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| possible layout of the eyes (these ones are all for the end feathers, and need lots of hand and machine applique yet |
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| Glue the feather base to the feathers |
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| Machine applique (no stabiliser for me!) |
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| Fold in half and trim the sides |
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| and the curve |
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| and the base - all on the floor |
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| Pull away the glue and trim the inside |
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| all trimmed - please ignore the flipped seams :-( |
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| And that's it for this weekend. I have jobs to do. |
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| The tail is together. Work has started on the eyes |
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| hand and machine appliqued |
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| Nothing to do with the peacock, but my first hand applique from Sarah Filke's Craftsy course |
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| The cushion back |
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| Initial sketch |
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| Final sketch |
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| Tail fabrics |
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| Scaled to size |
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| Possible layout (and the peacock's body) |
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| Testing without cutting |
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| Materials - cheap grease proof paper, glue and scissors |
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| Glue strips of grease proof paper together. Fold in half lengthwise, using two fold-up tables to hold the fragile paper. Draw the peacock body and then fabric sections of the tail.....orange lines need to be spaced better - so do the subsequent blue lines. |
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| Much better spacing! Use a sophisticated ruler to draw the lines |
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| Keep going |
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| Turn over to reveal the other half |
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| Trace over the lines from the other side |
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| Open. Check out the imperfect symmetry. |
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| Test for size |
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| Test again |
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| Decide colour layout and number pieces. Cut sections apart and use as patterns for the fabric |
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| Repeat. Change your mind about the starting colour |
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| Pin before rotary cutting. Remember to include the seam allowance |
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| Keep cutting sections apart, cut fabric and sew together. Keep them in order |
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| Slowly getting there. More to come. |
Work is not enjoyable and DH has been a bit toey about my spending time sewing, so I've taken a craftsy course and have been making a needleturn appliqué bock which will become another cushion.
Even so, I finished the tumbling blocks quilt last night and will post it to my nephew today. I'm calling it optic.
The quilting is simple with straight lines for the dark and medium sides and a continuous swirl for the block tops.
The binding is a black and white chevron, although once it has been cut on the bias, you'd never know. I also quilted the label information on the bottom of the quilt, so it's not too obvious. The quilt shrank several inches in the wash and ended up at 93.5 x 88 inches.
The quilt is waving goodbye before it heads off to Canberra.
So, back to my niece's peacock quilt. Twelve 16 patch blocks were made last week and this weekend I drew the peacock's body. I'm trying to work on the layout using the blocks I've made so far. The rest will either be long blades in the same fabrics, or pieced blades. I'm not sure that I like the 16 patch blocks.
maybe an option
I might use this layout. What do you think?
I'm linking up to Sarah at http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-its-little-things.html
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| The green is simply the sun shining through |
DH and I have been on a mini road trip for ten days, down to the Hunter Valley in NSW to sample some shiraz. No sewing, as I didn't want a huge hand sewing effort, so I decided to return (albeit briefly) to crocheting. It was so easy to pick it up again. I made 21 granny squares while we were away and have made a couple since we got back on Sunday. Two more to go before I sew all the ends in and join them together for a blanket for my dog.
Yes, they look a little ;-) wonky but I'm hoping they'll straighten up when I join them.
My nephew's tumbling block quilt is also coming along as the vertical sections are all joined together and I only have seven more seams to pin and sew before it is officially a flimsy. It seems huge, but will end up at about 88 inches wide and about 105 inches high. I had to move it off the design wall as its too big.
I've bought large and small black and white fabrics for the back, but can't decide on how to piece it. Maybe pinwheels?
My niece isn't giving much away in her preference for styles, but said she liked teal and grey. I wanted to do something a bit more exotic, so drew a concept only drawing for a quilt for her. Very naive (childish.) looking at this stage. Hopefully I'll get better.
I chose some "teal" fabrics online, but most of them appear to be more turquoise in real life. Teal is a difficult colour as it means different things to different people. I'll send her the pics so she can tell me if she likes the colours or not. These are the fabrics I plan to use for
the background...pieced, but I'm not sure how yet
And the feather detail
Although I might use separate blues and purples.
My scrappy trip around the world blocks haven't increased since I started the tumbling blocks .... They are just an afterthought after all.
The spiderweb quilt is bound, but not fully quilted yet. Its been on the sofa for a week but my shoulder has been so sore I can't take the weight of it to finish quilting it yet.
So instead, I'm using the cutting instructions for the free craftsy June block to make a quilt for my nephew. I've been waiting for this one to be put up as there are no Y seams in this tumbling block. I upscaled the block to use 6 1/4 inch strips for this quilt, as I'm a bit sick of making quilts with lots of piecing. Haven't decided yet if I want to put a border on the blocks or just leave the tumbling blocks to fall off to the edges.
I'm only at the cutting stage with this one and it is using much less fabric than I was anticipating. I've cut up one yard of each of the fabrics so far. The pale section is actually a small black spot on white and I will only have one red block, just for fun and my nephew's football team colours.
I'm also using up the two inch strips left over from the spiderweb quilt to make some scrappy trip around the world blocks, using Bonnie Hunter's tutorial here. I have enough strips for 25 blocks which should finish at 9 inches. Either my strips aren't all two inches wide or my seams are wrong, as some of the blocks are almost 1/2 inch short. Back to my best friend, the unpicker :-P
Update on the scrappy trip around the world blocks. They are not square. I think I'll call it a day and turn the eight blocks into two cushion fronts. The idea of unpicking every seam of 8 x 36 squares gives me the horrors. Life is too short.
