The Needlepoint Pillow

A few weeks ago I found a needlepoint pillow in a bag at the top of a closet. This was made by my grandmother and given to my daughter for her graduation...I can't remember if it was from high school or college, but either way, many years have passed since then.

While the pillow is as cute as can be, it is NOT my daughter's style. She is not the ruffle type. I am not sure DD even remembers this pillow. I decided it was silly to leave it there, in the closet, unused and unseen. I would remake it as a mixed-media piece, to become something DD would use, and give it to her for her birthday.

This is sideways...Blogger loves to rotate pictures for me, without giving me the tools to undo what it has done.

But anyway... this is the 'before'. As I said, it's cute but not her style.




I ripped the pillow apart, pulling out the stuffing, then removing the ruffle and the matching moire taffeta backing. As you can see, the corners of the canvas were cut off when this was initially made into a pillow, so I'd have to work with those.



Using 3 strands of embroidery floss, I worked a grid of X's in the darker field area. This alone gave it a more contemporary look!

I cut some triangles of my dark fabric and sewed them onto the knocked off corners, giving me a base that was square.

I placed the needlepoint on some batting which had been placed on a piece of chintz. Then I began adding fabric strips, log cabin-style, around the needlepoint. I varied the width of the strips so the needlepoint would NOT end up in the center.

Several of the fabrics used in this piece were also used on a quilt I made Aidan (my grandson, DD's son) in 2007. The already-pieced strip was a remnant from the sketchbook cover I made Andrew for Christmas. I liked the tie-ins...Kelly has told me repeatedly since Christmas that it is HER TURN to get something handmade from me. Recognizing the fabrics in this piece will remind her of the projects given to the other members of her family!

Once I got the top all put together, I was NOT thrilled with the way the piece felt. I could feel (and see) a 'ridge' created by the thick canvas under the first strip. Note to self: next time, use decorator fabrics, which are heavier, instead of quilting cottons!

Here you can see the ridge a little better...I was NOT happy!

So I decided to slash into the backing and try to reposition the batting, so it would be ABOVE the canvas edges and perhaps soften the transition.

Using my duckbilled scissors, I carefully slashed and cut the backing behind the first strips, being careful not to cross any stitching lines. The fact that the canvas corners were cut diagonally was a help in this case!

I pulled the canvas out the slashes, sort of tucking the batting and backing under the canvas edges.

But I didn't want to leave it this way. Stuffing the pillow could dislodge these edges, or they might shift during use later.

So I decide to add more batting!

I cut out the area behind the needlepoint, so it had less batting than the quilted areas, hoping to better 'level' the overall front.

I also tucked the edges of this layer of batting under the canvas edges, again, to soften the transition and eliminate that ridge.

To keep this extra batting in place, I added a layer of septic paper. This is like a non-woven interfacing, only a bit slicker. I basted this around the edges, knowing future stitching would hold it in place.

With the ridge eliminated, I could now do the decorative stitching on the front of the pillow, using both free-motion and the pre-programmed stitches on my machine.

To flatten the needlepoint area and give it some character, I stippled in the light background area around the bird and branch. This created the look of trapunto without the added stuffing!

I had planned to do a chainstitch around the circle where the dark and light blues meet, but for some (dumb) reason, I didn't do it before, when I did the grid of X's. Well, now it is much harder to get a needle through all those layers! and trying to pierce only the needlepoint, without including the batting/backing, was not fun! I also tried to smooth out the lopsided circle. Not perfect, but then, nothing I do ever is! Charm...I say.

With the front completed, I started on the back. I decided to make it 'special', too, in case DD doesn't love the front...she can flip it over! Plus, if she ever really wants to use this pillow, I wanted it to be face friendly. So I cut strips and did a stitch-n-flip application, followed by decorative stitching along the seams, using the pre-programsed stitches on my machine.

Then I trimmed the back to match the front and sewed them together around the edges, leaving an opening on the bottom edge.

I trimmed the corners and turned this right sides out, giving a good press to flatten the outside edges.

Then I stitched in the ditch around the pillow to create a flange.

Again, I stopped the stitching at the opening at the bottom.

Then I stuffed the pillow through the opening. (I probably overstuffed it...I KNOW I did!...but I am not ripping it out to redo!) Then, I pushed the stuffing away from the open edge and pinned the front to the back well inside the area to be closed. This way, I could use the sewing machine to complet the row of stitching that creates the flange...the inside row. I did have to really flatten the pillow with my hand to allow it to pass under the machine.

