Thursday, April 19, 2012

Pimped up machine part 2

OK I'm done with my machine.  I've even taken it out and sewn with it.
 In part 1 I left the background white.  Well after looking at it long enough I felt I needed to color the background.  I used Setacolor paint that was watered down.  It beaded up so I took a paper towel and wiped it. I really liked the look so I did the rest of the machine.
Here is a close up of the flowers before they are all painted.
Here it is all painted.  Once the flowers were done I felt it needed another layer.  so I took a couple of my stencils and used Setacolor cobalt blue to stencil on the vines and leaves.  It still needed more so I used a script stencil with dark blue Setacolor paint.
then I went back over some of the flowers with the fine point black sharpie to add definition.  Then to seal it all in I sprayed a clear acrylic sealer in gloss finish.  I only put a few coats on so it is not shiny gloss like before I painted it.  It should stay better longer though.

Here it is all done and ready for service.

Sew see you later,
Bette

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Getting Ready for Quilt Show

The last several weeks I've been really busy sewing, quilting and embellishing a couple of quilts for the Lake Quilters Guild Quilt Show this weekend.  "QUILTING... The Thread of Life" will be held on April 13 & 14 at Trinity Ecumenical Parish, Rt 122, Moneta, VA.  Friday, 9:30-4:30 Saturday, 9:30-4:00. Admission: $5 Donation.  If you are in the area, come by and see all of the quilts. (over 100).

 I did this last year as a block of the month.  It is MaKenna Ryan's Beach Walk pattern.  Last year I had finished all of the blocks but then it was full on holidays...  There they sat.
Only when I realized about a month ago how little time was left before our quilt show that I got busy.  I actually finished it a week before I had to turn it in!  NOTHING LIKE DEADLINES to get us moving.
This is the other one that wasn't finished. It was a round robin quilt our bee did.  We each ended up with a quilt.











I also sewed the pieces together for our Bee project.... 1600 inch quilt.  Next week we get together and put the borders on it.  We each brought 42- 2 1/2" strips, put them in a bag then we passed the bags around until we all had 42 strips again.


 Here is my 1600 quilt so far.











Sew See you later!
Bette

Pimping My Sewing Machine


Over the last several months Kathy Southern from StudioKats Design has been showing sewing machines that people have decorated.  That really got me interested in decorating my travel sewing machine (inexpensive machine).  I started a couple of months ago to use sharpies, but I wasn't happy with the lack of color.  So this week Kathy bit the bullet or should I say inspiration and started working on her extra machine.  Today I had some time with nothing planned.  So with Kathy's inspiration I've started.

 I started by putting masking tape over all openings.  It is a working sewing machine for me.

 Having experience with paint coming off of plastic items, I sprayed several light coats of white spray paint for plastic.  This now becomes my primer coat of paint.
 Next I took a fine black sharpie to draw on the back of the machine.
Next came the fun of painting in the flowers and dots.  My name is on the back so when I'm in class the teacher will know who I am.  Several of the colors I used are metallic.  I know you can't see it here.









Sew see you soon!
Bette