Quilting Mod

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Abecedary Quilt

The abecedary quilt is complete! What's more, I found a use for my over-abundance of novelty prints. Admittedly, some letters were more of a challenge to pair with fabric that others.

This quilt is constructed entirely of 3" and 4" Drunkard's Path blocks and rectangles. My inspiration came from a modern font and Jacquie Gering's Peace quilt. For the quilting, I used Aurifil 50 wt in Very Dark Navy to stitch echoing lines 1/2" apart. In hindsight, I think I would have drawn 1/4" around each letter, and done an all-over fill. But as Angela Walters says, "Finished is better than perfect."

The background and backing is Kona Navy, and the binding is a tossed letter and number fabric from a ways back.

I'm teaching a class on June 11, if you live near Albuquerque, and would like to make your own Abecedary. For those who aren't local, I'll be listing the pattern in my Craftsy shop soon.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Art with Fabric Blog Hop

Today I'm joining up with Alida at Tweety Loves Quilting for the Art with Fabric blog hop.

The hop features quilt projects inspired by traditional art forms such as paintings, architecture, and sculpture.

My inspiration came from a photograph of a wall carving I took during a trip to Egypt eight years ago. The artist is unknown, given that the work was created thousands of years ago.

The characteristic Egyptian style of art has always mesmerized me. It's astounding how the arid climate has so well-preserved artifacts from a time long-since passed.

I chose a scrappy palette of red, yellow-orange, yellow, green, and aqua on a low-volume background. To create the stems, I cut strips 1" wide and turned over 1/4" using the Clover Press Perfect Hot Hemmer (affiliate link). My poor sewing gauge isn't getting my love any more.

I marked lines 2" apart and sewed the unturned side to my background using the lines as a guide. I then pressed the stems along the line of stitching so that I would only need to sew one side by hand.

I created templates for the remaining shapes from templar. After applying liquid starch to the seam allowance of each shape, I pressed it around each templar shape. Once the templar was removed, I glue basted the appliqué pieces to the background and hand stitched them down.

This 21" x 40" block will be surrounded by an assortment of other blocks to create a wall hanging. So far, I have added some quarter square triangles. Square in a Square and Four Patch blocks are in the works.