Pastel Dye Sticks, and another Tiny Quilting Finish.

Hello Dear Reader,

I had to laugh, earlier this week, on visiting Kate, of Smiles from Kate, as I found that, to my surprise, she too was camped out in her bedroom with her two pets whilst work was being carried out elsewhere in her house ..... and at that very moment I was doing exactly the same thing myself! .....  with our two "new to us" cats, while we were having our aging chimney stack removed and the gap tiled over!

The eldest of the two cats, Tom, was determined to keep an eye on proceedings, from a comfortable spot by the window, where he eventually fell asleep! Youngest cat decided to settle under our bed, for a serious kip (even though she is normally out in the garden all day) until the coast was clear!

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If you you haven't seen my previous post on "Tiniest Quilting Ever" let me explain!

"DH and I have laser cut door keys that, surprisingly, get damaged when they rub against the other keys on our keyrings, and consequently they won't open our doors, so we had to think of some sort of protection for them, or keep replacing the keys (which would be really inconvenient, and not to mention very expensive!)."

Therefore we thought of making some sort of sleeve for them. After making the prototype for DH I set about making some for my keys:

A little while ago I visited Queeniepatch on her blog - Queenie's Needlework - where she was talking about the crayons she was using on her Trinity Green triangle patchwork quilt - this gave me the idea of using some crayon colour on my key protectors.

"Flying Geese" cover: I made my first key cover in the style of "flying geese" (if you don't "do" patchwork this is a technical term for a quilting pattern) which I had thought of making to use some of my scraps, but I felt the pieces really would be too small, even if I used paper piecing (another patchwork name), and there would be too many seams to turn the stitching right side out through the tiny gap. I could have used binding, of course, but again .... it would be much too fiddly with all the tiny pieces that would entail, and therefore I chose not to make the cover that way. Which was when I had a "lightbulb" moment, and decided that if I drew a grid I could colour in my "patches". You will see the finished cover on my key ring at the bottom of this post.

As the "flying geese" cover worked well I though I'd try making something similar with a different pattern, and remembered to take some pics this time!

Lemon and Lime cover: Again, I drew a grid on a scrap of Calico, using an erasable *Frixion ball pen, in order to be sure I stitched my seams exactly where I wanted them. I've had the pen for a year or so, but hadn't been brave enough to use it on any of my stitching, until now, as I was worried it might not erase properly, and would ruin my work!

Then I filled in the spaces with *Pentel Fabricfun Pastel Dye Sticks.

*Please don't think I am advertising, and I am not being reimbursed to mention these items either! I am merely reporting that they worked well for me.

Grid draw with Frixion ball pen 

With an old scrap of fabric under my grid, and covering it with a piece of parchment paper, I pressed with a hot iron to set the dye, and, hopefully, it is now permanent and washable. (BTW - I have since washed this  key cover, and the colour has stayed in place and looks as good as new!)

Pressing with the iron also completely removed the Frixion grid.

Searching for cotton to stitch a frame to highlight the pastel pattern, I discovered this vintage cotton reel in my collection... one of many cotton reels I have "inherited" from stitching friends who have been clearing out or downsizing .... I was amazed to realise the paper on top and bottom of the reel had not been broken - meaning it had never been used before!

In pristine condition!

Still pristine condition - seconds before handing it to DH

I do hope it wasn't valuable, but, it was, at least, unusual with it being so old, and unused!

Well this was seconds before DH held it, and, you can probably guess ..... the first thing he did was break the paper on top! Neverthless, I liked the colour .... and at least it meant I used it, and didn't just put it back in the box of cottons for another 50 years, or whatever......

I stitch seams that won't be seen in a cream colour, not to waste my coloured threads where they won't be seen ....

Using lots of pins, even though it's tricky to get it all under the walking foot!

A useful tip I read a while ago .... when sewing tiny things leave a large seam and cut to size when you are happy with it .... so I left my scrap of wadding larger than necessary until I had finished stitching the seam.

Stitched with a gap of an inch to turn through.

I always struggle closing the gap after turning, so I don't trim the seam at the gap.

Trim close to seams, being careful not to cut through

any stitches.

Even using a bodkin, it's still tricky to push corners out,  

Oh dear, I missed out a step here ..... my machine stitched outlines in the Vintage Moss Green cotton, but you can see below how it looks, after stitching. Maybe I should have gone over the stitching a couple of times .... well, that will be a lesson learnt for the next few covers.

That's two key covers for me ...... however I have about another eight to make to protect the spare keys that were supplied when we had our new patio and front doors fitted.

These are my two key covers!

This is the first time I've thought of using crayons rather than patterned fabrics, and I shall definitely be experimenting again with Pastel Dye Sticks. 

Do you, or would you, use crayons with your stitching?

Thank you for visiting me today. I hope you are having a great weekend, and now I'm off to see what you are all up to!

I always love to hear from you.

Barbara xxx

Linking to Amanda Jean's Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday, hoping Amanda doesn't mind me being a little late!