So when I see a thread I don’t have?  I must own it.  I love to experiment and see what kind of interesting things I can do with threads.  What kind of texture? what kind of color play with the fabric? how will it behave? etc.,

One thing wonderful about the big world wide web is that I can obtain almost anything my little heart desires in any far off corner of the world and have it sent to me in a small town or large. Of course this also means it is really really difficult to put the brakes on my thread lust and prevent gorging myself on it.  I sheepishly admit, I have no self control.

For a long long time I have wanted to try out the flat silk Japanese embroidery thread.  I finally found a source and I now have it to fondle (protectively covered of course) for a little while before I try it out in the needle and on fabric.  Such luscious, decadent and elegant thread.  Sigh.

The one good thing about pigging out on thread? no calories.  This is how I justify each and every purchase and that works for me!

I have to thank Gail Abeloe at Back Porch Fabrics for pointing out this little gem to me while I was buying every fabric (I think) she had in the shop.  Thank you Gail for being so patient while I had to write down every bolt style number and description while you were cutting.

I had to explain to her that my blog friends always ask, “what is that fabric??”.  You have trained me well my friends and I barely notice the strange “she is a crazy lady” looks anymore by those cutting my fabrics while I pull out a notepad and write everything down quickly.

OK, back to the coolest thing ever.  One of the things that drives me nuts is the lack of light in a classroom.  Even when they seem to be well lit, I have a difficult time seeing what I am stitching.  My other gripe is when I am in a hotel room and the lighting that, “makes us look beautiful and younger” (all due to the fact that we and no one else can really see us to judge accurately), has the same dim effect with my stitching.

Carrying around a light bulb to switch out the hotel room bulb in my suitcase or carry on is not an option.  I know I am going to stick my hand in my luggage and pull out a handful of broken glass.  So what is an applique junkie to do while on the road?

Ta DA!  The COOLEST THING EVER……

A mini Ott-like light travel lamp  (Verilux Natural Specturm Travel Lamp-rechargable) that folds up for travel just like my son’s old Transformer toys and it is feather lite!  Fabulous!  The lamp is made by Verilux (the eyeglass people) and after my show and tell to the class after my shopping trip, I wonder if Gail has any left.

It is lit with a bunch of  LED’s and it is just as bright, only a smaller focus area, as my Ott Task lamp.  That lamp takes up four times the room in a suitcase and adds too much weight.  I get down to ounces–literally to fly under the airline baggage weight limits.

I am absolutely giddy over this baby.  Can you tell?  The price wasn’t too bad either ($37) and it comes with an AC adapter for charging it up. So now I have a light anywhere I travel and any classroom lighting situation.  I am so happy.

Thank you Gail!  I had a blast in your shop and I came home with the coolest new toy ever.  Color me supremely happy.

Although they do not have color cards for retail, they would be happy to send me one to help me choose my colors of threads.  I was over the moon happy and most thankful.  I was willing to pay for one, but they were very gracious.

So three days pass, a box arrives.  A BIG BOX.  I see it is from the nice folks at Lecien and I am thinking to myself, “That is a HUGE color card!!”.  I open the box and I nearly fainted dead away from thread nirvana.  Not only did they send me a color card, but EVERY COLOR they produce of Cosmo thread! They like my work and all they asked was for me to share with people how much I like their threads.  I already have, and I do, so that was easy enough.  No arm twisting demands that I only use their product in my work.  Like I said, gracious.

I loved these threads before, but now? this company is golden with me! No more ordering thread blind paying shipping and then getting the wrong color (although it was never a huge loss because I had that thread for later if needed) but……  each thread color ordered carried an extra 3.00 (at least) of shipping and that made each skein at least $4.15 , it really added up after trying to get the right color!

Now I have them all and can design and produce without ordering blind, paying through the nose, waiting………and then all over again setting back my process by weeks instead of hours. 

I told my husband that night that he would have to sleep on the couch, me and my thread would be sleeping together that night.  Yeah, I like it that much.

Milo wouldn't budge, he was on bird high alert. The fabrics, by the way, are only a quarter of what is needed for the Asilomar Block!

I put the magnifying part of my Ott Desk lamp to work.  I tried those drug store magnifying eye glasses but they always make me dizzy and sick.  When I was painting and needed to do some fine detail brush work, I would use the magnifying lamp and it made it sooooo easy to get perfect results with the use of magnification. 

