Pattern Testing

See Moses.

See Moses pout.

Why is Moses pouting?

Because Snoodles is paying more attention to the kitties on the Paws in the Garden project than she is paying him!

Warning! Picture heavy post ahead!

Settle back with your cuppa in hand, and let's start the process of pattern testing. This is fun!

Long time followers here at the Lilypad know that we can be a little wordy, er, verbose, er excited about projects, so you'll not be surprised.

Terri Stegmiller put out the call for pattern testers some weeks back. We put our name in the pot and crossed our fingers and toes! (We would have held our breath, but we figured it might take a little while for Terri to choose.....we didn't want anyone to find all of us, Padsworth, Snoodles, and Dragondrop, lying on the floor and looking a peculiar shade of blue. So we just crossed our fingers and our toes.) 

Huzzah! We were given the opportunity to test this cute pattern -- Paws in the Garden! Here is Terri's version, courtesy of her blog:

Terri gave us carte blanche (I thought I would throw in a little French there, so you will know I am very cultured and sophisticated and all) to interpret this the way we wanted to. Music to my ears!

I started the process by printing out the pattern. Terri includes marks so that you can line up the pieces correctly. Really good idea. I mean, I know that not everyone has a frog and a tiny dragon frolicing in their sewing area like I do, but still.... (Grin)
I auditioned some fabrics. My first thought was "in the garden....I'll pull some florals and make cute kitties that way."

I liked these, but then I realized it might be hard to distinguish the kitties' markings amidst the lovely blooms.
Back to the drawing board, er stash.
Aha! I knew I had been hoarding blues for some reason! These called out to me and I pulled them out to audition.

And some creams and yellows -- I know the flowers are nice and big, but I really wanted the kitties to be the focal points, so I wanted the flowers to be a little softer.

I had some steam a seam (lite) and so I got to work.
Midway through the project I changed to regular steam a seam, and I have to say I liked it better. I had to spend less time arguing with it. (Wink)

Most of you know the process here . . . flip the pattern over and trace the reverse onto the wrong side of the fabric, then cut out the piece around the lines and peel one piece of paper away. You can stick your fabric piece onto your project then, and if you like what you see, you can peel away the rest of the paper and iron 'er down.

Then comes the fun! You know me, right? Embellishment time!

Fun stitches and some rick rack stems:

Even more to come, but we'll show you that in another post, soon. Look at these adorable kitty faces, fused down and ready to stitch!

Squeee! I'm over-the-moon excited about how this is coming along, and can't wait to show you what else I have up my sleeve! I've even given them names and started talking to the kitties! (Grin)
So now you know why poor Moses is pouting!
If you'd like to try Terri's pattern yourself, check out her blog for a link to her patterns!

See you soon with the big reveal!

Love,

PS. Don't forget the Green Fairy giveaway!
                        And stop in at SewCalGal's charity effort, too!