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Monday January 26, 2009
Getting ahead...
While packing away the Christmas decorations, I resolved that this year I really would make my planned quilted Christmas cushion covers (from the vast collection of Christmas fabrics I have been amassing over the years for this very project*). As I admired the cheerful "quick" cushion covers I made in 2007, I realised how great it was to be able to simply decorate the house in Advent, and not have the mad dash of trying to make decorations at the same time as all those last minute gifts. It occurred to me that I should make my patchwork before the decorations were stored away - maybe while still feeling a bit Christmassy.
So here they are - doing a twirl before joining the others in the box.
It took me a day of messing about with the fabrics before coming up with these (rather conventional) designs - and that with the aid of some books - plus I had to buy a couple of extra neutrals to properly blend in. On top of that, once started, I got carried away with the pleasure of it all, and I did actually back and quilt the patchwork, and finished the covers off with a zip.
So:- I'm ready. (Well... ready to disguise my cushions anyway).
I made the pieces using the foundation method that I learnt on a Rowan workshop. I was very smitten by this technique, though, Sheila, (with whom I went), has no time for it at all. It suits the way I work very well. The pattern is drawn on a paper, you put your patches roughly on the back of the paper, then sew through the front, following your accurate lines, and voila! ...perfect seams.
You have to put very little effort into the preparation of your pieces, but the result produces those lovely crisp corners. In fact for very narrow angled corners, (such as in Kaffe Fassett's flag designs), this is really the only way to successfully execute them. Each time when I turn the papers over, I am astonished anew at how perfect the patching seems to be. (Any imperfections seen here demonstrate how sloppy a worker I am!).
Sheila has relented somewhat on papers; she recently did a workshop on machine Sashiko, where she used the technique of sewing through a design on paper to produce the simple embroidery on a fabric underneath. The fancy thread, (which can be relatively thick), is wound onto the bobbin, so the pattern comes out on the very bottom of your layers. Originating in Japan as a form of mending clothing, sashiko is usually done with white thread on indigo fabric. Maybe more on this another time!
[*Note: didn't even make a small dent in the Christmas fabrics...]
Posted by Christina at 10:53 PM. Category: Quilting
