BLOG 193

Well, have I had fun this week with my soldering iron? I should say so! Using it has opened a lot of doors for me in the way I approach and work my painterly style. I know I have come across the technique before because I still have my husband’s soldering iron stored amongst my supplies. (…. And he still hasn’t missed it yet!) The one I have now purchased is designed specifically for working with fabric by Margaret Beale. The point is very fine and it burns fabric like a knife cutting through butter. Following her technique, I cut out leaf shapes with the soldering iron for use on the poinsettia panel and placed them in situ. This was exactly the effect I wanted to achieve, where the colours seep away from the central flowers, much like a watercolour painting.

 

                                        Cut-out leaves

 The problem was that they were not attached to the fabric at all and sewing them in place would demand extreme precision. So I decided I would rather sew them in place first before cutting them out and I needed to think again. I came up with the idea of using ‘Stitch and Tear’ on the back of my background block, so I designed a spread of leaves to go around the edges of the poinsettia and then traced it onto the ’Stitch and Tear’. I pinned strips of sheer fabrics onto the RS and the ‘Stitch and Tear’ on the WS. I sewed from the WS where I could see the pattern lines and trapped the sheers with stitch on the RS. Then came the fun with the soldering iron! I burned away the excess fabric from around the edges of the stitches to remove them. The detail on the leaves will be done later as a quilting line. So far, so good.

                                             Sheers

I was then told about the work of Kathleen Laurel Sage (what a wonderful and unforgettable name!) and that led me into a wonderland of colour, stitch and expertise. Check out her website and blog at www.kathleenlaurelsage.com. This was the way forward for me!

My first task was to have a go at her technique which isn’t explained anywhere on her website, (and quite rightly so,) because she sells her original patterns and makes her living from teaching the technique. But by reading through her blog, there was sufficient information that I could glean to enable me to try.  I just needed to use my drawing skills to draught a pattern first. Here is that first attempt. Just from having a go, I learned a lot about the sort of pattern I needed to draft, the way I needed to lay down my coloured sheers and how I needed to make the stitching lines complete and secure.

                                  First attempt

 Later that night, all fired up with enthusiasm, I sat with a piece of paper on my lap and tried to doodle a pattern suitable to go on the poinsettia panel. Here is the initial doodle.

 

                                          Holly doodle
 

As I doodle, I am continually thinking and trying to work out what I want to achieve and how to achieve it. And it was then that I decided to create a pattern that spread across one corner of the block so the paper was marked out and the designed positioned accordingly.

 

 

                                         Corner design

 ASIDE: It’s worth mentioning that while I have definitely been inspired by the work of Margaret Beale and Kathleen Laurel Sage, I don’t want to be them or replicate their lovely work. What I have done is learned from their methods and converted them to my own needs in terms of quilt making. That said, I will certainly be acknowledging their inspiration if this quilt is ever shown in public and it will be right and proper to do just that. Some people choose not to do this but it is a common courtesy to do so.

 Last week, I also completed two more thread flowers for the calendar quilt and there are two more to go. This week, I need to try the holly corner pattern on the poinsettia panel and, if it works, I will be designing a pattern for each month. I feel as though I am making progress a last!

                                          Hydrangea

                                       Hellebore