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.















 

Star, I'm Thinking - Part 2

I've added a row at the top and bottom of the body of the quilt to lend some length and that's that!!!

Now to get to work on the backing which sometimes takes longer to do than the top.....sigh

I'm using a couple of the t-shirts provided and the rest of the HSTs.

Finally done with the backing. Yeah!!! 

Now I'll need to quilt everything and present it to her.........I'm going to buckle down and get this done. You've heard it here!!

This is my own design that I sketched out a few years ago. Feel free to use it.

My friend Guilitta asked about the design I used for the star. I hope I explained well enough about the construction but might have fallen short.

So I'll try again to explain.  The block size can be "your own choice" that's the beauty of this design. If you're making a mini quilt to a king-sized quilt. I used 6 1/2 inch blocks for the memory quilt because I was working with fabric from her husband's shirts.

There are several ways to make HSTs and it's easy to find out on youTube.  I hope I've explained a bit better.

Ok, Maybe One or Two More?

I've enlarged each design 150% on my printed. It takes several repositions to get all the parts and then loads of cutting and taping things back together.

There are at least two Veterans at our Seniors Center who served in the Army and Air Force so I decided to make those two seals especially for them. I can easily quilt these on my Janome because they aren't going to be any bigger than 25 inches each.

After this I'm really finished.....no.....REALLY!!!

Below are some of the stages to making the seals. I'll show the finished quilts in a lager post.

 

 

 

I use dinner plates, pizza pans, skillets and anything else that will lend me a perfect circle. Mr. Cowboy just shakes his head but wisely says nothing.

I will stitch all the pieces down before quilting everything.
In a couple of previous posts, someone asked about the types of fabric adhesives I use. I love Steam-a-Seam Lite but it's sometimes hard to find so I'm using Heat-N-Bond Lite at the moment. When quilting everything together I use either the 505 Spray or Loctite Spray Adhesive (the Loctite is found at JoAnn's).

Celebration Part 6

Warning, this post is photo heavy!!!

I've chosen a close up of an eagle.

 

I enlarged it & outlined the parts I want to really stand out. Next I'll choose some fabrics to make the magic happen.

These are just some of the fabrics that will be used in this endeavor.

The eyes are looking good.

I've gotten the beak in place & need to stitch around the parts before I can stitch everything together.

Here's a close-up of the eagle's face. I've used crayons & markers to highlite the feathers & will use threads to further add to the coloring when I quilt the piece.

Little Firecracker is all kicked back playing some sort of video game. I don't know how her parents got her to sit still for any period of time!

Oh, I nearly forgot about the winner of the fat quarter. It's Vicki H. Congratulations to you. Her favorite color is orange.

Please leave a comment to participate in the give-away. I do believe that the next post will be #1600. Oh boy I can't wait!!!