I am ready to attach the squares I made with silk bits sewn onto timtex.
This is the layout
Tried zigzagging with a variegated brown-beige thread. Thread keeps breaking and I still am not enamoured because I don't like the frayed edges.
Setting this one aside for now to go back to thinking about a solution.
So I finished cutting the battings bits into smaller bits, 1" square or less - no I did not measure them to cut them- and stuffed them into a pillow case previously ravaged by Titan.
I searched "how to clean a fibre cutting mat" on youtube and found that if you rub the mat with this:
So with a total of 18 squares made, I figured that Chai made me virtuous enough in recycling batting.
I am now cutting the remaining pieces into small bits
Once I finished with the sewing, I cleaned the bobbin case, which should be done on a regular basis, say every Friday, and especially after sewing batting which has a lot of fluff. And I changed the machine needle, so I'm ready for my next project.
I have been quilting for about 20 years now. Not as prolific as some but I've still managed to accumulate a fair amount of batting pieces from after the quilt is squared and trimmed. (Not that I actually measure to check that the quilt is square - I belong to the school of "close enough".)
Frugal being that I am, I have about 20 years of saved batting bits, stored in a bin, that someday I will use.
Cut them into strips, in this case 15" long.
And made 9 15" squares.
These will work well for small wall hangings.
This is a project for when I need to spend time mindless cutting and sewing.
Now to research if the animal hospital takes pillows stuffed with the trimmings from the trimmings.
I am frugal (i.e. cheap). I don't need to run out to buy the latest quilting tool or even older ones.
Do I need a spinning cutting mat? No. Do I want one? Yes.
I have a lazy susan from my kitchen, languishing unused. I attached strips of cardboard on top of the lazy susan so my small cutting mat would like flat.
Et voila. Sufficient for trimming small blocks.
Now I just have to check that it works. And start making small blocks...
For my next order of business, I a going to sew together strips of batting to make 14" ish squares for wall hangings. Since I do not plan to use the blocks for anything other than wall hangings, as long as the strips are more or less the same thickness, it doesn't matter whether they are 100% cotton or a blend.
If strips are being joined together for bed quilts, they definitely should be of the same composition, because they shrink differently.
When Inbal visited Arizona pre-Covid, she brought me a gift - two small wall hangings, each a 2.5" ceramic square attached by beads to a small dowel. Unfortunately one broke. I brought the survivor to my studio to figure out how I could make little wall hangings from textiles.
I decided that today I would make little wall hangings.
There was a time when I used a lot of dupionni silk in my work. That was in the days when Fabricland was across the street from my place of work and Fabricland still carried dupionni in many colours. So I have a small container of dupionni bits and pieces.
I also attended a POM workshop where Timtex (stiff interfacing), some fusible, some not. The pieces that were not used ended up in the garbage. Or would have because I, without shame, rescued them. Granted, the leftover pieces were oddly shaped - a piece with a hamsa or apple cut out from the centre. from the pieces I saved, I was able to cut out 9 2.5" squares.
I decided that today I would make little wall hangings. I fused strips of dupionni to the Timtex squares. Then I stitched them down - some with my machine's embroidery stitches, some straight lines. I used my brown, umbra, beige, and green bits. When I finished, I realized they would have more impact if I used them as a group in 3 rows of 3.
I auditioned them on three backgrounds, one a beigish striped fabric, one a dark green faux suede and one an ecru (to avoid using the word beige again) faux suede. Once my camera and laptop are talking again, I will upload the 3 images and decide which to use.
I have one New Year's Resolution - do better.
In terms of my blog, I will try, as I have in the past, to blog daily about what I am doing creatively. Maybe this year it will work...
I took a quick look at my 2023 entries, of which there are few, mostly related to techniques I shared with the Pomegranate Guild("POM"). It gives me great pleasure to be able to share techniques I have learned with POM.
My first 2023 entry was about snow-dyeing. I know nothing about the chemistry involved. For example, the previous year I had gathered snow-ice from the shavings of the local skating arena, not knowing that there is ammonia or something in the ice which neutralized the fabric dyes so I dyed fabric with vibrant colours and the end result was barely visible colour. In January, I snow-dyed silks and the resultant pieces were "eh" to say the most and those pieces languished on my shelf until Devora gave a weaving demonstration and I had my "aha" moment. I used four pieces of snow-dyed fabric for weaving and ended up with these:
On the pink piece, I backed the silk pieces with stabilizer. In the "warp" piece, I cut approx. 1/2" slits. The "weft" piece was cut into 1/2" inch strips which were then woven through the warp piece. I used a piece of pink dupionni silk from my stash to frame it.
On the blue piece, I only sewed stabilizer on the weft piece before cutting into strips, then wove. You can see that the warp piece frayed somewhat and I'm not sure whether I like the additional texture of the frayed silk but it's there. This one I framed with a blue linen from my stash.
So my resolution to use what I have started at the end of 2023.
That said, I did make a purchase last week. I bought fusible light-weight stabilizer and soluble film (similar to Solvy) from Marathon Threads in Winnipeg. I rarely order online (i.e. next to never) but I had ordered from Marathon a few years ago for the fusible stabilizer for the neckties in the Torah Tie Project. I didn't remember the name of the fusible but Michele from Marathon was able to look it up for me and my current order arrived next day by courier. So I'm ready to go.
I also signed up for Just Get it Done's 2024 Declutter Challenge which starts today. I don't have the same problem as some who have boxes and wrapping paper etc. in their sewing spaces, although I do have a bed I'm trying to get rid of which, once gone, will free up floor space so I can better organize the room.
OK, so first resolution (to blog regularly) off to a good start.
