I couldn't wait! I picked up my "Winter Wonderland" pattern from Country Crafts. I read it over and over and I began developing an approach that I would take to do this project. I couldn't get it out of my mind. I decided I would mark a couple of the blocks. A commenter left a message last week that she recommends to do the larger blocks first. I can totally understand why. Do the big stuff while the excitement and energy is high.. Right? So that's what I'm doing.
Tracing over the pattern to fabric is a perfect application to use my FriXion pens. I taped the 40" long paper to my patio door window. Then carefully centered my plain white cotton over it and taped it to the window, over the paper pattern. I slowly and carefully went over all the lines. It's a gel pen, so even though the pen is not upright, the ink flowed without a problem. I use this pen almost every day for something, and now I'm curious to see how long the pen will last. One little snag that I didn't anticipate was that the pattern calls for a second layer of cotton to be placed under the marked fabric then iron both layers together. So the hand stitching is through two layers. Then baste them together so that the re-hooping doesn't shift the two layers. Of course with the FriXion marks I cannot iron them, or the 1 hour of marking is lost. I will use an alternative method.. lightly spray base the two layers together then baste by machine.
If I plan to get this done in the month of July, I have a lot of prep work to do so that I have any hope of achieving this. I intend to have all the blocks marked, layered, and basted, ready to stitch. I also plan to cut some of the blocks later this month. I need to find the right blues first.
I am anxious to start stitching on July 1st.
4 comments:
I have this pattern too...so I am watching your progress with eager anticipation!! Thanks so much for being so detailed in what you are doing!! I look forward to step two!!
Paulette
I use a product called Woven Fusible on the back of my embroidery. Of course you would need to iron it on. The ink will come back if you put it in the freezer.
Hi Gail,
This is my first posting so I hope that it works.
I am hand stitching my snowmen as we speak! I purchased woven fusible interfacing (looks like a cotton fabric) at Fabricville. I really like it because none of the red DMC embroidery floss shows through my white snowflake fabric.
Also, when I visited a *quilt shop last week when I was in Vermont, one of the girls who works there does a lot of red work and she prefers to use red Sulky - 12 wt. cotton thread instead of 2 strands of DMC floss. Thanks for sharing all of your tips.
Karen
*"Yankee Pride" is a wonderful quilt shop in Essex Junction (5 miles outside of Burlinton) in Vermont. If you are close by, it is really worth the visit!
Well Gail as you know I have finished my Winter Wonderland, however I skipped the backing step. I was a bit worried about the results, but I embroider a clean back and don't carry my threads, so it really was not a problem for me. I will be anxious to your progression in the blue and have to say the green and red one is spectacular. Almost time to start on Grandmother's House. I have all the fabrics gathered up for the pieced blocks. I mixed my blocks up...I started with a small one because it was incentive to do another, then did a larger one and then 2 small ones. It's a mental thing but it was so nice to think I had 5 finished instead of just 2..lol
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