Just Sew

This project started with a tambourine.

Country Sampler's special issue magazine Boho Style was what got me going.  They had a tambourine with long strips of fabric tied to the edges.  Not sure what they were going to do with it, but I thought it would look good hanging from a wall.

I didn't have a tambourine, so I decided to use a 14" quilting hoop instead.  I thought it would look silly to have fabric hanging from the edges when there was a big open space in the middle, so I decided to do a fused applique project instead.

First, I decided on what I wanted to say, then I drew letters to fit the scale of the hoop.

Then I picked background fabric - with a sewing theme, naturally.

Then I flipped my letters upside down, laid the adhesive side of the fusible on top of them, and traced them.  

This whole process associated with fusing - reverse the image, figure out which side to trace on, blah, blah, blah, always takes me awhile to figure out.  If I did it often enough, I wouldn't have to use my brain so hard.  (I got good at paper piecing and no longer have to look up how to do that.)  But in the meantime I wrote up fusing directions for myself and paper clipped them to the fusible stuff.

Success!  I did a test letter first, to be sure I was doing it correctly.

Letters cut out, paper peeled off, and placed within the hoop prior to fusing.

After fusing, I needed to stitch along the edges.  Using black thread would have been too boring, so I decided to use a different color thread for each letter.  I'm not a big fan of satin stitching - it takes too long and looks unappealing to me.  But I think in this case it provided just the right combination of delineation and fun.  

Besides, something was telling me to just sew, so sew I did.

On the back, I trimmed the excess fabric to one inch, then did a gathering stitch.  I want to make sure the fabric stays taut in the hoop, so I didn't want to use any glue between the hoop and the fabric in case I need to do any adjusting over time.  This way I have a little bit to grab onto and pull in case I need to cinch it up.

I'm hanging this on the wall in my sewing room.  And now, time to get to it!