Off the Print Table fabric blog hop

My friend Lynn Krawczyk has been making fabric and you could be the lucky winner of a fat quarter of it! Just leave a comment over the next 5 days and on Tuesday I'll randomly pick a winner.

Here's what Lynn has to say:

"I never feel more connected to my art then when I print my own fabric. The only down side to it is that I often find myself wishing I had the space to print yardage and to duplicate the ones that I fall madly in love with. Now with Spoonflower I can!

And not only that, I can make it available for anyone else who finds it interesting and inspiring! There’s no better way to celebrate the opening of a new shop then to do a giveaway and not only ONE giveaway but FIVE!

Go take a visit to my Spoonflower shop 

and pick out which print you like best. Leave a comment on this blog post and you’ll be in the winning to win a free fat quarter of the one you chose. Easy! And make sure you visit all the blogs on the blog hop for a better chance to win!"

Blog Hop Schedule

Mon Jan 23 - Lynn Krawczyk

Tues Jan 24 - Jo James

Wed Jan 25 - Kelli Nina Perkins

Thurs Jan 26 - Judy Coates Perez

Fri Jan 27 - Judi Hurwitt

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heARTfest Blog Hop Day 1

Get your heart on for this round of LOVE infused tutorials!

Check out  Jane LaFazio's Sketchbook page to Valentine Card (& envelope too)

Traci Bunkers, Thursday, Jan 26

Diana Trout, Friday, Jan 27, Woven Heart Valentines Card

Lyric Kinard, Saturday, Jan 28 Lovin' my Thermofax Screens

Judy Coates Perez, Sunday, Jan 29, Chocolate Peppermint Cream Heart Cakes

Kelli Nina Perkins, Monday, Jan 30 Heart shaped felted soap

Melanie Testa, Tuesday, Jan 31

Tracie Lynn Huskamp, Wednesday February 1  Valentines Message Pillows 

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8 of Cups - finished

After the quilting was finished, I marked out the finished size: 24" x 60", sewed a tight straight stitch just inside the marked line, then trimmed it to size.

To finish the edge, I chose 3 different cords that picked up the colors in the quilt and used them to make a couched twisted cord binding.

DETAILS

In the home stretch...

The quilting is done!

I chose to do my curvy meandering fill stitching that is reminiscent of leaves and flourish-y shapes in the white background areas to contrast all the linear stitching on the cups and flourishes.

I stitched with Bottomline thread which is generally used in the bobbin, it's a lighter weight thread, because I wanted the stitched lines to be more subtle.

Next:
cropping and binding.

What I learned...
Because I like experimenting and trying things differently, I always learn something new with every project. Sometimes I discover a great new way of working and sometimes it turns out that my initial idea created unexpected challenges or wasn't as successful as I'd hoped.

As you may recall, I used wool rayon felt instead of batting, because I wanted a flat smooth finish for this piece. I used felt a friend had given me that she most likely had sitting around for about 15 years. I had two issues that popped up from using this.

The first one was the stiffness of the felt, compared to batting, made it more difficult for manipulating under the harp of the machine. I think 30 inches would be the widest I would recommend working with felt. Wider than that and I could see some definite limitations to quilting the surface smoothly. I had to roll and fold the piece to work the central areas which sometimes got a little cumbersome.

The second issue came about after I fused my top to the felt. I had a fair amount of rippling of the top due to it not fusing completely in all areas or staying fused for the duration of the quilting (it's possible there may have been a finish on the felt that kept it from adhering), as well as some possible shrinkage of the felt by the high temperature and steam used while fusing.

After the cups and flourishes had been quilted there was a significant amount of buckling in the white areas, I don't think the fusible web was even sticking anymore at that point, luckily the open areas were not very large, maybe 9" at the widest so it didn't present too much of a problem and it all smoothed out nicely with the quilting.

Conclusion: would I use felt again? Yes, but I would take size into consideration, if I was working on a particularly large piece I would probably use a lightweight batting instead. I would also pretest the wool to make sure I didn't have a problem with adhesion when fusing. I think a newer piece of wool felt wouldn't have had the adhesion problems that this one had, I suspect it had a finish on it.

8 of Cups progress

I have been really loving spending time stitching! There are some other things I really should be doing, but I am feeling so in the groove right now, I don't want to stop.

I decided to continue using monofilament for stitching the feathery flourishes since I do not want to obscure this part of the painted surface with lines of thread and because the monofilament is relatively clear, the more noticeable holes punched by the needle through the fabric gives another kind of visual patterning that I think is kind of interesting.

Next, I'll begin to fill in the white areas using Bottom Line white thread.

Chicago's first winter snowstorm today, stay warm.

Have you ever been challenged by monofilament?

