Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Revised tutorial

First let me say that I forgot to say how many precautions I took when I went to the grocery and HD yesterday. I did wear a mask - I don't care that the "experts" are saying you that you don't need to wear one. I didn't fuss with it and didn't touched my face. Looks like there could be a shift in philosophy and it may now recommend masks be worn. I had a new mask that I found when I was cleaning. I also wore gloves and disinfected constantly. I wiped down all my groceries with disinfectant before I put them in the car and threw away the bags the groceries were in because the bags touch the bottom and side of the cart where the cart is not cleaned like the handle. Thank you for being concerned!

I spent some time working on my AHIQ hourglass project. I was having an issue with the glue drying too quick before I was able to get the frame of the block positioned. So here is what I did:

I already had the freezer paper pressed on the frame fabric
Change #1 - when cutting out the center I now leave about 3/4" instead of cutting it closer to 1/4". This makes it easier to get the clipped edge to stay flat. This will be trimmed later so it doesn't matter if it is more than 1/4"
Press the clips over the freezer paper.

Change #2 - at this point in the past I would dab a glue stick on the clips. This is where I was finding the glue started to dry out and then I had to fuss around reapplying glue and it was just a battle. I now flip the frame over the hourglass block and place the frame where it looks good to me
next I carefully roll back a small section - doesn't matter where you start
grab a bottle of washable school glue. The glue dries stiffer than the glue stick, but I found it is easier to control the placement of the glue product and the hold is much better.
I then put a little line of glue on each clip
gently roll that area down. I gently tapped that area to make sure I had good contact.

Continue around the circle rolling a section back, glue, and pat down. You can see the last clip you glued since the moisture from the glue makes the fabric darker
Since I am inpatient I pressed the block to get the glue to dry faster
Next is to gently peel the freezer paper off the gray frame fabric. I hold the freezer paper and gentle work my way around the block to loosen but not remove the paper yet. You don't want to loosen the clips so gentle persuasion is called for here!
I then tore the freezer paper at the narrower places and then removed each section carefully
Time to sew. You sew along the crease. I like to sew to the left side of the crease.
Next trim the hourglass.
Oh, what a wrinkled mess!
Much better!

Here is what I have done now on this project.

This is my version of the 6-minute circle which was not my invention - just want to clarify that. I just tweaked the technique a bit to work better for me.

4 comments:

Vicki W said...

I love these blocks and that is the best

Vicki W said...

Sorry about the partial post! I love these blocks and that's the best technique for doing the applique that I've seen!

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

I like reverse applique a lot. These blocks look great.
xx, Carol

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

My favorite way to do circles!!!