Steady that soap holder!

We've recently upgraded our half bath which I'm really looking forward to showing off when all the final touches are in place. One of the more immediate problems was we have a glass soap holder sitting on a stone top. The glass slides around all over the place and is begging to take a tumble to the floor. I thought about just putting a non-slide drawer liner under it, but then decided there was a much better way to do it and decorative too!

Here's how I did it....

I started by dragging out all my quarters and left overs that were anywhere close to the palette I was looking for.  I then just removed ones I didn't like or didn't really "go" with the bathroom. I also pulled out most of the batiks.

I knew I wanted my "soap plate" to be about 5" square finished so I cut 2in x 5.5in strips out of various fabrics.I laid them out into two sets of 11 strips in ways I thought appealing being very careful not to put two strips of roughly the same value next to each other and stacked them in order.

Then I folded them in half right sides out and put a quarter inch seam along the raw edges. I used my super value black thread here because it will never be seen. I also chained stitched them together to not lose the order I had already placed them in.

I wanted to hide the seam on the "back side of each of the strips. It would have been nice to iron the seams open, but at this size with my big old clothes iron was just asking for major finger burns. I ended up pushing the seam to one side and ironing flat.

Once they were ironed flat, I pinned half of them to a piece of 5.5x5.5 muslin.

I sewed a quarter inch straight stitch down the right side attaching the strips to the muslin.

Now the fun part! Weaving in the opposite strips.  I put the first two strips in just like the old looms that I made a million pot holders with as a kid. Once I had two strips in place, I put a zig zag stitch down the center permanently placing them. The stitch does stay and is visible. I went with a neural color in the sulky line that was shiny to give it a little pop even if it is neural.

I kept adding strips and zig zagging them in until I reached the opposite end of the 5.5 muslin.

I could have gone back here and put the zig zag stitches in the other direction as well, but really felt like it was overkill for the size of the project. I squared it up with a piece of non-slip drawer liner on the back.

I sewed on the binding as you would a quilt. The only trick is - I had to put another piece of muslin on the back to allow it to move in the sewing machine. Non- slip also means non slide on the machine! After the sewing is all finished, I removed the muslin revealing the drawer liner as the back of the pad.

Finally, I pulled the binding back and hand tacked it on the muslin between the strips and drawer liner. Pad complete - took about two and half hours.

  

Copycat Project, Ta-Dot! Wall Hanging

Every now and again, I like to do a project that is simply following instructions. No math, no design, no over thinking, just hardcore focus on learning new techniques and honing old ones. I'm so glad that people take the time to put these projects out there - even when they are getting paid for it. I know how much work it is! This particular project caught my eye because it deal with lines, curves, and circles, something I really struggle with.

Here is the original quilt by designer Mabeth Oxenreider from American Patchwork and Quilting magazine:

Nice right? Is much bigger than something I would want to do as a practice and study project. Lucky for me, the magazine has a color variation (which is also a size variation) on their website:

Polka Dot Palooza by Laura Boehnke

Here's what it looks like when I tried it:

 

Total time: 12.5 hours

 

Here's how it came together.

Step 1:

I started where anyone would - step 1. Choosing fabrics. Such a hard step sometimes. I really wanted something to go with my new bathroom and tried my hardest to find a set of fabrics that would go. I went to two quilt shops and spent who knows how long on web sites looking looking and more looking. I just couldn't find them in the combination I thought I wanted. I decided then to just go to the big box store with big box coupon and find a fabric I liked and go with it. I came across a mustache fabric that I knew my kid would love and decided to go from there.

My next thought was to go black, white and yellow, but I came across the red fabric there and loved it next to the mustache. So black white and red it is. Once I had those, I came home and raided my quarter stash. I have a bad habit of picking up piles of them when they are $1.29 or less then not using them because they will be gone - weird right? I didnt any have any that had combinations of black white and red, but I had plenty that fit in the palette.

Total Time Fabric Shopping without failed trips: 1 hour.

 

Step 2:

With the fabric acquired, the next step is to cut them. The instructions say to cut them IN THIS ORDER. I'm not really sure what order has to do with it, but figured what the heck. I'll cut them in that order. I started with the strips for the centers of the circles. I quickly discovered I had much more fabric in the darker values than in the lighter ones. To combat that, I cut more of the lighter ones and less each of the darker ones. I think I'll find that didnt leave me with enough red and will have to make a few more cuts later.

