22 February 2015

Use Your Treasures Part 2, and Quilt As You Go

I joined our local quilt guild fairly recently, and yesterday the guild had its monthly meeting, which I attended. There was a special theme this time: to learn a 'quilt as you go'-technique. I brought a bunch of my hand dyed fabrics that were basically just samples of different techniques, which have accumulated over the years. Some of them were pretty unsuccessful as a whole, but had potential if cut up. And I'm on a mission to reduce my stash! I was reminded again of how nice it is to dye your own fabrics, because by using and mixing the same dyes you always have a collection of fabrics that automatically go well together.

The technique was a form of foundation piecing, where you sew down your fabric piece onto batting and a backing fabric, and quilt it before you sew down the next fabric piece, which you then quilt before moving on to the next piece. This means that the quilting will go in different directions, and disappear under other fabric pieces in the process. I was tempted to free-motion quilt different patterns and colours, but felt it would have been tedious and time-consuming to keep changing presser foot and thread, so I stuck to straight lines and one thread colour. But with two sewing machines you could have a lot of fun with this! One for piecing and one for quilting. I'm sorry that I don't have any process images, but I was on a roll (and in a hurry) and forgot.

At the guild meeting I made a quilt sandwich for a pouch, which I finished at home,


and later in the evening I couldn't resist making a pot holder too. But that one is foundation pieced first and quilted after the piecing was done.



Here are a few more shots of the pouch:




I think a cover for my tablet is coming up next. The poor thing has been very neglected since I bought it this last autumn!



Thanks for visiting my blog!


2 comments:

  1. I love to do foundation piecing....especially when I haven't got a project that I'm working on. I love your little pouch. Do you have a pattern for it? I would love to make a few.
    Your fabrics are beautiful!
    xxoo

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    1. Thank you Judy! I made the pouch under the guidance of a fellow quilter, so I don't have a pattern as such, but after the meeting we were given this link for a similar pouch: http://www.pinkxstitches.blogspot.ca/2014/01/boxy-pouch-tutorial.html?m=1 I hope you'll find the tutorial helpful. My pouch is a bit simpler, as it doesn't have a separate lining. But it has a neat little border around the zipper instead! Happy sewing! xxoo

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