Preparations For August

Yesterday Diane made the trek from her neck of the woods to mine and we did some filming for a book trailer.  I took the opportunity to take a few photos.  With just two months to go until the release of Quilting Happiness, we are both busy prepping for that day and getting everything ready.  I’ve been working on the website the last two weeks and Diane now has the fun job of editing all of our footage into a few minute trailer.  I never realized just how much time goes into a book, it’s not just the time making the projects – it’s so much more than that.  I don’t think it was always this way, but publishers do expect quite a bit from authors when it comes to publicity and marketing.  Understandably, of course.  It was nice to see all the quilts again.  Seeing them reminded me how much work I did over last spring and why I haven’t felt like doing much quilting over the last year.

The cats were oh so helpful yesterday.  Newman had to inspect every box and bag that was opened.  His specialty.  His hair is officially on all of the quilts and small projects again. 

Even Zipper, one of my two “barn” cats had to get in on the action.  I had all the quilts laid out on the back fence, and she kept running back and forth in front of them, zipping around the yard (how she got her name as a kitten).  I didn’t realize she had so much spunk in her still (she’s 16 years old now).

Options For Sewing Curves

I’ve been cleaning out my sewing room today.  It’s getting to be so cluttered that I can’t even stand to walk in there, let alone sew.  I need to par down.  You know it’s bad when your fabric overflows one cabinet into another.  Why is it so hard to get rid of fabric you don’t like anymore?!  While I was cleaning up I ran across a bag of curved pieces I’d sewn to talk about curves at Sewing Summit last year.  But I was so concerned about time in class, that I skipped any curves talk that we went right into sewing curves and making the quilt.  So I thought we’d talk about them today. 

There are lots of different options when it comes to piecing curves.  If you’ve never been one to try curves, maybe one of these methods will change your mind.  Any curves quilt can be modified to do one of these (or many other) styles of piecing, it might just take a little bit of thought on your part (i.e. pieces may need to be made bigger). 

To start it off, the seam allowance was not added in for this curve.  I cut two squares of fabric and laid them one on top the other and then cut the curved piece from both.  Then I sewed together a convex and concave piece, matching the edges, and this is the mess I got.  Normally if I do this method, I don’t get it quite this messy, but I wanted to show the trouble inherent with this method.  I have gotten a lot neater pieces by using a lot more pins, or stretching more.  I think the biggest problem with this method is not the tucks you may get in the curve, but the fact that your piece is so far from square that you are going to have to trim the piece no matter what, where as the method below where I talk about adding in seam allowance, I could get away without squaring if I wanted.  But I always square, and you should too.  It saves a lot of headache as your piecing them all together.

This next piece I used the same cutting method as above (notice the same fabrics) but I sewed the two pieces together without pins.  I matched it up on one end and started to sew them together without pins.  I get a much neater curve, but I also don’t make it all the way to the end of my concave piece (the pink and blue fabric).  This piece definitely needs to be squared and actually wouldn’t be a bad method to use as long as you can get your squared piece to be the right size for your pattern.  If all of your curved pieces are sewn this way, then you would probably be just fine. 

Next up we have piecing curves WITH the seam allowance added.  It’s a hard thing to explain in words why exactly it is that adding seam allowance works more favorably when piecing, but it does.  If your like me and curious why things work, try cutting curves as mentioned above without seam allowance and then cut one with and play with the pieces and you’ll see the difference.  The traditional method of piecing curves is to pin the the convex and concave pieces together at each of their ends and then at their centers.  After that you fill in with pins, usually one or two between one end and center, and sew around the curve.  I usually sew over my pins very carefully and sometimes remove them just before I get to my needle. 

Another way of sewing curves with seam allowance (and my favorite method) is pinless.  You can use a special foot just for sewing pinless curves, but you really don’t need any special feet.  I do like to use my patchwork foot so that I know the edge of my fabric at the edge of my foot is giving me exactly a 1/4 seam allowance, but since I trim this is not crucial as long as I get an even seam allowance.  I keep meaning to make a video to show you how I do this, but I know there are some out there on YouTube so try searching for it if you are interested.  I find I get just as nice of a curve sewing pinless as I do with pins.  It does take a little practice, but I know from showing students at Sewing Summit last fall that it doesn’t take long at all.  Most had it down to perfection by the 2nd or 3rd curve.

