Weekly Agenda

It looks like this is actually going to be a full week of school for my kids.  This will be their first full week since Christmas break.  They had a hard time getting out of bed this morning.

I have been focusing on my February goals for the most part this month.  The month is almost half over and I have about half my goals completed.  I found it works best for me if I make my goals specific.  So if I want to put borders on 2 quilts, I need to name the projects.  If I don't get specific enough, my attention wanders to other things and I find myself dabbling off the beaten path.

My focus this week is actually putting together my blue plus quilt.  I started sewing the block in pairs, but I didn't make it very far.  Goal number 4 for the month was to finish applique on a whole bunch of small projects.  I have the applique completed on 4 banners.  Perhaps I can even get the spring banner quilted in time for spring this year.

I also did the applique on 2 more snowman wall hangings.  I kept all the faces going the same direction on these.  I will add buttons for noses after they are quilted.  I can't decide if I want to add the snowflake to the center square on the green snowman wall hanging.  I may just quilt a snowflake instead.

I learned a few things while doing the applique that I thought I would share:

1. Put a new needle in your machine before you start.  I don't know why I never thought of this!  It was amazing the difference this made.  I did not use any stabilizer, and I had no puckering.
2. My open toe applique foot from Viking is a joke!  I thought it was me that was doing it wrong, but it simply does not grip the fabric for applique no matter what I did.
3. Reduce the top tension just a bit.  I wasn't having a problem with the bobbin thread showing, but this made the stitches look a lot nicer.
4. The clear plastic foot is my new favorite foot for applique (thank you Eleanor).
5. The setting I liked best on my machine was 2.5 for width and 1.4 for length.  This gave me the perfect not quite satin stitch and did not look thready.  I did the first several appliques at a length of 1.2, but Eleanor suggest I lengthen it a bit more, and I liked it better.
6. Applique is sort of fun in small doses.  I used the fusing method for mine, and I used Steam-A-Seam 2 lite.  I think this might be my new favorite adhesive.