Staying Focused on Down The Rabbit Hole

I've been working on my applique for Down the Rabbit Hole when I realized I cut my wedge borders too small.  I've since reverse sewed them and sewed them on the correct length.  Then I laid everything out so I would have all the sunflowers in the correct border corner.

First I sewed my first mitred corners in I don't know how long.  You might be able to see on the vertical borders a small pink crescent moon on the left and right side.  The top and bottom don't have them due to the repeat on the fabric.

Well as we know well mistakes happen and I sewed the small corner sunflowers incorrectly and had to do some reverse sewing again.

Here they are in the proper orientation.  I only had one in the correct layout, the rabbits on the lower left corner.

 Here is the correct mock up before I started sewing the corner blocks on.  I'll sew that second narrow mitred corner on just before I sew on the borders with the large sunflowers.  Then I will applique the large leaves onto that border and I'll be ready for the elongated hexagons which was this month's task.

 Autumn arrived last Friday.

 Remember this envelop my cousin sent to me in 1977?

 Guess what appeared in my mailbox today?  Love how in 2017 we have Captain Picard and Star Trek for stamps.

 Back in 1977 we have provincial flowers, the Group of Seven and the Queen!

 It was a 3 page letter she wrote to me in May 1977.  She had received two postcards from me and felt guilty she hadn't written me.  She had gone to Europe I think it was a year or two earlier than me and compared notes about Italian men amongst other adventures and tales of family life.

She and I both moved around in our twenties.  Carol and her husband sold their house of 25-30 years last year and found this and some other cherished mementos.  Fun to look back on our task.

Off to start my next round of applique.

 Yesterday I shared this picture of my work in progress and a few people were confused.  The wedge section was cut incorrectly it isn't long enough to fit the corner sunflower wedges and work with the previous house border...I cut them the same size!

Yesterday I reversed sewed all the wedges and this morning I sewed one correctly.  The lower one is pinned so you can see how far out I was with my measurement.

These are going to be getting a quarter sunflower sewn to to top right and left of the strip before sewing the stem quarter sunflower to the ends of two sides for the next border.

 As a reward for all that reverse stitching that took about four hours I went to Tre Galli Gelato Cafe at the Rivermarket on the Quay and treated myself to a Margarita pizza and an Americano.  Next time I'll get one of their wonderful gelatos.  Maybe once everything is where is should be stitched.

 With the Americano coffe you get a little Amaretti biscuit, this one had a little heart shape in the side.

 It was a bit windy along the quay so these lantern flowers were blowing as I took photos.

 Here is a slightly larger one in full bloom.

 They look like they are made with gold leaf.

 Love the play of sunlight and shadow and translucency of the Calla Lily leaves.

 You can see the shadow of the leaf behind with the sun back lighting the leaf.

 So pretty.

 A little bee checking out a blossom.

 Lovely rich coloured fuchsias.

 Beautiful contrast of the pink Geranium.

 One single Geranium blossom.

 I caught a quick view of the sunset, the colours were richer in person.

 It was a tad darker than this overall view.

 Pink/red sky at night sailor's delight.  Beautiful sunny day today.  Back to prep my next wedge.

Lesson Learned? Measure twice cut once...

I put my borders and corners up on my design wall last night.  I have a bunny print that is directional that I want to rotate around the corners.  I was very focused but realized something didn't seem right.  Yes I realize the bottom wedge isn't in the correct orentation.

 The print in the bottom left corner with the dots and bunnies was my focus to make sure it stayed in the same orientation as I moved the larger quarter blocks around.

 Doing alright as I move it around but the light hadn't gone on as to my problem yet.

 Moved the bunny to the stem corner, yup that's right.

 And now to the bottom corner.

 Took pictures of each wedge with the two quarter sections where they are to be appliqued onto.  I'm keeping each flower in a separate plastic bag to keep things in order.

 Continuing along I think this bottom one seems a bit tight, hadn't notice the incorrect orientation yet.

 Also making sure that the houses at the corner have different colours.

