Monday, January 16, 2012

Monday...Design Wall and Project Quilting

My design wall has nothing new that I can show you...I am working on a mystery quilt for my quilt guild (I will post instructions here after I share them with my guild members). See some great design wall inspiration over at Patchwork Times.

And, to add to my craziness with our moving in a few months, I decided to take part in Project Quilting, Season 3! What am I thinking????

The first challenge for PQ was Architectural Elements, so I had to think what would inspire me to make a quilt? Our town has tons of Victorian homes and some very interesting buildings downtown, so I drove around and came across this building and was inspired by the art deco details.





So I designed a Square in a Square block and agonized over how to execute it. Do I dye fabric and use a resist to put the design on the fabric? Do I draw it in with fabric markers? Should I use raw edge applique? I ended up with raw edge applique...

First I drew the design on Freezer Paper and colored it in. I ironed the freezer paper to my chosen background fabric. Then I transferred the design to paper back fusible web and ironed that to my chosen fabric. I have to say that cutting those tiny lines was nerve-wracking! I was so afraid that I would cut one of the other ones as I was trimming!

After that, the skinny little pieces were ironed on to the background fabric, using the lines from the freezer paper as my guide.


I paper pieced the pediment inspired corners and assembled the block. This is what was on my design wall on Saturday, btw!


If I were to do this again, I would not iron on the pieces until AFTER the block was pieced. Even though I did everything possible to get those points to point at the corner, two were off when the corners were sewn on and I had to reposition them (not fun!!!!).

I chose to put diamonds in the corners of the block and put a narrow border around the block to set it off.

Choosing how to quilt it was also a hard thing for me. I prefer free motion all over designs and this quilt would not accept such a thing! It called for echo quilting. I used my walking foot for the straight lines but had to eyeball it for the center...and my eyeballs must be a bit wonky!


I am pleased with how it turned out (though the color is NOT right in this pic). And now that I am not so close to it, the quilting isn't as wonky as I feared (just don't look from 8 inches away!).





Hope your quilting week is a good one!

8 comments:

Bonnie said...

What a great discussion of your process. And, the quilting looks wonderful. Remember when quilting you are really looking at individual lines not the overall design. As you come back to the quilt after a day or two you should see just the overall affect. I like it!

Denise :) said...

Oh my, this is WONDERFUL! I love it a lot. And definitely, it looks terrific with the echo quilting. I'm going to have to pin this as a favorite of mine! :)

Rhonda said...

Your block is awesome and the tutorial/narration of the process was great. Thanks for sharing.
I have become a "FOLLOWER" of your blog and will visit often.
Take care.

Editfolt said...

I like him very much. wonderful.

heartsease54 said...

I think this is just gorgeous.

Sue Daurio said...

Wow, when I saw the thumbnail, I thought it was an interesting stencil (and it would be) but no - it's a block!!! Oh that is wonderful and the detail of the process was wonderful. Great block

Judee said...

WOW! That is amazing. Thanks for the discussion of the process.

Marcia - Crafty Sewing and Quilting said...

Love the colors that you see in a grey building. Beautiful details in your quilt!