Garden lady #8 - Part Three

This is a continuation of 2 previous posts about the making of Garden Lady #8.  The next thing that I worked on were the clippers.  I decided to use a silver lame for the blades and a green fabric for the handles.  These needed to have turned edges, since the lame (even though it has interfacing) will fray quite a lot when it gets appliqued to the background.  Here is what the clippers looked like in the hand.

The next thing that I worked on was the dress.  When I pulled out the boxes with my fancy fabrics, tulle, yarn, pieces of fabric and thread, and antique trims, I gasped just a little bit.  I have TOO MUCH STUFF!  It is a collection of things that I've had and have been adding to for years.  I'd like to say that these boxes and bins are all of it.  But......

When I make these garden ladies, I use the master pattern to make templates out of freezer paper.  I'm sure I've shown this to you before, but here goes one more time.  I cut a base fabric in the general color that I want and about 2" larger all the way around.  I then cut medium sized blobs of fabric to get the shading that I'm looking for (light on one side, for example).  The next step is my chop and drop method of adding fabric, trims, yarn, lace, Angelina fibers, thread, wool roving, and whatever else grabs my attention.  When there is enough stuff to mostly cover the original background fabric, I cover it all with a layer of tulle.  I use a couple of methods to stitch it all in place - sometimes I sew long wiggly series of stitches, and sometimes I do a meandering stitch.  Sometimes, I use a stabilizer as a foundation, and in this case I didn't use a stabilizer at all.  In the picture below,  you can see all of the blobs of fabric and stuff that was chopped and dropped.

It gets pressed, then the pattern goes back on top and I top stitch on the seam lines.  The paper comes off and then I trim the edges that will be turned to a generous 1/2" and leave at least an inch on the seams where there will be overlapping.  Then the pieces get pinned onto the master pattern.

I keep making pieces and placing them on the master pattern.  When they're all pinned in place, I start sewing them together with an invisible zig zag stich.

Then I trim the underneath seam allowances to a generous 1/2".

Here is the dress all done and pinned to the background, along with the arms and face.

I hope you still like the progress on this piece.

Garden Lady #8 - Part Two

This is a continuation of Garden Lady #8.  I took the picture of the face into Photoshop, flipped it to the left,  changed it to black and white, and posterized it.  This process helps to get the shadows in the right place.  I traced the face over the colored version and transferred it to clear acetate.  Then I added in the color change lines.  

In previous posts, I described how I make faces using Steam-A-Seam light and tracing paper.  This is the same method I used for this piece.  I learned along the way that doing eyes is better with colored pencil than with fabric, so I used that technique for the eyes this time too.  They are done on white fabric, then placed underneath the rest of the facial features.  

I know that the face looks really odd at this point.  Later, I'll add the fine lines and shadows with both stitching, ink, and colored pencil.  The eyes especially will get a lot of lashes and details added.  I may also add a light interfacing so that the background doesn't show through.  

Next, I worked on the arms and gismos for her to hold.  I still liked the garden clippers, but didn't like the iced tea at all.  I decided to change it for her to be holding something that she clipped.  Staying with my new fall theme, I decided that I would add a vine of fall leaves.  I had my husband take a picture of my hand holding something and used that for the pattern for one of the hands.  Here are the arms and hands without the things that they will be holding.

 

I hope you like it so far!

Sewing lesson withe the dog

My granddaughter had her last sewing lesson for the summer.  She has done fantastic with not only the sewing, but also setting up and threading the machine, taking it apart and putting it away, and keeping me very entertained with her stories.  Some of the things she talks about are so much about her generation and beyond anything I could imagine for myself at age 11.

Today, our dog wanted in on the action too.  She got underneath the sewing table and put her head in my granddaughter's lap.  Geesh.  

We had so much fun over the summer, sewing together and telling stories.  She wants to sew some clothes next and we'll have to see how her Middle School schedule will work out for her.  

Any ideas on easy clothes to start with? 

Garden Lady #8 - Part One

I got the inspiration for this garden lady from a picture I found somewhere - perhaps Pinterest, maybe a magazine?  I actually don't remember.  Anyway, there was a green dress and gardening implements, so it was a great candidate for my 8th garden lady.

The watering can didn't seem to go along with the rest of the picture, so I changed it to a glass of iced tea, and switched the iced tea in the lower hand and the garden shears into the upper hand (thanks to Al for this suggestion!).  I also changed the face to one that I found about hats on Pinterest.  Here are the inspiration photos and sketches.

I made patterns with freezer paper for the dress parts.

I picked some material for the skin and hair.

Then started thinking about the background.  I had 2 yards of a mottled gray with red circles that was promising.  Frankly, it was about the only piece of fabric that I had in my stash that was large enough to be the entire background.  It made me think about another season than the rest of my pieces, so it will become a fall themed quilt.  I pulled some reds, oranges and pinks for the fall colors to start the inspiration.  It'll probably change, though.  And, now the iced tea doesn't make sense at all.  Oh well, I love  a challenge.  

I hope it like it so far.

Modernized New York Beauty - Final

This is a continuation of 8 previous posts about the making of the modernized New York Beauty as part of the Mod Squad Challenge.  I took my time quilting this piece and changed thread colors a lot.  Since I quilt on a sit down longarm, I can only quilt until my shoulders hurt.  I suppose it could be possible to not scrunch them up, and I really do try to consciously relax.  However, I find myself with my shoulders in my ears whenever I think about it.  Then, when they're screaming for a break, I have to quit for the day.  I suppose those working on a stand up longarm have back problems, so there you go.  Its a trade-off.   

I faced it and added a hanging sleeve .  I like that it ended up looking wonky, since it was hand drawn.  It's 58-1/2" x 58-1/2".  (Good thing; the challenge allows quilts up to 60" x 60").

I hope you like it!

Modernized New York Beauty - Part Eight

This is a continuation of 7 previous posts about the making of the modernized New York beauty as part of the mod squad challenge for 2024.  When I make a quilt that needs custom quilting, I take a picture of the quilt, turn it into black and white, and print a copy.  Then, I use tracing paper and try out a few of my ideas.  When I'm satisfied with the drawing, I then either transfer the idea to the fabric with a water soluble marker, a white marking pencil, or I just use the drawing as a reference.  This was my idea for the quilting for this quilt:

I ended up doing things a little bit differently, while still matching the thread colors.

Stay tuned for a picture of the the quilt after it got quilted!

Modernized New York Beauty - Part Seven

This is a continuation of 6 previous posts about the making of the modernized New York Beauty for the mod squad challenge.  I pulled out all of my quilting threads to match the colors in the quilt.  I needed a few more, so I pulled from my sewing threads and hope they will run through the machine OK.  Here are two pictures - one showing the matching method that I use by putting the spool on top of the fabric color.  And the second one shows the threads all in a pile.

I can't wait to start quilting it.

I hope you still like it!