 
I cut my big squares and borders next. I decided to hold on the binding strips, I'm not sure I want to use the matching mustache fabric yet. I may want to put more of the red on outside. I'll make that decision when things come together a bit more. I laid out my pieces to get an idea of where I was headed and make sure I didnt want to make any changes.

Looking good! I far prefer the solid color squares. I think the polka dots in the example is just a little bit too much for me. I'm happy with where I'm at and moving on.

Total Time cutting: 2 hours

 

Step 3: Curved Circle Centers

Yeeeee! Curves! This is the part I was looking forward to most. I really wanted to see how these things came together. I've got lots of ideas for curves, but never really occurred to me to try it. I can't tell a lie - my first attempt was a total failure.

I'm pretty sure the real problem here was attempting something new with a 100+ degree temperature. I was so determined that cold wasn't going to get me down, then I totally mucked up my strips! After much rest and plenty of fluids, I tried again to success! Here's how they come together (thank youtube for helping me out on this one!)

I found a few things to be problematic for me. One - I made roughly the same line every cut. I had to really think about the cut I was going to make before I made it. Two - I found it hard to both make the right cut and sew together the pieces when I couldn't always see where the bottom fabric was.  Three - I kept stretching the fabric over the curves without realizing I was doing it. There were a few cases I stretched it enough, I could use the curve of the stretched fabric to create the next curve. Fourth (and last) it was really hard to watch my seam allowance paying so much attention to other things. The good news - all of them seemed to get better with practice and my first block of strips came out OK.

I was careful to try and balance the values. Never placing two really dark values next to one another. I also found the red popped really well when it wasn't that close to another red. The only two fabrics that appear in every square are the white dots and gray flowers, otherwise, I tried to limit each fabric to appearing in only four squares.

The first one took roughly 30 frustrating minutes. The last one only 15 minutes and was a much cleaner job. This is certainly one of those techniques that gets better when you practice a bit and start to understand how the curves come together.

Total Time for Centers: 2.5 hours

Step 4: Reverse Applique Blocks

The next step is to make the big blocks with holes in the center. The instructions call for a "light-weight tearaway stabilizer". I'm sure that is code word for a particular product, but I havent been around long enough to know which one. I didnt have any more money in the budget for this project, so I had to use what was on hand which is the pellon bolted tearaway. I dont know what makes a stabilizer "lightweight", but suspect the one I have isn't. Anyway... I started by tracing the pattern onto the stabilizer and centering it on the block.

I sewed a line with a straight stitch around the circle shape. I then cut out the center of the circle within 1/4 inch of the seam. It isnt in the picture, but I also clipped into the seam allowance for when the stabilizer flipped on to the other side.

I found the next part really difficult at first. I was concerned about tearing the stabilizer so I didnt want to just rip it through to the other side. Turns out I didnt have enough hands either. I could have really benefited from at least one more! I finally got it and took a look at my handy work.

Total time cutting and turning centers: 1.5 hours

Step 5: Assemble the center

Before I started sewing anything else, I laid out my parts and tried different layouts of the centers. I really thought I wanted them horizontal or vertical, but quickly discovered the center patterns werent quite right for that. I settled on making it very much like the sample with alternating diagonals.

After settling on the placement, I used a clear thread and zigzag stitch around each circle taking down the folded edges of the reverse applique.

Total time to applique centers: 1 hour

Step 6: Reverse applique the small circles

I put together the six large squares and continued on with the pattern. The next challenge was to make smaller circle windows for the points where the large squares meet. I found this to be the most frustrating step and I need a lot more practice to be good at it! It really matters how smooth and even the circle is sewn on to before cutting out the center and reversing it. I tried two of them (a center and a side) before patterning for all the others.

I wish I had some words of wisdom or excellent advice, but this part, I'm still unhappy with and would like a do-over!

Total time for small circles: 2 hours

Step 7: Add borders

This part is the easiest yet and probably my favorite. These two fabrics are the ones that inspired the color choices and I was really excited to see them be part of the hanging. Plus, it comes together fast and makes me feel like I'm doing stuff!

Total time for borders: 30 minutes

Step 8: Quilting and binding

Things were going so good! It was far from perfect, but I liked it none the less. Then I quilted it. I really wanted to not stress about it and just go for it. This is supposed to be a learning project right? I decided to go with a free motion design. I started in the middle and worked my way out. Sadly, lots of things went wrong. First of all, I really should have thought about my pattern a bit more, maybe even sketched it out. Second, I kept losing confidence and would end up getting timid. With the free motion - it shows! Can't hold back for a second! Third, I tried the clear thread for the first time and it is not so easy to work with. I don't think my machine loves it either. It seemed to pull in a funny way and made some sounds of pain as I was pushing around the quilt.  Finally, the heavier stabilizer I used in lieu of spending extra money reared its ugly head and created weird bumps under the quilting. I may have ruined it, but I'm very happy with the experience. I learned a lot of new tricks and already have a project in mind for using them!  

