motifs on my quilt.

  I am so enjoying learning the joys of the quilting part of the process.  The pattern called for using velvet on the hat.  I ordered a pieced of black  hand dyed cotton velvet but the color did not work well with the black wool so I used a piece of minky-like fabric instead.

I will be on the look out for a hunk of black velvet to have in my stash,  I think you have to see it in person to see if the color works.  I also finished 2 blocks from a Kathy Schmitz design.

Good month of finishes.

First Adventures in Wool

I am working on the Buttermilk Basin table runner pattern.  I'm not sure about the spacing, but I am happy with the result.  I need to finish the embellishment but my buttons and such are at home.  I am thinking over my plan for the added stitching.  I have not decided whether to couch or not and I need to select the threads I will use.  I must also decide upon the quilting plan.  I am whip stitching the edges.  I think that will be my preferred goto.  I found that the wool in the kit was not so tightly woven.  Whip stitching allowed me to reign in the loose fibers. The stitch only went over one thread...it could not be more or the thread would show from the larger stitch.  I had some trouble reigning in the loose fibers while maintaining the shape.  The lip on the mouth of the moon almost disappeared because I was trying to corral the loose fibers.  I really like wool applique.  I also learned that I need to use more pins. I think I like the Karen Kay Buckley small pins better than my clover white head pins for this.  They kept the applique flatter because they are so thin.  They can get lost in the piece though.  Happy stitchin'.  I am a fan of wool applique!!

Much Ado About Nothing...Maybe

I am futzing about how to stitch the wool to the background fabric.  I tried to whip stitch the wool but the edges frayed.  I ended up stab stitching to control the fraying.  I do not know if I needed to make my stitches as small as I did.  The mouth should be easier so because I am dealing with 3 fabrics not four.  On to the mouth.

October OMG!

This month I start my adventures in wool applique.  My sister has encouraged me to branch out and try it with a gift from Buttermilk Basin.  This will be my October OMG.  I also have basket patterns from Red Linen Quilts and the Round the Garden from Quiltmania in the queue.