Yep, that's my blood you see on the flange...these pins are sharp! A little hydrogen peroxide took that right out.

Now the pillow is stuffed and enclosed, but there is still an opening in the edge of the flange.

I used needle and thead to handsew the opening closed.

The back, finished.

The front, finished.

As I said, I overstuff this...but already it has flattened some, and it will flatten more over time.

My family loves this shape of pillow...rectangles with a flange...they call these 'gripping pillows' because they are good to hug!

Ok, we're weird.

But wonderful.

Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Snowfall and Strawberry Cake

On Sunday, March 1, we awoke to snow! We don't get much snow here in the Memphis area, and when we do, there usually isn't much of it, so this was special. It was pretty deep in my back yard...at least 6" (I know, but that is DEEP for us!).



The BAD part of getting a nice wet snow is what it does to the trees...like this Leyland Cypress that split and fell over the pool. This tree had a double trunk, and it broke at the ground...it didn't uproot. We'll have some fun with chainsaws this weekend! Goody. We're hoping it didn't puncture the pool cover.



I love how the fences look with snow piled on the rails!

The poolside umbrella and chairs don't look quite so inviting like this, though!

All in all, it was a good weekend to stay inside!

So I did.

I cleaned my house. Ack! I know...


But this month, it was my turn to host Bunko.

I am always struck with an unreasonable panic when it is my turn to be hostess.
This means I have to FIX FOOD! I am a reluctant cook. Not a terrible cook by any means, but not a fabulous one either.
And there are so many good cooks in this group, so I always feel 'pressure' to find something tasty and interesting to serve. Yikes!

For some reason, I have been thinking about strawberry cake recently...probably because I started a diet a few weeks ago and have been limiting processed carbs! So I decided to look for a recipe for strawberry cake. I had in mind what it should taste like...and I felt like the icing should be a cream cheese icing. So I Googled strawberry cake recipes and began reading. When I found this one, I knew it was 'the one'.

I made the cake as directed, hoping my poor old oven didn't burn it too badly or make it rise and fall and generally become misshapened, as so often happens. Let's just say I am known for making ugly cakes! But this one didn't do too badly at all. It did rise higher than the sides of the cake pans, but settled back down to about level.

Then I made the icing. Oh dear. my poor old mixer was struggling to mix all that sugar in, so I figured I *must* need to add more pureed strawberries to thin it out some. WEll, long story shorter...my icing was a bit loose.

I cut strips of waxed paper and insert them around the perimeter of the cake, to progtect the plate from the inevitable mess I will make trying to ice the sides of the cake.

After I placed the top layer onto the bottom one, I realized that the sides of the pans I had used must not be perfectly vertical, because the cake layers didn't match up in circumference! The top of each layer seemed larger than its bottom. But once I plopped that top layer onto the icing covering the bottom layer, it was NOT coming off!

I took a sharp knife and trimmed the top layer, so it would better match up with the bottom layer. I am now wondering where these particular cake pans came from...and where are the pans I usually use? Hmmmm.

The finished cake was not beautiful, but was definitely NOT my ugliest. I smeared that icing up those sides umpteen times, trying to get it to stop running back down to the bottom (note to self: don't use more strawberry puree than the recipe calls for!). This cake needs to be refridgerated, and since my fridge was full, I stuck it outside on the back porch until serving time. Snow is good for a few things, even in the South!

The cake was a hit at the party.
And I have just enough left over to ruin my diet for another few days!

Blue River Quilt part 4

Today I have been working on my Blue River Quilt (I really should give it a more creative name, eh?). This sat on the frame for about 2 weeks with no progress while I worked on a blouse, but this weekend, I began quilting again, and am making great progress! Well, that is, until a song like "I CAN'T DANCE" by Genesis, or "I DIDN'T MEAN TO TURN YOU ON" by Robert Palmer comes on! Then I have to stop and dance a bit! :) I create a playlist on I-tunes to keep me company while I sew, and this time, I had it sort by song NAME rather than artist...see? I am in the 'I's...









My skills aren't 'all that', but the only way I'll get better is to just do it...so I am!








