Hello sweet quilting friends! There's been a lot of testing going on here in the studio as I whip up this yummy little gingerbread man quilt. The first test was trying to sew the mini buttons on by machine. It only took about 30 seconds to realize it wasn't going to work. So all I could do was change the plan and stitch them down by hand. I considered adding them after the quilt had been quilted but it seemed easier to do it now and quilt around them.
Much to my surprise hand stitching the buttons in place didn't take as long as I thought. Finally something is going as planned. Well sorta. The plan was to have this done about a month ago. Plan A failed as did plan B, C, and D.
Now let's talk about Plan E, the stitching down of the embellishments. The plan for the ric-rac-ish trim was to tack them in place and stop the fraying on the ends with glue then zigzag them into place. As you can see it didn't work. Plan F was to use a straight stitch. Well fiddlesticks I don't like this plan either. That's okay, as quilters we have so many options. Even though I felt both of these options were failures I left them in the quilt. A couple tiny issues no one will notice unless I point them out. We'll just keep it between you and me. 😉 So let's move onto Plan G.
Plan G is to use more glue. The ric-rac-ish trim was removed from the remaining 11 gingerbread men and more glue was added to hold it in place permanently. It worked like a charm! Yah!
Oh but the testing isn't over yet. A few days ago, in this blog post, I mentioned a product I use to stop fraying. Sew Secure has been my go to for fray prevent for years. Well it's no longer being made. This saddened and disappointed a few of you. So I decided to find a replacement. It wasn't easy. Fray Check was the go to for everyone and they all had warnings of stiffness when dried. That's a no-no in my quilting world. I need a product that can be used for hand stitching as well as machine stitching. Don't you agree? I'm all about getting the most for my money.
A pot of coffee was in order as I dug deep into the dark abyss of the internet searching for the perfect fray prevention. It took hours to find one quilter who recommended something other than the stiff Fray Check. Her was posted many years ago so I thought the chances of it being off the market was pretty darn good. But much to my surprise it's still being made. I felt today was my lucky day. First I over estimated my hand stitching time and now I've found a product that is still being made. If it wasn't so far into town I would have bought a lottery ticket. So just because I love you all so much I purchased a bottle of Aleene's OK to Wash glue on Amazon. I'll be doing a little test project to see how well it performs. Buy if you like but honestly I would wait until you get the skinny on this product. It'll be a few days to a couple of weeks because you know me and how under estimating the time it takes to do ANYTHING.
Just a little reminder that you can still gt 20% off you entire purchase at The Purple Hobbies website using the code PodunkPrettiesJan20
Offer ends February 29, 2020. Make sure when adding the code to your shopping cart that you click APPLY. You can see my review of the BladeSaver Thread cutter here. And the Third hand Binding Folder Clip here.
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Your gingerbread boys are great! Thanks for the no fray tip!
ReplyDeleteThat's a yummy looking Gingerbread Man. I have never sewn buttons onto a piece not yet fused down. Different but whatever works for you.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see the results. I'm very behind in my blogs and you tubes due to a family emergency after Christmas. I'm hoping to get back on track but I have a small bottle of Aleene's Fabric Fusion I bought at a big box craft store last summer. Have I tried it-No. The back states it's permanent, dries crystal clear and is washable on gentle after 48 hours of drying. I would let it dry at least a week before I tried washing it just to be safe. I have Fray Check but I'm very choosy about what I use it on because of the stiffness and you can see where it was applied even though it's clear-it also spreads like crazy. I love Aleene's Tacky Glue and I think it was a product call Porcelain It I used on a product long long ago that performed as stated.
ReplyDelete