Witch doll

Since I am already writing about Halloween dolls, I thought I would add another.  This one I made for a gift last year and really enjoyed coming up with ideas for her.  I was thinking of making one for myself this year. When I do,  I'll show you the process.  I will probably start around September.

Halloween cone doll

Here is an early Halloween doll project. These little witches are made using the cardboard cones that are in the skeins of Cotton yarn from the craft store.  I used acrylic paints for the doll face and body and put in details such as the cat etc.   The hair is done using fuzzy fibers which I glued on one end then covered the glued end with the hat.   Once the hat was in place, I trimmed up the yarn to shape and fluff the hair.  The hat is made with craft felt.  If you have access to these types of cones it is a  fun doll to make.

It's done!!  The Board Short quilt is complete.  Here is the final quilt.

It was a fun to make but this kind of quilt is always a bit scary when you are working with materials that are close and dear to someone's memories.  You want to do them justice.

Last steps for the Board quilt

Well, I'm down the home stretch now.  I made great progress yesterday.   The quilting is completed and now I'm doing the binding.  I cut 2 inch strips and sewed them down on one side, flipped the quilt and then sewed them on the back side using a decorative stitch.  The corners were all mitered for a crisp look.

sewing down the binding

Here is the stitch I used on the binding.  I like loopy types so it catches both sides of the binding for a strong hold

Mitered corners

  Tomorrow I will post the finished quilt

Short Board quilt continued:

I had a busy weekend but was able to finish the columns for the top of the quilt plus, for this particular quilt some of the patches/logos needed to be transferred.  Some of the logos were previously on pockets or waistbands so, they could not be used without removing them.

  Today, I'm starting the layering process for quilting.  Basting spray works great as it helps make for a smooth quilt top.  It must be sprayed between all layers and everything is smoothed in place.  Once the basting is done, I begin to draw temporary lines for quilting.  I use a combination of tools depending on the fabric.  For most fabric, a chalking pencil works great.  I also like the blue ink pen that washes out when simply wiped with water.  The goal today is to finish the basting and have the grid lines in place to start quilting.  Overall, I hope to finish in a couple days

Patches sewn in place - the sashing is actually darker than this but the flash makes it look light

Tools for grid lines

Picture of the columns sewn in place

Picture of the basting spray and the layers in place for spraying.  

Update on the Board Shorts Memory quilt

The quilt continues to progress.  I completed a couple more steps.  I fused each fabric square with a lightweight fusible interfacing.  This gives the squares stability.  I choose to do this because some of the materials have stretch to them, some have bias cuts etc.  Having the interfacing on the fabric, in this quilt, will help with accurate quilting and help minimize any puckering issues later on.  In this series of pictures, you see one of the squares which has bias pieces on them.  I fused the back (middle picture) and you can see in the last shot that the puckering is reduced

hand selfie

After all the squares were fused, I cut the strips for the sashing which goes around each piece.  The sashing measures 1 3/4 inch wide.  I then sewed all of the rows together.  The next step will be to iron the pieces flat and then add the column sashing.  By the next posting, I will have all that done plus, I'll be preshrinking the backing fabric so I can start stacking the layers for quilting.

Yesterday, when I was at the fabric store getting the backing fabric, I got into a conversation with the store clerk about hand dying your own batik fabrics.  She explained a little about the process and the wonderful results you can get at home.  I'm really tempted to try that but, I had to drag myself away because the last thing I need right now is another craft.  Who knows though .... maybe someday.

Board short memory quilt continued:

I'm moving along steadily on the Board shorts memory quilt.  I deconstructed the garments first and removed zippers, heavy seams, pockets etc.  This can be a traumatic phase when you are emotionally connected to the garments!  Once I completed this "rough cut", I began to cut my squares.  The see through ruler comes in extremely handy because you want to make "fussy" cuts for this type of quilt.  The goal is to get the most interesting part of the garment on the square.

Pile of waistbands, zippers etc

Using see through ruler to make interesting cuts

I made 10 inch squares.  Once the squares were cut, I laid them out to see what type of order looked pleasing.  I actually ran out of room on the bed but, I'm going to have one more row than you see in the picture.  Once all the seaming is done, it gets a little smaller but, I will be adding sashing between each square.  I'm ready for the next step now so tune in tomorrow to see it continue to come together.