Thursday, February 28, 2008
Gorgeous Gussie
We noticed this extavagantly elegant caterpillar, all dressed up for some gala event in the garden perhaps? We'd never seen anything like it before!
What's the bet it turns into the plainest dullest butterfly around ..... surely no creature can have EVERYTHING.
French Binding Tutorial
I learned this many years ago from a book "Happy Endings" by Mimi Deitrich - and it has become a favourite method for finishing off a quilt. Any kind of quilt -bed quilts, wall quilts, anything. It is durable and good looking.
It is suitable for all rectangular works, and very slightly irregular works without any extreme edge shapes - only gentle inward or outward curves. The binding is joined to form one long piece before applying.
These instructions plus tips from my experience are for a fine binding (about 1cm or less) on a quilt using a medium or low loft batting. You apply it when the quilting is finished, and I use a walking foot for best results, no matter though if you don't have one - just handle carefully.
Cut and join sufficient 2 and 1/4" strips to equal the quilt's circumference plus at least 10". Press joining seams open, then fold the strip in half and press the fold tip I like to make sure one edge can just be seen peeping out from under the other - this ever-so-slightly wider half is the one that goes against the front of the quilt, and by doing this you make sure both edges are totally sewn in, because I use a narrow seam allowance to sew down the strip onto the front of the quilt - approx 3/8", that is, not quite the widest needle setting to the right of centre on my machine.
Lay the quilt out absolutely flat on a table, and leaving a few inches of binding strip hanging free, and beginning about 10" from a corner, put in one pin, then tip just check to make sure that as you go round the quilt no join in the strip will fall at a corner - and reposition if one does. Now pin the rest of the first edge in place, (with pins across the seam line) right up to the point where the seam allowance intersects the seam line for the next side, and stop, turn 45 degrees and stitch out to the corner, UL.
It is suitable for all rectangular works, and very slightly irregular works without any extreme edge shapes - only gentle inward or outward curves. The binding is joined to form one long piece before applying.
These instructions plus tips from my experience are for a fine binding (about 1cm or less) on a quilt using a medium or low loft batting. You apply it when the quilting is finished, and I use a walking foot for best results, no matter though if you don't have one - just handle carefully.
Cut and join sufficient 2 and 1/4" strips to equal the quilt's circumference plus at least 10". Press joining seams open, then fold the strip in half and press the fold tip I like to make sure one edge can just be seen peeping out from under the other - this ever-so-slightly wider half is the one that goes against the front of the quilt, and by doing this you make sure both edges are totally sewn in, because I use a narrow seam allowance to sew down the strip onto the front of the quilt - approx 3/8", that is, not quite the widest needle setting to the right of centre on my machine.
Lay the quilt out absolutely flat on a table, and leaving a few inches of binding strip hanging free, and beginning about 10" from a corner, put in one pin, then tip just check to make sure that as you go round the quilt no join in the strip will fall at a corner - and reposition if one does. Now pin the rest of the first edge in place, (with pins across the seam line) right up to the point where the seam allowance intersects the seam line for the next side, and stop, turn 45 degrees and stitch out to the corner, UL.
Remove the work and fold the strip sort of envelope style as in the pic UR Pin this next side up to the interesection of the seam line with that of the next side, and stitch, changing direction 45 degrees right at the end again. LL
The pic at LR shows what the back will look like as you hand stitch the folded edge down - see the rest of the directions accompanying the next photo:
The top picture shows how the finished binding looks - in this case about 1cm wide, and lying totally flat on the table. This pic was added in the edit phase to avoid having to totally re-do the post - collages are great but I didn't notice how bloggger or picasa in effect added an extra crop in the collage process. It was late - I was tired. Note how the corner folds into a mitred fold - this has not even yet been pressed as I usually do to give the crispest possible appearance, and never needs any stitching to hold it in place. As you turn over the binding to the back to hand stitch down the corner again folds into a mitred fold; and I only secure it with a couple of stitches at the base of the fold, right in the corner, before continuing hand sewing towards the next corner (see final pic in the first collage, above)Using the walking foot and a 3/8" seam allowance as I did here, sew on, repeating all steps at each corner until you come to within about 6" of where you began, and here let's hope you were right in your estimate and have a few inches of strip left. Trim to leave a generous 1cm or about 5/8 " seam allowance on each end UL - pin and sew. Flatten out seam allowance, refold, and check to see it lies flat against the front of the quilt; if necessary adjust the seam allowance to take up any slack or ease a little out. Refold and pin, sew along the seam allowance UR
LL Wherever there is a join in the binding it will be a bit thicker - so carefully cut a little of the seam allowance away in the zone of the join as shown (say about 1/16") - to accomodate the extra thickness of the binding here as it is sewn down. Hand stitch down all round the edge on the back of the quilt. The corners need only a stitch or two at the base of the fold before starting on the next side.
