Living Room Stencil?

I've been playing with my stencil files again. I don't know for sure if I can cut them out with my Cricut, but if I can't, I suspect I have at least one friend with a laser cutter. (I'm hoping, anyway.)

I've spent like four days playing with images trying to come up with a stencil that I like but I don't really know what I want and I keep changing my mind. The downstairs rooms are more difficult to choose colors because we can't use light paint colors because they will get lost in the wall paint color.

I think I maybe have settled on this first one but this one will be a lot more difficult to fudge corners and add extra bits to fill space.

Sherwin Williams 41 from their 1910 catalog

I also prepped the files for this stencil, but I'm worried with all that orange it won't look good over the green wall paint. It does have the advantage of being stencil-able in one pass.

Blue Label 1559 from the 1900 catalog

This third option was the one I picked to do several years ago but now I've mostly abandoned it because I'm not convinced it will look good over the green paint.

Alabastine 305 from their 1920 catalog

I am experimenting with adding a large painted field below the flower but that may not work well because the stencil area is so large. 

One of the main reasons for this post is because I wanted to mention a new-to-me program I found that is super helpful for making stencils. I was trying to use my Cricut Design Space software and it was super frustrating because it just wouldn't do what I wanted it to. It's possible it would work better if I paid them the $15/month subscription, but I only use it a few times a year and have no use for any of their art files.

Anyway, when I clicked on one of my svg files it came up with Curve software. What? I don't even remember downloading that, but I must have. Anyway, its long name is Linearity Curve Graphic Design and the starter version (which is what I've been using) is available for free. I just uploaded my stencil clip art file, asked it to trace it, and it was super easy to remove the background and make changes. I have only used it for a few hours and I'm already a fan.

Update later: I spoke too soon on the free Curve program. I made the HUGE mistake of letting it update and now it's practically worthless unless you pay them. Sigh.

Love My New Toy

I bought a new toy and I am so excited about it. After the Silhouette Cameo disappointment in 2013, I shelved the idea of using a cutting machine for my crafting projects. But when my brother recommended a laser cutter to me, I revisited the idea. I spent most of a day watching videos for various laser cutters, but they are so expensive, and I wasn't sure I would use it enough to justify the cost and space needed. 

So when I ran across a video for the Cricut Maker 3 and I discovered it had a special fabric cutting blade, I was persuaded to try that instead. I've had it less than a week and I'm already in love.

I decided I wanted to try English Paper Piecing and I used the Cricut to cut out the cardstock paper shapes.

I didn't really know what I was doing so it didn't have a 100% success rate on my cutting, but the failures were my own fault because I laid out pieces so they shared edges. Apparently, that's a no no. 

When I tried the next day to cut out a second project and left a gap between all the pieces, I had virtually no problems. I could not believe how quickly I was able to cut out these perfect octagons!

I cut out all of the paper and fabric pieces for the paper-pieced flower blocks in this little lap quilt in about 6 hours total (including the design time).

I'm loving having a handwork project I can carry around with me. I don't think it will take me too long to get these blocks finished now that I've gotten started.