Playing With New Toys

I went to Mrs. Pugsley's Emporium on Friday to get some black fabric to make a backing and hanging sleeve for Rhythmic.  One of the requirements of the Paducah show is that odd-shaped quilts be mounted on a plain black backing to make it easier for the organizers to hang the quilts.  1.5 m of solid black isn't a very interesting purchase, so I looked around to see what was new in the shop. There were a lot of new notions in, and a pile of stencils caught my eye.  Isn't this sailboat sweet?  It's designed by Hari Walner, a woman whose books were a great help years back in my machine quilting. I decided it needed to come home with me...because you never know when you might need a sweet little design like this.

At the counter, I caught sight of a jar of what looked like dismembered digits...but upon closer inspection turned out to be rubber finger cots for use in machine quilting.  Ooowww, I'd better have some of those.  

These odd do-hickeys come in three sizes, small to large, so I chose 2 of each size.

While the blizzard raged outside, I decided to try out both the stencil and the finger cots.  I cut out a simple bib shape and layered it right sides together with backing and batting.

It will close with a piece of Velcro instead of ties, so I left the bottom open for turning.  Notice how when I start and stop sewing, I turn my work to run the stitching right off the edge.  Doing it this way makes the edges turn in much easier.

All the curved edges were clipped before turning.

Then the fun part.  I centred the stencil on the bib, and traced through the openings with a Frixxion marker.

Wearing those sticky finger cots, I followed the lines with free motion stitching using a YLI variegated blue thread. The rubber fingers gripped the fabric well and were not as cumbersome as gloves.  A breeze came up and knocked my stitching a little crooked on the sail (hey - I mentioned there was a blizzard outside, right?!) but it was a simple path to follow, and really cute.  

I can't wait to try this design out on a real quilt.