QA TV Weekend

Good morning from a somewhat sunny Calgary,

We had a snowy weekend although I guess we shouldn’t complain as we had a mild February.  Luckily, it gave me the chance to use that as an excuse to stay home and prepare for taping for QA TV next Monday, March 25th.  I am doing 6 segments or so, one still to be determined!

But … among all the preparations, step outs and pieces of fabric, I had a thought for some exploration.  so I took an hour or two to have some fun!  I have a few pieces ready for appliques to be added and then placed in a dye bath to obtain results similar to the ones I showed you in my last post.  I started thinking what would happen if I cut holes on the fully quilted top.  I can see some of you thinking I must be crazy!  :)  It is just fabric, and a few hours of quilting, so if it doens’t work out … I’ll do it again.

So, pencil and ruler in hand, I grabbed one of the smaller pieces I had and marked 2 rectangles and a square and then, using small pointy scissors, I cut them out.  I put the zigzag foot on the machine and zigzaged the edges using a narrow (width set at 2) zigzag stitch and then I went over it again with a wider zigzag stitch (width set at 3.5).

Now that this part was done, I wasn’t sure what to do with it.  My exploration had gone as far as whether I could cut the openings on the top!.  I decided to tackle the center square first, so I used some crochet thread to weave some threads back and forth and then I looped the thead around and around over and under to create the circular part.  I held it together by stitching the ends on the machine, so it won’t fall apart.

For the rectangular cut outs, I used a piece of what I hope is silk organza and appliqued silk velvet bird heads on it, and sewed them to the openings from the back, as if the birds were peeping out of their bird houses.  Here’s the result, still in whites and creams with a touch of orange (not sure what that fabric dyes like, so it’ll be interesting).

I am hoping to place the piece in a dye bath in the next few days, but not sure what color to dye it.  Ideas?  Send me a comment or two and I’ll post later on in the week with the results of the finished experiment.

In the meantime, keep quilting.

Ana