I am now to the point where I have to sew around all those triangular, pieced trees. Following a pieced seam is NOT easy for me...the seam allowances throw me off, as will a loose thread, a speck of dust, a fairy flying too close to my head... Ok, no fairies, but really, I have no excuse...EVERYTHING seems to encourage me to sew crooked! I have decided that gives this piece it's 'charm'....lets everyone know it is handmade...not manufactured or computerized!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Blue test blouse

I have recently designed a blouse to test the new measurements and settings that I settled on. After wearing the Navy dress, I knew there were some things I wanted to change and you never know when changing one thing will negatively impact on another, so a test is always in order!

Specifically, I needed to change the balance of the front and back above armhole level…needed more height in front above ah. I increased the CFL and FSS, and wanted to see if that was enough.

I was confident in the distribution of the waist reduction, as mentioned before…taking out 1” width on each front piece…but I had decided to see what happens if I lower the waist level. Also, I wanted to try a reduced the back shoulder width.

I decided to use the Italian collar, as I really like the looks of that one. However, on past attempts, it did not lay quite as flat in front as I desired, so I needed to modify the shape of the collar pattern.

I assembled the blouse pattern pieces and cut them out. I messed with the paper collar pattern, trying to drape it on both *me* and my dress form, trying to determine exactly what needed to change to make it lay flatter in front. I slashed and spread, then slashed again and overlapped...over and over! Finally, I decided to just cut it and try it in fabric.

I fused on the interfacing and stabilized the curved front neckline using bias stay tape. Then I started to assemble/sew. Princess seams first, then collar/neck/front edges.

Once the collar was sewn, I could see it would be entirely too 'flat' for what I had in mind. I didn’t even have to TRY it on the garment, I could readily see it was much too curved!

This collar should stand up in back, yet lay flat in front...a half-roll collar. So I reprinted and cut a new collar, this time, only slashing to spread the FRONT section of the collar, between the shoulder and front edge. Basically, I needed to add length to the outer edge in this area, which creates a more-curved neckline edge. The Italian collar DOES have a curved neck edge already, and if it were to be sewn to a straight neckline, it would probably be fine. But since I have started using the curved V neckline, the collar needs more shape. When the curved V was introduced in PMB, the same collars were offered as options...with no change to the collar shape between straight or curved V necklines. And THAT is where the problem turned out to be!

I also decided to try a new way of doing the facings. Usually, the front facing extends to the shoulder and stops...then the seam allowances on the back of the neck edge are enclosed in the collar. Well, that part didn't change, but I redrew the shape of the shoulder ends of the front facing to extend beyond the shoulder, then curve into the back neckline area...so that there is no 'corner' on the edge of the facing. Basically, I aligned the BACK NECK FACING with the FRONT NECK FACING at the shoulder seam, and extended the front to make the outer edge BLEND into the neck.

This was my first time to try this, and it took a couple of attempts to figure out how far to sew, where to stop, where to clip, etc. Turns out, sewing to the clip is critical to success. The facing should extend BEYOND the clip for a little bit, and needs to be clipped, too, so it’s seam allowances near the ‘tip’ can also be enclosed inside the collar at the back.

I tried on the blouse after I added the collar and facings. Yuk. The waist is too tight. What? I pulled out my tape measure and measured my body. Yuk. I have gained at least 2" in my waist in the last few months! (I never worry about having a flat tire, because I am now carrying my own personal spare! Not funny.)

These are princess seams, so I could let them out, but I use 3/8" seam allowances. There isn't much to gain, but I did let out what I could. Better.

Once I got the sleeves in, I tried on the blouse again. Yuk. The sleeves seemed tight in the elbow area and below. I had selected 9" hem circumference, but the sleeves were somewhat short, as I planned to add a folded cuff (no opening, just a folded rectangle sewn to the bottom of the sleeve). I guess because the program drafted the ‘hem’ as the place above the cuff, which was up higher than my wrist level, the whole sleeve was narrowed. I had just enough left-over fabric to cut one more set of new sleeves! This time, I omitted the cuff and drafted the sleeves full length, with a slightly wider hem circumference (just in case!).

But more importantly, I could now see that the blouse back was too long…it was puddling in folds at my back waist. The front length-to-waist looked good, but the back length was too long (I had just lengthened it for this test, remember? Grrr....).

I pinned a tuck across the back at mid armhole level and tried it again...better! But now that the collar was in…with facings complete…I was NOT gonna rip it out to recut the back neck and shoulders lower (to shorten the back/raise the back waist)! What to do, what to do.....