Next up, some non-traditional methods.  I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone do this, but I thought it was pretty ingenious to getting that perfect look.  So I started out by cutting two convex curved pieces – one from my main fabric (the red with flowers) and then a lightweight muslin one.  I put them right sides together and sewed a quarter-inch seam allowance around the two curves and trimmed away the seam allowance so there was only a sliver of it left.  Probably about 1/16th of an inch, and because of that I didn’t need to clip into the seam allowance. 

After turning it right side out and pressing, thus resulting in a perfect curve, I sewed it on top of a square of fabric with the stitching you see, probably about 1/8th of an inch from the edge.  I kept it close. 

I left it like this, but what you could do is clip away all of that excess fabric behind the red curve so that you had just a 1/4 of fabric left as your seam allowance.  By doing that your block will look almost as if you pieced it. 

A variation on this idea would be a sort of quilt-as-you-go method.  You could do as above, and sew your main fabric to a muslin piece and then turn, or simply iron under a seam allowance on your curve and then top stitch in place.  That’s what I did on this block.  I wish I could remember how I did it though.  I believe I laid a curve template under the piece and pressed the seam allowance around it.  I then top stitched it onto the square of fabric as well as a square of batting. 

I can’t tell you exactly how I’d proceed from here, but it was an interesting thing to try and if you started with a bigger square of batting and background fabric, and just stitched on your curves one at a time (similar to the quilt-as-you-go method) you should get an interesting piece.  I might have to try that now…

Moving on.

On this block I tried the same method of sewing right sides together an flipping, only this time I did it with the concave (yellow) pieces. 

After I had them sewn and flipped, I top stitched it to the convex piece, giving myself a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

It added very little bulk and almost looks just as if I pressed it so my seam allowance was headed towards the concave piece, recessing the convex piece below the concave.  I actually think this would be a great method to use for a curve quilt.  I don’t know if it’s saving you a whole lot of time, but if you’re not into piecing curves, this might be a good alternative for you. 

Here is an interesting look to the curve.  I started with a square for my background (concave) piece and top stitched the convex piece to it with a narrow, but wide spaced zigzag stitch (you could use a straight stitch too).  I sewed right along the edge of the curve and kept it pretty tiny so it wouldn’t interfere with the bias strip of fabric.  Next, I got my strip of fabric read, cut on the bias so it would curve easily for me.  I pressed in the two sides to the center of the piece and then laid it on top of the curve block, centering the stitched edge of the convex seam under the bias strip.  Then I stitched on either side of the bias with a straight stitch, pretty close to the edges. 

I didn’t trim away the fabric under the curve from the main background block, but you could to cut down on bulk.  This photo shows the zigzag stitching where I sewed the curved piece to the square and also the straight stitching along each side of the bias strip. 

These final two pieces are raw edge.  On the orange and brown polka dot piece I top stitched the brown polka dot to an orange solid square and then trimmed away the orange on the back to form a seam allowance.

On this one I stitched the yellow solid to the green polka dot, overlapping them about 1/4 inch.  I also zigzag stitched along the edge of the concave (yellow) piece.  Doing this would prevent fraying along that edge over time.  I think this was probably my least favorite of the methods I tried here.  I didn’t like the end look.  But it would hold up well and be very little time in the making.  You could also disguise that with some kickass quilting.

There are even more methods out there to try, but this was a little sampling of ideas I had.  Maybe one of these will appeal to you if other traditional (or nontraditional) methods haven’t.  I enjoy trying out all different ways to do something, it really gives me a sense of what does and doesn’t work and how something might look.  I’m always asking myself, well what if I tried it this way… Sometimes it’s hard to visualize in words, so if one of these has you intrigued and you need more info, let me know and I’ll make up another with more photos along the way.

