Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Falling Tweets!

Just kidding! My, "My Tweets" is just fine. I am going to have to figure out a different way to do those leaves though! My oh my they were tedious!!! Here they are, laying like they fell out of a tree. You can see the pile of white freezer paper, off to the right, that I took out of the leaves:
I don't have a fancy light box to place under my block to guide me in placing all the pieces correctly. But I have devised a little system that works for me. You can just see the little light in the center of that block:
Here is the light, sitting on top of the block:
One of my sewing machines came with an extension table made from clear acrylic. It sits on four legs, about four inches off the table. Since my machines are in cabinets, this has gone unused for years! I just slide that little LED battery operated light underneath and I can see the pattern, just fine! I can move it around if I need to highlight an area more. I can glue the pieces down in preparation for appliqueing.

Here I have pulled the block back away from the edge so you can see more of the table:

Here is my block in the process of being appliqued.
I have half the stems done and a few leaves.
I went to a quilt shop today and bought Mettler 60wt cotton embroidery thread to use on this project. Mettler is written in green on these spools. I find that makes it easier to pick them out from ALL the other pretty threads! I actually had one spool of this stuff on one of my thread racks, and it was a color I could use on the stems! The maker of "My Tweets"- Erin Russek recommended using this thread on her applique projects.

In all my years of quilting, I have never really gotten into using the 'right' threads. I figured it was just whatever was the rage out there. Other than Coats and Clark threads, I figured the 'more expensive' threads were all going to be good threads. It isn't true! I am slowly learning that too.

It has been a very busy day and I am delighted to be headed to my comfy chair to sit and watch a bit of TV while working on my block. I hope you all had a wonderful day as well!

Now go sew something!!!

5 comments:

Quilt Rat said...

This really is going to be such FUN!
Looks like you are off to a great start!

Awesome use of that acrylic table
2 thumbs up!

Jaye said...

Let me know if you want me to send you some Mettler. I have tons and am not really using it anymore.
Jaye

Sherri said...

Thanks Jill and Jaye!

Blue said...

I love Mettler thread. Are you doing this by hand or machine? Your fabrics are so pretty. I'm going to try this block, it is so
Pennsylvania Dutch! bluee

Sherri said...

By hand. Thank you Blue! And you should see the photos of the completed blocks, others have done! There are different colorways and they all look gorgeous!