Saturday, April 21, 2012

step dancing and lace stitching leaves

I started out my day thinking that I might machine quilt my free form baby quilt. It was ironed, sandwiched, pinned and ready to go. Then I realized that because there were no borders, I had forgotten to make sure it was all squared up. So I laid it again on the table and took all the pins out. Two steps forward, one step back.
For anyone who may not have yet come across how to make sure that your quilt is a perfect (or nearly) rectangle, this is how I was taught by my friend Sue.

Lay it out and fold the ends into the middle as seen here where I've folded one end over right sides facing. Check to make sure it is the same width across the middle as it is on the end. Sometimes as we sew out to the edges, it can grow. Do that on all four sides and make adjustments in the seams if needed. Now the quilt will be all squared up. Mine was OK; now I just have to re-pin it.

Instead of quilting I began to free motion stitch my birches. I am going to add some dark gray markings like birches have, but I don't want to lose the shibori affect, so I'll keep it minimal. When I was walking with my husband last night, I got him to cut me a small piece of a red shrub so I could match it to my thread. I want to make some small shrubs in the foreground and I think the red will stand out nicely.

I also laid out my snippets of fabric (cut using a crisscross pattern with a wavy rotary cutter) onto a sheet of Saran Cling Plus.  I was told in a workshop that it is the one with the least harmful fumes when it is ironed to melt away the plastic.

 The bits are sandwiched between two layers, the air bubbles are wiped out and then it is hooped.
 I took it to the machine and started meandering all over it to catch all the little bits. When that is done, it will be ironed between sheets of paper until all the plastic is all melted. Since I haven't finished all the stitching I will have to show that another day.

4 comments:

imquilternity said...

Wow....that sounds pretty interesting. I've never heard of using plastic wrap before. I sure like what you're doing with the birches. That's going to be a very nice quilt when it's finished.

Marjorie's Busy Corner said...

Never heard or saw that before....very interesting. You are a book of knowledge, Holly. I was in Moncton for part of the day; got home and felt really tired. Then realized it is the rain coming(which just started). I get heavy eyes and head when it is going to rain or get wet snow..shhhhhhhhhh don't mention snow!!lol.

elle said...

very interesting,the square up but mostly the Saran cling plus! Did you change your header?

pembrokeshire lass said...

Golly that' absolutely fascinating. Thanks. Joan