Tuesday 30 November 2010

Liquid Thread Liquid Stitch Applique

I know someone some where posted about using this stuff for appliqué. I cannot for the life of me remember what they did or how they did it. I Googled to find their blog or Youtube but by the time I got to page 20 on the searching, I gave up.
So I tried to reinvent the wheel. Firstly I tried to squeeze it out of the nozzle but the stuff is very thick, so I diluted it with water (first checking it did mix with water). Then I squeezed a line round the edge of the rose on the back of the fabric. I left it overnight to dry.

Notice I am using Liquid Thread, not Liquid Stitch. I bought the former somewhere in the UK but for the life of me cannot remember where. I think they are probably much the same but I haven't opened the Liquid Stitch yet.


I cut round the edge of the rose from the front so I could see and get a nice edge. As I cut the dried Liquid Stitch fell of in places and made a white powder over my scissors.



I then ironed it in place with a very hot iron and no steam using a silicon sheet to keep the sticky stuff off both the iron and the ironing board cover. It wasn't very successful and I had white residue round the edge of the rose and it just wasn't stuck down. Duh moment, I had turned off the iron and it just wasn't hot enough. Waited for the iron to get up to top heat and tried again. This time it stuck but only where the glue hadn't fallen of during the cutting out.
This time I cut out a yellow rose and placed it right side down on the shiny side of some freezer paper, then went round with the Liquid Thread on and just over the edge. It was quite difficult to pick it up without getting the Liquid Thread everywhere.
Duh moment part 2. Yet again I had not remembered to turn the iron back on (actually I can't remember the logic in turning it off, I blame it on the increased medications). You can see where the Liquid Stitch has spread out. Only I thought it just hadn't sunk into the background fabric. This dark grey fabric is one of those ones which have a plasticy feel.

I had success with a very hot iron on this green fabric (I don't think the different fabric had made any difference whatsoever, it was the heat which did it). I stitched it down with a double pass blanket stitch on the machine. I'm not happy with this stitch on the sharp points.
I cut away the background fabric behind the rose to lessen the thickness of the fabrics.
On the whole I am reasonably happy with the result with two exceptions. One is that it is quite difficult to place when it is covered in wet Liquid Stitch and the other is the blanket stitch.


Perhaps cutting out the rose and applying the Liquid Stitch after cutting and leaving it over night would be ideal. Or even applying it, pressing between layers of silicon sheet and then cutting will work.

I need to play some more...

Friday 26 November 2010

Wrapping station





I'm feeling a little smug, as I have all the presents wrapped for Christmas and it's still November. It doesn't feel like it though with the temperature well below freezing. The sun is shining on the heavy frost so my spirits have lifted.

I am glad I stopped to take some photos as I found these other four hidden in my secret hiding place.
I haven't done any sewing as my fibromyalgia pain came back big time. I've increased my meds by 50% and I think they are starting to kick in.
I also had a silly accident. I boiled up some prawns (shrimp) in their shells to make a fish stock. I then went to put them in the blender before straining the stock. I realised just in time I had not put the little stopper in the lid. Found it, put it in, turned it on, then found I hadn't put the lid on properly. Boiling stock hit my chest and arms. The burns are healing now nearly a week later but it has curtailed what I can and cannot do a little. Ouch!

Thursday 18 November 2010

The difficulties of entering shows.

Well over a week since my last post, how did that happen?
I ran out of spoons as my meds seemed to cease working properly. My dose is up 50% so the side effects of being sleepy all the time is back with a vengeance. 
I made some very pretty and very tasty cupcakes, I love the spotted papers, not so keen on the blue icing taking on a green tinge from the butter.
 I decided to enter one of the US quilt shows. They would like you to take your photos outside against a plain wall on a day with no wind. They don't live in wet damp England in November. Would you try and hang a wet quilt outside here at this time of year? And that is without the plain background. Most house walls in England are brick, not all but most. Stone wouldn't have helped much nor would a timber framed house.
So I used decorators tape to hang a sheet in front of the wardrobes then set up the quilt stand. I used the cheapie Finepix camera I'd bought but the distortion was too great, then I used the older one with the iffy focus motor but wasn't entirely successful. I ended up buying one of the super optical zoom cameras with a wide angle lens. Luckily my credit card gives me vouchers at John Lewis so I only had to pay a little extra. The close ups were amazing!
I won't show the entire quilt until it's had it's first show outing.

But the shots getting the whole quilt in still had a problem. Even though I had 360watts of light and forced flash,  the lighting conditions were such that the resolution wasn't high enough. So I have to move it out from in front of the wardrobes and closer to a window. See the problem? That's right, the sheet background can't come with me.
At this point I want to cry each effort takes it out of the small amount of energy I have and that's not even taking into account the pain.
I pin the quilt to the sheet from the back, then pin the sheet onto the frame (no I didn't make a sleeve for the sheet ).  At this point George has decided to add his 2c worth and distorting the sheet.

I got a good shot in the end and mailed it on time. Now I just have to wait to see if it's juried in...

And just so Rosie doesn't feel left out.
 She often disappears at the first sight of a camera and her fur confuses the lens most times I do get a shot, so this photo is a marvel.

Saturday 6 November 2010

Go see this quilt!!!!

Sandra Leichner This is one of the Houston Winners. Make sure you scroll down her page to look at the close ups. I was given a nudge about how wonderful it was, but in the little photo on the winners website, I'd thought the enthusiasm a little over blown. I' so glad I made the effort to find a good photo to check it out. Wonderful!!!! And it seems there is a book on it as well. I don't know if it's out yet and I know I don't have the hand skills, but I shall buy it just so I can drool every so often.

George last night insisted 6.30pm was the time for me to stop quilting the little special baby quilt.
I finished the quilting this morning. Just need to sew on the binding and throw it in the washing machine after carefully removing every single cat hair.

DH pointed out I should not make these little quilts quite as special as the recipients will not be quilters and producing a few is better than just one at show quality.

Thursday 4 November 2010

For a baby in need

I drew this out this afternoon, it's only 20" X 16". There has been a call from the local hospital for little quilts for babies who 'need to be baptised' quickly.


This is the back to give an idea of how it will look when the marks are washed out.


It's been therapeutic for me today to concentrate on families who have problems I can't even imagine. I sincerely hope the baby who will lay on this little quilt lives to grow up.