Happy, happy

Happy Thursday, everyone, happy July 4th, happy summer day, happy quiet day, happy rainy day, happy day indeed!

You may be wondering what all the happy is about, and I will be happy to tell you - the Whatever quilt that will be shipped off to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham sometime next week is finally done. Yeeey!

I did something totally scary this week which could have turned out Oh so badly, but everything fell into place at the end of the day. Literally. Making the decision of adding yet another element to the finished quilt was easy. The execution however, was a challenge.

Goal: add a simple outline of the applique shape semi-overlapping the applique.

Method: make a plastic template, draw the outline with glue, add yarn, let dry, zigzag stitch in place.

Template: ok

Glue: making way too fat lines

Yarn: glue all over the place, had to be removed

Result: glue blobs on the quilt. Not a happy sight

Solution: dabbing the glue off with a paper towel, well most of it anyway, and free-couching the yarn using the template as a guide. The plastic template kept sticking to the bottom of presser foot, so I tried working underneath the edge and that worked like a charm.

Did I rip out part of the couched lines the very next morning? Yes, indeed, and quite happily so. It simply was too much.

Now both labels are secured to the back and just needs to be covered up with a piece of muslin before shipping. I have not decided on the packaging issue yet, so I might need to pick your brains on that later.

See, happy!