Longhorn, Session 2

Posted on May 28, 2012 by treshabarger

Ticka and I worked on our longhorn appliques last weekend. My longhorn, Dippity-Do, now has ears, eyes and a mouth. After session two, he’s starting to look like a longhorn. Here’s what he looked like after Session 1.

I can see clearly now!

I’ve nicknamed Ticka’s longhorn “Freckles.” Here’s Freckles and Dippity-Do next to each other. Ticka actually finished her longhorn body in session two and will start working on the background next time. My next step is to put together the longhorn body.

Two longhorn applique heads, one with freckles, one without

Freckles and Dippity-Do

Alias Venus Flytrap

Posted on May 11, 2012 by treshabarger

Traced and painting started

Last weekend I was very busy art-wise. On Saturday Ticka and I worked on our Longhorn appliqués. Sunday I was back at Ticka’s playroom for a watercolor session.

Just as a reminder, here’s how I paint. I show up with my purse and maybe a snack. To start, I trace the image onto the watercolor paper. Next, I pick up the paint brush my instructor, Etta (Ticka’s sister), says to pick up. I dip it in the paint color she indicates. I place the paint on the paper where she points to. Repeat the brush and paint motion until the watercolor is finished.

poppy watercolor in progress, all petals with some paint

All petals started

Yes, that is how I paint. I walk in with a purse and walk out with a purse and a painting. Art is fun!!

poppy watercolor in progress, petals all painted in

Hmm, sort of a red poppy

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Somehow the red in mine didn’t quite turn out like I thought it should. It ended up looking somewhat like a juvenile, multi-petaled Venus Flytrap.

Poppy? Pansy? Venus Flytrap?

Longhorn, Session 1

Posted on May 7, 2012 by treshabarger

At the end of March, my friend Ticka and I took an appliqué class in Wimberly, Texas. There were about 20 students in the class. Each of us chose one of the instructor’s patterns to work on. Ticka and I chose the Longhorn pattern.

My goal was to finish the Longhorn appliqué for hubby’s birthday present in September. By the end of the class, I’d extended that time frame to Christmas . . . 2013.

However, Ticka and I did not give up hope. We scheduled a work session for the Longhorn. In the March class, I managed to cut out six pieces (out of about 50 for the Longhorn head). By the end of the first work session last weekend, I had 25 pieces cut and arranged. Here is the result. You can see the pattern tracings underneath the appliqué pressing sheet. We have another work session scheduled for the end of May.

I’ve named my Longhorn-in-progress Dippity-Do, because I cut his top hair with spiked points and it looks like he is wearing Dippity-Do.

Dippity-Do

Rope Basket

Posted on April 17, 2012 by treshabarger

Recently I took a class at Sew Much More in north Austin. It was the Rope Basket Class. I’d had the It’s A Wrap book for years (literally), but hadn’t done anything more than read through it several times. I was happy when I saw they were offering a rope basket class.

Fabric bowl and lid

So here’s my rope basket and lid from the class. I used a little bit less than a yard of fabric and about 50 feet of cotton clothesline cording. The sewing time in class was just under two hours. Our pre-class homework task was to wrap the cotton cording with the fabric. That took me five hours. I kid you not. Thank goodness baseball season had started so I had something to distract me during the five long hours of fabric wrapping. And the Cubs won, so that was a bonus.

Open for business

The next day I had a definite pain in the back of my shoulder. I was sure it came from me holding my left hand and shoulder in pretty much the same position for that five-hour period, holding up the cord while I wrapped it with fabric using my right hand. As I knew where the pain originated, I didn’t overreact and think I was nearing the end of my sewing days so soon.