I began to wonder if I could rip out the back princess seams and slide the side back pieces UP and resew them, basically mismatching the seams to ‘pretend’ the waist on the center back piece is higher, then cut the extra length off at the hem end of the center back piece...effectively shortening the back and raising the back armhole. Hmmm….

I did do this, and it helped. But then I could see that there was still some droop…mostly at the side back area. The reduced Back Shoulder Width that I had tried had caused the back shoulder dart to be very small…it was small enough to ease into the shoulder. I suspect I need a larger one (I have wings in the back!...flying shoulder blades.). Apparently, if I want to narrow the back shoulder, I must also adjust my Back Shoulder Slope a bit more than I did. Ahhhh! More things to test! Goody.

I ripped and resewed the armhole end of the back princess seam a bit larger, as if taking up a dart the (as if the back shoulder dart had been transferred to the armhole and included in the princess seam). Sewing the princess seams larger than drafted (at the armholes) causes the seamlines to NOT be equal…the side back piece is too short for the center piece….resulting in a ‘jog’ of cut edges (and seamlines) at the armhole. This will make the back width even narrower than I drafted…making the blouse too tight at that level! I doubt this blouse will ever make it to the ‘wearable’ stage! At this point, I am just using it to test the various changes! But I keep trying to salvage it…ripping and resewing ad nauseum!


After taking up the back princess seams to shorten the back and shoulder slope, I went back to the program, and began changing measurements to try to create a pattern that already had these changes incorporated…to duplicate this shorter upper back. I needed ALL the shortening to occur in the upper back, but subtracting the .375" from the Center Back Length and Back Shoulder Slope removed half above ah level and half below it. Hmmm….

To make the shortening occur ENTIRELY above the back armhole would required that I also RAISE the armhole depth.

But that also raised the FRONT armhole depth, which I didn't want to change! So I figured, I HAD to reduce the back lengths, raise the armhole depth, and then, increase the front length to recover the front height above the armhole? That wreaks havoc on the size of the bust dart...making it larger. Hmmmm…

I am always so fearful of OVERFITTING that I tend to leave a bit of excess ease in that front ah…but perhaps a larger dart IS what is needed? I pinned the princess seam up, as if to make the bust dart larger. I could do that.

But this is all too convoluted…there must be a better way!

It suddenly occurred to me that I could INCREASE the BUST CUP I have chosen. In PMB, this is on the measurement chart, and basically adjusts the size of the bust dart and the overall front length. Bumping up yet another cup letter added the extra length I needed, as well as increased the size of the dart. So, instead of messing with the armhole depth, I tried the larger cup letter…it seemed to be what was needed.

I resewed the front princess seam as pinned, but had to rip the sideseam to realign the side back and side front, as now the armhole levels needed to be adjusted (the front was moved down, the back moved up, and the back armhole had to be trimmed to match the lower front armhole). Remember, all this altering is because the fabric was cut to one pattern and I am now trying to make it duplicate a different pattern! Increasing the cup letter adds bust width, but my fabric is already cut, so the end result is a pattern with LESS bust ease than I thought I was getting.

Sewing the front princess seams larger than drafted (at the armholes) caused the seamlines to NOT be equal…just as in back, the side front piece was too short for the seamline on the center piece….resulting in a ‘jog’ of cut edge (and seamline) at the armhole. Again, this means I will have less ease than I had hoped to have!

After taking in both the front and back princess seams at armhole, I now will need to lower the armhole depth to maintain the size of the armhole. That is the current stage of progress. Cross your fingers!

Pattern Chat!

And now for some pattern chat…

This might be too long and boring, so if you're just after pretty pictures, scoll down to the previous posts! :)

I have been working on perfecting the fit of my bodice patterns using PMB for quite a while now. The solutions to my fitting issues have been elusive, but I AM making progress! As mentioned before the division of waist reduction has been a stumbling block for me. I knew I needed my back waist darts to be larger than the front ones, but HOW to accomplish that has eluded me. Well, not anymore!

The tool I am discussing is the Sideseam Placement Tool. In version 4, this is found on the Settings Tab.

Using my measurements, this is how the program drafts the basic Torso block (blouse) if I leave the sideseam placed at the zero position.

The Hip and Waist are divided equally, front to back, but the front pattern is over 2” wider than the back pattern at Bust level. This makes for an interestingly shaped pattern! There is hardly *any* indentation at the waist on the back pattern. Imagine trying to sew those F and B sideseams together!

