a star is born
A week or two ago, after creating a transparent plastic template for 45-degree diamonds, I spent a few minutes putting the template here and there on the different fabrics of my bargello WIP, "Doppler Shift". I concluded that none of the fabrics was particularly good for fussy-cut stars. I considered sewing strips of two different fabrics together and cutting diamonds with the seam line down the middle the long way, but an 8-pointed star made like that, though spectacular, has 16 seams meeting all at a single point. Very bumpy. Or I could make just plain ol' 8-pointed stars. That was a disappointing thought, so I set the whole issue aside and watched skaters and skiers fall down for a while.
This weekend I decided on the plain ol' 8-pointed stars and sat down to start cutting. One fabric, however, observed that it'd be cute to put a single flower in each diamond and although it'd technically be a fussy-cut star, it wouldn't produce the elaborate kaleidoscope effect generally associated with the technique, so if it were the only f-c star it wouldn't make the others blush. So I did it.
I don't care how you define it, those 24 seams were ALL set-in seams. However, it came out beautifully! I ironed it carefully according to dimly-remembered instructions, and the dog-ears of the 8 seams meeting at a single point fanned out very prettily. The back is almost as cute as the front! So all 5 of the 8-pointed stars on the top of the quilt will be fussy-cut, even if not as gorgeous as what I remember seeing in QNM years ago. (Apparently they're no longer fashionable.) That was definitely 2 1/2 hours well spent.
Last night, while I watched more skaters fall down, and how about those Italian cross-country skiers, eh? hooray for them!, I wielded transparent template and pencil on a poppy print, putting two leaf designs into the frame 4 times each. It'll be lovely. There's a fussy cut awaiting a 3rd floral, and just now I thought of sewing two strips together and then cutting the diamonds such that the seam crosses the diamond diagonally, not straight down the middle. Still only 8 seams to fan out in the center, but nothing plain or even old about it.
Category: small things amuse tiny minds. The coolest thing about set-in seams is how you put the two fabrics together in a configuration that looks like the one fabric couldn't possibly fill the space. Sew the seam. Then rotate the one piece of fabric so that in spite of itself there's a raw edge meeting the raw edge of the other piece of fabric, and sew. Folded fabric everywhere, except right on the seam line. And then you open it up and press, and lo! The space is nicely filled, just as intended. If it weren't that sewing seams edge to edge were so much faster and less demanding of careful needle placement, I'd be tempted to set in seams all over the place, just for the pleasure of seeing the highly improbable come out perfectly.
Tomorrow I have the great pleasure of going to work for someone new -- yes, today's my last day working for my church for the ever-shrinking paycheck -- and my life in general seems much more delightful. This quilt is coming along so nicely (strips #20-35 (of 73) look real good sewn together, and I created strips #7-12 yesterday, too), and I'm feeling so good about the change in employers, that I'm thinking of renaming this confection "O My Stars and Garters". I acknowledge this is something my father might have said, or maybe his mother, but I'm feeling much too playful for the somber "Doppler Shift". And it looks like my fabric choices will make it quite a perky quilt.
This weekend I decided on the plain ol' 8-pointed stars and sat down to start cutting. One fabric, however, observed that it'd be cute to put a single flower in each diamond and although it'd technically be a fussy-cut star, it wouldn't produce the elaborate kaleidoscope effect generally associated with the technique, so if it were the only f-c star it wouldn't make the others blush. So I did it.
I don't care how you define it, those 24 seams were ALL set-in seams. However, it came out beautifully! I ironed it carefully according to dimly-remembered instructions, and the dog-ears of the 8 seams meeting at a single point fanned out very prettily. The back is almost as cute as the front! So all 5 of the 8-pointed stars on the top of the quilt will be fussy-cut, even if not as gorgeous as what I remember seeing in QNM years ago. (Apparently they're no longer fashionable.) That was definitely 2 1/2 hours well spent.
Last night, while I watched more skaters fall down, and how about those Italian cross-country skiers, eh? hooray for them!, I wielded transparent template and pencil on a poppy print, putting two leaf designs into the frame 4 times each. It'll be lovely. There's a fussy cut awaiting a 3rd floral, and just now I thought of sewing two strips together and then cutting the diamonds such that the seam crosses the diamond diagonally, not straight down the middle. Still only 8 seams to fan out in the center, but nothing plain or even old about it.
Category: small things amuse tiny minds. The coolest thing about set-in seams is how you put the two fabrics together in a configuration that looks like the one fabric couldn't possibly fill the space. Sew the seam. Then rotate the one piece of fabric so that in spite of itself there's a raw edge meeting the raw edge of the other piece of fabric, and sew. Folded fabric everywhere, except right on the seam line. And then you open it up and press, and lo! The space is nicely filled, just as intended. If it weren't that sewing seams edge to edge were so much faster and less demanding of careful needle placement, I'd be tempted to set in seams all over the place, just for the pleasure of seeing the highly improbable come out perfectly.
Tomorrow I have the great pleasure of going to work for someone new -- yes, today's my last day working for my church for the ever-shrinking paycheck -- and my life in general seems much more delightful. This quilt is coming along so nicely (strips #20-35 (of 73) look real good sewn together, and I created strips #7-12 yesterday, too), and I'm feeling so good about the change in employers, that I'm thinking of renaming this confection "O My Stars and Garters". I acknowledge this is something my father might have said, or maybe his mother, but I'm feeling much too playful for the somber "Doppler Shift". And it looks like my fabric choices will make it quite a perky quilt.
posted by Carrie | 6:26 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home