My new masochistic project
Jan. 18th, 2013 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzEvery once in a while I start on one hell of a huge project that just requires thousands of hours of work to finish. Since I don't do wedding dresses and I want these projects to be fun (for a given value of fun), it's sometimes hard to come up with something. I also have yarn on hand to knit a sweater, but that's a project for a later time. A previous one was Project Elf Chain, which took nearly two years to complete (with breaks).
Quilting is my new hot thing. I saw a video on YouTube on how to wrap fabric around a little piece of paper and decided to try it. I bought a satchel of 100 half-inch hexagons, and as soon as I tried my hand at it, I was addicted!
I have promised myself to keep at it until I'm done with it or until it's a 1-person bedspread. This because of our recent airbed fiasco and we won't have a double bed in our tent anymore. This also keeps the possibility open to make a second one later on. (In green, probably.)
Quilt-it and Dotty has a fabulous product called a "scrap bag". She puts a certain quantity of scraps, measuring up to a certain size minimum into a bag and sells these for € 6,- to crazy quilters who love to have many different fabrics in their stash. The scraps can vary from mousemat size to fat quarter (I believe) and my first scrap bag had no less than 16 different fabrics in it.
(This usually makes a quilter squee with glee.)
Funny story, I had initially started this project to make myself a little pouch for my quilting supplies. What I need for school (tailor's chalk, needles, scissors, 50-eurocent pieces for the coffee machine, Bernina spool for the sewing machine, etc.) differs from what I need for my quilting workshop (cotton thread, tiny appliqué needles, Sewline chalk & lead pencil) and the problem was that not all of these supplies fit into the tiny pouch that would be large enough for just one of the supplies groups. Hence, I needed a new one.
And one thing led to another.
Here's the process so far, and you may moan in the comfort of your own desktop or laptop while you watch the pictures:
Mark hexagon on fabric
(from pattern piece with seam allowance
made from paternoplaat we use in the workshop)
Wrap paper hexagon in cloth hexagon
and baste with white basting thread
Sew seven hexagons together in a flower shape (by hand)
Meanwhile, I had run out of paper hexagons and although you can use them multiple times I thought I'd buy another batch of a hundred. I now have 200 hexagons I can wrap.
I sort the hexagons in groups of six (for one flower) and the ones that remain will be used for the hearts of the flower. Because the scraps are all different sizes, there's no telling if you can cut six or more hexagons from the scrap of fabric. This tiny pile (clothespin added for size) is enough for four flowers (minus the hearts).
Side note: squee @ macro preset on camera! I never knew it could do this!
And then I found my first hurdle: I didn't like the way the patchwork looked with all the flowers just wedged together like this:
The fabrics just blended together in one big mix of crazy designs. I decided to rip up the flowers sewn together and add a solid fabric around each flower. It's quite discouraging to find that ripping up several nights of hand sewing just takes about half an hour.
For now, I'll happily work along. I love how organic this is... the patchwork top just grows bigger every hexagon, every flower. It's not the assembly line patchworking of sewing 96 blocks in a row.
To be continued...
Quilting is my new hot thing. I saw a video on YouTube on how to wrap fabric around a little piece of paper and decided to try it. I bought a satchel of 100 half-inch hexagons, and as soon as I tried my hand at it, I was addicted!
I have promised myself to keep at it until I'm done with it or until it's a 1-person bedspread. This because of our recent airbed fiasco and we won't have a double bed in our tent anymore. This also keeps the possibility open to make a second one later on. (In green, probably.)
Quilt-it and Dotty has a fabulous product called a "scrap bag". She puts a certain quantity of scraps, measuring up to a certain size minimum into a bag and sells these for € 6,- to crazy quilters who love to have many different fabrics in their stash. The scraps can vary from mousemat size to fat quarter (I believe) and my first scrap bag had no less than 16 different fabrics in it.
(This usually makes a quilter squee with glee.)
Funny story, I had initially started this project to make myself a little pouch for my quilting supplies. What I need for school (tailor's chalk, needles, scissors, 50-eurocent pieces for the coffee machine, Bernina spool for the sewing machine, etc.) differs from what I need for my quilting workshop (cotton thread, tiny appliqué needles, Sewline chalk & lead pencil) and the problem was that not all of these supplies fit into the tiny pouch that would be large enough for just one of the supplies groups. Hence, I needed a new one.
And one thing led to another.
Here's the process so far, and you may moan in the comfort of your own desktop or laptop while you watch the pictures:
Mark hexagon on fabric
(from pattern piece with seam allowance
made from paternoplaat we use in the workshop)
Wrap paper hexagon in cloth hexagon
and baste with white basting thread
Sew seven hexagons together in a flower shape (by hand)
Meanwhile, I had run out of paper hexagons and although you can use them multiple times I thought I'd buy another batch of a hundred. I now have 200 hexagons I can wrap.
I sort the hexagons in groups of six (for one flower) and the ones that remain will be used for the hearts of the flower. Because the scraps are all different sizes, there's no telling if you can cut six or more hexagons from the scrap of fabric. This tiny pile (clothespin added for size) is enough for four flowers (minus the hearts).
Side note: squee @ macro preset on camera! I never knew it could do this!
And then I found my first hurdle: I didn't like the way the patchwork looked with all the flowers just wedged together like this:
The fabrics just blended together in one big mix of crazy designs. I decided to rip up the flowers sewn together and add a solid fabric around each flower. It's quite discouraging to find that ripping up several nights of hand sewing just takes about half an hour.
For now, I'll happily work along. I love how organic this is... the patchwork top just grows bigger every hexagon, every flower. It's not the assembly line patchworking of sewing 96 blocks in a row.
To be continued...
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-18 09:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-18 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-18 11:57 am (UTC)Nog iets anders: ik ben op zoek naar zijdegaren, maar dat verkopen ze niet in de gemiddelde fourniturenwinkel. Nou hoorde ik dat het bij quilten gebruikt wordt, dus... heb jij een tip voor me waar ik zoiets kan vinden? Ik heb al eens online gekeken, maar het is heel moeilijk om te bepalen of je dan de juiste kleur koopt.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-18 05:39 pm (UTC)Voor je zijdegaren: je kunt eens kijken of er een quiltwinkel bij jou in de buurt zit, maar het is meestal niet in veel kleuren te krijgen. Zijdegaren heb je ook van Gutermann, maar niet elke fourniturenwinkel heeft die uitgebreide display.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-18 01:37 pm (UTC)Good luck! Curious for a picture with the solid colour, since I see what you mean with the blend, especially if it'll be the size of a bedspread...
no subject
Date: 2013-01-18 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-19 12:55 am (UTC)