Got floss?

I kept trying to think of where I could get some embroidery floss that was close by and it finally hit me! Pat Catan's is only a half mile from the job site! I headed there at lunch and picked up a few skeins including a light and dark turquoise.

I managed to get the Beatles t-shirt done finally last evening. It takes some time to backstitch around those little letters!

NEXT!

This Lynyrd Skynyrd block needs some jazzing up. I had to include them in the quilt - who doesn't love Freebird?

I am going to backstitch outline the letters for a start.

In the mail came the Iron Maiden patch.

UFO busting report and last night's activities

Well, it is time to report on my UFO busting and link to Vicki at Field Trips in Fiber. I haven't busted a thing. All I have been doing as you know is working on the t-shirt piece. Maybe I will get something done after the deadline arrives and I turn it over to the show.

Saturday when my friend came over to pin baste, she brought me some peaches! Aren't they beautiful? Before I started back in on the t-shirt quilt I peeled and cut them up.

They were a bit hard to get off the stones. They are so juicy and sweet.

Another friend had given me some fresh caught lake trout. I had marinated it in soy sauce, garlic, and a little brown sugar. It cooked while I was cutting up the peaches. Guess what I had for dinner and am having for breakfast this morning? It is so good!

So I continued work on The Beatles shirt. I finished the outlining of the Beatles and then backstitched the THE.

I have floss bobbins scattered on the sewing table, the floss box lid, and at the sewing machine table where I work. I am bad about putting the bobbins back in the box in numeric order after I pull them out to see if the color is what I want to use. They will all be back in the box once I am done. The bobbins to the left of the floss box are colors I have used and I want to keep them separate in case I need to add more of those colors.

I wish I had some turquoise floss. I may have to make a run to the store.

I did get one of the patches I ordered off of eBay in the mail last night.

Still emboridering - more, it needs more!

Friday night and Saturday morning I didn't get any embroidery done because I didn't feel very good. I forced myself to at least work on sorting and filing paperwork on Saturday until my friend came over in the afternoon to pin baste a quilt on my big table. When she was done she wanted to see the t-shirt quilt. She said it need more! More embroidery and embellishments, more rock and roll! She asked if I had any studs or stuff I could use to embellish. She does make a number of beautiful art styled quilts so I do trust her opinion.

I did have some pyramid studs and some skull studs I had bought for another project and she like those. After she left I searched around for other possible items to add and here is the stuff I found. The beads in the upper right are from costumes wore by dancers for Jimmy Buffett. Now I know JB is not rock n' roll or metal, but the beads are pretty cool. I don't know if I will use them or not, but at least they are an option.

It took me at least 4 hours to put the yellow border around the Beatles t-shirt. I ran out of the floss I was using and had to substitute another yellow in order to finish, but it looks fine. I just got started with the hot pink around the lettering.

My friend suggested I use a bright green to outline Ozzy and it looks great!

I also added a row of orange stitching to the Aerosmith shirt. It makes that block pop a bit more than the sad row of blue I had already done.

My fingers are sore, but I am going to keep at it until time runs out. I think I have to hand the quilt over on the 24th of August.

Stitching away!

I worked on finishing the outlining stitching on the Green Day shirt last evening. I hadn't done any machine quilting on the figures of the band and I got brave last night and did it. It felt good to finally make the decision to put machine quilting in this area When I machine quilted this piece I was indecisive about what to do so I guess I just needed to think on it a bit! I know from these pictures you can't see the quilting, but the safety pins are gone and the shirt is now nailed down.

I did the same thing with the Springsteen shirt. I free motion quilted around the figures and the background above their heads. It looks a lot better now. This was another case of me not know what to do at the time I was machine quilting.

I also stitched around The Clash shirt. I used four strands of floss and the stitching stands out nicely. I only used three on the Green Day shirt and I wished I had used four, but it is what it is.

I will keep on with stitching this weekend and hopefully get the facing binding sewn on. I am just waiting to get the email for when I need to turn this in for the exhibit. Until I get the email and the final deadline date, I will continue to stitch! Have a great weekend!

More embroidery done

I got to stitching as soon as I got home after work and made a good amount of progress. I decided I wanted to add a bit more to the Springsteen t-shirt

Then it was to the Green Day shirt. I did a chain stitch for the border and then started quilting the outline of the design with the same green. I have a lot more to do on this shirt, but I am pleased with the progress I have made.

Slowly, but surely this piece is getting done.

Another t-shirt block border and the zinnias

I got the border done on another t-shirt last night. I worked on it a bit before and after my walk. I used a blanket stitch, but angled the stitches.

I only have three more shirts that needs stitched borders: two on the outside edge and the Beatles shirt. So it looks like I should be able to get the binding on it this weekend. Yeah!

My Pink Enchantment zinnias are blooming even after planting the seeds so late in the season. I did notice I need to go out and pull a few weeds to keep the bed cleaned up. Things kind of got away from me with being away.

I'm back - experiment result

I washed the fabric and I could see some differences even before I washed this sample. The writing using the Sharpie Fine bleed more than the Sharpie Pro.

The heat pressed Sharpie Pro is a bit darker with heat setting than without. So I will be using the Sharpie Pro marker for the project I am planning.

The last six days were crazy busy. I was so exhausted and busy I had no time to work on the t-shirt quilt until Monday night. I did get a border on the Metallica shirt and I am doing some quilting around the lighting bolts. This lost of time has really hurt my schedule of getting this piece done the way I want. I will have to concentrate on getting the border embroidery done, getting it bound, and adding the hanging pocket. If I have any more time then I can go back and add more detail.