Oops….too small

Seems that things coming out too small is my trend lately! I started the Christmas ornaments for our daughter. I’m making the 3 witches from the movie Hocus Pocus. I’ve sketched out the 3 of them and then drew out their bodies. It’s basically like making miniature dolls. I will make and stuff their bodies and then make their clothing. 

Here’s my sketch.

I sewed the body and head for the heavy set witch on the left. The head came out OK, but the body came out smaller than my pattern. It was stitched exactly on the pattern lines, but shrunk up when turned. So I have to make it somewhat larger to come out to the right size. I should have remembered that from past ornaments. You can see the shortage here.

I have debated for weeks on how to do the hair. I will use floss for her hair in black and purple. I decided to make a structure under the hair to attach the floss to. Not sure if this idea will work or not, but I will give it a shot. I will paint her head black where the floss will attach for the hair before I attach it. If this doesn’t work I will have to come up with another idea. 

I think I will be happy when their bodies and heads are done. The clothing will be more fun and interesting to make.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

What a buffoon….

 I guess I should have measured the finished size of my pieced blocks before I cut the white squares for the cat blocks and the white strips for the sashing. It turns out my pieced blocks were 12 1/4 inches instead of 12 1/2 inches. There are 3 seams that contributed to that error. So that means each one was 0.08 inches too big. I never really worried about the scant 1/4 inch in the past. I guess I should have this time. So I had to rip out and trim the white strips in the sashing that I had already sewn. I’m in the process of trimming the cat squares. 

I’ve satin stitched most of the cats at this point.  I have 3 left to stitch. The sewing has aggravated my SI joint so today I’m not going to sew. I’ll be trimming cat blocks instead. I have to trim off 1/4 inch, but since the cats are centered I have to trim 1/8 inch off of each side. Fun, fun, fun.

Here are some cat blocks that have been satin stitched.

It would have been so easy to cut the blocks to the correct size to begin with rather than trimming. I guess you’re never too old or experienced to make mistakes.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

The cats are cut out

There are 8 different cats and about 7 different fabrics. Each cat was cut out 3 times because there are 24 blocks. I have to fine tune their placement on the blocks before I fuse and stitch them in place. Still a lot of work ahead.

I guess I’ll be laying this quilt out on the floor since my design wall is not large enough for a king sized quilt. I wonder what it will cost to have it quilted. I’m thinking my husband will faint when he sees that receipt!

Thanks for reading.

Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Chris

I’ve been working away on the king sized quilt for our daughter

 Our visit to Salem, Massachusetts 2 weeks ago was really good. She loved her crow wreath and it’s now hanging on her door.

I’ve finished piecing the piece blocks for the Halloween king quilt. There are 25 pieced blocks.

I also pieced the sashing strips that run between the rows of the quilt. There were 8 of them.

Here’s the original quilt design from Electric quilt software for reference.

I’ve started cutting out black cat silhouettes. There are a total of 24 cat blocks. I have 8 silhouettes that I will cut 3 times. I will reverse the silhouette once for each one. I have 7 cut out so far. They are fused and will be satin stitched.

Thanks for reading.

Chris