An end in sight - definitely!

Today's task, hand sewing as usual for Slow Sunday Stitching, is to finish attaching the backing to the denim.  I've used some lengths of flannel so the back will be nice and soft, toyed with the idea of adding wadding to make it the world's heaviest quilt, but decided against it, and just machined around three sides, right sides together.  So now I'm pulling it right way round and doing the last side by hand.  I considered machining half and then hand stitching the last bit, but a) it is pretty bulky and b) this is the edge with the kind of stepped bit and I want to do that by hand.  

If I get that done, I have the next quilt ready to go in the hoop.  I'm still working in chronological order, so it's Build Me a Wall's turn now.

Saturday photos #53

Today I am treating you to a view of the mess on my work table, which is currently housing 3 sewing projects, two machines, my stamps and inks, a random selection of tools...get the picture?

Stamping the strips

Well, I had done loads more printing and laid out some of my circles with the strips, was pretty happy with how it looked, got ready to take a photo to post here and new kitten rolled straight over the whole lot.  So no pictures.  

Instead here's a quick summary of what I've used for the printing.  I was swayed in the direction of Liquitex by a post on Julie's blog, though I've ordered a couple of ink pads recommended by other people to try out too.  

As I reckoned I would only want a small amount of each colour I chose to buy the inks, which come with a dropper, rather than pots of acrylic and I'm glad I did.  To mix enough colour for one strip I only need three or four drops of ink (depending a bit on how long it takes me to get a colour I'm happy with) and the same number of drops of the fabric medium.  

I really like this stuff - the colours are strong, and the fabric medium works beautifully.  I did a tiny sample, on white fabric, not pre-washed.  (I'll add a picture when I find it!)  The following day I stuck it under the hot tap in the kitchen and rubbed like billy-o.  Not even the tiniest smear; it stayed just the same and since my quilts mostly have wool wadding that's about the roughest treatment it needs to stand up to.  

I had ordered some (cheap) blank ink pads but they were rubbish, so I ended up mixing on a plastic lid and then just using a quick wipe with a paint brush to put the colour on the stamps.  Worked fine.

So now I've done a big pile of colour definitions - and had a whole other load of fun looking through Webster's and choosing them.

Next step will be to reclaim my floor!

AHIQ - share your improv #5

Yesterday I unexpectedly had a free afternoon and instead of sewing decided to try playing around with my letter stamps.  I had been meaning to do this for ages (well, ever since I got them) yet for some reason had been putting it off, maybe in case it was a bit disappointing when I got to it.  But I have an idea, so no more procrastinating; time to get on with it.  

I didn't take photos as I went, a) it's fiddly and a bit messy and b) it's a load of little stamps and some ink, so not in itself very exciting.  I do, however, have a few photos of my first attempts.

These are strips just under 2" wide, cut the full width of the fabric. I'm not necessarily expecting to keep them this long.  Each one has a colour definition, from my lovely Webster's.

I don't want the lettering to stand out too much, so played around trying to get the shades right, ie visible but not overpowering and on that basis some of these, for me, are more successful than others.

This took  me all afternoon, so a slow process, but here's a final shot, of where they might end up.

An end in sight, maybe...

I think I might be nearing the end of this denim piece.  As you can see there's quite an area on the left hand side still to cover, but maybe another couple of weeks...

Looking at this picture I can see there are quite a few places where I have started, then been interrupted and have never gone back, so there'll definitely be some filling in of gaps to be done.  

I've found something to use on the back, though I'm not really sure how I'm going to do that at the moment - I want to keep the wonky shape but that's not as easy as if I had squared it all up.  I'm sure I'll work something out.

Also, a reminder that the first AHIQ link up of 2016 goes live on Tuesday - do come and share your improv quilting.

Still scrappy, but a bit bigger

This week I've made another set of blue shirt stripes, but it looks pretty much exactly like the first one, so I didn't bother with a photo.  I'm saving it until I've got several months worth, then I'm thinking I might do some slicing.  I''m also saving some of my little blue squares, but I took one set and had a go at combining them with the shirts.  Looks like this:

There's lots more blue on display at ScrapHappy Saturday.  

Saturday photos #52

This week, for about five minutes, we had snow.