Watercolour Quilt

There are so many Patchwork & Quilting techniques that I feel I will need two life times to fully explore them all.

Watercolour quilting is one that I recently came across. And having now heard of it I needed to have a go.

I had some Liberty Cotton Tana Lawn fabric, which is not very good for patchwork as it is so fine. However as this method uses Pellon Quilters Grid to stabilise the fabric, I thought that it would be a good test.

I separated the fabric into light, medium and dark, and then had a play on my design wall.

Having decided on this arrangement I ironed it to the Pellon Quilters Grid to stabilise all the fabrics.

As I was ironing a fusible fabric I used some baking parchment over the top to prevent any of the glue messing up my iron.

Now for the sewing. Firstly I sewed alternate vertical seams all in the same direction ( from the top to the bottom )

I then stitched the rest of the vertical seams in the opposite direction to prevent any distortion 

Before I stitched the horizontal seams I clipped all the joints making sure I cut the stitching too. This allowed me to lock the seams together and get great matching points

Now that I have had a go at this technique I will start to save small squares of fabric (2 1/2" ) and start planning another one. I think I will try to get a better tone difference between the fabrics, but I think for a scrappy quilt it has worked out quite well.

Bev

I know that I should have spent the day at the computer today but I couln't resist some sketchbook work.

Using this picture, which we took on our recent visit to Seville I have taken small fragments and made some quick sketches of them.

I am hoping to get some more time tonight to finish the page. It is nice just to sketch without a finished item in mind and just wander around the page adding snippets that I fancy.

I am also working on a page for pictures of my students work. That should be live soon.

Hope you have a look 

Bev

3D Forms and Somerset Stars

Last month my level 2 students were given a challenge to produce a 3D form using paper or card. This design exercise always produces some surprising results and today they didn't let me down.

Today we were exploring some folded patchwork techniques including Somerset Stars

These are made from folded squares of fabric and are built up in layers to produce star patterns. Great fun and wonderfully tactile.

Bev

Shrink

Over the last couple of weeks I have been experimenting with a product called "shrink". 

I have used solufleece before, where you bond the solufleece to the wrong side of the fabric using bondaweb or heat and bond. It shrinks away from heat in a similar way to tyvek. Make sure you use an iron cloth of baking parchment to prevent any residue being deposited on your iron. Also do not press with the iron, it is the heat not pressure which allows the fibres to shrink. If you press the fabric the fibres have nowhere to go and the result is not satisfactory.

The difference with "shrink" is that it is not bonded to the fabric. 

Stitch it in place and then apply heat from the reverse side as described above. 

All the samples have been stitched using a normal presser foot and with cotton thread. 

All the samples started as 6" squares and finished at 4.5" 

Narrow parallel straight lines

Small grid pattern

Large grid pattern

Parallel lines spaced apart ( sample sewn diagonally )

Parallel lines spaced apart. I love the 'smocked' look of these two samples.

Straight lines stitched in a spiralling design

Hope you like the effect as much as I do

Bev