Refinished Sewing Box

I was really lucky to find this cute sewing box at the Goodwill a few weeks ago, and for a steal by our Goodwill’s standards – $10!  Normally everything is so inflated.  They sell used items for more than the item costs new.  So $10 was a very, very good deal.  It was basically in good shape, just needed a little touch up.  Someone on Instagram told me about Restore-A-Finish so I checked it out and it seemed like the best solution.  That stuff is great.  Basically no prep, so I recommend checking that out if you need to refinish an item.  It covered up all the scrapes and dings nicely.  It was missing a few screws, so I had to hunt a few of those down as well, but our local ACE Hardware had everything I needed.

This sewing box is a little bit smaller than my other one, but I think it’s a good size for holding everything needed for a project at a time.  Right now I’m trying to finish up my hand appliqued quilt for a long overdue wedding present (the happy couple just had their first baby yesterday, I’m about 3 years late on their quilt). 

The inside was in really good shape.  I just took the air compressor to it and blew out all the dust and lint.  It’s an inexpensive sewing box to begin with, but it’s previous owner didn’t use it much from what I can tell. 

I’m so glad to have this project completed, all I seem to do is start projects so it’s always nice to finish something.  Right now this is sitting in the living room by my chair.  My husband asked me if that’s where it was going to live.  I think it’s in his way when he walks around the couch.  I told him yes, that’s where it’s going to live until the quilt is finished…and maybe longer if he makes a fuss about it. 

I’ll be at Quilt Market on Friday and Saturday since it’s here in town, so be sure to stop me and say “hi” if you happen to recognize me.  One of my very good friends is coming to town tomorrow and I can’t wait to pick her up at the airport!

Screen Prints Now Available

Fabric panel screen prints, as well as art prints on cardstock, are now available in my Etsy shop!  I don’t know which, if any, of these prints will be printed again so be sure to get them now if you are interested.

Troubleshooting

My order of larger screens arrived and I got right to work burning a screen.  And then I started to have problems.  So I’ve been troubleshooting various things to see what went wrong.  At this point I’m pretty sure it’s the emulsion.  The emulsion I use should last about 4-6 weeks but it got warm in the house, and usually it’s not, so I think that sped along the decay.  You can store emulsion in the refrigerator, but you have to bring it to room temperature before coating the screen, and I’m normally doing stuff on the fly and don’t have that much foresight to set it out to warm up.  I bought new emulsion this week but haven’t opened it up yet to try it.  I went back to the “pink stuff” I’ve used before.  It’s pre-sensitized and lasts a little longer.  If I know it’s going to be warm outside again I’ll go ahead and pop it in the fridge this time around. 

This is what I’m printing.  I’ll be reburning this screen as I didn’t get some of the detail I wanted.  I hand drew some frames, scanned them into the computer, cleaned them up with Illustrator and then made a repeat.  This is being printed on to fat quarters of fabric.  I am super excited for this one. 

The first prints had issues.  Some of the emulsion didn’t clear out of some of the tighter spaces all the way and I noticed that some of the emulsion blew out of spots it shouldn’t have.  And then I pushed too much ink through the screen, resulting in the chunky, hazy edges on some spots.  When that happens you have to go wash the screen out and start over. 

I’ve been told the prints look “vintage”…but I know they are mistakes so it bother’s me.  I’ll probably add these to the shop with the other prints.  That will be happening this week.  I also printed an Eames chair and polaroid camera.

Since it’s Mother’s Day today, I thought I’d share a picture of my little guy.  He is getting so big.  His birthday is in a little over a week and he’ll be 5…my how time flies!

Cookie Crafting

We did a different sort of crafting yesterday, one that takes a lot for me to push through with a smile on my face.  I am not a baker, not even cookies, and I usually don’t cook with Brice.  My husband is really good about having Brice help him, but I get too worried about the mess and never do.  I am trying to be much better about that sort of thing and so yesterday I decided we needed to make up my great grandma’s sugar cookies.  Of course he had a great time.  He helped me to measure and mix everything and took lots of tastes.  We had a good time together, which was really the point.  I want to be sure he remembers these sorts of things as he grows up.  I just kept reminding myself it was only flour and dough and could easily be wiped up with a sponge when we were done.  Seeing how much fun he had was well worth any mess we created.

