today's output

It took me a good chunk of yesterday but I met my goal to get this pile of 48 blocks cut from the giant 4 patch down to the nine patch components.

And here was today's goal-----I do not believe that the giftee reads my blog and will see the frienship blocks. I cut the background block oversized so they can be trimmed down by the assemblers. They still need to be button hole appliqued and then some embroidered elements and a small button on the suspenders. Suspender Sam/Overall Bill on the right is stylishly dressed in Williamsburg Inn except for his shoes. Sam/Bill on the left looks like he has a 30's Hawaiian shirt on with hula girls. Old blues for the overalls and hat. The other? Dig around in the scrap basket till you find something you like.

I used the Eleanor Burns turned interface version for most of this mainly because the others involved in the group project will as well. I knew from past experience on a previous friendship quilt to just use fusible product on the kite and fish as it is too hard to turn those bits. (I like regular or light steam a seam.)

I am also not entirely convinced that it is the way to go on small pieces like the arm/hand combo. The body section was fine and the hats turned easier than I remembered. The stitching line shows a bit through the very light color of the hand. The other objection was the interfacing would not really lay down flat enough with my attempts to smooth it out. The interfacing was so torn up that I ended up having to baste the slit I had made closed to yank things back up in the proper position enough to stick them down. It might have been easier to just do the templar-starch method like you would on circles, leaves---and the one black shoe. Once I had the one on the right laid out I realized I needed something with a little more contrast and had already but up the machine so I used the alternate method to prep it. I'll save the extra shoe I had already sewn for another Sam/Bill down the line.


Since I now have 3 projects that need to be button hole applique, you know what I will be doing for a few days, dontcha?

Hope you had an enjoyable day in whatever you chose to do----------