This is my first time to do a ‘linky’ post. It may be the first of a sporadic few or the first and last of just this one. Since I covered my bases with Roseanne of Home Sewn by Us, the sponsor of this linky-party, I was assured no one will be offended one way or the other.
This also counts as day two of my 6 years on WP.org posts. My, how serendipitous.
Here goes!
My creativity trinity* is as follows: fiber art – MUSIC – writing. Each is intertwined with the other, offering needful respites between projects which in turn aid in the completion of various Works-In-Progress as new perspectives appear from such respites. Ultimately, it’s all about the music but tracking fiber art Works-In-Progress is lots easier to communicate in such a setting as this.
My goals for the week from August 13th through August 19th:
- Edit “Christmas Medley” NOTION score √ (hey, like this creative use of the square root symbol?)
- Start ‘Pink Flamingo Wall Hanging Kit’ √
I’m planning on writing up a special post on the process of editing music scores into a Final copy, so I’ll just let that square root symbol ‘check’ linger to show I’m on track with that goal.
Pink Flamingo Wall Hanging Kit
As for the Pink Flamingo Wall Hanging Kit (PFWHK)? Lots of tangibles to share with you new ToDoTuesday readers and my dear usual suspects (little listers/followers).
I don’t usually do kits, but this one was on sale and I thought I’d use it to perfect my machine walking foot quilting skills and try out a few sewing experiments.
First thing I noticed right out of the box was the quality of the pre-printed fabric. The fabric itself has a great hand and feels like a high thread count cotton. It in fact glides smoothly under the needle and is a joy to sew/quilt. The printed aspect of it, though, is quite poor.
Everything except batting and thread is included –
PFWHK backing fabric, 80/20 batt, low loft batt and tip of top fabric panel
which plays well with my intention to try a ‘double’ batting application and exploring lighter weight/finer thread in the bobbin.
My last two projects involving batting yielded a sense of incompleteness. I used an 80/20 cotton/poly batt for the Project4Now quilt which handled & quilted nicely, but feels flat and heavy. On my Proud2Bee an honorary Manc wall hanging I used a low loft poly batt which handled & quilted nicely but hangs flimsily.
For the PFWHK I decided to combine the two – with the 80/20 cotton/poly against the backing fabric and the low loft poly against the top fabric. I spray basted the two together then spray basted the outer layer of the 80/20 to the backing and then the outer layer of the low loft to the top. After smoothing everything out, I needle basted the new quilt sandwich for an extra measure of security.
I chose thread I already had on hand: a Gutterman 100% cotton Pink thread for the outline stitching required around the PF’s body and a Mettler Metrocene poly White thread for the vertical quilting lines. Both had The Finishing Touch Bobbin Thread 100% poly White 60 weight thread in the bobbin.
Pretty pink stitches
Using the walking foot for all stitching applications, I used ¼ in. Quilter’s Tape for the first two vertical quilt lines then added the left-sided quilting attachment spacer bar to continue the vertical line quilting on the PFWHK.I learned two cautions with the walking foot:
- The ¼ in. QT peels back under the walking foot, sticks & acts as a stitch-shortening ‘brake’
- The presser foot glides under basting thread, catches & acts as a stitch-shortening ‘brake’, too
~~~~~~~~
ToDo for the week of August 20th through August 26th:
- Continue edits on various NOTION scores
- Finish PFWHK
- Maybe have something to post on next week’s ToDoTuesday linky party
Thanks, Roseanne for letting me try my hand at this linky-party!
*new term I just invented!
I am in awe of anyone who composes music. Never realised that, as with writing, it needs to be edited. Strength with that process.
Read with interest the quilting of the PF.
I revisited some of the edits I mentioned and realized ‘less is more’! Which, again, is all part of the process – right?
Thanks for catching up reading my humble posts, Mariss.
Thanks for sharing your delightful flamingo on Clever Chameleon. I’ll be very interested to read what you think about the double batting once you are done, great idea to use a kit to bypass some of the thinking so you can get to your experiments with the least fuss. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, CC.
So far I really love the double batting. The bottom 80/20 glides nicely, giving the rest of the quilting a base while the upper low loft adds a slight poof and fluffiness without tripping up the machine quilting stitches.
I love the pink flamingo!
It’s a keeper!
Your pink flamingo is really sweet, Laura! I have never bought a kit, but I do see the attraction of kits. I also have never tried Quilter’s Tape, but I have used masking tape and painters tape in the past…not my favorite way to mark my quilting. I like to baste using safety pins on large projects and straight pins on the small stuff (or maybe spray baste, but I tend to get everything sticky…my table, my fingers, my tools…ha, ha!). I love the blue washout marker! And I have stitched designs through paper and then peeled off the paper. I find your choice of batting interesting, too. Not the batting itself, but that you are using two different kinds together. The only time that I have used another layer of batting is when I was doing trapunto, but the layers were the same type of batt.
Like I mentioned to Lisa in comments, using a kit helps contain things to where I can focus a bit more on my experiments (the double batting for example). Plus, I like the backing fabric that came with the kit!
Fun project ! Looks great!
Thanks, Lisa. Using a kit as a guide has made it easier to enjoy my experiments more!
Hope your travel is calming down…maybe by Fall?
What a cute Flamingo! I hope you continue to share your progress on the To-Do Tuesday link up. Nice meeting you and reading your blog.
Thanks for stopping by, Sharon. The To-Do Tuesday linky-party was fun…nice to meet you,too.
That is cute. I have never purchased a kit, not saying I wouldn’t if something caught my eye. The flamingo would make me stop and consider it. Cant wait till you share your finish.
Thanks for stopping by, Denise. Part of the allure to purchase the kit was also the neat backing fabric (which was included) and I just had to have!
