Ping Jeanne

I've been perfecting (?) making chenille bees to put on a crib quilt. When I started to tell our group about my discoveries, I realized you are missing. How can I explain what I'm doing to anybody that doesn't know what making chenille appliqué is? Where are you, Jeanne? Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther
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Polly,

I copied your message and sent it to her via Facebook.

Debbi in SO CA

Polly Esther wrote:

Reply to
Debbi

What a sweetheart you are, Debbi. Thank you kindly. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

i'm here, fwiw. thanks to Debbie for passing on your post below to my facebook inbox. i've been doing the best i can to totally distract myself from everything by playing a new game on facebook called Baking Life. being on dial up it is slow so has the ability to totally fill up all my day with something specific and always the same thing over and over...baking, filling ovens, emptying ovens, etc, just the stuff we bake there looks different so keeps my brain busy in a mindless activity. having lost my mind it works well for me.

so go ahead and describe your chenille bees and i'll see if i can follow and make sense of it. sorry to be gone from here but my mind is no longer able to follow too many things at once. so much goes on here. i've developed what feels like a mindless form of ADD or sumpin like that.

just realized you've already started talking about this in another thread. what is that one called? so i can find it. j.

"Polly Esther" wrote ... I've been perfecting (?) making chenille bees to put on a crib quilt. When I started to tell our group about my discoveries, I realized you are missing. How can I explain what I'm doing to anybody that doesn't know what making chenille appliqué is? Where are you, Jeanne? Polly

Reply to
J*

Oh so glad you've joined us, Jeanne. There's not another thread started on chenille. I didn't quite know how to begin. Martha Pullen in Sew Beautiful

2004 showed a jacket with chenille bees. Of course, we wouldn't dare copy that here and I don't know where to begin to look to show our new folks what chenille appliqué is. I was hoping that you could find the 'basics' so I could add in my tests and errors. You are so great at finding things; help me if you can. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

looked everywhere and can not find a 'how to' or even a pix of those bees. how about you describe how you did it here and i'm sure you'll get some opinions and thots et al from the group and i'll do my best sorry. :( j.

"Polly Esther" wrote ... Oh so glad you've joined us, Jeanne. There's not another thread started on chenille. I didn't quite know how to begin. Martha Pullen in Sew Beautiful

2004 showed a jacket with chenille bees. Of course, we wouldn't dare copy that here and I don't know where to begin to look to show our new folks what chenille appliqué is. I was hoping that you could find the 'basics' so I could add in my tests and errors. You are so great at finding things; help me if you can. Polly
Reply to
J*

Okay. Here we go. I had a boring crib quilt top that needed something that made it look like it was for a baby. Decided a chenille appliqué of a big fat bee would do the deed. Fuzzy chenille is created by stacking 3 to 6 layers of fabric, stitching through it on the bias, giving it a scrub with a stiff brush ( a brush for suede shoes is good) and it will fluff up. You can buy strips of chenille ready to stitch down but it is expensive so I wanted to make my own. Things learned: the black for the bee stripes needed to be black on both sides. Many blacks are not. The fabric needed to be loosely woven so it would fray. I found that Moda makes one that is thin and ravels really, really well. A chenille appliqué needs to be stitched to a fabric that is tough and firmly woven - such as a batik. It's going to suffer the rather violent brushing too but you don't want it to be damaged. This background fabric needs to be plain - solid or close to it; a blender? Applying a bee to an already busy print lets the bee pretty much disappear. I could take a picture and sort of show you but it won't be as good as a tutorial or demo - and I'm still working on bee wings. Polly

"J*" looked everywhere and can not find a 'how to' or even a pix of those bees.

Reply to
Polly Esther

Jeanne, I probably have confused this subject with bees. Any simple shape can be outlined with chenille - fish, butterflies, flowers - or just squiggles. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

no worrys, i understood just what you meant. tho i also get how chenille is made. how about a flower to go with those bees...so he can collect and redistribute the pollen doncha know. did you raw edge stitch the bee to the quilt? or some other way attach it? curious minds want more info on what sounds a delightful quilt for a wee babe. j.

"Polly Esther" wrote ... Jeanne, I probably have c> Okay. Here we go. I had a boring crib quilt top that needed something

Reply to
J*

Here's how the bee began. I took 3 pieces of bumble bee yellow. Has to be just the right yellow - not timid but Bold. Put them on top of 3 pieces of black. (Pieces are about 3" square just for a beginning.) With a pencil, I drew an oval Catty Cornered on the top square. Does everybody speak 'Catty Cornered' ? The oval just Has to be at a 45° angle against the straight of the weave so it will fray just right. Don't cut the oval yet. I stitched across the bee's body at 3 places. Then cut out the bee oval. Stitched on those 3 places again to firmly fix him to the base fabric. ( A sturdy batik.) Then cut out (carefully) the oval And between the stitching stripes. When brushed like fury - taDah! we have a black/yellow fuzzy fluffy bee. The instructions called for 1/8" black rick-rack for antennae. None of that on hand so I did a satin stitch for them. Now I'm busy as a bee =) testing just the right fabric for sheer bee wings. I think I have them done but am going to stitch them to whatever's in the next laundry. Won't be any good at all if they can't withstand serious washing. Jeanne, this is just SO cute. I hope you can find a 'where' to show our friends here what chenille appliqué is. Polly