The Process of Screen Printing

I’m waiting for new screens to arrive, so in the mean time I had my old YuDu screen sitting around and I decided to try a two color print with it.  I had a single transparency sheet sitting around, it was actually from an inkjet printable pack, but I ruined it.  They have this sticky backing on it to hold the ink from the inkjets, but I accidentally printed on the wrong side and then when I went to wash it off it made the back un-sticky.  Whoops.  I thought I’d be fun to take photos along the way today and share a little glimpse of the process.

I decided the transparancy would be perfect to try out using India ink to trace around my drawing.  First I traced around my little moose with a dip pen and the India ink and then I flipped my transparency around and filled in a background with a paint brush and the India ink.  I really like this method for the hand drawn effect it gives the prints.

Then after coating my screen with emulsion and letting it dry in front of my box fan ($8 at Goodwill) for about 10 minutes it’s ready to burn.  I cut my transparency apart between the ships and positioned them on my glass and laid the screen over it.  Then I expose it for 8 minutes.

I’m just keeping it real with these photos.  I do this out of my laundry / cat room.  I folded laundry while the screens burned, cleaned out the litter box, swept…  Glamorous life, I tell ya.  But seriously, this irritates me and will be getting beautified sometime soon.

After the screens done burning I take it to my sink to rinse out.  The light green is where the light was blocked by the ink on the transparency.  The exposed emulsion is a darker green, but after reacting with my water (with our high iron/mineral content) it turns a lovely shade of grey for me.

After all the unexposed emulsion is washed away I’m left with my screen ready to print.  This side, with the fine lines, I’ll print second.  The black on the screen, the pickaxe and “one more block” (from a t-shirt print for my stepson who loves Minecraft) is stained on the screen.  It doesn’t affect the screen or it’s use.  I believe you can use a specific cleaner to get that off, but I don’t have any and don’t really care about it being there.  It doesn’t hurt the prints.

I let my screen dry in front of the fan and gather paper and cut fabric to size.

After the screen is dry I tape off the detailed side and my exposure gauge (this lets me know if my screen was properly exposed) and begin to make registration marks for my paper and fabric so I know just where to print.  When I lay my material down I want to be sure the print goes right into the center of it, so registration marks with the blue tape help me line it up.  I do have hinge clamps on the way to hold my screens in place, as this is important for multiple color prints, but since this is a crappy, thin YuDu screen, I can just tape it to the table at the top and it’s a great “hinge”.

Now I’m ready to pull ink through.  First I pull the more solid, background color.  I wanted my baby moose to be pink.

After I am done printing my pink background, I wash my screen and clean up my mess.  The screen has to dry again, as well as my prints.  once all is dry, I’m ready to do the second color.

But first I had to mix it up.  I wanted a dark grey to go with the pink.  I picked up a Pyrex-style bowl at Goodwill for a few dollars and use that to mix my inks in.  After I’m done mixing (and using in this case) it’s easy for me to scrape down the sides (with my dollar store spatula and thrifted spoons) and get all the excess ink into a jar for storage.  I use food storage containers from the Dollar Store as well as old peanut butter and jelly jars I save. 

It’s so satisfying to get these prints as an end product.  From my conception as a drawing to a final print is an amazing sense of achievement.  Not all of the prints lined up perfectly, but I like both perfect and imperfect.  This was my first attempt at two color screen printing and I’m so excited with how easily it went.  But I do have to say, it wouldn’t have been possible with out Hilary Williams videos at Creative Bug.  If you are interested in screen printing, I highly recommend watching all of her videos.  It was a great refresher and I learned some new things as well.  In particular, I liked how she coated her screens with emulsion so much better than what I was doing, so I now follow her example and I’m so pleased with the results.  These prints (fabric and paper) will also be listed in my Esty shop in the very near future.  I’ll be sure to make an announcement when that happens.