Testing and stitching

I wasn't going to let the stitchery piece I did languish in a drawer so I made another purse, I'll keep this one, I love it and it turned out to be a fun excercise in doing something different.

I've been jumping around from one project to another for over a year and I hit the wall with flitting from one thing to another for long enough. The test blocks, ufo's, wisp have stonewalled me into some zombie like state of indecisiveness.

What to do next? What I need to do so that I feel like progress is being made is to concentrate and set a few goals.

What to play with? Pick one or two, any will do, what do I feel like? This is the mind working here, the cogs turning over.

So I decided to ignore the nagging from all those other projects for now and chose to make some progress with the Stars and Sprigs quilt.

If you read my blog, you'd know that my prefered method of applique is needleturn. I'm not an applique snob, I'm open to trying new methods or new products.

I decided to explore another way to prep my applique using these Wash-away Applique sheets from C&T Publishing. I thought itf I reversed my pattern pieces and used glue stick to adhere the seam on the back, it might speed the stitching up. I could then place all my pieces with glue and not have as much trouble with placement, not have to use an overlay and it would all go so much faster. Each block gets a wash in warm water afterwards to remove any glue.

Here's the other product I tried with the same method. Floriani Stitch N Wash water soluble tearaway.

You'd think if the product claimed to wash away, that's what would happen. Wrong. The Wash-Away remained on the stiff side and when I cut out the back of a piece, it had adhered to the fabric and nothing seems to have washed away at all. I ditched that idea.  I may do another test with this.

Second product, the Floriani Stitch N Tear is softer after washing and a slit on the back of the pieces allows me to tear away the product since the fusible had dissolved. Apparently, it gets softer with each washing. I think this was the better product to use and I may continiue with this one. It tears away from the back easier using a glue stick to place all the pieces rather than using basting glue. I have heard that this washes away a bit more with every wash, more testing is in order.

Is anyone else wondering how they can claim these products are wash away or water soluble?

I may continue to use the second product for these blocks since it did speed things up considerably, Each of the blocks only took one evening each to complete in front of the telly.

I've also been playing with the gingham Mr Q got for me, lots of limbs and other body parts here. I hope I can show you what they're supposed to be soon.