Breast Pockets

As most of you know - October is
Breast Cancer Awareness month.

One of my Facebook friends and fellow blogger -
Melanie Testa - is asking, whoever is willing,
to make "breast pockets" - the kind that you 
sew on a blouse. You can make them for someone
you know who had  a mastectomy without reconstruction
or in memory of someone that you knew or family
member. Melanie will tell us where to mail them.

You can read more about Breast Pockets <---here
at Melanie's blog. She needs 1,000 by October 22.

I hope that you will join me in making some
pretty cool pockets and flaps. If you need
a pattern; Melanie has one on her page in
a PDF file.

I'm not a seamstress but I did manage to draw
my own pattern - the pocket is easy but the flap
can be kind of tricky. If I can do this so can you!
You can make one in a night - they go very fast.

I had three women in my family with breast
cancer: My cousin Ruthie, my cousin Roe,
and my sister-in-law Joy. I'm making my pockets
in their memory. Come and join me!

Here's my first attempt:

I'm making some of them with 
my hand painted fabrics. I also
want them to be happy, fun,
and a little wonky. This is
an improvisational pattern -
make it up as you go along.
It's one of my favorite things
to do.
I think it's great for my first
try!


Please stop by Melanie's blog and get more details.

Thanks!

More Free Motion Fun!

This month from SewCalGal's Free Motion Challenge

Paula Reid!
 
This is the quilt pattern:

I'm using Sulky Wash Away Stabilizer - you can draw your pattern on top, stitch over it and then just rinse in water water. Fantastic!

 Just pin it on your fabric and
make sure that it's secure. You may
also use a hoop.
But Make sure that you don't get
any water on it before you sew or
have very sweaty hands (-:

 This one was my first try where
I left out the corners.

 This is the one where I used the
Sulky - around the edges I used
a pattern by Leah Day. -
Quilt along #31

I made it a bit too busy but that's
okay - it's practice!








This is from the lesson by Susan of Blue Moon River Blog

 

 I love the way this one came out and am constantly changing the petals.
The top one is the original and I changed the petals on the bottom one.
I also have a third one (which I didn't photograph) Where I removed
the tiny petal on the bottom right. I'm making a applique pattern out
of this one.

 

I thought that this one would be fun. After the rose petals fall off and the rose hips are just starting to form.
Cool!






I've learned a lot this month! Thank you Susan, Paula, Leah,
and SewCalGal!


Do you blog? How do you find the new blogger? I'm still struggling.

Have a Great week!

Free Motion Challenge - Susan

This month at SewCalGal
Free Motion Challenge - we have a bonus tutorial by
Susan Brubaker Knapp! I have been following Susan's
blog Blue Moon River
for quite some time. Please visit her blog - one of my favorite
pieces that Susan did is "Friso" (the cat)! Stunning work!
She is also a Facebook friend.
You may also be familiar with her work in Quilting Arts Magazine.

Our challenge is to take some photos in Macro
mode (no problem here) and then print and
trace the obvious lines onto cloth. This will
be our original quilting design! I love this idea!

Looking through my photos; I can't decide which
0ne to use first. I want something simple as this
will be a "test".
I chose the mushrooms:


One day after it rained; I walked around the
garden with my camera and spotted some
very unusual fungi. I had never seen this
type before and they were very tiny. I also
found a couple of unusual slugs - slightly
pink in color and also very tiny.




This is the little group of mushrooms that I decided to use
for my project.





As the color is very light; I had difficulty finding the lines.
(my light box is in storage and I used the sliding glass
doors to trace the photo)

I thought that maybe it would be easier to trace
if I turned the photo into a black and white. Which
I did in photoshop.




This was a little easier to trace.

I used a washable pen to trace the design on one
of my hand dyed fabrics.


This is my first attempt. I didn't like the variegated thread
on this fabric. The design kinda gets lost if you stand
a distance away.


For test #2 - I used the same fabric but with black thread...


First of all - I think that the black thread shows more
of your mistakes. The second thing is - (-: I tried to
imitate the mulch and it didn't translate too well
into stitch.

So I tried using a lighter fabric and again the
black thread... test #3You can see more clearly where I back tracked using
the black thread. Also my mushrooms look like flowers!

I will still use this design - I need to get my lightbox!

This is a very fun project! Thanks Susan!

I will probably add more during the month!