A Quilter's Diet

As I am hand stitching with silk thread onto this (very large) applique block from Esther's Secret Garden BOM, I have recently felt it is getting heavier and heavier.

I've never made an applique block this big before. (it's currently approximately 20in x 30in). Nor have I used this technique with Crisp spray starch, nor have I basted pieces onto the background with clear gum before. All of these things add a little bit of weight.

The weight in the block is increasing as I stitch... and I have been basting on more pieces as the stitching progresses....it's not all the weight of the silk thread.

I think I've enjoyed handling the block most of the time in its skinny format (less pieces). It's only now that it's almost finished that it's really feeling quite heavy. Even then, I probably only really notice it's heavy when I'm folding it up to go into a plastic box to keep Bub's (possibly) sticky fingers off it.... he's into EVERYthing that is not his.  I'd definitely make my next blocks in the same way. Decide on some fabrics... prepare pieces... start stitching.... decide on some other fabrics while sewing....

I am wondering if I have a kitchen scale sensitive enough to weigh the block before it's washed, and again afterwards. (It will be hand washed to remove the green markings, the Crisp spray starch and the clear gum baste.) And how much do you think it would drop in weight? What if it became 10% or 20% lighter, just by giving it a good swish in water.

What a great quilting diet that would be. Swish me in the water to remove 10% or 20%.  Four showers today please. Hee hee.

Although it's a mystery, I know the finished quilt measures about 80in x 80in. The first block might be only a few grams lighter after a wash, but what about over the entire quilt? Hee hee. Half a kilogram? Well, who knows.... I guess it is a mystery quilt after all.

Some people probably prepared all the pieces before they started stitching. Wow. That's really not me. I'd be bored standing at the ironing board (or in my case kicking the cat off the freezer where I've put a towel to iron on) for hours on end. And then whole time they've stitched, holding a large piece of fabric with little pieces all over it in all directions! Besides that, this Mumma has to be a sneaky ninja using any scraps of time that come along. Sometimes it's for applique preparation, and sometimes it's a few moments sitting in the air conditioning hand stitching. *ahhhhhhhh*

When you're sewing in the outdoor kitchen in Far North Queensland Summer, you share that kitchen sewing space with toads, frogs and insects, 2 cats and a dog,  and sometimes 40 degree heat... Oh! and the family that prepare and eat meals there.... It's mostly the insects and the family that choose when I get to use the kitchen sewing space.

Just two or three pieces left to prepare and glue baste, and almost all of the stitching is done.

Then, it's time to embellish the block in my own way following my Alice in Wonderland theme.

photo from original Alice in Wonderland movie

Ooh! I hope I get to make bread-and-butter-flies somewhere in the quilt!