I decided to see if I could improve my ipad blogging experience by uploading my photos to the cloud. I've avoided this step previously because I have a LOT of photos and unfortunately through some error of my ways I managed to upload many duplicates as well. When I first uploaded my documents to the cloud the effort brought my home network to it's knees and so I am hoping to avoid that.
I am learning a lot about my workflow here. Given the shape of the larger triangle, it is entirely possible to stitch the wrong sides together. At 16 stitches per inch and about a 3 1/2 inch side, that is a lot of stitches in vain, so it is best avoided. I've done it more times than I care to count, so now I have a process. (I was a system analyst in my corporate life, there is always a way to finetune the process for efficiency!)
This is the correct orientation of the two triangles, the flat on the smaller one is the interior of the circle formed by the triangles. It is super easy though to get turned arouond and sew the two sides together with the points in the same direction. With practice I'm getting more attentive, but also you want to be stitching in a direction so you end up ready to stitch your next seam. If I stitched from the top down I would end up at the bottom and to stitch my next pink triangle (we have to assume to the left of these has already been stitched) then I would have the bottom of the purple triangle between the needle and the next seam.
So this morning efforts I manually managed to remove unwanted and duplicate photos for almost two years, which means about 12 or so more years to go. I'm going to take it on though because my digital life needs a clean up and it's silly to upload a bunch of duplicate and in some cases triplicate photos. I an only guessing it happened when I uploaded photos from the phone and somehow incorrectly answered a prompt.
But back to making. I got up this morning and stitched a few of my tula pink paper pieces together. They are a part of the Sunrise Quilt I started back in February.
I love my makes in progress to be pretty so I made myself some cute see through zipped pouches to carry all the various parts. There is a video on you tube by Erica Arndt. This is the one I used but there are many others.
I've taken the time to learn about the tools which help paper piecing be successful. Tula Pink has 3 great videos she did with the Fat Quarter Shop. The thread is dyed to match Tula fabrics and is from Aurfil. Changing to that from the bobbin threads I was using made a huge difference in the tangulation factor. Next was needles. These are a number 10 big eye from Tulip. In beading I don't care for a short needle, but in paper piecing it's perfect for pushing through the edge of the fabrics and catching just the tiniest bit of threads. Since as I said I like pretty tools, I have a pair of Tula pink scissors.
The last little thing you see is the magnet holding the two pieces to be sewn together.
So to avoid all this, I've developed a habit. 
When I'm done stitching a seam, I position the next one to be sewn, triple checking the orientation and also flipping it so I will be stitching right to left ending up a the correct point. I always position my Sew Tite magnet with the silver side facing me (the flip side is purple plastic) and then even if I put the work down, when I come back I know if I pick it up silver side facing me and I stitch right to left I will be correct. I've stitched 7 of the 12 medallions and I am hoping that the next 5 will require no ripped seams!
I've always dived deep into any new artform by buying the best tools I can. In this case I resisted both thread and needles, opting for a less expensive thread and my beading needles. I decided after watching Tula and understanding that I was undertaking probably a years worth of this activity, I should invest in the correct tools. I know own the aurfil thread and the Tulip needles. While I certainly could have used my Gingher dress shears for cutting, these Tula Pink ones were too cute to pass up plus which they are always in the pouch with all the other tools. No having to go look for the Ginghers.
Do you have an Engish Paper piecing tool you can't live without? Please share, it may be that I need it too!
No comments:
Post a Comment