"J*" <

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Polly Esther

Reply to
Jennifer in Ottawa

This doesn't mention the cutting, Polly, but I see it has been mentioned later in the thread. Also, I think (but by no means certain) that when you mentioned appliqué chenille critters you were talking about a chenille caterpillar? Could that help in the looking up? . In message , Polly Esther writes

Reply to
Pat S

well done, Jenn. yup, that explains it with pix just fine. my AADD just isnt finding much of anything lately now back to baking when the damn game loads eventually. i'm sure there are cakes burning soon. j.

"Jennifer > Okay. Here we go. I had a boring crib quilt top that needed something that

Reply to
J*

I need Jeanne, too! A friend asked me about an organizer for handbags. Something you can put your checkbook, pens, Kleenex, etc. into and then just lift it out from one handbag to the next to change with your outfits.... an insert type thingy??? I had a link for making one but lost all my 'stuff' when I got a 'corrupted' message for Windows. Now all I can find are the handbag organizers for sale and no instructions to make one.

Help, Jeanne???

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Reply to
Leslie& The Furbabies in MO.

I've finally gotten used to the fact that our across the pond that away friends have already been up about 6 hours when I am waking up - and Jeanne is waaaay ahead of us in the other direction. Might have to ping her again, Leslie, but do if you don't see a response. It is just so awful when we loose our good stuff. Polly

"Leslie& The Furbabies in MO." <

Reply to
Polly Esther

Welllllll phooey! I've recently made a couple baby quilts and I have another I spy quilt getting vocabulary words added to the borders. I wish I'd remembered about the chenille blocks!!! I know I have a couple books with patterns...and the brush. I don't think the premade chenille strips were a big seller in the stores for several reasons. Not many people understood the technique without a demo. And the little pieces of presewn strips appeared to be very pricey for the amount of fabric in the package. Hence, they were often in the closeout bin at Joann's or the local quilt shop. I would buy them when they were marked down 50% or less. I bought a lot of them for $1. When cut apart, there really is quite a bit of linear coverage from each small square of the presewn bias layers. Hummmm.....that would be a nice way to use fabric you're not so crazy about anymore. I'm going to make some finger blankees from leftover Minkee. I saw the directions at a quilt shop in Denver. Basically it's a 20" square (2 actually) with various (widths, textures, colors etc) ribbons sewn into the seams as the two Minkee pieces are sewn RST then turned. The one I saw had 28 pieces of 3" ribbons (folded to 1.5") with 7 ribbons on each side of the blanket. There wasn't any quilting involved. How easy is that? Well, since I wasn't a ribbon collector, I had to start a stash! Too bad, eh? The blankets are really cute lovees....and little fingers like playing with the ribbons, yet they are too short to be a hazards for tots. Now I need to dig out my chenille bag and find some simple shapes for baby blocks. Let me know if you find any good designs. Do you ever get so many ideas and projects in mind that you become paralyzed as to which ones to start on? I seem to want the "perfect" supplies, but I have enough stuff here to a make plenty of wonderful projects. I just need a kick in the pants. I'm really surprised I didn't find any free demos of the stitch and brush chenille online. KJ

Reply to
Kathyl

I'm not Jeanne, but here is a link I saved

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I need Jeanne, too! =A0 A friend asked me about an organizer for handbags= .

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Reply to
Ginger in CA

What I was hoping to explain is the difference in doing chenille 'by the inch' - that is in skinny strips - and what I discovered in the magazine. This other way - you stitch the 'whole' bumble bee down to a base and then clip. It saves you from having to nudge lots of strips up close to one another. Of course and Certainly, you can make your own chenille strips or bug bodies. The trick is to choose fabric that is not dull gray on the 'wrong' side. Also, the fabric needs the potential to fray. Some fabrics are so firmly woven that they just don't play nice with the chenille production. Polly

"Kathyl"

Reply to
Polly Esther

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Ginger in CA

Reply to
Taria

I made a blanket for DGS in faux chenille using alternating red and blue hand dyed flannel. Basic chenille instructions here:

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I didn't brush it I just washed it a couple of times. I think putting it in the dryer with dryer balls helped a great deal to get the strings off and get it good and poofed up.

I assume that your bee is made in the same way. Only instead of doing the whole surface in chenille, you just do the bumble bee. I had thought of doing something similar, making a chenille blanket with pictures in it. Good to know I wasn't actually out of my mind and it does work. (G)

NightMist

Reply to
NightMist

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