LL Wherever there is a join in the binding it will be a bit thicker - so carefully cut a little of the seam allowance away in the zone of the join as shown (say about 1/16") - to accomodate the extra thickness of the binding here as it is sewn down. Hand stitch down all round the edge on the back of the quilt. The corners need only a stitch or two at the base of the fold before starting on the next side.
The width of the binding can be varied - so, as it is double, if you want it to look 1/4" wider you need to cut 1/2" wider strip - and might need to adjust the seam allowance so that the edge of the quilt including batting is neither squashed nor too narrow leaving empty areas to go limp - experiment is all I can advise, although if you get Mimi's book, from recollection there might be some tables of widths in there... but I can't check that - my own copy is on a bookshelf on the other side of the world. I can't emphasise too much the value of a sample or two before tackling the binding of your Family Heirloom or Award Winning quilt. This also looks wonderful done in silk or nylon organza using a very fine seam allowance...
Friday, February 08, 2008
Man-made Surfaces
Just looking through and sorting some of the pics I took in Egypt last year I found some of these man-made surfaces. They intrigued me just as much as the massive temples and monuments with carved and painted pictorial records and stories that we experienced in our classic tour of Upper Egypt. The tomb and temple carvings were magnificent and along with the massive scale of these buildings, totally awe-inspiring. I'd like to go back and see more, at a cooler time of year, but the problem then is the place is totally packed with tourists like me ...In and around the architecture, all over the place I noticed lots of interesting patterning. Examples such as these were very inspiring, but rarely noticed by visitors focused on all the grand scale stuff around them. I feel they may influence something I do in the future especially once I get my laser cutter. We're still making customs inquiries, so my order is not firmly placed yet. Uruguay being basically on holiday for another few weeks, we are not expecting answers any time soon.
The main area where I see these surface patterns inspiring something is quilting treatment, machine or hand. For example I can envisage hand made knots, or a knot plus bead, something lumpy set out in the kind of grid pattern of this ancient door in a gate in the wall of the old city of Cairo, UL: the UR panel is a ceiling covered with the 5-point stars that appear in so many temples and tombs 0f the pharaohs; and I have already used this once as a machine quilted motif for the quilt "Gift of the Nile" shown in part on the blog for october 7, 2007. LR is some of the highest part of the gateway to a temple at Luxor (I think) and who knows - I just like it; and finally LR a texture I love, the mane of a lion carved from granite ,standing outside a temple. Granite is really hard but these lines are so beautifully fluid and hair-like. I see it as a machine quilting pattern probably but possibly in combination with hand stitch.
On one of the lists to which I subscribe, in the past week one writer commented that she had to quilt something and was procrastinating since she didn't like doing quilting. Well, you don't have to quilt anything. You can tie with wool other threads and string, buttons, staples, safety pins, sewing pins - I have seen all these used to function as the quilt stitch does - ie hold layers together. And, one can always farm it out to someone who does love to quilt. Personally, I find the old under/over/under/over thing beautiful in the right place, ie a carefully constructed and quilted traditional geometric or applique quilt, especially the baltimore album quilts. But so many people are working to produce non-traditional quilt designs these days that it seems amazing to me that they feel bound to quilt them as they always have - using the traditional under/over/under/over, painstakingly doing x stitches to the inch, in fine pure cotton thread. Or if they are machining, the now rather unimaginative meandering and stippling seems to be the limit of some repertoires. If you paint, print, applique, collage, dye and and piece non-traditionally to produce non-traditional quilt designs, to me that begs exploration of intereasting, unusual quilting potential. You can quilt with anything from microfilament to heavy string, ribbon, and everything in between whether the label says 'quilting thread' or not.
Labels: art quilts, attitude issues, craftsmanship, pattern quilting ideas, quilting
