BLOG 293

BLOG 293

I have continued to be enthralled by the Sizix machine (thanks for the loan Jackie!) and here is an update of what the half-square triangles look like on my design wall. The potential quilt is bright and cheerful and it is a pleasure to be working on it. And it is at this stage that I mention again that you can’t beat a camera lens for adding distance to your work and offering an objective view of your work. I thought the pattern was balanced until I saw this picture below. Not so!

             Off-centre

 So it was again a case of one Sizix machine and many more fabrics to prepare more squares.

               Ready to sew

 Those extra squares allowed me to balance the centre and add another round. Not quite sure if I will add more fabrics to this or just border it and make it into a lap quilt. I certainly like what I see.

                Balanced centre

Question: what do you do with a lovely strip of dyed fabric? I didn’t dye it myself but bought it and have been waiting for inspiration to hit.

                 Dyed fabric

                 Threads

Answer: What you do is bring up the textiles of Carol Ann Waugh on Google images. They are just lovely and are made with all those varied stitches on your sewing machine that rarely get used. It is an excellent opportunity to do some ‘motorway driving’ on your machine, giving it a good blow-out! I drew wavy and straight lines along the width of the fabric, added a stabilising layer and just started to sew. I used decorative stitches and occasionally couched some yarn. This is a joy to do; just try it!

                First steps

               Detail

             Bashing on