It’s a Snowflake!!!

No – not the kind outside – we have a decided lack of those.  But as I mentioned in my last blog post, I was going to get fabrics fused to make 3D Fabric Snowflakes with my Mom and Aunt when I see them in a few days.   The video is great and goes thru every step.  So I plugged in a movie and started cutting all my HeatnBond Ultra into squares.     Several people have emailed me and commented on various posts where I talked about these saying  that they were planning to make some.  I’ll share my tips, which worked for me, to make things a bit easier and less messy. ;-0

In the video it says to cut your fabric squares 7″ and also cut your HNBU (Heat N Bond Ultra) 7″ also.  After you’ve added the HNBU to each of the fabric squares, you then fuse them to each other to get two-sided fabric squares.  The video warns that you should use a pressing cloth because some of the adhesive may ooze out a bit as it bonds to itself.

These are the two fabrics I used for my first test run and I have two main tips after making it.

TIP #1:   I’m not fond of oozing stuff getting on my iron or ironing board so I changed the cutting sizes slightly to void that.  I cut the fabric squares 7″, I cut the HNBU 6-3/4″.    I centered the HNBU on each fabric square and fused.  I did put a pressing cloth under where I was pressing just in case but I never had anything adhere/ooze to my iron or the pressing cloth.

TIP#2:  Be sure after pressing the HNBU to each individual fabric square you let it cool completely before trying to adhere a pair of squares together.    If you don’t, even if it’s only slightly warm, it wants to stick together.  So after cooled, I carefully aligned the top edge of my fabrics wrong side together and then sort of rolled the top layer down so they lined up nicely and then pressed.

Since my HNBU was cut slightly smaller than the fabric squares I didn’t get any ooze and since you then trim the squares down it doesn’t matter than my HNBU square was smaller than the fabric one.  Per the video you trim the squares down to 6″ but I only trimmed mine down to 6.5″  I didn’t see the need to trim more off and  I happen to have a 6.5″ square ruler so that was perfect for centering on my fabric square and trimming away the edges.   The fabrics still felt a bit flimsy after pressing together so I wondered if they would really have the body needed to stand out nicely but after they cooled again, it was perfect.

Cutting the slits and then gluing it up — so easy and fun.  Here’s the finished snowflake which was made in no time.

  At the moment it’s hanging on the inside of my front door against the blinds and it just looks so cool.

Too bad I have to work tomorrow – I could see spending a day working on these.

As it is, I think I have the HNBU pieces cut for 11 more snowflakes or stars or whatever you want to call them. So I need to get busy figuring out what fabrics to use for the others and get the fusing done.  Hmmm.. 11 stars times 12 squares per star for the first fusing — yep that’s a whole lot of pressing. 🙂  Some of them will be New Year’s gifts for co-workers.  I plan to make them in all kinds of color combinations – not just wintery blues and creams etc.  They’ll look more like psychedelic snowflakes or flowers I think.

 

 

Stashbusting 2015

I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of the year.   2015 will be over before we know it.

So my stash /quilting efforts for the year can be found on this page.

I used more than I purchased – that’s probably a good thing. 😉

Although in looking at the list of things finished – most of them were for Fabric Camp Loopy or Loopy Academy so I had to purchase fabric in order to participate.  I’m going to wait until the second semester fabric Academy requirements come out to see if I want to participate.  I have many quilts that need quilting, many projects I want to work on in progress, and a couple new ones I want to make so 2016 may just be the year I concentrate on projects already in my sewing room awaiting their turn.  There are always more plans rolling around in my brain than the time to do them. 😉

As for today – doing a few chores I’ve been putting off — like the washing of the socks.  I’ve gotten lazy over time and used to hand wash them all and hang them to dry.  Now they all go in the washer on a gentle cycle and now that I have my super duper new clothes dryer, the all go in there for a while on very low heat and then if not dry, hang on the rack for a while.   There’s one or two pairs that are gradually felting down a bit – those will be worn more like slippers.   It’s also made me look at the stash a bit differently — while some of those super soft yarns feel lovely as socks – the work horse yarns make  socks that stand up to the washer and dryer time and time again and come out looking just the same and are some of  my favorite socks.

….and the stockings were hung by the….. well mine are hanging by the Christmas tree at the moment. I should have put them all out for Santa to fill!

Now the real question – does fabric you’ve ordered (or it could pertain to yarn too) that arrives after the last stashbusting / yarn busting post of the year count towards 2015 numbers or 2016.    Well, I think it doesn’t count at all!!  Yes I took advantage of a batik sale and also Miss Babbs gratitude sale so a few yarn and fabric goodies will be heading my way.  Oh let’s not forget TLE’s 40% off Christmas fabric sale either. LOL    Well you wouldn’t expect be to change my ways too much!

Remember the 3D fabric snowflake link I posted earlier – back on Dec. 12 – well I’m going to be visiting with my parents and Aunt soon so I’m going to put my Aunt and Mom to work – Dad too if he wants to wield a hot glue gun.    I’m going to get all the fabrics for a bunch of snowflakes fused and the cuts made and then we can put them together while visiting.  I told my Mom I was going to bring a little crafty project for us to do and she laughed but I told her it was geared toward the “crafting impaired”.  😉   The hardest part is going to be deciding what fabrics to use for each one.

Look out stash …. here I come……