Lida-Loony

At last, some progress in the new quilting studio. Lida the bird has decided to (mostly) drop her diva-ish ways this week and cooperate. Between Floriani thread and plenty of little alcohol pads to periodically clean the fusible-web goo off the needle (always taking the needle out first), she's been transformed from view A to view B:

View A

View B

She has no eyes yet, and won't have until after she's attached to her free-motion quilt, Lida Luna--untrimmed and waiting on the design board (we don't have the new design wall finished, but my very versatile handy husband--VVHH from now on--is working on it):

Lida's beak will probably be painted either silver or a pearlescent white; otherwise it won't show up all that well against the sky.

The transformation wasn't exactly a cakewalk. There were hitches. The first issue was hand-tying knots in Floriani thread, which I'd never tried before. (I couldn't trust the lockstitches at the beginning and end of each row, most of them being right at the edges of Lida's body, which will soon be closely trimmed away from the stabilizer.) I used my usual hand-tying process, a reef (square) knot, the same configuration you use to keep your shoelaces from coming untied. A knot you can count on.

The joke was on me. While I was working on the second knot,
I literally watched the first knot come loose. I couldn't believe it! Square knots have never failed me with Isacord, Superior and YLI poly, Invisifil, or good ol' Coats & Clark--or my shoelaces. Not ever. However, Floriani embroidery thread is the most slippery thread I've ever used other than mono-poly. (UPDATE: I've since discovered that I may have all along been tying the 'reef' or 'square' knot wrong--oops--still, this thread is slippery enough that, as I said, it is the first to have made knots that I've ever actually watched come untied. END OF UPDATE.) Vexed (and somewhat indignant), I re-tightened the errant knot and then pulled out one of my favorite weapons--Fray Check. Oh yeah...take that, Floriani!! From then on, every knot got saturated with the stuff. And so far, they're all staying put. The great thing about Fray Check, besides checking (stopping) fraying, is that it's totally undetectable after it dries.

The second hitch was something already mentioned above, which is having to trim Lida away from the stabilizer. That's because in my anxiousness to get started, I accidentally pulled out a scrap of medium-weight Pellon interfacing instead of the scrap of tear-away stabilizer I'd meant to use. When the sinking feeling dawned on me halfway through these lines and rows that the stabilizer was handling more like interfacing, I tested a corner of it. Sure enough, it tore somewhat easily in one direction, but not in the other. At that point, Lida was beginning to make me loony. But I wasn't about to rip stitches and start over. Plugging away was the only option. So a close and cautious trim with the scissors will have to do. Once Lida is satin-stitched onto the quilt (over some batting to puff her out a bit), her edges should be invisible; otherwise, fabric markers can be used to touch up any white areas that might show through. Lesson learned, however. From now on I'll check the tear-ability first to make sure it's the right stabilizer. Duh.

Hooking up to Whoop Whoop Fridays, where Sarah has just finished a really cool project with the kids at her church. Be sure to look at some work by the folks who've hooked up below her post, too.

Also hooking up with Leah Day's FMQ Friday. Today Leah was in jail---no, not for real! Just read it. Very entertaining and encouraging.

And happy (almost) June!

Linda