OK, so I've got three active quilt projects going... First, I've got to do a label for the one I just finished, and I'll post when that happens, how well it worked. Second, I've got a lot of green & antique white fabrics with a bit of red, for a series of log cabin blocks that I intend to use in a variety of ways for Christmas decorations. The third is my wedding quilt.
I made my own wedding dress. It was very simple in it's styling, not to be too frou-frou, and to show off my curves rather than add a lot of fluff around them. The one thing I wanted out of a dress was that it be real silk. No fake fabrics for this bride-zilla! So I ordered some silk charmeuse from an importer that I trust, and voila, enough to make a long dress with a flowing skirt. I was very happy in it, but no one is likely to ever wear it again.
For the occasion, we bought my stepdaughter her first real silk dress also. Also simple styling, not a lot of ruffles or tucks.
I also have an old jacket, very soft and supple suede of a neutral color.. I'm not sure whether you'd call it fawn or dark beige or light brown, but it's a good color and texture to provide a little variety. It was given to me as partial payment for legal services about a dozen years ago. And I'm thinking of taking one of my old black dresses that was velvet, for a little more and different texture.
What I intend to do is chop all these things up into various shapes, without a lot of forethought, for a truly "crazy" quilt. I've seen crazy quilts recently that were actually cut using a pattern, and there is a definite repeat, definite blocks involved. For this one, I think I'll try a "quilt as you go" method.
Instead of making a series of patchwork blocks, I'll be making a sandwich first. The backing, the fluff, and the underpinnings of the craziness will go first. I will lay down a piece of wedding dress and stitch through all layers. Then I will take a piece of stepdaughter's dress, put it right side together with the piece of wedding dress that is already attached to the quilt, and I'll stitch a straight seam through all layers, then turn it over so it's right side up. Press. Repeat
When I come to a place where the suede goes, I'll not have to turn it under, the edges of that will not fray.
I figure I'll just keep going till the whole sandwich is filled on top, and then if there are parts of the sides that are uneven, I'll slice them off, bind, and VOILA! Wedding dress quilt. OK, not ENTIRELY wedding dress, but it'll be a quilt made of clothing that were very special to me, a big part of which happens to be a wedding dress.
After it's finished, I might also find myself taking some little pearls from the dress and sewing them onto the quilt, or buttons. Or maybe I'll find some lace to add... something a little more frilly, because I'm no longer worried about over-fluffing my hips.
In my constant quest for something that will be both cool, meaningful AND easy, I'm hoping this will be all three! I'll have to post updates about that, though. Charmeuse is difficult to deal with (making the dress was a challenge!) and layering it on top of less slippery fabrics, I have no idea if it'll be easier or harder to deal with. And I sorry about the suede a little... it's VERY fine, without all the stiffness that we see in most suedes. Hopefully, I'll be able to make this work.
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
The Double Irish Chain is easier than it looks
I'm all about easy. What attracted me to quilting was the possibility of creating things that did not have to fit a three dimensional shape. I've been sewing since I was 5 years old. The first thing I sewed, with the help of my wonderful Mommy, was a sundress. A cute little blue and white striped a-line sundress with straps that were an inch wide. Perfect for a 5 year old! Just a few years later, I asked Mom about the patch in the straps, and she confessed that while she was showing me how to do it all, with my little hand in hers in the scissors, we had cut a divot in the strap. She pretended it was nothing, and by the time we were ready to sew a seam the next morning, the divot was totally repaired with a patch where the stripes matched so well you'd not even know i was there unless you inspected it closely.
I liked homemade things, but I did not want them to LOOK homemade. I babysat for a woman when I was growing up, who had furnished her house with homemade items. Home sewn calico patchwork bedspreads, curtains, napkins, tablecloths, placemats, pillows. Afghans crocheted in a style familiar to all of us who lived through the 1970s, and macrame plant hangers. Thought my teenaged self admired the effort, but the effect was overwhelming. My parents may have been raising us in a small town, but I fancied myself as being much more fashionable than to drape and clutter up my whole house with calico everything. So I stuck to sewing garments. I did an occasional needlepoint or cross stitch project when I found one that fit my aesthetic.
Two decades full of self-made clothing later, I saw a tumbling blocks quilt. Something about the way a flat piece of fabric could be sewn to show shadow and light, create a graphic that could trick the eye into believing it was three dimensional. How lovely, flat and seemingly easy to make. I figured out how to cut the diamonds by cutting strips first and measuring the diagonal to make multiple diamonds at once. But sewing it required just as many little tricks as sewing a garment, between turning the pieces this way and that to get the Y seam. (It took nearly 30 years for me to finish this one. I quilted it myself for my Dad's 85th birthday a few years ago, a twin-bed sized quilt.)
A few years later, I saw a book about Irish Chains, and that excited me. You see, for the irish chain quilt, you don't cut lots of little squares. No, you cut strips and then sew them together, then slice them crosswise to make a whole line of already-sewn little squares. Change up the colors in each set of sewn strips, and when they're all sliced up and re-combined, they create the larger blocks that make up the irish chain pattern.
Mine is dark red, antique white, and navy blue. Yes, the red and blue were prints... very typically quilty fabric for the late 1980s when it was made. Mainstream modern quilters had not yet moved in the direction of solids and brights, and while I feel a more modern aesthetic, my mother had just visited colonial Williamsburg and I thought a vintage-looking red, white and blue quilt would be kind of fun to have, particularly for the summer... Memorial day, Flag day, Independence day and Labor day could also do well with the patriotic feeling decor, so there you go.
