Updating my Garden

Yes, I have spent a bit of time in the yard, adding some perennials to my flower bed, but this time I am talking about my applique “Abiding Garden”!

Over the last 3 weeks, life has gotten in the way of my garden work.

Michael (my husband) was in desperate need of an updated website for his “side-hustle” business. Over the years, we have hired several people to do it, but we have never been happy with the results. So, it was time to tackle it myself!!

I spent most nights with my computer in my lap, one browser focused on the new website and another on ChatGPT… so I could ask LOTS of questions!!

It went live on Saturday night so HOPEFULLY my evening, slow stitching time can resume.

BUT….having said that, I did find a few nights to put in some stitches…..

I am loving the bright colors and fun fabrics, and can’t wait to get back to it!!

Stay tuned for more…..

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Who knew I would enjoy hand-appliqué SO much!

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It needs a little green….

Before I started on my “Abiding Garden” appliqué, I decided to let the garden grow, one flower at a time, roughly following the pattern I had made…

As I was about to add the 3rd, 4th, and 5th flowers, I suddenly remembered that some stems needed to be put in place first so they could run behind the new flowers.

I was happy that I had made a bunch of stems AND leaves….

…so I could just pick some to add.

Placement was fairly easy, although I did have to finagle the yellow flower stem a bit to get it where I wanted!!

With it glued in place, the applique was quick and easy….

NEXT……

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Who knew I would enjoy hand-appliqué SO much!

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Abiding Garden Update

I am starting to build momentum with my appliqué garden.

One of the problems I struggled with was how to mark the designs and how to hold them onto the background while I did the hand stitching.

Previously, I had glued all of the petals together and glued the entire flower to the background. The problem was that the petals came loose as I manipulated the fabric to reach the appliques, OR (even worse), the thread wrapped around the loose petals!!

So, I needed a change of plans!!

Before placing the third flower, I put my pattern underneath and had a good look.

I am about to stitch another of the long, spindly flowers, but this one will be partially covered by the lower daisy……

This time, I decided to do a rough drawing of where the flower would be placed….

…. a VERY ROUGH drawing!!

It worked well, as I was able to place the petals one at a time and then appliqué them…

…and I quickly had the flower completed….

I did make one change for the final of these flowers. I was more careful with my marking so that I knew EXACTLY where each petal was going….

That made it much easier to place the petals!

We are flying now…… more next week!

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Who knew I would enjoy hand-appliqué SO much!

Join me in this journey by subscribing to the blog…

The importance of a thimble!!

Another reason I struggled to get started on my “Abiding Garden” appliqué was my thimble.

Several years ago, I performed a thorough search of thimbles and couldn’t find one that would work with my arthritic fingers. I finally decided that my best solution was to make one from elastic athletic bandages. It is not a permanent thimble, but I can normally get two uses out of each one that I make.

But I was finding that the end wasn’t thick enough to stop the needle from penetrating it, especially when I had to stitch through the glue used to prepare the pieces.

Before I could continue sewing, I had to fix this problem.

I had a packet of leather “dot” thimbles, so I tried one of those first….

But, no matter how hard I tried, I kept knocking it off while I was stitching.

Then I decided to merge the two thimible versions. Start off with the leather dot in place, but add athletic tape over it.

I cut two pieces of tape, one shorter and one longer…..

….stretched the shorter one over the top of my finger, encompassing the “dot” as well…..

….and used the longer version to wrap around my finger, holding the first piece of tape in place….

PERFECTION!!

Now, I have NO excuse for not sewing!!

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Who knew I would enjoy hand-appliqué SO much!

Join me in this journey by subscribing to the blog…

Abiding Garden update

When I started my “Abiding Garden” hand-appliqué project, I thought it would be slow, but I didn’t expect it to be quite THIS SLOW!!

When I last posted about it, I had glued/pinned two flowers to the background….

My plan was to spend a bit of time most nights and do the applique, but life has gotten in the way.

This is convention season for Michael’s side-hustle, and I needed to travel with him to help with photography and videography. Consequently, I was away from home for almost half of February!!

Needless to say, there was NO stitching going on!

When I did make a start, I added the yellow flower, but was unhappy when I realized that I hadn’t pulled the threads tight enough on each stitch, and it didn’t look great. I tugged on the threads from the back and was able to tighten it up…..