At some point I ordered a set of purple fat quarters to use as background. I was planning a pieced background. But I was dreading the inset seams and such that would be required to make it work.
So it sat for a while longer.
Then I saw a project photo that made me think - I would like to try that. It is clever use of bias strips being appliquéd onto denim fabric. I remembered a class I purchased that I still have access to watch. (BluPrint - sadly you can no longer purchase it.) The teacher is Latifah Saafir and the class is Modern Quilts with Bias Tape Appliqué. She is a great teacher she has training as an engineer. I think that helps as she knows how to explain how things work.
I rewatched the class - not to for the project I am working on, but to try the other thing I had seen. Ha ha. As I watched, the flash from the blue hit me when she showed that you can insert fabric into the blocks. YES! I could use this technique for that project.
Four purple fat quarters were made into a giant four patch. Then I pulled out the piece and ironed it as flat as it would go. I centered it (more or less) on the four patch and used a glue stick to hold it in place.
Okay, that works! I pressed the gluestick glue so that it would stay securely. But now, what color to use for the bias tape? I decided to pull out a yellow/gold fat quarter of batik fabric. Yellow is the complement of purple so it should pop nicely - and it will match some of those tumblers. An added plus is that it goes with the inner circle background.
Now to make the bias tape. Several years ago, I went to a fiber festival and was given a Simplicity Bias and Piping machine. I have played with it but never really made a project with it. Now was the time. It has two binding attachments - a 1" and a 3/8" attachment. I knew that I needed the 1" attachement. So I cut the fat quarter, using my tried and true method to "Cut Bias Binding." Then I sewed the strips together and put them on this machine.
Tomorrow we will see if I can have success using this to appliqué the center onto the big four patch. If that works then I need to decide if this will be a wall quilt. (spoiler, I think so.)
I am looking forward to quilting this and doing some thread painting on the hummingbird and flower. The colors in this piece really make me happy. And working on this really got me excited to create again.
Do you have any tricks for staying in your creative mode? I know that watching classes helps me.
Until Next Time,
Stay Creative
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9 comments:
That is really creative. It looks to me like the bias binding might bee too wide, but pictures don't always tell the story. Good luck with that. You picked a nice color for the binding.
At firstwhenI saw this, I thought the addition was not fabric, but rather some kind of shiny plastic-y material. It had shimmer on my screen like that. Then I enlarged it and read your text, voila! It’s simply batiks with white areas. Wow, this pops incredibly! Nice!
Gene in all this time I have never seen your bias binding cutting method! OMG can't wait to try it out. Thank you! Good luck with your current project.
You have a plan and I bet it will work. I might glue it (and I might be too late to the party! Can’t wait to see the finish.
Oh this is going to be fun to watch. The center piece is so pretty and I love the fussy cut hummingbird.
Me, too! I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out - it looks GREAT so far - ;))
I remember that project but I can't believe it was 3 years ago!
Wow, Gene, this looks amazing! Can't wait to see the next installment!
That's interesting I'm curious how this turns out. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.
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