Sunday, August 4, 2019

Sit back and relax a bit

Today I need to find some time to prep a bit of applique. 

I do have some EPP to do and I did do a bit this morning. My Tula Nova is coming along nicely, but it's getting bigger and a bit more cumbersome to work on.


You can see on the purple-striped section that I am trying something new-to-me. 

There is something called the flat-back stitch for joining EPP pieces, and I've tried it before...unsuccessfully. My attempt looked sloppy and loose. The purpose of this stitch is to actually look neater and not see see stitches from the front, as you can kind of see when doing the whip-stitch.


I tried using painters' tape for this method, but it didn't hold well enough while inserting multiple-pieced segments, like I'm doing now. Then I tried gift-wrapping tape....stickier than the painters' tape but not sticky enough to leave any residue on the fabric.

I have to say, my attempt at the flat-back stitch this time was much more successful...


Hmmm, maybe you can see in the picture above....on the right of the otter is some whip-stitching....to the left of him is the flat-back stitches. 

As you can see, I'm still "old school" and baste my pieces to the foundation paper. I'm not finding it easy to do the newfangled gluing method.....and that's ok, as I even enjoy the thread-basting process.

Thanks to SS for walking me through the flat-back stitch. I really do try to be open to different methods even though I may stumble a bit at first :)


So, today I am fatigued. It feels too busy, physically, lately. I've been doing some painting this week...this morning I'll do the last hour or so needed to finish the job then really take it easy for the rest of the day.

I'd really like to prep the next block on my Kim McLean Animal Album quilt.

Here is the first block, practically done....I just need to prep three more small circles....


I do love very busy quilts!!

The other day I posted a picture of me with my arms full of garlic, you can see that post here.

Yesterday we tackled braiding the garlic. It was fun, and the first attempt without supervision. There is definitely room for improvement, but I'm quite happy with the result...


I think we should have made two smaller braids instead of the one, but once we got going it was hard to stop!

Well, I'd better get to my painting. I've always enjoyed painting, but I'm ready to have it done with.

I'll leave you with a picture of how my Temperature Quilt is coming along. This is it complete from January to the end of July...


I'm loving this one, and may even think of doing another version for 2020!  

Have a lovely day, and hopefully you get a chance to sit back and relax a bit.

I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.

10 comments:

  1. I love all the wonderful colors in your fabrics. The temperature quilt is amazing!

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  2. you have a lot of projects going! I find thread basting through papers hard to do but sometimes with glue basting it is hard to remove the papers as the glue sticks to the seam area too hard!

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  3. I am impressed with your garlic braid. I love your colorful quilts.

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  4. Your EPP project is looking gorgeous! And love the colours in your temperature quilt. I did think about doing one of these so might well have a go next year! Your garlic stringing is impressive!!

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  5. Your blocks is just so pretty! wow! That is a lot of garlic!

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  6. Love your EPP blocks! I too struggled with that 'flat stitch', but have improved, and it does seem to look much better.

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  7. Your blocks are beautiful and oh that garlic braid is quite impressive. I just read about flat-back stitching today so glad it worked out for you this time. O my the block with the swans and crowns is wonderful.

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  8. I love your temperature quilt! It's looks as if you were following a modern quilt pattern.

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  9. I love the Tula Nova... great name, beautiful fabric, and I love the fussy cuts!
    I am trying to master the flat back stitch also... I like the look of it better than slip stitch from the front. Libs Elliott uses masking tape so that's what I'm using and it seems to work well.

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