The back armhole has very little width to it, while the front armhole is very large. This creates a sleeve that has a longer front cap seam and a shorter back cap seam…it looks backwards and restricts arm movement.

I don’t want my patterns to look like that! So the first thing I do is use the Sideseam Placement tool to move the Side/Arm Point toward the front (a negative setting). The maximum amount the SS can be moved is 1”…but remember, my front pattern is 2” wider than the back pattern at underarm level! Moving the Side/Arm point the maximum amount (-1 setting) reduces the difference in pattern widths (at underarm level) to 1”. That is the best I can do. This greatly improves the armhole shapes on both patterns and balances the shape of the sleeve.

And with the bust dart in the SIDESEAM position, the widths of the front and back patterns at underarm level are nearly equal!

This setting change alone makes sewing those sideseams a little more ‘doable’! However, both Front and Back sideseams slant toward the front at hip level. The angles of the Front and Back sideseams do not have the same relationship to the grain line…they are not ‘mirror images’. I prefer that my sideseams be mirror images…I think it improves the hang of the garment when the grain is identical on each side of the seam. Plus, I always felt like my back waist darts needed to be larger than my front ones…I have a belly at the front waist, but the back waist goes in quite a bit, just as, at hip level, the bum sticks out way farther in back than in front! So I had to figure out a way to achieve this balance with my patterns.

Enter the Sideseam Placement tool again! This time, it’s the Side/Hip Point.

Now, this one took a LONG TIME to figure out, because the required setting was NOT intuitive! Moving the S/H Point forward (negative setting) makes the back waist darts larger…which was part of my goal…but it also compromised the indentation at waist level on the back pattern. Boo hiss. Or, I could improve the waist indentation by moving the S/H Point the other way…backwards (a positive number)…but that made the back waist darts smaller and made the front waist darts become way too large! It seemed that I could never hit on just the right combination to achieve BOTH of these goals…they seemed at odds…and this flaw showed up in my garments as pulls from the sideseam or the waist darts at waist level.

The real clue came by analyzing my superimposed patterns with the bust dart placed in the SHOULDER position. Even though moving the S/Bust Point forward makes the patterns almost equal in width at underarm level when the bust dart is in the sideseam, they are NOT equal in width with the dart in the shoulder position.

I began to consider that since the front pattern was wider than the back pattern at underarm level, the only way to get mirrored sideseams was to make the front pattern wider than the back pattern ALL THE WAY DOWN. This means I HAD to change the hip!

So, in a nutshell, here is the deal...and this is for *ME*, not necessarily for all...

Because my bust is large, I need to use the maximum S/A movement to better divide the armholes, and this makes the front and back patterns almost *equal* in width at underarm level WHEN THE BUST DART IS IN THE SIDESEAM.

However, once the bust dart is rotated into the SHOULDER position, it is apparent that the patterns are NOT EQUAL in width at underarm level after all...the FRONT pattern is 1" wider than the back pattern.

So I move the S/H point, too (backwards), so that the front pattern is now 1" wider than the back pattern *all the way down the sideseam*...from underarm to hem (the front is wider and the F&B sideseams are mirrored/identical...same waist indent on both).

I *need* this extra width on my front pattern at bust level...but NOT at waist and hip level.

But-

1. I do need for the sideseams to be mirrored, and
2. I do need for the front and back to be equal in width at hip level.

These two things seemed at odds with each other. In order to get mirrored side seams, I HAD to move the S/H point backwards...but by doing so, that made the hip distribution *unequal*. So, my solution was to INCREASE THE HIP EASE until the back pattern was as wide at hip level as it was BEFORE I moved the hip point (which means adding 2" extra ease)...then, manually remove the excess ease from the front.

After much experimentation, this is the pattern I have arrived at!

*
See how the sideseams, front and back, have the same relationship to the grainline, which is parallel to the center lines of the patterns?

You can see the relationship of my Torso Block to the red overlay (the Dress Sloper). Notice the relationship of the HIP LINES. The Dress Sloper is divided equally, front to back, at hip level. However, my Torso patterns are NOT equal at hip level. The front pattern is wider than the back at hip level and wider than the red overlay at hip level (see little circle and arrow)…and this is because I used the SIDESEAM PLACEMENT TOOL to move the Side/Hip point backward. I used the -0.5 setting, which makes the front hip 1” wider than the back.

