Taking a little walk around the neighborhood shows just how much summer is slipping away. Moving on to the next season, with days becoming shorter and shorter. This morning, daylight didn't show up until about 6:45. Very tardy, compared to the 5AM dawns of midsummer. This little pond down the street is all green speckled with the turning-crimson leaves of sumac.
And these bright orange berries tell me that summer vacation is over and school buses are making the rounds again. We had these trees growing in front of the school that I went to. Summer seemed like a wonderful time, but when I saw these berries appear, I knew the fun was coming to an end. These said Back To School before anyone dreamed of school supply sales at Target!
But back to the sewing room! I'm getting ready for a vacation next week, and I need some little paper shapes all set up and ready to go with me. I'm continuing at a slow but steady pace on the Round We Go Sew Along from Sue Daley Designs. These are the 2 blocks I have finished so far. They are 7" diameter, as a frame of reference. I am instructed to make 4 blocks of this design for month 1.
And here are the pieces for blocks 3 & 4, all prepped and ready to go on vacation with me! A little Halloween and a bit of summertime flowers.
These take me a bit of time to pull together, I have to review my entire fabric stash to find just the right colors and shapes. I look for interesting little bits of color and design that might catch the eye and even stir up a bit of humor in an unexpected place.
The Month 2 blocks have a couple of different shapes, and even though it doesn't show up well in the photo, I've mixed in a little metallic sparkle. Along with little owls in stocking caps!
Also tucked into my little sewing bag is a block that I had forgotten about--also English Paper Piecing, that goes with another collection of blocks that I haven't finished! This one is on a little larger scale, and I love the way the fussy-cutting of the red and white outer ring. Some might call me crazy for spending time on these little things that are really of no great consequence in "the big picture". But this is a little touch of beauty that I can create, and helps me make it through the mess of the daily news created by the people that are supposedly world leaders. Just give me some fabric!
An interesting side note, for readers that know a thing or two about EPP-- The new project I am undertaking comes from Sue Daley Designs, and Australian company with a lot of history in this segment of sewing. The paper pieces, acrylic templates and instructions all come from that company, and the acrylics are sized with a 1/4" seam allowance. That's a little bit different from most other things I have been sewing that originate from Paper Pieces. That's an American company and supplier. Their acrylics have a 3/8" seam allowance. That 1/8" difference might not seem like a lot to you, but it does make a difference to my fingers as I work on basting the fabric to the paper. I much prefer the 3/8" size, but sometimes you have to work with what you've got. The picture below shows the slight difference in the size of the fabric turned to the back side of the paper piece.
I use a fabric glue pen to adhere the fabric to the papers until they are all sewn together. The glue isn't permanent, and I use a light hand with it. The basic glue pen I have is from a company called Sewline, and the refill sticks from various makers (Fons & Porter, Bohin, Sue Daley, etc.) all fit the same basic glue pen. This might be the first time I have used the F&P brand, which I picked up yesterday when I went to the Joanne's store for a Halloween decoration. I knew I was running low and needed to get some of this done prior to my vacation. But I'm now thinking that this brand might not be the best for what I'm doing. I've noticed that I'm needing to use a little more of it, and hold pressure a bit longer to get a bond. I'm talking a second or 2, so not a big deal. But I'll probably go back to one of the other brands when I need more refills.
I don't plan on spending all of my vacation just sitting around and stitching on these things! But it's good to be prepared! I might get some reading done, too, in between other fun stuff. I'll share a progress report when I get back home.
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