 All photographed and ready to be added the next time I'm ready to stitch.  Off to bed and start reading a book but wonder what is wrong?

I'VE CUT THE STRIPS THE WRONG SIZE!  Fortunately I've got more of the fabric to re-cut to the correct size.  I thought about seaming at either end but am choosing to learn from my error and reverse stitch and restitch everything again.  I was planning on a different fabric for the next borders but can still use this large pieces for other projects and sub cut for other areas if needed.

LESSON LEARNED?  Measure twice cut once FROM THE CORRECT MONTH OF INSTRUCTIONS. 

Going Down The Rabbit Hole this weekend.

Saturday morning my friend Tricia invited some friends to spend the day sewing in her condo's amenity room.  I laid out my four rows of houses with the fabric I plan to use as a small border with my medallion to see how they looked.  I moved only two houses I think as I had one corner that had two different yellow fabrics that bothered me.  Otherwise I was good to go with sewing them together.

 Here are the four rows laid out at home.  You can see that there are repeats of fabrics but nothing is in an identical spot.  The fourth house from the left has two different grey and coloured prints working with the same orange and pink dot fabric.

 Remember my Dresden plate half wedges I prepped?  Well I figured out a way to sew them together and maintain my starched curved edge for hand applique.  I've tried to do needle turn many times but can't get a smooth flat edge so my preference is a template or freezer paper and then use a paint brush with liquid starch.  For curves I do a running stitch that gathers to pull up the edge along the heat resistant Mylar.

 I sewed the blades in pairs and opened the seams on the back.  Then fours, a six and finally the ten.

 At first I opened the seam and tucked the curve over.  But after a couple of tries I decided that if the curve is pressed down with the seam opened after it will seem less bulky.  I may find this not so when I finally hand applique them.

 Here is a bit closer look.  My basting stitches are still in the curve and will be removed just before hand sewing them.

 Flipped over but only pairs sewn at this point.

 Smaller wedge sewn together and pressed.  It is almost 180 degree with the 90 degree straight on despite the illusion of the photo.

 Here is one of the larger wedges.

 And the two wedges layered on top of each other with the half circle to cover the ends.

No I get to applique the small quarter sunflower corner blocks.  Trim the house heights to the proper measurement and then I can sew them on.  Next step is first sewing the Dresden wedges and adding a larger quarter Sunflower to the ends of both wide borders.  Then there is the quarter large Sunflower corner block that has a stem and when all is sewn together the large leaves.  Then I get to cut 80 elongated hexagons and I'll be all caught up!

Here is a picture of Sarah's quilt to date that I borrowed from the Facebook bom group I belong to.  You can still sign up at her website here is a link to the information. Patterns are sent directly to your inbox and templates are available for purchase.

I've taken to trying to remember to put month markers on my Instagram account and I think this one says September to a T.

 Yesterday I walked along the quay to go to Angelina's for breakfast and this is what our smoky skies look like.  We had a nice stretch of blue skies but fires in B.C. Alberta, Washington, Oregon , California, Idaho and Wyoming are burning fiercely and affecting air quality all up and down the coast and inland.

 We are more fortunate than others but I'm hoping Mother Nature keeps her promise of rain by the weekend to help the firefighters and the lands along with animals and people affected by this devastation.  Hoping that Texas and Louisiana dry out and that Florida and the east coast don't get hit by the next hurricanes.  Not to mention all the devastation in S.E Asia.

 The lighting did prove to be nice for pictures.  Caught another busy bee on these pretty purple blooms.

 I think I stared a picture of a very small white star flower, well they've died back and look what's happening.  Another flower is emerging.  Will share those in a day or two most are still tightly closed.

 Some tiny white cyclamen against drying grasses.

 Love these delicate succulent blossoms.

 A similar colour combination.

 Check out the pollen sacs on this bee!

 Another September marker I made.

I finally started sewing my houses together these are the four house 1.

 House 2.

 House 3.

 House 4.

 House 5.

 Remember on Labour Day not all workers get the day off!

Once I've sewn all the houses I'l share each side with you.