Before:
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I thought this was a rather ugly/awkwrd design - until I read her idea:
Suggestions for Use - Here's my way cool idea: take the hand print of a whole bunch of kids (or one single kid with a long attention span) and applique or paint their hand shapes onto fabric squares.
Put these together with a thin sashing and stitch Little Hands and Fingers all around the edge of the sashing as though the hands are gripping the block.
Sounds cool to me!
And it does sound cool to me too. I have the handprints of all the Friday Group kids on fabric just waiting for me to do something with them! Well, once I get more comfortable with FMQ I can start finishing up those older WIPs...
Okay, I'm going to do this block - then need to switch to non-sewing activities for a little bit.
After:
The needle ended at the starting point for the next block so I'm not going to take photo now. Hmm. In the first hand I broke a needle - restarted - then broke the thread like 2 stitches later. I got out the docs for the machine and redid the threading completely. This time instead of having the cone in a cup I put it on the top of the machine. I put a plastic straw and the little round cone holder I found in mom's things - and I made sure the thread was being fed the way they had in the diagram in the docs.
My hands do not look like hands - I can do the fingers okay but the hand part is hard for me even though I practiced on paper. My center two rows look like a very odd tree or something that is x-rated perhaps. I think the pattern looks best when it's coming from the side rather than being in the center of the block.
I continued on though. In the last row the thread skipped - I could hear a noise but kept going. I ended up removing those stitches and started the hand over. I can see on the back two places where the thread is sort of crazy so I will change the bobbin magic thing and hope that will nip this in the bud. But since the needle is in the right place for the next block I hope I can finish that before needing to do the change.
Maybe it's time to take the machine in to have it serviced too - I will start looking for coupons. But now I need to do some non-sewing things.... Only two more blocks to fill in on this section of the quilt though. Last night when I put things away I put the sections on the bed so I could see the back side - so pretty. I hope the two places that got gummed up in this design don't require taking stitches out. I will try to make it look like rings or something and see how that goes...
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(Added later) I was able to pull the extra thread thru so the two clumps do not show. I've ordered an open toe quilting foot from Leah Day. Today was free shipping day so the price will be pretty near what I'd pay down the street. I'm tired of having to fight those threads following me around
at the beginning of each start with FMQ.
I started the Alien Fingers design in the next square and promptly broke the needle after just a few stitches - so since I have no needles now will be working on cutting fabric to get ready for a bunch of piecing on the LibRR!
