Are you a SEW-ciopath?

Is it serious?  It could be, but probably not.  I know I am making light of a very serious health emergency currently, but here at Scrap & Sew, we are trying to make the best of it.  So I thought I would poke some fun at a 'disease' many of us sewers/quilters have and that is an addiction to sewing also know as a SEW-ciopath.

I have been featuring 'Bundle Buddies' the last few weeks and we are going to mix it up and change the bundle buddies to the fifth Friday of the month. It will feature 5 fat quarters instead of four and will occur in the months that have five Fridays. (Thanks, Cathy for the inspiration)  The next 5th Friday is July 31st and you will want to check back to see what I am featuring that day.

Now onto to our 'disease'.  We have several panels at the store and even a few of them are on sale.  Lately I have been crazy tryng to figure out what to do with them (a sign of the disease) and I found this terrific new book (to me) called Panel Play by Barbara Becker.

I decided my first project would be to use the Home Sweet Home panel by Moda.

I selected the Top My Table design on page 20 and it sewed up rather quickly following her directions.  I then sandwiched my batting with a square piece of the backing fabric. This makes it easier to do the edge-to-edge designs and keep them vertical and straight.

I selected the cherry design from the Jumbo 2 collection by Amelie Scott.  these designs come in three BIG sizes - Large, Oversize and Extreme.  I measure the size of the Oversize and it's size calculated to fit 3 across and 2 down. Perfect!

                     

I stitched out a sample on tearaway stabilizer and marked it to create a visual for my stitching.

I drew a vertical line down the center of the table topper and then measured and marked the center points for the designs. I hooped the tabel topper in the Jumbo hoop using the vertical and horizontal marks on the hoop.  I then used the metal clips to secure the fabric sandwich in the hoop. Yikes- I need to clean my  hoop!

Using precise positioning I was able to align my design with the  markings and then stitched out OA-A.  The first half of the design.

I noticed that the tension was off since I used a cream color in the needle and black in the bobbin.  I adjusted it slightly and even though it was not perfect, I could live with it.

I followed the directions in the book to add the binding and the trickiest part was the corners, but I am happy with the results.   

Here is a close up of the cherries in the design.  They are perfect for this collection.

Since I only used 4 of the blocks in the panel, I got busy with what I could do with the other four.  You will have to come back to see what I have 'cooked' up!