Tues Tutorial~ Great Grand's Bday Card 2026

 

  Last summer Great Grand's Mom took him to "Dinosaur World" in Cave City, KY.  Since then he has talked, played, had toys, colored, drawn and told his creative stories about dinosaurs. He even gave me a dinosaur magnet for Christmas which I display on my fridge and have him in my mind every time I open the fridge (which can be often.) 

So naturally, his card this year was a dinosaur.

 

 

 

 

Not sure how I'll use this.

   

But who isn't attracted to a little bling sparkles?

 

His gift to me for Christmas will become the pattern.

It's just the perfect size for a card.

Love it when things come together and work.

Kept the outline intact

to help audition the fabric.

Decided on the one with a white circle

in the right place for the eye.

Then I auditioned the background.

One great thing about having

one piece of batik is like 

having multiple pieces of fabric to choose from

for a project. 

White pieces were too much competition.

 

The finale:

Chose darkest background.

The bling became a cloud.

Thank goodness I still have

old time tiny pins.

Can you believe I used them to sew garments

once upon a time with them?

When sewing around tiny pieces like this,

I'm so appreciative of the automatic foot lift

that raises on its own every time I stop which

allows me to adjust the turn of the fabric.

That allows me to keep both hands on the fabric, 

or maybe my right hand on a stiletto. 

 

Even every stitch or two

the foot may need to raise and it does. 

This is still my choice verses a 

free motion foot.

I have more control.

 

For tiny pieces like this,

the stitch length is set at 1.5 to allow those small turns.

Some stitching during outline added some details.

Went with red thread instead of black.

 

But for the smile......some black hand stitching

using regular thread and embroidery outline back stitching

with a couple of couching stitches. 

 

 

Since the background was a solid heavy batik,

the usual drier sheet for backing wasn't needed. 

This piece was directly stitched to the edge of the card

with the red thread also.

 

For a while now,

I've chosen to stitch the various pieces of fabric to

a background and not the card. 

It provides a much neater look on the inside of the card,

because all you see on the inside is the

stitching around the edge of the card. 

Since I found out everyone saves their cards,

I sign and date them.

 

A final trim which is easy for me to do with these scissors

rather than a rotary cutter. 

 

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