Finished- "Witch Way"

Finished the quilting on "Witch Way",  or very close to it.  I do still have the sleeve to tack down, and a label to make.  I had so much fun with this Halloween quilt! It is a kit quilt that was featured in "The Quilter" magazine August/September 2011. I purchased the kit from Heart Beat Quilts.
I debated buying the yardage, it is Quilting Treasures' Harraising Halloween Collection designed by J. Wecker Frisch, but, the past few years I've come to realize that at the prices of fabric, kits are the way to go for me if it's a project like "Witch Way".

I truly like "The Quilter Magazine" because they are so detailed about pattern, fabric resources and all the supplies needed to do the quilt patterns they offer each issue.

"Witch Way" Pattern by Helen Weinman. Aug. Sept. 2011 issue of "The Quilter" magazine

Some of the quilted blocks.

Border and Sashing

 Another view

The busy Halloween backing was from my stash. Yeah!  

A Leftover's Quilt Top

Yesterday I blogged about the orphan block & leftovers I had, and what to do with them.  I used just about all of the leftover 3.5" tumblers from this quilt-----

.....to make this 42" x 48" quilt top  

 (I still have 4 little tumbler pieces leftover.) I guess this is progress---

I haven't posted a picture of Sassy for a long time.

A bundle of love!

Leftovers

I have been piecing some leftover half square triangles, and digging through the drawer under the ironing table labeled "Orphans".

It truly is a miss-mosh of squares, half square pieces, tumbler pieces, embroidery blocks, some string blocks, some paper pieced diamond.

I sorted and stacked and bagged all the smaller scraps. But, now what?  I know what to do with leftover food! (gobble-gobble!)---but, I think these leftovers are getting moldy!

The Orphan block drawer.

 Leftover 8" batik tumbler block pieces. Maybe I'll have enough for a lap quilt.

Leftover from this quilt (below).

I think I'll sash these cute ABC machine embroidery blocks and make a donation quilt. I don't even remember how I came to have these.

Quilt of Valor

 I think there are 110 red/white/blue half square triangles. Remembering how I incorrectly cut them for this Quilt of Valor and had to redo them. I have strip sets leftover too.

Oh and I have these baggies of of assorted pinwheels of various sizes. 

Some paper pieced diamonds leftover from this.

Here are more orphan blocks I didn't remove from the drawer for pictures. Just waiting. Some are already sewn,  and some are cut half square triangles to sew together.  I wonder what I will ever do with all this stuff?  or worse yet, why I can't just get rid of it. Sort of like the refrigerator/freezer ? You keep thinking you will use that little dab of mashed potatoes, or whatever. Instead it has to get moldy before you can dump it. 

Markers

I'm considering painting or coloring some parts of the Prayer Garden machine embroidery quilt blocks.....like the daffodils and leaves in this quilt block. Anita Goodesign suggests using Copic markers. I already have a few sets of markers to use on paper. Some say permanent, or waterproof, archival or acid free. I decided to test all of them out on a piece of cotton fabric then set the colors with a hot iron and wash the fabric.  Here are my results:

(One of the quilt blocks I plan to color.)

The following pictures show the final results of my testing.

#1-The Pentel Gel Roller is first and I consider the best of all the markers I tested.

The Pentel Gel Roller marker did not skip or resist rolling across the fabric like some permanent pens or markers do. It also did not migrate or "bleed" onto any of the adjoining fibers of the cotton test fabric. I would give it a high score and I may invest in more colors of this marker brand.

#2- The Signo Uni-Ball marker

The Signo Uni-Ball marker came in a close second except it did not flow as smoothly across the fibers of the fabric. But, it also did not migrate or "bleed" which makes it a good second choice.

#3- The Zig Millennium marker

The Zig also did not have the nice roller action of the Pentel, and it also showed just a tiny bit of migration or bleeding onto a few threads on the fabric near the pen line. I could see less definition in the fonts as well. 

#4- The Vellum Writer has a writing tip at each end of the pen. A fine tip, and a medium tip.

This marker could be 2nd or 3rd choice because it really did not migrate or bleed any more then the Signo or Zig, and it's a plus to have the two tips which did write fairly smoothly across the fibers of the fabric. 

#5-The BIC Mark-it

With the BIC Mark-it I started to see  unacceptable results.  Definite migrating and bleeding for sure, but also a yellow or orange residue surrounds each letter in the writing.  This occurred after heat setting and washing.  The BIC marker did have a nice writing tip. But, the orange residue around the red marker lines is very detracting and I would not use it on fabric. 

