Computer Woes..

After talking to the "Geek Squad" Guys at Best Buy yesterday afternoon, we decided that the best thing for me to do with this computer that has been on the verge of a big fritz and getting worse every day, was to make CDs of everything I wanted to save, and then do a complete reformat. UGHHHHHH!

I was up reformatting until 2am, and then couldn't get the internet to connect...so I gave up and went to bed. But what does a girl do when all this file re-installation and stuff is going on? She plays with her pieces and parts! (Oh, dear...that sounds REALLY BAD! But Quilters will understand ;c)

I love applique. I just hate to do it. Sound familiar? I think it's a time thing. I hate the prep work. It isn't relaxing to me. I also think I hate it because I cut weird shapes out of perfectly straight fabric and it leaves me with more throw away than my own obsessive-compulsiveness can handle.

I hate fusible web! I hate freezer paper! So there had to be a way to do this in a way that would work for me. I also hate drawing and tracing. What does this leave me with?

Let me tell you! A couple months ago I was sewing at my friend Mary's house, and she and her friend were working on these little quilts from fabric that they had starched STIFF AS A BOARD. It really was like sewing through cardboard,or timtex or something of the sort.

So last night while all this computer stuff was going on I took liquid starch (The regular kind) Mixed about 1/2 cup starch with 1/2 cup water and dipped some small pieces in it. I wrang it out, blotted it on a towel, and the proceeded to iron it into complete stiff submission! I might have gone even a bit more concentrated next go around, but for now this was fine to play with.

Once the fabric was stiff, I stiffened a background square. And then I folded the flower fabric and just freehand cut a flower-ish shape. It's not even "SQUARE" it's a squashed rectangular flower! Little bit of glue stick to the back side, plop it on the background square, hit it with the iron again to make sure it stays stuck, and then off to do some machine button hole around the shape.

My stitching isn't as great as it could be. I'm not experienced in machine applique, but I figured out that if the tension looks 'off' it's because the cone of verigated thread I was using had fallen over and thrown the tension off. Oh well...move on! Do I want to pick it out? No. We are going for PRIMITIVE, right? Well this qualifies!

I added some leaves, some buds, a middle, and a free cut star in the center! It took NO TIME AT ALL and the best part is...it's not stiff like fusible. (Oh, I hate fusible, did I tell you this already? As a longarm quilter, fusible is a nightmare!)

After the block was done, I rinsed it! And ironed it dry again, and guess what....NO STIFFNESS! It's as soft as hand applique, and the best part is, I could cut away the backing from each layer as I added it to minimize the thickness. This is important to me as a hand quilter too.

Computer still was reformatting....so I dug into more pieces and parts and found a bunch of leftover 4 patches, made a lopsided uneven border of those (yes, the center is what it is, not mathematically correct at all and I like it this way!) I added a black spacer border from 1.5" strips, and then dug into my basket of 5" (unfinished size) string blocks for the outer border. I love this! I don't figure things out by math...just piece the border longer than it needs to be, center a seam along the side of the quilt,and trim off the excess on both ends, so it looks like I *TRIED* to get the repeat right. There is some variation,but that just adds character,right?

This morning..still installing things..getting the internet to work, and I worked on THIS goodie in between parts! I'm going to slap some bonus triangles around there and do something else for a border, but I have got to stop playing and get busy on getting set for tonight's Lecture/Trunkshow in Salisbury....

This one I made the button hole stitch a bit deeper into the applique, and I used black thread. I had a "whoooops!" while trimming out the back behind the tulip and had to applique a butterfly there. But I think it's cute! I did his antennae with a satin stitch zig-zag.

I'm probably not the only one who has ever starched antyhing to death in order to machine applique it down...but I've never seen it done this way without a stabilizer before. I'm looking forward to playing with this idea more!