Monday 18 January 2016

A toch of denim - part two-

I made progress amids a series of problems and mistakes! My aim for this quilt was to use all of the double gauze. The fabric has a narrow width and the pieces I received looked a bit like like skinny half meters and I calculated that three 18" x 18" squares would give me the larges HSTs and which just left a few smaller strips as leftover. The finished size after sqauring was about 11".



I would have normally thrown these away but with 62" I felt the quilt was a little on the small side and I also felt I wanted to break the rigidity of the HSTs (that I normally so treasure). So I contracted a border by using yarn dyed Essex linen in denim that I had in my stash and that by chance works perfectly with the double gauze colours.


I added the first border and right away realised that it was very wavy and perhaps too much to correct through basting and quilting. This surprised me because both fabric almost have an equal amount of stretch, the Essex linen a little more maybe. My assumption was that this would ensure no waves or banana curves.

So I unpicked the row and reattached but this time from the middle and by frequently flipping the work over so that I was basically sewing from top and bottom. This reduced the wave a little bit. The professional in me knew at this point that it was fruitless and told me to unpick and let it go. But what did I do ? I stupidly went on and attached the rest of the border, based the thing and right before I was about to put the pins in I came to my senses because the waves were big enough the surf on, really that bad! What was I thinking..... So I sat on the floor on my basted quilt and carefully unpicked all borders before I finished basting in some frustration because I very much loved the modern feel the borders gave this quilt (yes a border on a quilt can actually be modern in my opinion). I should have taken a photo of the surfable waves but in my frustration I totally forgot.



While basting away I had a brain waive that I would try to attach the border via the quilt-as-you-go technique. I am fairly certain that will sort the surfing problem and it also gives me the chance to quilt the border in a different pattern to the actual quilt.


I think this is the best idea I have had in a long time and can't wait to try this out. I have never done QAYG but always wanted to check it out and am glad I now have the chance to learn something new.



 The quilt itself is quilted in a diagonal crosshatch of 1" width along the diagonal lines that are created by the HSTs


3 comments:

  1. It looks fantastic! I have a tutorial on my blog for adding borders qayg! I used jelly rolls strips. It definitely makes it easier to avoid the dreaded waves! :)

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  2. I love this quilt. Might just have to make myself one. :)

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