What I Did in October

So I decided to keep track of what I’m doing on my blog. This is what I accomplished the last couple of weeks in October.I finished my baby rainbow star. It measures about 40″ square.I used a variegated “Razzle” rayon #8 perle from Wonderfil to hand quilt it Sue Spargo uses Razzle…yum. It is very shiny and thick and kind of hard to work with but I loved the result. It’s hanging at Village Fabric and I’ll teach the class again this winter.This is my very first commission quilt ever. Rainbow bargello. Karen Fridy quilted it for me.I kinda sorta made the binding match the piecing. I just sewed binding strips together as I attached it. Not as hard as it sounds.Here’s the label. Bonnie Hunter has the directions on her website for that bias tape label. I use it all the time.How sweet is this? I am fortunate to be a member of a very special bee. We make preemie quilts for the little babies at Brenner Children’s hospital. Several of us are making this ornament this year for our bee members. This is stitched on metallic Essex linen. It’s shiny!This was definitely a trial and error ornament. First I stitched it on a teal blue (the actual color is much darker than this) and one of my dear friends told me it looked like an Easter egg…. I am grateful for my honest friends. I used a pencil to mark the design.

Then I tried a white background. I was kind of stuck on using blue. 🙂 Not the look I wanted.

I used a gray and it just didn’t work. I used a Frixion pen to mark this one. I haven’t ironed it yet to remove the dark lines.

Fourth time is the charm! I tried the metallic linen. I loved the look but it was impossible to trace! I normally use a fusible on the back of my work and I could not see to trace the design. So I traced it on Sulky water soluble and stuck it on the linen. Wow! It was thick but I was doing just a simple back stitch so it really worked!

Here’s a finished baby before the soluble is removed.

I let it soak in warm water for about 15 minutes. The soluble washed out and the ornament air dried.

Framed and backed with wool and ready for our bee members!

I finished this velvet and silk scarf for Margaret. I took this picture outside because I wanted to remember how beautiful the two colors are…I almost QUIT sewing this several times. Sewing the silk to the velvet was a slippery, impossible mess. You can see the silk is wider than the velvet?Finally, I finished the end by hand stitching. Not my best work but it is very soft and light and I’ll bet she loves it.I made my Bari J quiltalong block. Check.And I started this for Margaret for Christmas. She will love it. Stitching outside in the November sunshine is awesome.