Yes, that made the front waist darts much too large, and made the back waist dart not quite as large as it could be. So I used the SIDESEAM PLACEMENT TOOL to move the Side/Waist Point backwards, too, by 0.25” (half as much as I moved the Hip…again, a negative setting). This made the back waist dart just a little bit larger and made the front waist dart just a little smaller, yet had NO EFFECT on the indentation of the waist at sideseam (which is controlled by the relationship of bust to hip)…good! (The BACK waist dart size is what I was trying to control with this setting…the front dart is too wide no matter what, so I manipulate the size of the back dart with the S/W Point, and will deal with the front dart in a minute!)

Moving the Side/Hip Point backwards made the front pattern’s hip 1” wider than the back. Now, think of that in reverse: It made the BACK pattern 1” NARROWER than the front! I needed to regain some of that lost back hip width and prevent the back hip from being narrower than the hip width of the red overlay. So, I increased the HIP EASE by 2” (I added 2” because the pattern is only half the body…I needed 2” total…one inch additional hip ease for the left side of my body and one inch for the right side).

But adding this 2” Hip ease made the FRONT pattern’s hip larger, too…made it too large by one inch. And those front waist darts were still way too large. So the solution was to manually remove this added excess *at the front waist dart*! I offset the center line of the single front waist dart by 0.5” on both sides. I extended these lines to the HEM of the pattern (which in this example is at hip level).

Then I redrew the lower dart legs of the front waist darts from waist to HIP LEVEL…smoothing out the angle that is formed at the intersection of old dart leg/new line.

Basically, this is removing that extra 1” of front hip width that I added…but instead of removing it at the SIDE of the front pattern, as happens with ease reductions, it is removed from within the pattern…allowing the front sideseam shape to mirror the back sideseam!

The resulting front waist dart is much narrower below the waist than before, because now the dart is measured from the stitching line to the NEW center line(s), not the old one. The ‘effective’ dart width is reduced because the new lines removed a chunk of fabric all the way to the pattern’s lower edge, not just to a point within the pattern (see the diagonal pink lines).

The lower part of the new front waist dart is only 0.719” wide on each side of this new center line (blue lines)…for a total of 1.438” (much less than before, and still less than the width of the back waist dart!).

EVERY PMB Torso pattern will have to have this seam in front, whether a Princess seam or a waist dart that continues to the hem. But this makes the front and back pattern (after this alteration) be equal in width at hip/hem. However, any pattern with a waist seam will not have to have this seam/dart, as the gap can be eliminated by sliding the two pieces together.

These settings can also be found in Version 3…the difference is in the location of the SIDE/WAIST Point tool. In Version 3, this point cannot be changed on the TORSO blocks within the Drafter (blouses, jackets, sheaths, etc.). However, if you go to the SLOPER section, and navigate to the DEFAULTS, you can set the Side/Waist Point in the defaults for that measurement chart, and it WILL apply to the waist darts of the Torso drafts, too…for that measurement chart only.

Blue River Quilt part 3

A while back, I was reading Myrna's blog and she was talking about choosing colors for her quilt by photographing them and looking at them in gray scale. I began to wonder how MY piece would hold up to critique in gray scale.



It DOES have the desired value shift that I was after, transitioning from dark in the upper left to light in the foreground. I was surprised, though, at the way some of the 'trees' just blended right in to the background! This is not evident in the colored version, which IS, after all, the real thing! Overall, I am pleased with the choices.









I'm in the quilting stage now, but thread selection is my hold-up. I had good results with some Madiera POLY NEON thread, but the variegated Sulkys gave me trouble...the thread kept breaking, plus, when I went to rip out the stitching, I could pull hard on the bobbin thread and it would 'break' the top threads, allowing me to basically rip out the whole seam by pulling on the bobbin...not slipping out from under the loops, but actually pulling the top thread down and breaking it!! No, the Sulky is not strong enough. I must go find other threads before I can progress.








I drew lines on the quilt top to create sections to stitch within. I haven't worked out all the areas yet, so I stitch only where I have decided what to do!


The long thread tails will be threaded onto a needle and pulled in between the layers to eliminate them, as opposed to just cutting them off.

I used a basting spray to temporarily attach the 3 layers, then loaded it onto 2 of the 3 poles of the HandiQuilter frame. This way, I can stitch across the full width of the piece, going back and forth as the design requires, instead of stitching in long narrow strips from top to bottom.