Weekly Report 2013 - 11/29

Detail from experiment with textured appliqué.

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

It has been a short work week here in the states as we celebrated Thanksgiving and for some the start of Hanukkah on Thursday. It was a good week to play versus problem solve. Leah Day's assignment on Textured Appliqué was the perfect play thing. This got me thinking about texture and textiles, both words deriving from the Latin word from woven. Textiles are created by weaving fibers and of course woven fibers and woven strips of fabric create delightful texture.



Despite the short week I made some progress with my work. Here is how the week went:

1)  ZenBlossoms

• make and attach label - Done!
• add to my website - Done!
• add to my FaceBook fan page - Oops, forgot to do this.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - plan out the number of hexagons I will need and start piecing. - Partially done. I did manage to plan out the number of hexagons I would need for the goddess's face and begin the basting process.

Hexagons I basted the this week. Some are facing
right side up while others are facing wrong side. Of
course they will all be right side up when I stitch them
together. I just wanted to show both sides off here.

Before I could determine the number of hexagons I would need I first had to determine the scale that was best suited for this project. I found half inch hexagons too small. However, three quarter inch hexagons were too large. I settled on five eighths. Thank goodness the site for hexagonal graph paper allows for any size and so does my husband's calculator for what size to cut the strips.

b) Free Motion Quilting - Done!

This project was neither foundation piecing nor free motion piecing, but a method for creating Textured Appliqué. No surprise I deviated from Leah's method. She had you take a single raw edged strip and stitch it down as you bunched and twisted it. I am not a fan of raw edge unless I want loose threads. Instead I sewed multiple long narrow strips together along the length of the fabric. Next I seamed the long edges right sides together to form a tube. After that I turned the tube so that the right side was outside. Only then did I twist and bunch the fabric. 

Sampler with Textured  Appliquéd  segment added.

I think Textured Appliqué has many possible applications. My first thought was as vegetation. I think it would be great for tree trunks and rock formations, too.

3) Visioning Project - Do the next two assignments from my Photoshop Elements class. - Done!

4) Trio

a) Blow up my sketch for Trio. - Done!

b) Select the fabric I will use. - Done!

c) Try creating a painting of a city at night as the backdrop for the dancers. - Surprise, surprise, I changed my mind. I have decided to use a commercial fabric I found in my stash for the backdrop. It has nothing to do with city lights.

d) Bonus - I started cutting out the fabric I need to piece the background.

Hopefully, my turkey stupor will have worn off by next week and I will be back eager to cracking in my studio again. Here is what I have planned to motivate me:

1)  ZenBlossoms

• add to my FaceBook fan page

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - Piece the 43 hexagons required for the goddess's face.

b) Free Motion Quilting

3) Visioning Project - Do the next two assignments from my Photoshop Elements class.

4) Trio - Piece the background.


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.