A hitch in my stitch!

Chinese Coins quilt - crib size - not for sale


Well, there is a hitch in my stitch! My sewing machine had to be taken in for service today, and it wont be ready until the end of next week.

My sewing machine is a Singer with the standard different stitch options...buttonhole, zig zag, etc. I think it has about 8-10 different stitches. I got this machine as a Christmas present the first year my husband and I got married. After 11 years, I guess it finally needed a good cleaning!

So my work on my new quilt is on hold. I'm anxious to get my sewing machine back and get started! I had sewed two strip sets and the seams were working out great and the mesurements were exactly what they need to be.

The quilt shown in the picture above is my first quilt. I made this one after seeing the pattern in a magazine. The original quilt was very pastel and soft. But I'm just not a pastel sort of person, and when I made the quilt for my son....I wanted bright, happy colors! And it is exactly how this quilt looks...bright and happy.

Watercolor Art Cards on ebay and quilt progress

above paintings listed on eBay - click on My Ebay at right to view and bid!



I've listed three new ACEO watercolor art cards on ebay this week. One is a painting of a group of pink orchids featured on a dark blue background. Another is a painting of a green hummingbird perched on a small twig. The other is another seascape, but this one is a sunrise seascape. It's a bit different than my traditional ones, but I like it and wanted to list it to see how it would do.

I've cut all my 2 1/2 inch strips of fabric, and now I'm working on sewing them strip sets together. I'll be sewing and pressing for a good week, I believe. There were 134 strips, which will make 67 strip sets. Then I'll sew the sets together to form a four square block that "should" be 4 inches x 4 inches. If I've cut and sewn accurately, the measurements should be right! We'll see!

Starch is Worth It!

So I took the plunge and washed my new fabric fat quarters today. I clipped a tiny piece of each corner because I heard this would help lessen the threads from coming undone. Then I put them all in the wash, small load on delicate. When I started to take them out of the washing machine one at a time.... I quickly discovered a mess! All of the fabric came out in one, big wad. I just put them in the dryer and dealt with it later. The first picture is what came out of the dryer.

After untangling the fabric, and cutting away the loose threads. I was left with what shows in pictures two and three.

After a very thorough starching, the fabric is now ready to be squared up and cut for the quilt. It now looks like the last picture!

I'm a beginner quilter, and learn by making mistakes. :) The things I learned today is that maybe I will be one of the quilters that advocates NOT prewashing fabric. Or, next time I will try putting the fabric in a pillowcase to keep if from getting jostled around so much. And I learned that that $30 can of starch was worth it!

Art Cards, Watercolor and Lazy Quilting

Each of the above pictures are available for purchase. 2.5" x 3.5" watercolor.

I've started working on three different art cards or ACEO's. The seascape is a standard watercolor that I love to do. I'm comfortable painting seascapes. I enjoy painting them! Parrots are a great series of watercolors that I've done in the past. I can't help but paint a parrot art card every so often! Florals are something that I would love to learn to paint even better. If you could see all the watercolor books on my shelf that are about florals, you would know how serious I am about this goal! All I can do is practice and paint more and more!

I'm at a stand still with my quilt fabric. After I bought the new starch (and what an ordeal that was!), I realized that I needed to decide if I was going to pre-wash my fabric or not. The local quilt store recommended that I NOT pre-wash the last fabric I bought. They said that it was easier to work with the fabric that way, and they weren't worried much about shrinkage or color bleeding. But, the quilt I am going to do involves colorful fabric (reproduction fabric in strong primary colors) with solid white sashing borders. I'm worried that if I don't pre-wash this fabric, that it will color bleed into the white when I finally complete the quilt and wash it someday. If I put so much work into making a king size quilt, I'd be awfully upset if the beautiful repro fabric bled into the white. I'm being lazy debating on this. The real reason I haven't just went ahead and washed the fabric is because I'm lazy! I like the feel of the fresh fabric from the bolt, the feel of the sizing still in the fabric. I know it's easier to work with and will involve much less ironing and starching to prepare the fabric. I really just want to iron a little and get started cutting. But, I know if I want to do a good job ..... I should start out right.

So my goal for this week is to wash the fabric and then starch the stiff back into it! I'm also going to work on listing my art cards on eBay, and starting my Farmers Market Tomatoes painting.

Starch and Composition

copyright 2006 Michelle Ford

One of the parts of quilting that I love, is preparing the fabric. As my son was playing (on the other side of the gate!) I got out the ironing board, starch and my new 1930's reproduction fabric that I purchased on eBay. The first piece I ironed was a beautiful pink floral. Then I was ready to starch another piece, a lovely red and white stripe, and all that came out of the can of spray starch was white foam! Argh! Just when I had the time, and my son was happy playing.... I ran out of starch! Granted, this can is about six years old. :) Does that mean I don't iron much...or that I don't starch much? All bets should be on the first choice.

So I've now got a new can of starch....and it cost me $30. Well, not really...but by the time I was finished at Wal-Mart I had spent $30 on a whole cart of stuff and I had only really gone in to get the starch.

I've written the word starch more times than I've used it on clothing... ha ha ha.

The more I look at the picture from yesterday, the more I question the composition. I have another picture from that day, that is a closer shot. I'll add it on the post. I can't decide which composition I like better.

Quilt Fabric Arrived!

-photo copyright Michelle Ford 2006-

photo may not be reprinted or copied without permission from photographer

Earlier in the week I ordered a bundle of fat quarters, reproduction fabric on eBay. I got the fabric today and it's beautiful! It reminds me of the fabric that my grandmother and great-grandmother used. I'm going to make a wash day stars quilt with these. I'm so excited about the project!

I also have several watercolors sketched out, and now I just need to start on one of them. The one that I'm most interested in is a painting inspired by a photograph I took at the local farmers market several summers ago. My daughter and I had gone early one morning to get some tomatoes and peaches. There was a beautiful table full of red, ripe tomatoes. I had my camera and took a few quick shots of them. I'm sure that the vendors thought I was crazy taking pictures of food! The tomatoes ended up being delicious, and so did the photograph!

Macaws

"Macaws" watercolor on 9 in x 12 in paper - sold

ACEO, Art Cards and eBay

ACEO Seascape set - SOLD

About two years ago I got started creating ACEO's and selling them on eBay. I first learned about them on www.Wetcanvas.com. Wetcanvas is a great community of artists. Searching and reading through that site, has taught me so much.

One of the things I like about creating the art cards or ACEO's, are that they are small enough that it doesn't take days to complete them. With a busy family it's hard to take the time to create larger pieces right now. I like the satisfaction I get when I create small works of art.

My most recent painting, unfortunately has not been creative at all. Painting baseboards is not fun and is not satisfying at all! :)