Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Wednesday

Last night, after I'd blogged on Love Entwined, I was feeling like I was ready to let that project become an UFO.  I both love and hate the "mystery" aspect and I dread doing the same basic pattern 4 times.

So I pulled out Rita's hexi quilt that I've been ignoring for months.  I replaced 8 hexies that were the wrong color before I lost interest in that as well.

This morning, I decided to get started on the Charley Harper Challenge quilt.  I was pretty enthused about this until I realized that the 64" x64" format I'd planned was going to make those leaves 8" x 13".  And I'd already decided that I was going to make most of the leaves 3-D.  Which means the leaves will have to be quilted before they are added to the quilt.

So I did some color assignments on tissue paper of the 4 variations of green that I bought for the leaves.

I must point out that my frugality makes this project more difficult than it needs to be.  I started by splicing together those odd-shaped pieces of batting to use in the gigantic leaves.

Had I not been so cheap, I could have traced all the leaf shapes onto my light background piece, then layered the light and dark leaf fabrics (right sides together) and the batting...and just stitched away. But as my friends and I used to say in high school "We Super-heroes do everything the hard way."
I made a leaf template from a cereal box and used it to identify where the leaf would be cut out of my random batting scrap.

Then by feeling through the fabric to the cardboard template, I was able to arrange the other 2 fabrics (right sides together) on top of the template & batting and drew the sewing line on the background fabric.

Since I was placing the leaves 1/2" apart from each other, I found it was easiest to trim the batting to 1/4" before I lined up the next random scrap of batting.  I proceeded on this way using up scraps of both the light green background and the batting.

Once they were all sewn, I cut out all 3 layers with a 1/4" seam allowance, trimmed of the tips and snipped the curved edges.  I made a 3" slit in the back of the leaf  (where the center stem line will be), turned them inside out and pressed.

I wanted them to have the same kind of modern vibe as the original, so instead of traditional leaf veining, I sewed co-centric ovals shapes with a line down the center.

Time for me to get back to work....just wanted to post early enough that my UK friends could be impressed with my progress before they headed to bed.

(Editorial note...my cat is more brown than the CH Calico...and the bird is not scheduled to appear on the final quilt.)

5 comments:

Julie Fukuda said...

How nice to have so many projects going that you can jump from one to the other when you need a break or time to re-think.

Ann Marie @ 16 Muddy Feet said...

I am loving that hexy quilt you got going on. such bright cheerful colors. I too work on many projects at once, keeps me from getting bored.

Wendy said...

I am in love with your hexi quilt....it is absolutely gorgeous! The colors are my kind of colors....your Charley Harper quilt is going to be great....can't wait to see it completed....I can't decide which one I want to do.....I had actually picked this print as well as another one.......I am still thinking about it....

Unknown said...

You are going to have one heck of an art quilt with your CH proposals with the 3D effect - great to see you working on it
I'm with you 100% on the problems with mystery QAL's - I'm always afraid of a block being a bit odd in my eyes and always annoying me.
Boy but is that hexi quilt 'bright' - should be fun when it's finished.

Georgina said...

Fabulous work! You are a woman after my own heart using up those little pieces of batting!