Sunday 20 March 2016

BLOG 292


Blog 292
And now for the triangles. Whilst trawling through goodness knows whose blog a while ago, I saw a pile of triangles whch she said that she had cut the previous evening with her Sizix machine. There followed a comprehensive Google search by me to find out what that was! And just to illustrate the hand of fate, I was at Llangollen a few days later and I saw this machine on the table being used to cut out paper templates for the English paper method of patchworking. I talked about the machine with the owner who invited me to bring over some fabrics to try it out. This I did and was very impressed with the fact that I could cut out 6/8 layers of fabric at once. This encouraged me to delve further. I priced them (not cheap) and priced the cutting forms (expensive outlay for just one form) and continued to mull over whether I would really get the use out of one or not. A week later, I was at Llangollen talking about it again and a family member (we share the same grand children) said she had one and I could borrow it! So this is it.



                                      The machine and form

 

And a short training course later and I too am cutting our piles of triangles! It couldn’t be easier.

              8 layers

                Cutting

                Cut fabric

               Removing off-cuts

               16 triangles

               More triangles

                String piecing

               Squares

I fancied working with triangles because I once made a 2-colour quilt which now drapes over a rocking chair in my kitchen. Red was my dark colour and yellow was my light colour. I used as many reds as possible from maroon through scarlet to pinks and the same with the yellow from orange through gold to lemon. It remains a firm favourite. So now that I am armed with the right tools for the job, I feel another quilt … or two … coming on! (You would think that I had discovered gold wouldn’t you? These machine have been around for ages but I have just become aware of their potential. Better late than never is what I say!)

                2-colour quilt

I started to cut bright colours for starters because I couldn’t resist having a go on the machine. I will need to build up a good stock of lights and darks before I start to construct a quilt but, in the meantime, I have started to play with ideas on my design wall.

                  Design wall

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