#6-The Copic marker

The Copic marker on fabric testing results were surprising.  This was the suggested fabric marker for the Prayer Garden project.  Looking at how badly it migrated and bled around each drawing line makes me glad I tested this marker before using it to color any of the embroidery.  I could see it would migrate under the thread, or even onto the thread.  The Copic marker also has a fine tip, and a wider brush like tip. As you can see both bled so badly on the fabric you can barely detect which is the finer tip lines. (it is the first "Copic")--- and which was the brush type tip. Glad I only purchased three colors to test this marker. 

#7- The Spectum Noir marker

I guess I don't have to say--- the Spectrum Noir marker is the worst. As soon as the fine or wider of the two tips touched the fabric,  the ink started to spread out like a puddle which made the individual letters difficult to see and read in this sample. 

Time spent testing the markers was interesting, and certainly worthwhile.

Witchy Way Start

Our internet has been down since yesterday afternoon. Amazing what I can get done if I stay off the computer. One of the things I accomplished was to load the Witchy Way Halloween quilt and start the quilting.

I found out I don't like the clear Aurifil thread I bought. It's too shiny. I had planned to do the entire quilt using clear thread. Not happening.....

Instead I will be changing out threads. Orange and Black, Black and Orange. Maybe even some other colors thrown into the mix.

This quilt is going to take a while. I can tell. This morning I had to deal with poor thread tension on the back because it took me awhile to get the tension reset after running the Aurifil clear thread. I plan to do a lot of detail outline quilting. No particular quilting designs planned. I'm being creative!

That little border at the top with all the small Halloween motifs is bothering me though. Not sure what I will stitch there. If anything.  I'm not going to outline all those green shingles though!---that I know for sure. :o)

String Top

I have this string top almost finished. I've been auditioning borders, and settled on some blue paisley from my stash. Now I just have to get the borders measured and attached.

Right now it seems more fun to be outside gardening than in the sewing room.

Our grandson, Christopher, came this week and cleaned and re-stained the front deck. He does such good work. He fixed the surround a sound to play on the Roku and re-stretched the carpet. He blew the debris off the roof and gutter, and we also got to spend some good times together just talking and catching up with what is going on in his life----

I've been sprucing up a few of the summer annuals and putting things back in place.

The Mandevilla vine by the front door is growing nicely this summer.

Crimson Mandevilla

Blog Ads

I don't advertise on my blog as a general rule. So, there are no side bar ads here. Some bloggers have chosen to have ads you can click on on the sides of their blogs, and the latest blogger thing is the annoying pop up ads if you move your mouse near or over the ads----I have read you can make money from these ads. From twenty five to several hundred dollars a year.

However, I have found these blogger ads annoying for the most part, and I don't personally want to visually bombard my friends and family who visit here just so I can earn some cool cash, which I'm told is why these ads are appearing more and more on many of the blogs nowadays

Now if I was truly in need of extra cash, which I'm told is not a whole lot of revenue by the way, then I might be tempted to cover each side, top and bottom and anywhere else I could squeeze in a spot with advertising that would supposedly increase my annual income. With just a click from you, my dear friend.

Or maybe I'm just not convinced enough to think blog ads are going to pay for a cruise or buy me a new car! or even another spool of thread or yard of fabric!

However, since I have a loving family, wonderful friends, good food, a nice comfy home, clothes, lots and lots of fabric, thread---then you know I'm not having financial worries at this time, or things are not bad enough that I need to insert ads around the blog.

I know, here I am blogging (venting) about blog ads from the place that provides me a platform to speak on the internet....(from the hand that feeds you, as they say).

Many of my blogger friends, and the wonderful blogs I love to read have succumbed to the financial lure of the "ads". A sign of the times I guess. 


I hope you don't want to place ads on your blog, but if you want to read more about it, here are some links to ad info.

About Ad Sense on your Blog
About Blog Her Ads

Organizing Inspiration

June, one of the bloggers who participated in yesterdays thread organization blog hop really inspired me.

So, today I spent the afternoon going through my plastic drawers and inserting the cardboard dividers that June showed on her Stitched By Me blog entry.

In the process I  found I had way more thread.  But it's more organized now, and I love the divider idea!  (thank you June!)

Here are some pictures after this afternoons cardboard thread dividing.

One of the two Isacord machine embroidery thread drawers all neat and divided.

The Aurifil, Mettler and Masterpiece sewing threads.

Some miscellaneous  machine embroidery threads.
Floriani, Sulky and Madeira metallics.

Forgotten, but found: Yenmet metallics, Finishing Touch Skin tone thread sets,  some Sulky polyester and Solar thread set for machine embroidery.

Signature, 40 wt. Aurifil, YLI, some Bottom Line and more cotton threads for sewing, embellishing and machine embroidery.

I even organized the needle and bobbin drawer. (it was a mess!)

It felt so good to get this done that I even found time to sit and sew 12 more string quilt blocks this afternoon. The final two rows for the quilt.

Done!