😉
I’ve dabbled with quilting years ago, but never really made anything significant. Now my machine actually needs an overhaul but I’ve got a passion for primitive hand stitching. But I love your flamingo.
Your creative trinity seems like something I should consider, particularly as I have come to a halt in various ways, even though I am making…
Oh I love to dabble in hand stitching also. Sashiko is on my to-try list.
Thanks for commenting, Catherine.
For what it’s worth, I avoid the tape sticking to the foot by starting far enough end from the edge of the quilt that the sticky end of the tape doesn’t contact the foot. Might also work to use a longer piece and turn the first 1/2″ to the back of the quilt if you want to start right at the edge.
Great tip! I was just concentrating on getting the line right! But I do like using the QT in conjunction with the walking foot, so that helps.
Laura, I love flamingos and can stand for ages watching them when at the zoo/wildlife park! Yours here is adorable … and I’m in awe of your sewing. The part of the post relating to the finer details of the task reads like a foreign language to me! Good luck with your ToDo list for the coming week!
Thanks Annika.
I think Pink Flamingos can also stand for hours (watching us?) – on one leg even!
🙂
I love your Flamingo!!!
Birds of a feather?!!!
HA! Thanks for stopping by, Chris.
Oh my word! This is quite the project, Laura. I’m impressed. I’ve always loved flamingos…except the fake one’s you see in front yards. 🙂
I’ve never seen one for real…
Hope your release day was satisfying – congrats again!
Love flamingos and your PFWHK tribute to nature’s most flamboyant fowl! I’d love if you shared more of your fiber art… I need to get motivated.
Hmmm…motivated to what? Quilt? Do you do fiber art?
Some of your door photos would be great inspiration – design and color palettes for a fiber piece.
Just sayin’…
I’m always amazed when bloggers write about something that for whatever reason, I also happen to either see or think about prior to reading their post. Just this morning on our way to the gym, I noticed for the first time a quilt store. This store I’m sure has been there all along, but something made me notice it for the first time. I have zero interest in quilting, yet I pondered that store as we drove past it for some reason. And now, I read this post of yours! Synchronicity on a level or two I guess.
Pink Flamingos are a cool choice, btw.
Maybe it’s a subliminal message that Gorgeous will be starting up quilting soon!
As for the Pink Flamingos…they are definitely a quirky statement.
😎
Hi Laura! Look at you, sharing the linky button and all. I am impressed! Hmm, I have never tried Quilter’s Tape. I can only imagine how it may work at a brake if it somehow got itself stuck to the walking foot. What a cute kit! I love that everything is included, and it sounds like you had no issues at all with it. That backing fabric is perfect – and included, too, I assume. I look forward to hearing more about your musical scoring – something I know nothing about but it sounds interesting just the same. ~smile~ Roseanne
Yep, that backing fabric came with the kit and I like it alot, too!
Whew! Enjoyed the linky-party – thanks for the encouragement, Roseanne.
Now if I can only figure out the best way to leave comments on Blogger!!!!
😀
First of all I love PFWHK, both the use of Important Initials when referring to it and the project itself. I am not a sewer so your flamingo looks like a confusing project to me. Wishing you well as you put it all together on a timely basis.
Thanks for reading through the ‘confusion’, Ally.
These linky-parties are new to me and usually involve more specific focus on things such as sewing projects and such.
Take care.
Aha! Another quilter who shares my love of writing, AND my love of music?! Such a pleasure to meet you! :-). Tell me more about your music — are you a composer, instrumentalist, director/conductor/singer? And what kind of writing do you do?
Your flamingo project looks adorable. Not sure what disappointed you about the print quality because it looks lovely in your photo, but maybe you’re seeing something awry in person that didn’t come through in the photograph. About your walking foot getting hung up on your basting stitches — have you tried basting with safety pins for machine quilting? That’s the way I learned to do it (from Harriet Hargrave’s excellent machine quilting book), although I did baste a hand quilted quilt with large hand sewn basting stitches. If the wall hanging project is not too big, you may even find that you can baste all of the layers successfully with the basting spray you used on your batting, and then you wouldn’t have to fuss with “brake” stitches OR with taking out safety pins as you went along. I look forward to seeing your flamingo project once it’s finished and hearing about how your batting combination worked out for you! Happy stitching (and happy musicking!)
Rebecca, thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Yep to all of the above and more! I’m a ‘working’ musician but not as active on the gigging front for a few years due to our location. This has given me time to concentrate on editing my compositions into score form for future distribution…most related to an multi-disciplinary project (named Swimming with Swans)relating written word (non-fic vignettes/poetry), original music recorded & scored, fiber art created during and after a specific life event that resulted in a large creative output. My primary instrument is classical guitar…etc etc.
How about yourself? Do you play an instrument or are you a vocalist?
I’ll be poking around your site in the next few days, for sure!
😉
BTW: I tried the safety pin thing a while ago and just hated the holes left behind in the fabric by the thickness of the pins…otherwise, great tools. And you’re probably right about the print quality of the kit fabric…I guess I’m kinda seeing a nit when really as a whole, it all looks good!
HA!
Fiber art? I see twisted cables sneaky snaking into my router and modem. Does that count?
Crazy hilarious, Joe!
As an aside – when hubby had a data center built for his company around the turn of the century (!), the electrician left artwork of twisted colored wire scraps all over the area for us to discover…really cool. An old-timey cable/fiber type of thing!
Great goals! Looks like a delightful and beautiful project, Laura! There’s something fascinating about flamingos. I have some flamingo buttons that I’d like to set on a project or two.
They are unusual creatures indeed! Did you know that the intensity of their pinkness is dependent upon the quality/number of shrimp in their diet? So a pale pink flamingo is a malnourished pink flamingo.
Thanks for stopping by and let me know when you get those buttons attached to their respective project homes!