Thread Case Part IV: Quilting

Hand stitching the appliques went much faster than I thought it would and the swanky fabrics seemed no more difficult to handle than any other. And, as you may have noticed, I didn't surge the edges of the green silk.

I started with one diagonal line across the box and eyeballed it from there. I placed the lines about 1/2" - 10mm apart. I'll quilt around each spool and do a centered line of stitches across the caps. My hand quilting stitches leave much to be desired... no one would ever guess that one of the features I worked on for Threads Magazine was about perfecting your hand quilting stitch.
Obviously, I learned nothing. But I'm not really a hand quilter anyway... or should I say "yet"?

I DO have another secret weapon that helped my wonky, hand stitched applique go so quickly... my OttLite.

fan girl gushing...
I have six OttLites: two portable LEDs, two clip-on and two floor lamps one with LED bulbs and one with OttLite's standard daylight florescent bulb. The LEDs are my favorites.

I like all of them but I absolutely cannot live without my OttLite 2 in 1 LED Floor or Desk Lamp.

It came with 2 bases, as noted above, BUT one of the things I absolutely love about this lamp is the bulbs don't get hot. For me this means no sweaty hands if I'm doing hand stitching, no heat added to my second floor studio on the sunny side of the house in the summer AND no burned fingers when adjusting its position. And, being LED, it uses virtually no electricity.

I use both the magnifier and light at my sewing machine positioned between me and the presser foot. The light is true and the magnification lets me be as precise in my stitching as an anal retentive perfectionist, like myself, has to be. For ANY kind of hand stitching it's simply amazing. I wouldn't be able to do any kind of hand work if it weren't for this lamp.

As of this post the link above goes to an Amazon Marketplace seller who has the lamp for $69.99 with free shipping... it retails for $149. I got mine at Joann Fabrics with a 50% off coupon and this price is less than I paid for mine.
/fan girl gushing...

Thread Case Part III: Tiny, Tiny Pieces

Wow.
These are some teensy, tiny, weensy pieces.
I've got the invisible stitching down but doing a seam allowance turn on these microscopic bits is... challenging.

I'm not gonna lie... I considered abandoning the entire magilla. Free-form needle turn applique, with unpressed pieces, is not for me. But I decided to try a few different methods before I ran screaming into the night.

Take a look through these various methods of applique.
I tried the freezer paper method and the mylar template method without the starch.

In the photo below, the bottom shape (spool cap) stitched to the green silk was done as suggested in the book, Japanese Quilting Piece by Piece: 29 Stitched Projects from Yoko Saito, by copying the shape to the right side of the fabric and turning the seam allowance under as you go without pressing.

This wasn't too bad but I needed at least a 3/16" - 4mm allowance to turn under. Anything less and I had a hard time getting the fabric to STAY turned under (the author suggests only a 1/8" seam allowance for applique pieces). Most difficult were the tiny curved corners. I stitched up to where they started to turn, turned under a teensy bit of fabric, took a stitch, did another turn and stitch and with the next stitch got back to straight stitching.

Second from the bottom is a piece of unbleached muslin using the mylar template. The fabric was too thin to control easily and was semi-transparent. Pressing this tiny piece around the dinky mylar template was a pain in the posterior.

The applique on top is the freezer paper test with another scrap of quilting cotton.




All of these were extra fussy and making the templates took too much time. The rounded corners were lumpy looking and I just didn't like 'em. So in the intro photo, way at the top, you see the results of what I did.

I traced the shapes onto the right side of the fabric, cut them out leaving a 3/16" allowance, pressed in both of the long edges (leaving the marks just visible on the 'right' side of the fabric), then pressed the short ends under and pined them in place.

I'm very happy with the wonky, yet charming, results. I had to learn to embrace the wonkiness... everything doesn't have to be perfectly matched and straight as an arrow, right?

I am extremely happy with the fabrics I chose. Now, hanging onto that 33 gallon bag for ::cough::twelve::cough:: years, a relic of my short and colorful stint at Threads Magazine, has been completely justified.

Roxy White stitched, layered and dyed the silks I used for the threads on my box (formerly known as Thread Case).