Now I use it for applique, yes applique, and embroidery of small scale work.  If you ever want to see up close and personal just how your applique stitch is working, do it under a magnifying lens.  It will teach you a lot and you will improve.  Me?  If I have a hard time seeing the area I need to stitch?  I stick it under the magnifying lens.  It makes detail work a snap.

What I like about this lamp (Ott Lite Jupiter Magnifying Lamp) is the lense is large enough to get a good view and the light illuminates the work area well at the same time.  I just pull the magnifying portion towards me and voila!  no problemo and a cinch with no stressing over the task at hand.  I smile when I finish rather than turning my sewing room blue with words no one should ever hear from my mouth.

Unfortunately, I am not super human with a body that never seems to age and wear out. I just find ways to get around the inevitable road blocks and this is how I get around the problem of the aging eyes.  I could not have stitched the bird’s legs as well and probably would have been very disappointed in the results if I tried to stitch them with the naked eye.  Very disappointed.

So there you have one of my secrets!  And you thought it just came natural–HA!!

I have good success with the technique I use to get my circles “perfect” (as perfect as possibly human anyway).  But…. I am never quick to discount something that may work even better and reduce the steps or prep work.

I use freezer paper ironed to the back side of my fabric, trim with the seam allowance and then baste the seam allowance to the template itself.  I do not baste yo yo style and then draw up the gathers to fit around the template.   The freezer paper template is removed just prior to completely stitching the circle closed as I applique. 

The basting has stitched through the freezer paper, holding the edges in place. The basting will be removed prior to completing the applique stitching

I don’t use starch because I don’t have to.  The freezer paper that is inside the circle keeps the edges crisp as I work, and when I remove it at the last, the circle holds it shape beautifully.

There are a couple of new applique circle template products on the market that are basically carbon copies of the other so I tried one of them to see if they would reduce the prep work involved in getting the circles perfect.  I also bought some heat resistance template material at the art store to make my own version since I have custom sized circles that don’t match the ready made template products.

Back of Circles: left= freezer paper; right= Perfect Circle Templar

With these heat resistant Templar templates, you baste the seam allowance edges and draw  the edges up like a yo yo to mold around the edges of the template.  Apply starch and iron the backside so the fabric holds its shape and position.  Remove the template and baste/pin to the background in place.  No template to remove as in my technique.

Front of Circles. Notice how the freezer paper (left) is already holding its shape well compared to the Templar on right?

But here is where I found where these two techniques deviate significantly–for me.  When I pin basted the circle, it distorted the shape a bit, even though I had starched it heavily.  I then sew basted it in place to see if that would help.  It was a bit better, but not ideal. 

The real problem I had was even though the plastic/silicone template material gave me a perfect circle to start with, this advantage was lost during the stitching step.  It was easy to distort the edges while stitching since I did not have that firm edge advantage as I stitched with the freezer paper temporarily left in method.  I went back to my freezer paper method as I was able to get better results.

After stitching is complete: The Templar circle is more of a distorted oval now and the freezer paper has held its shape almost perfectly.

I also try to avoid starch, glue etc. when at all possible (I always avoid glue).  I live in the Pacific NW and Silverfish are a problem.  This is the reason I came up with my freezer paper method in the first place.  Starch is really not an option and I found it was not really necessary the more I developed my skill. 

I found the prep work advantage a wash in comparing the two techniques.  I can make hundreds of freezer paper circle templates if I wanted to for a project and complete the prep work for them at one time as I watch TV.  It would be cost prohibitive to purchase that many of the circle template products. There are only three each of the different sizes. Plus, I get the exact size circle I need for the pattern, rather than having to substitute with the “closest” size.  I rarely invoke the sentence, “it is good enough to pass”.

I do think these templates are a good option for those who don’t have the finger dexterity yet to work with the freezer paper “in” method I use and could be very beneficial to get better shaped circles.  Don’t count them out as an option for you.  I have developed my stitching skill and finger dexterity over years of working with hand applique so I am able to do better with the freezer paper templates.  As you develop your hand applique skills, these may be really helpful and the cost of a set is not prohibitively expensive.

It is nice that we have more options available to us as we develop our individual ”mutt” methods for creating our applique and that, as they say, is always a good thing!