Monofilament is clear thread, similar to a light weight fishing line that is a perfect solution when you need to add stitching but don't want the thread to be prominent. I personally love MonoPoly by Superior, it's a strong, matte, polyester thread that comes in clear for light to medium colors of fabric and smoke to be used with medium to dark colors.

Monofilament can be technically challenging when sewing if you don't make a few tension adjustments to your machine and adjust how your spool unwinds.

The biggest problem: Tangling and breaking. When you slow down or stop sewing and the tension is let up on monofilament, because of its natural elastic springy nature, it keeps unwinding and spins around the back of the spool, causing the thread to break.

Using a thread stand helps but, as soon as the tension is off (ie slowing down or stopping) the thread tends to spin around the spindle either above or (worse) below the spool. Snap!

Solution: place the spool in a bowl next to the thread stand and run the monofilament up through the top hook of the stand and then over to the machine.

Use a thread guide on your thread spindle to help control that active thread.

Second problem: Tight thread tension. Monofilament, like metallic thread, requires a looser tension setting on the machine. 

Solution part 1: Loosen the top thread tension, the lower the number the lower the tension.

When I first started quilting 20+ years ago, it was not recommended to put monofilament in your bobbin as well as the top. I can no longer remember exactly why, but I've never had a problem, maybe the quality of the thread is a lot better now. Also some machines are just finicky about thread, if your machine has issues, try something like Bottom Line in the bobbin. 

Solution part 2: Loosen the tension on the bobbin case. Make a quarter turn on the top larger screw, usually counter clockwise. I guess that depends on how you're holding the bobbin, for mine if the thread is on the left side, it's counter clockwise. 

It's easy to check if it's looser by letting your bobbin dangle when holding the thread. It should drop down a little bit. If you are afraid to mess with the tension screw on your bobbin case, buy another spare and mark it with a dot of fingernail polish.

Lastly I recommend using a top stitch needle, my favorites are the titanium ones.

Following these easy steps you should never have problems stitching with monofilament.

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Happy New Year!

Indigo and I took in the new year at a tavern in the neighborhood that hosted a wig themed new years party. What fun we had! One thing I'll really miss about living in Chicago is being able to go out for a night of fun and walk home or just hop in a cab.

I wanted to start the new year off with a great meal. I came across a recipe for an apricot stuffed roast pork loin that sounded fantastic but I decided to make a few changes by using dried apricots and cherries and roasting it over a bed of root vegetables. 

I went to one of the butchers in the neighborhood, and asked for a boneless pork loin, so he pulled out a whole side of pork about two and a half feet long with ribs attached and cut a gorgeous roast for me, cutting it away from the ribs and tossing them on top before wrapping it up. 

January first was a day of howling icy cold winds and I was so glad I didn't have to go anywhere, but relax and cook a fine meal.

Roast Pork with Apricot, Cherry and Shallot Stuffing with mustard sauce and Root Vegetables

1 cup cubed bread, toasted in oven or skillet

1/2 cup chopped shallots

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 C dried apricots, quartered

1/4 dried cherries

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 (3- to 3 1/2-lb) center-cut boneless pork loin roast (3 - 4 inches in diameter)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 tablespoon of whole grain Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon flour

6-8 whole garlic cloves

4 chopped carrots

2 red potatoes 1/2" cubed

1/2 large onion rough chopped

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Make stuffing:

Cook shallots in butter over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add dried apricots, cherries and 1/3 cup chicken stock and cook, stirring until fruits are slightly softened and stock is reduced, about 3 minutes. 

Remove from heat and stir in bread, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Chop vegetables and toss with olive oil, spread in bottom of roasting pan, salt and pepper to taste.

Stuff and roast pork:

With a long knife, make a hole for stuffing that runs lengthwise through pork loin about 1 ½ - 2" wide.

Pack with stuffing from both ends, pushing it toward the center.

Pat pork dry, rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Heat heavy skillet over high heat until very hot and brown pork on all sides.

Transfer to the roasting pan on top of chopped vegetables (I tossed the ribs on top of the veggies along the side for more flavor) and roast in middle of oven until a meat thermometer (avoid stuffing) registers 158-160°F, 45 to 50 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and let stand 20 minutes. 

Remove roasted vegetables to a serving bowl and keep warm.

Mustard Sauce

Add flour to ½  cup chicken stock and stir until flour is dissolved. 

While loin is standing, straddle roasting pan across stove burner. Add 1/2 cup white wine and any juices that run off pork to pan, deglaze by boiling over moderate heat, scraping up brown bits and reduce by half. Add 1/2 cup chicken stock/flour and mustard stir until it begins to boil and thicken. Serve on side.

It came out heavenly. The perfect hearty winter meal to start the year off right!

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