Scissor Alert!

 

I decided to do a bit of cleaning up in my sewing room starting with some drawers that I thought had only thread. Well that turned into a big surprise. Scissors!!!!! OMG!  Why do I have 4 crane type scissors....this is a bit ridiculous.

I know there are more somewhere but for the moment I'll have to deal with these. Do you have a scissor collection?  Talk to me friends.....LOL!

My new bread machine.  You really don't want to know how the first two loaves turned out. Let's just say a brick would have been softer.

And now...about my latest and much better bread endeavor. I've been experimenting with my new bread making machine.  I added some of my own ideas like adding 1 egg & some baking powder.  This loaf is so good especially with butter and jam. Even Mr. Cowboy didn't turn up his nose at it...WHEW!

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.















 

Monday, Monday

First........

Don't forget to get counted for my "big give-away" by commenting HERE!

It's Design Wall Monday, again and I've been cleaning for the give-away but I did get in some design work for a mug rug that I'll be giving away one of these days.

I love making silhouettes.

Can you tell it's a dog??

Next, I did a silhouette of "The Duke" John Wayne.

On this particular one, I worked from the bottom up.

Remember, I'm using my favorite fabric adhesive, Steam-a-Seam, which

 I should have bought stock in.....LOL

It's easy cutting the tiny pieces because I using small scissors.

The dark handle scissors at the bottom 4th from the left, is my favorite but I'll use any of the smaller one at any given time.

I also use straight pins and tweezers to aid in placement.

I know this will be hard to believe but working on projects like this is therapeutic to me. I can't think of anything but what I'm working on and when I get my favorite radio station going, well it doesn't get any better than that. Plus, it's just plane fun!!

So far "The Duke" measures about 9 by 11 inches. I don't know if I'll add a border. This is one of those times I'll need to think about it.

All fabrics came from my stash. I haven't shopped for fabric is months. I can't believe that myself but it's true.

Make sure to pop over to Judy's to see what everyone else is doing.