Quite a Challenge, But I'm Having Fun!

After an early doctor's appointment for one of those annual tests (mammo), I made a quick run by Walmart, Dollar Tree, my bank and my pharmacy, and then came home.   I still had enough left for lunch from my cooking on Monday, so that was easy and quick.  I wanted to get back to cutting more pieces for my embroidery pieced blocks.

It is so much fun to move the templates around over the embroidered pieces to find the best place to cut!  I cut from several different pieces today, and I made sure I got all I could from each piece.  Here's a look at how I marked a couple of  pieces today before I cut any from it.   It's really challenging to get the templates in the most productive positions.  It's like extreme fussy-cutting!

Pieces marked with Frixion Pen

I think I made cuts for 9 pieces here;  so scattered made it  difficult to get much embroidery in the pieces,
but I didn't want  to discord them; they will show up somewhere.

Then as I got them cut out, I stacked them onto the pattern drawing so I could then pick and choose from each of the nine shapes to form the next block.  I know this is so elementary for those of you who have done this before, but it is my first time to try this.   I'm just making these notes for my own information so I won't forget.  This certainly does not qualify as a tutorial!  It's just notes on a few things that work for me as I progress on this journey!

I have learned that if I can't find a place that will allow me to cut the entire piece,  I can position the template and cut what I can from the embroidery; this works really well if the embroidery I want to use is near the edge of the piece and is edged with lace or crochet.  I mark the area I want to cut, including the crocheted edge, and then cut the entire same template from a solid (or small print) fabric so that I can overlay the embroidery/crocheted edge over the full template fabric to fill the area.  I really like the way that comes out, and may try to incorporate more like that in the blocks as I go along.   You will notice that each block may be turned any direction in an a attempt to keep the little sections (flowers, birds, baskets, whatever) 'right side up', like I did my Texas Wildflowers quilt back in 2015.  You can see that here .

Block 5 (see the pink under the curved lace?)

Block 6 - More fabric under the center piece

Block 7 - Pink machine embroidered fabric under brown basket

I didn't want to lose that little basket, but without overlaying it over the pink, I could not have used it!

I may have damaged my machine today.  I had decided to try some of my pretty stitches for the top-stitching on each seam.  I used the quarter-inch foot to put them together, 2 at a time like the pattern says.  Then it says to top-stitch the seam before sewing more pieces to it.  I wanted to also use different thread colors, which meant reloading the top thread a lot.  Well, it also means changing from the quarter-inch foot to a different foot each time also!  However, I failed to make the foot change; two times!  Broke my needle twice because the quarter-inch foot opening wasn't wide enough for the needle movement for the fancy stitches!  What's worse, the machine kept trying to sew, and was making an awful noise!  Of course, I turned the machine off immediately.  Then I had a hard time getting it to stitch properly, but finally got it figured out!   It doesn't like sewing over all those seams and top stitching!   I'm really glad I have that Dritz needle holder that makes it much easier to change the needle!  I would have been crying otherwise!

Tomorrow I may get out my traveling machine (Husqvarna Viking), and do the piecing on that one.  That would save so many top thread changes, and also I could leave the quarter-inch foot on it!  How's that for using my head?  I'm also looking forward to opening another tub full of different embroidery pieces!  More variety will create more interest maybe.

I'm blaming all these troubles on the fact that I have tried to sew very little since last October!  I'm sure it couldn't be caused by my old age!

As I said, it has been a challenging day, but I managed to get a lot more cut this afternoon, and I hope to get more blocks together tomorrow.  It has been 75+ degrees here today, but will be in high 30's by morning, and freezing by Friday morning.  I won't be getting out, and neither will anyone else be getting out to come for a visit (I hope).  So that's good quilting weather!

Just remember:  Don't look for perfection here!  I'm just learning a new method, and having fun!

---"Love"