Remember This Mini?

Back in June I designed & made this block to send off for Mr. Cowboy's soil/water conservation group.

It was added to other counties & into a great quilt. Mr. Cowboy is pointing proudly to our block.

The quilt is a big one so this was as close as I could get for a photo of the whole thing.

Mini

Mr. Cowboy asked me to help him participate in his cattle/soil/water conservation group project. Of course I said yes before he gave me the instructions.

After reading the instructions and listening to what he wanted, I was off and running with ideas.

I was really on a roll by the time I got to the water crane.

And was very happy with the deer minus the antlers for the moment.

Then I realized the tight fit for the 9 inch block. I decided to call and email a photo to the gal who's the head of the quilt group that will be sewing the blocks altogether. Boy am I glad that I did. At first that was dead silence on the line so I knew that things weren't going well on her end. She was kind to steer me in the direction need so back to the drawing board I went.

Here's the block Mr. Cowboy will be sending in. He liked it better that the three section block. I'm just happy things worked out. He doesn't ask me to do things for his organization so I wanted to do him proud.

How I Spent My Tuesday; A Winner & Another Give Away

Mr. Cowboy decided he needed some blades for cutting hay. He ask if I wanted to tag along. Not thinking clearly, I said, "Sure, why not." Several hours later...& several stops later...sigh. Of course I forgot my Kindle and any hand work I could have done but Mr. Cowboy kept me in stitches so all was not lost.

Next, I went with Mr. Cowboy's suggestion to add the tree. He loves trees & he was so excited to help.

Now for the most exciting part, Mr. Cowboy pulled the name for the FQ..& the winner is  A Left-handed Quilter. Congratulations to you.

If you've made it this far on this post, I'm giving away another FQ, you can see it below. Isn't it pretty? All you need to do is leave a comment to participate. Good luck!! 

 

Another FQ give away!!!!

Happy Cinco de Mayo & A Mini

Hi everyone! Well I'm back at it. Here's the latest mini. A giraffe in love with his next meal. This measures 9" by 13 1/2".

Here's a close up of the giraffe eyeing the leaves.

 

My cousin Clark has a beautiful blooming tree in his front yard and I just had to snap a couple of photos which doesn't do the tree justice at all.

 

And then I've decided to do a FQ give away. Isn't this fabric so pretty. Just leave a comment to be counted in the give away and I'll have Mr. Cowboy do a drawing next week. He just loves that process.....hehehehehe!!

Mini Tutorial - To Stitch or Not To Stitch

Happy first day of May everyone!!

Thanks to all who have commented on my previous post on minis. And thank you for reminding me that I didn't follow through with the entire process.  The stitch or not to stitch part.

These two minis are not stitched. If you are not going to be washing or using your mini as a mug-rug, there is really not need to stitch it down. You can hand wash it gently, lay flat to dry and then press carefully with no problems.

I do raw edge stitching which I will show at the end of this post. I do the raw edges and also quilt inside and around each piece.

Here's a close up of the eagle's beak and feathers plus stitching around the area.

Here's another example.

Here' you can see where I stitched around the head of the buffalo, inside the body and around the piece.

Same with the beaver.

Stitching around and inside the areas also adds texture and depth to your project.

Here are three sizes of needles that I use. The smaller the needle, the less fraying of your project because you will be stitching very close to the edge of your pieces.

Here, I hope you can see that I've moved my sewing needle as far over to the left as possible. If you machine doesn't have this capability, you can adjust your project so that the needle will land near the edge.

Here you see I have positioned the area I'm about to stitch. It's hard to say how close to the edge I stitch....probably at eighth inch or less.

And here's a better view.  I hope this helps and again, thank you everyone for your great comments!!!

Mini Tutorial

Several of my blogger friends have expressed an interest as to how I go about making my minis. So I've decided to attempt to explain in a sort of step by step process.
BTW, this post is loaded with photos.
First, I like to either look thru photos that I've taken in the past or look at some of the clipart photos on the subject I'm interested in from the Internet.
Today I decided to do a sunrise or sunset scene. So I'll need to choose from several photos.

This photo has subtle colors and appears a bit foggy.

This photo could be a sunset on the plains.

I really like this photo and will probably to it another time.

This one I thought reminded me of one that one of my blogging friends mentioned that she was interested in making.

All these photos are from the Internet and they all are fascinating to me because of all the possibilities such as.....I'm seeing a mixture of fabrics I'd want to use. I love mixing batiks, solids, prints, florals, etc. 

I'll probably save the ones I don't choose at this time.

I like I'll work with the first photo. 

Now that I've chosen a photo to work with, I'll need to print out a copy.

With the chosen photo traced on the back, I'm thinking that I want to enlarge it a bit so off to the new printer (LOL) to get that done.  Note: The traced photo is in reverse. 

Now I've enlarged it 125% which means it's about 7 1/2" by 9" at this point.

Next I chose some fabrics to use. Sorry about the photo. The one in the very middle is a McKenna Ryan gradient fabric (love it) and the others are an assortment of batiks and some that read as solids.....which are gray, pale yellows and greens, a dark brown and I might choose other fabrics later.  I looked carefully at the photo I chose to get color ideas but it's easy to change or decide on another color scheme.

You see, it's not so hard to do this. I know you can too!!

Now, it's time to trace the design onto the Heat-n-Bond. This is where things get tricky because the parts need to be traced in pieces, such as the tree bark then the tree foliage, next.......  I'll demo to show how that's done.

I'm showing the chosen photo again, hopefully in a better light to finalize my color choices and to be able to compare the photo to me project as I go along.

I've numbered the sections that I'll be tracing just to keep up with every part.

I've chosen the McKenna Ryan piece as my foundation and background. Usually I'd us a muslin as a foundation then all my fabric choices on top but the Ryan piece has just the right colors that I'm looking for even though they don't quite match the actual photo. Remember, it's your project, so if you want to change colors or add something......that's the fun of it all.

Here I've traced off the different parts onto the Heat-n-Bond. Notice that the parts are separate and a bit larger that the actual pieces. This is for adjustments because more is better than not enough. So always give yourself more traced area because you can cut something down easily.

In this photo I wanted to show the difference in the right side and wrong side of the fabric, not because you don't know the difference but because sometimes the wrong side of the fabric is a better fit for what you are looking for than the right side.  Someone once told me, "Remember, we've paid for both sides."

All parts are not pressed to the wrong side of the fabrics I've chosen.

Now I've cut all my pieces out and laid them on the McKenna piece so that you can better see them.

Here you can see the non-stick pressing sheet that I use so that the Heat-n-Bond doesn't gum up my ironing board.

I'm now building from the ground up.

I really like the sun fabric I chose.

Here you see the whole thing before I press everything down.

Also, I like to compare the original to what I've done.

Here are all three. I'll probably do a bit of crayon work around the sun....YES, I said crayons. They are great to add some detail and depth. Just press using a sheet of paper or muslin between the project and your iron.
I hope this helps those of you who are interested in this type of thing. Please leave a comment if you care to. I love hearing from you.















 

Moose At Morning's Light

So I got some free time this morning and pulled out some fabric completely messing up my clean sewing room....hehehehehehehehe

I've had this clipart moose for a month and decided to dive in to make it my own.

I used a mixture of batiks, solids and small prints.

I added the silhouette of the male moose.

 

I trimmed up the area and placed the whole thing on a background fabric.

Then I thought, hey, why not do something a bit wacky, which is so me!!! I added a tree in the foreground just for fun.  Not to worry, I haven't pressed everything down.  So what are your thoughts on the matter? Leave off the tree or keep the tree?! And do I need a different background?
I really want your opinions.