How much confetti -

Is enough? -

I have NO idea -

And there is really only one way to find out - ;))

I sorted these guys and made them into confetti -

And made some more GREEN confetti -

Added them all to the stack -

And some trees - can't forget the trees - LOL -

And since the only one way to find out if I have enough -

Is to try it -

Tomorrow I plan to PLAY -

See if I can get the first layer laid out -

And then go from there - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Back to the confetti -

After taking a break to do some chores -

Those pesky little things like laundry - grocery shopping - paying bills -
That never seem to do themselves - LOL - ;))

Then I got some more "squishy mail" from my friend -

Some yummy browns -

And luscious yellows -

Oh, my goodness!! -

The browns will make beautiful trees -

And the yellows and oranges will make some wonderful leaves!! -

THANK YOU!! - you know who you are - ;))

And I found some more "flat surfaces" for my confetti - LOL -

Paper plates -

Got lots of them -

Might as well use them -

And they stack nicely - LOL - ;))

I have a lot more confetti to make -

And plenty of paper plates -

So that should keep me busy for a while - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Learning experience -

I took a break the other day and played with some monofilament thread and a variety of settings trying to get the tension right for this Confetti project -

With some very helpful suggestions from some friends - I tried it again today - and managed to get rid of the "eyelashing" - but this is about as good as I could get it using a polyester batting -

I wrote down all of the settings on an index card so that I could refer to it later -

Then I tried a different batting - Hobbs 80/20 - 100% cotton - fusible -

I need to slow down and shorten my stitch - and I don't like the bobbin thread "pokies" - but I like it better than the polyester batting - so I wrote down all of these settings, too -

Then I thought - why are you trying it on this stuff? -

Why don't you make a miniature version of the Confetti project and try it on that? -

So I took some scraps and confetti and made a sample piece about 6" square -

Starting with a really quick "first layer" -

One tree - some leaves - sky - ground -

Did some FMQ loops and swirls - to tack it all down -

And made several adjustments along the way -

Then I added some more confetti for a "second layer" -

A second tree - more leaves and ground -

And tacked all of that down -

It didn't turn out too bad for an experiment -

And it was a terrific learning experience! -

I learned that -

If you're going to practice - practice on the same thing you're going to use in the final project - I know now that I want a plain muslin for the backing until I get it FMQ - then I'll add the batik backing at the end - that way all of my wonky stitching won't show on the back -

If you don't want confetti all over the place - PIN the edges down - before you start to stitch -

If you don't want "pokies" to show - use a color in the bobbin that blends with the TOP - not the backing -

If you don't want any of the batting to show - make sure to cover ALL of the batting with fabric or "background" stuff in the first layer - the second layer is for texture effects -

If you want the trees to be straight and stay that way - PIN them in place - before you start to stitch -

And last - but not least -

I learned not to worry about what it's going to look like -

I know that I am no artist -

And told one of my friends that I hoped it would resemble "Autumn Leaves" -

She told me - "Whatever it resembles, it will be one of a kind!" -

She sure got that right - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Orange confetti -

Was next on my list of colors to play with -

So I grabbed the pile - and pulled out a couple of the two/three toned stringy ones -

Cut apart the strings and bits -

Cut those down into smaller bits and pieces -

And took the top left green one over to the cutting mat -

And ran my rotary cutter back and forth over it - to get more confetti -

Then I took the two "bigger" gold ones to the cutting mat -

And cut those down -

Then came the rest of this group -

Cut into smaller bits -

And even smaller bits -

Making little piles of confetti -

Then I pressed and cut apart the rest of them -

I'll make more confetti tomorrow - so they can join their friends - LOL - ;))

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

More yellow confetti -

From some scrap strips - all lined up on the confetti die -

Covered it with the cutting mat - and ran it through the die cutter -

To get lots of little confetti pieces -

These are scraps that my friend sent me -

Beautiful batiks in pale yellow and other muted colors -

I cut them up -

Yes - you read that right -

I cut them up - into little strings - little triangles - and bigger triangles -

And ran them through the die cutter -

To get lots of little piles of yellow confetti -

Then I pulled out these paler ones for some of the "ground" -

Took the pile in the top left corner and cut them up -

Made a separate pile of the larger triangles -

And laid out all of the tiny string pieces -

Cut the little triangles off and into confetti bits -

Cut the tiny strings into 1-2" pieces -

And made a separate pile of the "bigger" strips - LOL - "bigger" being relative -

Took them over to my cutting mat - and lined them all up -

Then used my Mini-Mosaic cutting guide/ruler to cut them into squares and rectangles - that will give me another texture in the "ground" area that will be different from the leaves -

Then I pulled some of the brown/black strings -

And made more squares and rectangles -

Now I'm running out of flat things to put them on -

The egg cartons are ok - but I like the confetti better when it's flat -

These yellow styrofoam trays were headed for the trash until I rescued them -

Now they have a new purpose - LOL - ;))

I still have to cut the oranges - reds - purples - blues - greens - and blacks -

And I'll probably have waaaaaaay more than I need -

But I've never made one of these before -

So I'm not sure exactly how much I do need -

And I want to make sure that I have a very broad palette with lots of colors -

Lots of lights - mediums - and darks -

Then - if I have any left overs -

I can always make another one - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -