My Inner Martha and the Queen of Procrastination have been having a battle the last couple of weeks. Martha whispered in my ear to drag out all my UFOs (unfinished objects) and maybe I could get some of them finished. So, I did. Drag them out, I mean. Finishing them is going to take a lot more time if the Queen of Procrastination has anything to say about that.
Martha won and I rummaged through my craft closet for all the stuff I'd need. Now I'll have to face the music, or in this case, the sewing machine. That's what I got for joining a quilter's group– Delusions of Competence. I'd settle for Delusions of Mediocrity right about now.
I attended my first quilter's meeting about three weeks ago, hoping I'd get inspired to get the tops done. Instead, I got homework! Our first assignment was to create something with an applique. I've never appliqued anything in my life. The Queen was not happy about this new development, but Martha hip bumped her aside and whispered, 'You can do this.' So, I ruminated for a couple of days. The Queen wasn't ready to relinquish control just yet.
I went to YouTube for help and stumbled upon a lady demonstrating how to applique a tulip on a piece of fabric. She demonstrated three different techniques. The first one, raw edge, sounded the easiest option for me. Interface applique required sewing the interface to the right side of a cutout piece of the flower, turn it inside out, and sew it onto the main fabric. Reverse seemed to be the most work. I settled on option one since I already had the double stick fusible web I'd need. I think the Queen had it hidden.
I cut the main fabric, found the perfect coordinating fabric in my stash, cut out the flower pieces and I was ready to make an applique square. I ironed the pieces onto the fusible webbing, positioned them on my main fabric, and viola! It was too narrow. That's what happens when one doesn't follow the instructions closely. The flower fit but I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what I was going to do with it, so it was back to the old cutting board.
I cut another the proper size, pieced it together then the Queen remarked, 'What are you going to do with it?' I hadn't thought that far ahead. I set it aside for a while, and an idea began to form. A throw pillow I said to myself. I dug through my craft closet, found a pillow form I could reuse, and now I have a throw pillow with a tulip. This should keep me out of trouble when I return to my quilter's meeting next week. I hope the assignments don't get any harder. Martha would love that. The Queen, not so much.