Sea Dreams and Crazy Quilting
Ever since I put together my Sea Longings vignette, I've been thinking about doing a small crazy quilt wall hanging to go with it.
Since I keep getting e-mails about how I do my crazy quilt blocks, I thought I'd present this one as a tutorial. Lots of pictures in this one, so be patient with it!
First, I gathered a number of fabrics, both from my fabric stash and from a trip to JoAnne Fabrics (the only fabric store we have left in town). I wanted to focus on the aqua colors and sand.
This is the first block I pieced. At 9" x 18" it came out larger than I really wanted and I didn't like how dark it appeared. In truth, I wasn't very happy with the way I laid out the fabrics either. Just didn't work. So I set it aside and let my mind wander over it for a day and then gave it another go. You can see my thumbnail sketch that I worked from down in the left corner.
This time, I spent more time laying out the fabrics and playing with the order and size of the pieces. You'll notice that I ended up with almost the exact same layout as in the first one, but I left out the darker sky pieces.
Then the piecing begins. I start at the top as those are the pieces that I want to recede the most into the background. On a senic piece like this, working from back (more distant) to front (closer) is a simple trick that helps bring the foreground forward. First, a section of light blue calico for the top of the sky. Next, another blue cloudlike pattern for more sky. I place it face down, sew a seam with a loose stitch (about 7 to the inch), trim the seam and turn it.
For the horizon, I need a really straight line, so it's time for a right triangle to come into use. I sewed the seam, checked for square, which I got off, just a little, so I sewed a second seamline to correct it and trimmed the seam. Now I have a proper horizon line!
Next I added more fabrics, altering the location slightly from my first layout and checking slightly differnet orientations. Sometimes, what works just isn't fully obvious until things are stitched down.
At last I'm down to the sand pieces. Here I used rough natural linen and onasburg cotton to mimic the texture. The linen went down with no difficulty, but the onasburg placement was wrong at first. So I ripped out that seam and repositioned it. Much better!
Then it was time to play with the placement of some lace trims. I'm lucky to have some beautiful tatted trims that my Aunt Lois made. The creamy one will be perfect as the foamy edge of the water on the sand. Another piece of varigated blue will work for a more distant wave crest. At the horizon, a piece of cotton insertion lace will mimic the pale sky at the horizon nicely. And last, a bit of old worn doily will make a great cloud. I just needed to undo a bit of seam to tuck it under and pin it in place. As I add stitching to it, the worn edges of the lace will be covered up and secured.
Then, when all is pinned and sewn in place, a basting seam is sewn around the outside. Now the block is ready for embellishing! When finished, The block will probably be about 5 1/2" wide by 11" tall. I'll border it with some lucious creamy silk duiponi that I have and hang it on the wall next to my Sea Longings vignette! Stayed tuned for further updates on the seam finishes!
Since I keep getting e-mails about how I do my crazy quilt blocks, I thought I'd present this one as a tutorial. Lots of pictures in this one, so be patient with it!
First, I gathered a number of fabrics, both from my fabric stash and from a trip to JoAnne Fabrics (the only fabric store we have left in town). I wanted to focus on the aqua colors and sand.
This is the first block I pieced. At 9" x 18" it came out larger than I really wanted and I didn't like how dark it appeared. In truth, I wasn't very happy with the way I laid out the fabrics either. Just didn't work. So I set it aside and let my mind wander over it for a day and then gave it another go. You can see my thumbnail sketch that I worked from down in the left corner.
This time, I spent more time laying out the fabrics and playing with the order and size of the pieces. You'll notice that I ended up with almost the exact same layout as in the first one, but I left out the darker sky pieces.
Then the piecing begins. I start at the top as those are the pieces that I want to recede the most into the background. On a senic piece like this, working from back (more distant) to front (closer) is a simple trick that helps bring the foreground forward. First, a section of light blue calico for the top of the sky. Next, another blue cloudlike pattern for more sky. I place it face down, sew a seam with a loose stitch (about 7 to the inch), trim the seam and turn it.
For the horizon, I need a really straight line, so it's time for a right triangle to come into use. I sewed the seam, checked for square, which I got off, just a little, so I sewed a second seamline to correct it and trimmed the seam. Now I have a proper horizon line!
Next I added more fabrics, altering the location slightly from my first layout and checking slightly differnet orientations. Sometimes, what works just isn't fully obvious until things are stitched down.
At last I'm down to the sand pieces. Here I used rough natural linen and onasburg cotton to mimic the texture. The linen went down with no difficulty, but the onasburg placement was wrong at first. So I ripped out that seam and repositioned it. Much better!
Then it was time to play with the placement of some lace trims. I'm lucky to have some beautiful tatted trims that my Aunt Lois made. The creamy one will be perfect as the foamy edge of the water on the sand. Another piece of varigated blue will work for a more distant wave crest. At the horizon, a piece of cotton insertion lace will mimic the pale sky at the horizon nicely. And last, a bit of old worn doily will make a great cloud. I just needed to undo a bit of seam to tuck it under and pin it in place. As I add stitching to it, the worn edges of the lace will be covered up and secured.
Then, when all is pinned and sewn in place, a basting seam is sewn around the outside. Now the block is ready for embellishing! When finished, The block will probably be about 5 1/2" wide by 11" tall. I'll border it with some lucious creamy silk duiponi that I have and hang it on the wall next to my Sea Longings vignette! Stayed tuned for further updates on the seam finishes!
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