There are two blocks to this quilt pattern, and no Y patterns or curves! One of them is centered on the main background color with a patch of the chain color on each corner, and the other block contains an X made of the chain's colors with a small patch of the background color in the middle of each side. To put the quilt together, you alternate these two blocks like a checkerboard, and the whole chain just magically appears. I find excitement in the magic. The two pieces of magic in this one are the fact that you never have to cut a small square, it's all about the strips. And the second piece of magic in this one is that when the blocks are combined properly they create a pattern that is not obvious when you are just looking at the stack of blocks in front of you. MAGIC!
I'll post later on how to create the two types of blocks (the easy way with strips). But for now, I am just happy to have finished this one. My next pattern is going to be a log cabin. Stips are good for this one also. In my head, I have more ideas for patchwork where the work is in the planning rather than the cutting, and strips and patterns can combine to create different magical patterns.
I love the idea that the magic of this medium can take straight seams and straight cuts, and create an amazing variety of beauty. So for now, I'm exploring the magic.
I'll be posting photos of the double Irish Chain later. I'm having a problem downloading it to my computer right now, but I was just so excited to get it done. I just had to post! HOORAY!!! Tonight, my new summer quilt will be a topper to my winter blanket and quilt combination. 25 years and finally, it's done!
(P.S. Please send me to have my head examined before I start any new king sized quilts. As wonderful as they are, it's tough to finish. I don't have a longarm, I have a hard time entrusting my babies to someone else, so ... for me... at least for now. Art quilts, crib quilts, lap quilts, pillowcases, table runners, placemats, twin quilts... that's probably as far as I can go. For now. I'll save another king sized until AFTER psychiatric intervention.)
I liked homemade things, but I did not want them to LOOK homemade. I babysat for a woman when I was growing up, who had furnished her house with homemade items. Home sewn calico patchwork bedspreads, curtains, napkins, tablecloths, placemats, pillows. Afghans crocheted in a style familiar to all of us who lived through the 1970s, and macrame plant hangers. Thought my teenaged self admired the effort, but the effect was overwhelming. My parents may have been raising us in a small town, but I fancied myself as being much more fashionable than to drape and clutter up my whole house with calico everything. So I stuck to sewing garments. I did an occasional needlepoint or cross stitch project when I found one that fit my aesthetic.
Two decades full of self-made clothing later, I saw a tumbling blocks quilt. Something about the way a flat piece of fabric could be sewn to show shadow and light, create a graphic that could trick the eye into believing it was three dimensional. How lovely, flat and seemingly easy to make. I figured out how to cut the diamonds by cutting strips first and measuring the diagonal to make multiple diamonds at once. But sewing it required just as many little tricks as sewing a garment, between turning the pieces this way and that to get the Y seam. (It took nearly 30 years for me to finish this one. I quilted it myself for my Dad's 85th birthday a few years ago, a twin-bed sized quilt.)
A few years later, I saw a book about Irish Chains, and that excited me. You see, for the irish chain quilt, you don't cut lots of little squares. No, you cut strips and then sew them together, then slice them crosswise to make a whole line of already-sewn little squares. Change up the colors in each set of sewn strips, and when they're all sliced up and re-combined, they create the larger blocks that make up the irish chain pattern.
Mine is dark red, antique white, and navy blue. Yes, the red and blue were prints... very typically quilty fabric for the late 1980s when it was made. Mainstream modern quilters had not yet moved in the direction of solids and brights, and while I feel a more modern aesthetic, my mother had just visited colonial Williamsburg and I thought a vintage-looking red, white and blue quilt would be kind of fun to have, particularly for the summer... Memorial day, Flag day, Independence day and Labor day could also do well with the patriotic feeling decor, so there you go.
There are two blocks to this quilt pattern, and no Y patterns or curves! One of them is centered on the main background color with a patch of the chain color on each corner, and the other block contains an X made of the chain's colors with a small patch of the background color in the middle of each side. To put the quilt together, you alternate these two blocks like a checkerboard, and the whole chain just magically appears. I find excitement in the magic. The two pieces of magic in this one are the fact that you never have to cut a small square, it's all about the strips. And the second piece of magic in this one is that when the blocks are combined properly they create a pattern that is not obvious when you are just looking at the stack of blocks in front of you. MAGIC!
I'll post later on how to create the two types of blocks (the easy way with strips). But for now, I am just happy to have finished this one. My next pattern is going to be a log cabin. Stips are good for this one also. In my head, I have more ideas for patchwork where the work is in the planning rather than the cutting, and strips and patterns can combine to create different magical patterns.
I love the idea that the magic of this medium can take straight seams and straight cuts, and create an amazing variety of beauty. So for now, I'm exploring the magic.
I'll be posting photos of the double Irish Chain later. I'm having a problem downloading it to my computer right now, but I was just so excited to get it done. I just had to post! HOORAY!!! Tonight, my new summer quilt will be a topper to my winter blanket and quilt combination. 25 years and finally, it's done!
(P.S. Please send me to have my head examined before I start any new king sized quilts. As wonderful as they are, it's tough to finish. I don't have a longarm, I have a hard time entrusting my babies to someone else, so ... for me... at least for now. Art quilts, crib quilts, lap quilts, pillowcases, table runners, placemats, twin quilts... that's probably as far as I can go. For now. I'll save another king sized until AFTER psychiatric intervention.)
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