You know I rarely finish one project without at least thinking about another one. Does that happen to you too? I sometimes think I have too many ideas. I will probably never make them all.
So anyway, I decided to use some pre-cut 5" squares to make simple four-patch blocks to use in a rag quilt. I want to try a pieced rag quilt. This seems like the easiest way. Saturday I sewed 28 four-patch blocks.
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| Yes there really are 28 in this stack. |
That will be half of the front of my next rag quilt. I will alternate them with blocks that are not pieced. The back will all be non-pieced squares. Stay tuned to see how that works out.
Then in the afternoon/evening I pulled out my latest hand work piece. I showed it
with just machine work at the end of June.
I did a little more machine work in a moment of inspiration. I was winding some perle cotton on a bobbin to make it more handy to carry with me. A friend who was sitting with me said "Can you use that in your machine?" That triggered a memory. I read somewhere that you can use a thicker thread in the bobbin and bypass the bobbin tension to do a form of bobbin work. So, I said, "Hmmm...let me try it and see!" I did a test on a scrap piece of cloth. Then I did several strands on the piece. Here is an example:
The blue, purple, and green threads were done with the piece face down and the perle cotton in the bobbin. I just love the organic lines it created.
Here is the whole thing in its current state:
Yes I did some fusible applique circles. Then I stitched through them. I want to do some smaller circles with a satin stitch (by hand) to add more variety. I will probably do a blue one. (I love blue!)
Here are a few detail shots.
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| Nice - hand dyed fabric adds more dimension. |
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| At the end of the running stitches I tried a Brazilian Crewel stitch. I like it but it is time consuming |
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| A couple of different circle treatments |
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| I did a spiral in this circle. |
I am linking this to
Quilty Embellishment Day.
I guess I made a liar of myself. I said I would never do handwork as long as I had a perfectly good machine. There is certainly a lot of work in it. But honestly, I really enjoy it.
The blue, purple, and green threads were done with the piece face down and the perle cotton in the bobbin. I just love the organic lines it created.
15 comments:
I love the bubble effect! I have never heard of that before, I am going to have to try it on my machine - I look so beautiful!
Cool - I just bought my first perle cotton so I may give that a try!!
I love the way this is coming along. Love the perle cotton work.
Love the bead work.
LOL, I had to laugh because I remember you saying you would never do handwork! I really enjoy it very much too. So relaxing. I love your perle experiment but I am dense and don't understand when you say 'bypass the tension'.
I love the idea of doing a pieced rag quilt. I look forward to seeing how yours turns out. And I know what you mean by you cant finish one job with out thinking of another.
Handwork vs machine always gives me more
of a sense of accomplishment. The whole piece has a look of 'under the sea' for me, I love it!
Love this hand work piece, Gene. It is gorgeous! I am anxious to see how your pieced rag quilt comes out, too. Good luck!
Oh wow, this is so cool. I love looking at your work.
Thanks so much for linking up to Quilty Embellishment Day
Oh my, those pictures are exquisite. I had to go back and peruse them twice! Beautiful! I'm with Tonya - please 'splain what you mean about the tension?
I can't wait to see how the pieced rag quilt turns out..I'm yet to make one of them....that and oh about 50 million other things that are on my bucket list lol
Hope you're well Gene.
Hugs
Naomi
What beautiful work Gene! I'm like you....always have the next 5 projects in my mind while I work on several at a time!
The colors are really beautiful together. I can't wait to see a quilt with all this put together. It will be gorgeous!
I love your handwork , you are doing a really impressive job on it.
You do have a lot of projects going, I do that too. I have all these boxes of wips that need to be worked on. I rotate them, they seem to go better that way.
love that, looks great
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