Seasonal Changes

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is staying safe and sane. Since the last post, temperatures have warmed up, the sun is higher in the sky, and the trees have flowered and are now almost in full leaf. This is significant as there is not much natural light filtering to the workspace now but the trees do keep the temperatures cool.

What hasn’t changed is facial mask production. At the time of this post, 180 masks have been completed with another 25 waiting to be sewn. This is a picture of the last drop off a couple weeks ago.

The actual sewing is going well. It has been interesting to handle so many different fabrics from iron clad cotton (perhaps due to high thread count?) to stretchy knits that I think are the most comfortable to the standard, reliable quilting or bedding cotton and cotton/poly blends.

There was an opportunity to take a pause from the masks to sew up some pillowcases. Pillowcases are a standard beginner level sewing project and I have been sewing them intermittently for a long time. Despite having done many, I find them quite interesting to sew and this time it was because of the fabric pattern and the decision to do some decorative stitching. Here is the first fabric I wanted to share:

This fabric made me think about how to construct the pillowcase because it is such a strong directional design and I wanted to preserve it. For example, one wouldn't want a pillowcase that has these wolves upside down. There is nothing wrong with this fabric, just more is needed when compared to an all over design that can be cut the same way it comes off the bolt. To keep the wolves running right side up on both sides of the pillowcase, I also thought about the seams resulting in below.

A contrast green fabric was chosen for this wolf fabric to create a band at the opening.

The end of the band that is not attached to the wolf fabric is then turned on the inside so that the pillowcase opening has a facing or finish similar to a garment. When the end is turned to the inside, the trickiest seam is required as a decision needs to be made about sewing from the inside or from the outside. Because of the multiple layers of fabric here, it was best to finish the band from the inside (I found that out on the second attempt).

Here is the finished pillowcase:

Another fabric was this more abstract snowman fabric:

This fabric did not have as strong of a horizontal design but it was noted that the snowmen were horizontal only. There was not enough fabric to flip and cut so that the snowmen were vertically aligned. Though it bothered me, I carried on and decided to play around with the decorative stitches on my machine.

I rarely use anything besides the straight or zigzag stitch. I took this opportunity to try the scallop on the contrast band for the snowman pillowcase. First, I sewed the contrast band on the inside like the wolf pillowcase, but then for the decorative stitch I sewed on the outside, using the previous line of stitches as a guide.

Here is the finished contrast band:

And here is the finished snowman pillowcase, turned so that the snowmen were vertically aligned (for me).

These pillowcases were a nice break and made me think a bit with these strong patterns.

The garden is doing OK. My excavation efforts have helped the garden handle the recent rains.

The garden did improve greatly after this picture. I still think this Spring has been better than 2019 because April was such a cool, dry month. My Spring plantings have struggled so no news there. I have started planting the Summer crops beginning with peppers and basil, tomatoes, beans, and corn waiting in the wings. Speaking of wings, I do have two bird photographs. The birds have been active but they have also been more elusive now that there is plenty of foliage to hide them. Out of many many attempts, this robin photo has been my best since the last post:

A very special bird, at least to me, was spotted. It was a Nashville warbler. I am usually only able to see the warblers for a few weeks in Spring and in Fall. They are very skittish. This one was active right by my window and I did not have the big camera with me, but had the phone camera. I knew this was a rare opportunity so this was the best picture.

I first tried an aggressive cropping of the photo but it did not improve so I think this shot is the best compromise.

That’s all the news. Stay safe and healthy! Planet Nice will be back next month.