Total time for Quilting and Binding: 2 hours

Minimalism NES Style, All done! (u4)

She's all done! Since the last update I have completed the controllers. I really don't have a lot to say about them. I used a round stitch for the buttons and a simple straight stitch for the D-pad. I had lots of trouble mounting them (mostly my own failures like cutting the fabric too short!).  I found myself at a point that I knew it wasn't going to be one of my favorite projects, but I was determined to complete it and rushed through parts. Even though it isn't stellar, it is cute hanging over the TV, came together really quickly and I'm positive there's not another one like it!

All things Minimalism NES Style

All Minimalism NES Style blog posts in chronological order.

 

Minimalism NES Style, testing ideas (u1) 

Minimalism NES Style, Rit Dye Goes Very Wrong (u2) 

Minimalism NES Style, NES done! (u3) 

Minimalism NES Style, All done! (u4)

 

 

 

Minimalism NES Style, NES done! (u3)

The fabric for the Minimal NES project is now all prepared. Not much left to do but get stitching!

I chose a dark gray for the shadow area between the slats. I was going to put the light gray in for the slats themselves, but decided the colors were too far apart and my best bet was just leave the fabric showing. It still isn't my first choice - now the "slats" are recessed and the "shadows" pop up. I dont think it will matter in the end; however, if I was better with the dye things might have worked better.

I used the heavy braided chain stitch and just tried to focus on keeping them as straight as possible. They aren't perfect, but not terrible either. Means I can keep trucking and add the black on the top, bottom, and sides.

I used the same braided stitch for the black area, but made sure to put them really close to one another. I tried several other stitches along the way, like straight, standard chain, and a satin stitch. In the end, I thought it looked best following the lines and thickness of the shadow stitches. I also wanted to be careful to keep the tension as even as possible. I used a black chain stitch on the sides to clean up the edges and mimic the crevasses in the NES. It wasn't long before I knew that the dark gray would have been better than the black, but live and learn.

Now it's all done, took about three hours to get all the lines in. I wanted it to be 3D, so I decided to mount it on an 8x10 canvas. The hardest part was tension and getting the corners as flat as possible.  First, I pinched the two sides together and cut away the excess fabric in a curved shape.

Then I folded it over like a Christmas present and stapled it down. You dont see it in the picture, but I went staple nuts. Not only was I finding it fun - I really wanted to make sure the tension on the fabric was as even as possible.

Wash, rinse, and repeat all the way around the canvas. Next step, hold my breath and hope with all my mojo that it is mostly straight.

TaDA! Ok. It is perfectly straight, 1/8 of an inch off on the right side from the top to bottom and there is a little extra stretch on the bottom created a slightly round shape. A fair argument would be that what makes minimalism great is the perfect attention to the few details that are there. I say, yeah, that's true. Hopefully only myself and a few other OCD type will really notice.

Next it is on to the controllers and then this project goes in the DONE category!

Minimalism NES Style, Rit Dye Goes Very Wrong (u2)

Since the duck canvas wasn't working and the painted canvas wasn't working, I decided to try a bit a fabric dye. My tombstone will be etched with "It can't be that hard". I thought it would be pretty easy to dye something a flat color. Should have done my research first!

Here's my results...

Firstly, I prepared the linen by cutting it to size and putting overlock stitches around the edges to prevent fraying. I also cut myself some test strips to try the dye before I committed on the finished pieces.

I wanted to make sure I marked the area that the canvas was going to fit into before I dyed the fabric. I needed to use a method that could be removed. Since I dont love washable fabric markers, I went with basting in some stitches.

I mixed the dye following the instructions for the bucket methods and tried my strips using different dye times. I was pretty quickly disappointed with the results even though the gradient effect is kind of cool.

The second to the top strip show just about every color spot of the rainbow, well, at least blue, red, and yellow. Guess that is how you make black dye - throw in all the colors! I never got black though, just a really dark purple and in the case of the 'greys', really light purple. I decided it was what I had and I was going to go with it and hope for the best.

Per the product instructions, I wet the fabric

Stirred it in the dye bath for 10 minutes, rinsed the fabrics

and then dried.

