Friday, April 3, 2009

Quilts and more quilts


This is the quilt I mentioned yesterday that I finished.
I took photos today. It is another in the series of negative/positive quilts.
I have noticed I am working in a similar color palette on the quilts I am currently working on. It uses the same type of quilting done with a zigzag stitch that you saw on the 2 previous quilts from this series.
Michael James said if a square quilt doesn't work well when hung straight turn it on the diagonal and it may work much better.
This quilt was designed to hang on the diagonal from the beginning.


I also sewed the pieces of the long quilt you saw on the last post together.
All the cutting was done with free form rotary cutting - no rulers, no templates.
This included sewing the 12 blocks together. This photo was taken before they were sewn together.

There has been debate on who originated this technique. I think various pople came up with the same idea.
I learned it in less than a minute as I walked along the beach at Hilton Head. One of Jinny's staff had taught it in a class and the person I was walking with had just come from the class. It was that easy to explain.

I'm going to give you the quick and easy down and dirty lesson here. Photos aren't necessary.
The actual cutting process is SO simple. You just lay two pieces on top of each other with an overlap the size you want your curve to be. You cut through both pieces at the same time and you then have 2 scraps and 2 pieces each from a different fabric that you will sew together.

Often this can be a challenge to make things fit properly when you sew them together. I recommend you use a scant 1/4 inch or a generous 1/8 inch seam allowance to sew the pieces together. One mistake I made in the piece I showed last night is I took generous 1/4 inch seam allowances and that was why things were not flat when I sewed them together.

This is one of those processes I consider a TOOL as you can use it in various ways to create complex work. In this piece there are various layers of cutting to make this complex design. I still have a way to go to finish this one and am not sure what direction I'm heading.


I am not the only one who has been working. Suzie has made great progress on her project. This is her design as it starts to take shape.


She has sewn all of these strips sewn together already for the quilt.

Tonight's puzzle is another piece done on the Embellisher. I used various fabrics along with some nubby silk yarn.
Click to Mix and Solve

5 comments:

Gene Black said...

Thanks for sharing your technique. I am sure we all learned something from it.

Hey, I am always looking for new tools for my artworks.

Joyce said...

i really like the colors on this one. Are they hand dyes?
I have been doing a bit of experimenting with that technique lately and love the results. What type of hanging system do you use to hang on the diagonal?

Vicki W said...

Love your positive negative!

Leslie said...

Wow, I love them all. Very kewl and thank you for sharing your process and thoughts. I am enjoying the processes more than the end result of the works I am doing these day. Wonder why that is? Keep up the grand work.

Barbara Strobel Lardon said...

Beautiful work Kay! All are so different from each other.