Cowboy Shirt

With this year's Home on the Range BOM, my intent is to show a different way to do something each month.  Last month, I used the fusible web backing from my cowboy boot appliques as stencils to stitch around when machine quilting a block.  This time, I traced the cowboy shirt line drawing on an old sheet of typing paper (remember that thin paper we typed on before the days of computers and ink-guzzling printers?)  I was going to use the drawing I'd printed on inkjet printer paper, but when I spied the typing paper in my sewing shed with my art supplies, I thought it might tear more easily.  I just traced the image rather than walking 100 feet back to my trailer to run the typing paper through my printer.  (Someday, I'm going to get a cheap printer set up in my shed and save myself some time running back and forth.)

After tracing the image, I cut away the excess paper, pinned it to my Tonganoxie 9-Patch block sandwich, then stitched on the lines just like when doing foundation paper piecing.  The only drawback to this method is pulling off the paper when finished - just like paper piecing, it can be a tedious pain!

 Here it is with half the paper removed.  The paper looks much like a tiny white shirt!  I'll have to try this as an applique someday using white batiste or some other sheer fabric.

Paper is now completely removed.  This method went fast for quilting one 7" block.  If doing a lot of blocks, I'd want a paper that was even easier to remove like the disolvable kind.  As a 7" block, the Tonganoxie 9-Patch is so small and busy that I didn't try the shirt as an applique.  The appliques can always be used on another block, though.

Boot Quiltin' Boogie

 Today was my first day back in my shed to sew since we had that cold spell of weather.  As usual, I spent more than my usual amount of time using my seam ripper.  Why is it that I make more mistakes when I haven't been at my machine for awhile?  I did get something accomplished, though.

I used the 2-inch boot patterns from this year's Home on the Range BOM (go to Sundrop Designs for the patterns) to make fusible appliques for one of last month's 7" sample Bear's Paw blocks.  (The entire time I was working, I had Billy Ray Cyrus's old "Boot Scootin' Boogie" song playing in my head.)  At the 2" size, I didn't try to put the little pull tabs on the boots, but they turned out looking like cowboy boots anyway.

I saved the little paper backings from the fusible web and glued them to another sample block using washable glue.  It's best to put the glue on the dull paper side, not the shiny plastic film side.  But if you get it wrong like I did a few times, don't panic.  I was able to scrape off the plastic film that stuck to my block using my thumbnail as a scraper.  After layering the backing, batting and block for a quilt-as-you-go method, I glued the little paper boots in place then stitched around them using a specialty stitch on my machine.  This particular stitch pattern was 3 stitches forward, 1 stitch back.  It has kind of a rope-like appearance on a tiny scale.  Once the stitching was done, I removed the paper.

Here's what the backing side looks like.  The batting only requires quilting every 10 inches, so these four tiny boots will be enough quilting for this 7-inch block.