Ready Yourself for Sewing

Here are components of a good creative mind ready for sewing.

1.  A messy desk.  Make sure you have lots of types of creative materials, like watercolors, that have nothing to do with sewing on your desk and in the way.  And lots of wires too.  The ones in view here are for recharging gadgets. 

2.  A crude plan.  (apologies for the photo facing the wrong direction), when you start out even a simple pencil sketch or in this case a marker sketch can get you on your way.  This is a sketch of week #2 of the Tetris quilt along.  You can see week #1 here.  And I should give myself a few bonus points, because this sketch is at least cut out and glued into my sewing journal.  Less chances of being lost that way, right?

3.  A floor that is clean enough to put fabric on.  I know.  I hear you asking me why I'm not using my design wall for exactly this use.  I'll get to why next.  But, first let's focus on the floor.  If you are going to put fabric on it, be sure it's free of dog hair and stuff.  Mine turned out to be kinda hairy and it took a few shakes of the fabric to return the hairy stuff back to the floor. 

4.  A design wall that's full to the brim.  Hence the reason I had to layout my above pieces on the floor.  A cluttered design wall is just as good as a cluttered desk.  Gives your brain no room to process and forces you right into sewing action since there is no 'holding zone' for something else in progress.  And I still hold that the only way these triangles are coming down is either sew or press them.  Seriously.

5.  Get reaquainted with your sewing machine.  Remember this lovely?  It's been too long.  So long, that I was sewing and the stitches stopped working and I couldn't figure out what was wrong.... turned out to be an empty bobbin.  Wow, this summer is powerful anti-sewing stuff.  The bobbin.  Now, how do you wind one of those things?  Ha, silly me!

Yes, I'm being sarcastic as heck, but what fun to dive back into some sewing time after a way to long break.  I'm sure it'll be smooth sailing from here.

WIP {Tetris & Sammy}

It's been a month since I pulled together all my works in progress and chatted with you about them.  Over due, right?  But I also have to admit that with all the sunshine and warm weather I have been spending a ton of time outside and basically zilch in front of my sewing machine. 

But, let's take a look at what is getting attention.

I recently gave in to the Tetris Quilt Along and pulled out scrappy rainbow charms to use as the game pieces.  This quilt along is already so much fun.

Melissa from Happy Quilting is making the experience awesome by having us actually play the game.. then sew our board.  So, here is my board for week 1. 

I grabbed the proper colors and then laid out my 6x6 square.  I'm using a creamy white linen to represent the holes where pieces don't end up. 

And then I sewed those 5 inch squares together.  Pairs, then rows, then two rows, then the square was assembled.  So therapeutic.  Love the easy sewing element of this project.  My hands and fingers just know what to do and my brain is relaxed and enjoying the process.  What a easy way to ease back into the rhythm of sewing in between summery things.

With the simplicity of the piecing I think I might take this up a notch by quilting each square as I go so I can maneuver the smaller squares for some intricate quilting.  Then I would join all the squares together at the end.  I'll let you know by next week what I decide to do.  Which reminds me... I need to pick up some batting if I'm going to go that route.

This Week's Work in Progress (WiP) Stats:

Last WiP Wednesday Total: 4
New Projects: 2

Finished Projects: 0 (removed Mushrooms for now)

Total WiP's: 1

Last time, my four work's in progress were: Prisms, Mushrooms, Hawk, and the City/State Landscape.  Funny how things change in a month.  I haven't touched any of those. 

Prism is still on my design wall.  I vowed to myself that the only way it's coming off is to sew it together.  Otherwise it stays.  I lost steam on that one because of all the triangle cutting.  It got to me.  But, I have an idea to get past that.  Which means deviating from the pattern, which I should have seen coming. 

I don't think a hand sewing project is actually going to happen any time soon for me.  So, I'm crossing Mushrooms off my list for now.  Hawk is the next one I am going to start.  I'm happy with my research, my sketching, and just need to pick a size and then pick a pose.  I am really temped to do this one as a whole cloth... sketch with thread and then paint and applique feathers and details on top.  The City/State Landscape was something I wanted to do to join in the fun of my quilt guild.  Some days I can see it really clearly.  Some days it's clear as mud.  But, I think it would be fun to capture some of the places I've travelled in quilts.  I'm still tossing around the idea of one for Aruba or Amsterdam. 

As for my second new project, you might remember I painted my pup Sammy on fabric.  And I'm happy to report that I have made some progress.   

It's sandwiched, basted, and I started some of the outlining.  Lots more to go, but I'm glad I'm getting over my initial fear of ruining the whole thing by quilting it. 

I think the thread painting is really going to add a nice texture and dimension to the otherwise flat painting.

And there you have it.  That's what's going on quilty-wise.  For now.  Until I change my mind a million more times.  We'll see what I actually work on in the next week, if anything at all *wink*

Wishing you gobs of creativity and sunshine!