Lots of purple. The upside is that it is totally ok for the project and much better than the painted version. I did do a little bit of research and it didn't take long to learn that Rit dye does not do well with the "bucket method" (requires much hotter water) and as a bonus, doesnt do well with black. Looks like if I try this again, I'll have to do some studying!

Minimalism NES Style, testing ideas (u1)

Here's a secret - I have a nostalgic video game problem. They were such a huge part of my life growing up that I just love all things classic. I often browse around a site called Sprite Stitch to see what great fan art folks are making, especially all things Bowser related. I'm not very active there, but couldn't pass up their March challenge - Minimalism. When it is done right, pop culture presented in a minimalist style is one of my favorite things! Check out these that always come to mind when a contest like this comes along.

Keyser Soze by MarcusAurelis, Worth1000

Kane Mckowen, Kane Mckeowen.com

Given that it is a bunch of things I love - pop culture, NES, minimalism, and stitching, I had give it go. There's a deadline - March 31. Given the entries that are already there, I don't expect to win virtual prizes and glory, but I do hope make someone smile.

I decided I wanted to do something a meta and pulled out my own personal NES to get the proportions and measurements right. I never depend on my memory for something this delicate!

There she is - my sweet sweet baby complete with sticker gunk from the little fuzz ball guys that used to stand on top of it. I went ahead and used photoshop to block out the shapes and get an idea of waht I wanted to try with canvas and thread. I want this to hang on the wall and a Nintendo just happens to be 8x10 - standard canvas size. Perfect!

I knew I wasn't going to get a "controller sized" canvas, 2x5. I did luck up and find some 2x3s. I thought about ways I could take them apart and put them back together to get a 2x5, but decided to go the controller pattern on the left (no start/select buttons) and use the shorter size. I do like the balance of the layout better on the shorter canvas and this it still gets the point across with less and in this case - less is more.

I tried removing the canvas from the frame, stitching right on the canvas and putting it back, but found the canvas to be a really bad "fabric" for holding stitches.  I grabbed some white linen from my stash and tested out painting it and adding some stitches afterward.

Looking at the picture, it doesn't seem as bad as it does in real life. The paint dried with a kind of "plastic" look and feel and made the fabric thick enough that it didn't wrap around the canvas well. My next plan - dye it!

Retro Project: Groovy Scooby Moasic.

Here is a project I did in 2010. I took some pictures along the way and wrote lots of notes describing what I learned. It's really fun to look back at old projects and think about how I would do them differently now. It reminds me of just how far I've come! Here it is as it was in 2010:

In my long line of test projects, I wanted to work with pre-colored clays. There were several techniques I wanted to try from straight color mixing, gradients and caning. I figured all the crazy colors would appeal to a kid, then I thought about my kid, which lead me to Scooby Doo. I started by drawing an outline of Scooby on a piece of hardback 5x7 canvas. I then used Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS) directly on the canvas as a ‘glue’ for Super Sculpey. I the created a 3D Scooby in the super sculpey.

Next was to cane a ‘fur’ texture for the body of Scooby. Slowly I turned, bit by bit and covered him in a mosaic style. I used the TLS to bond it the two clays together then baked the tiles rather than baking the tiles first and gluing them.

 The tiles did not define the areas as well as I expected, so I made black strings for the ‘cartoon lines’ between his toes and around his face. Add a few spots, teeth and a collar and Scooby is fit to be finished.

Next was more caning to create the different style tiles. I really didn’t want to do grass + sky (how lame), but the pattern in the tiles came out ok. One they came together I was moderately pleased with the background as lame as it is. Bake. Bake. Bake.

All that was left is the finishing. I put flowers in his mouth, a few in the grass, his initials on his collar, and a plain wood frame. Without further ado … Here’s Scooby….

Things I learned.
• I suck at caning and need a lot of practice. How them come together makes sense, but pulling them without warping is next to impossible for me. I’m sure it comes with practice, maybe I’ll do Mario next!
• TLS is amazing stuff and a must have if clay is going to be baked in stages. Magic really.
• Storing colors is hard. I have yet to come up with a smart way to keep up with them all while keeping them separate, easily accessible, and away from harmful plastics. Though I did find some really cute boxes that almost make up for the disorganization!
• A wet towel near by is another must. The colors bleed into the working area and it does not take long to transfer darker colors to lighter colors just from the dye on your hands.
• A pasta machine is probably in my future. I’m going to give myself arthritis ‘conditioning’ the clay!