Just knocked off another of the activities for the current module. It wasn’t a very demanding exercise. I just had to insert a set of mitred triangles into a four patch block.

I didn’t press the final seam open as per instructions though. I used Myrna’s method for pressing a four patch in a circle. She may be bringing out a booklet or DVD to learn her secrets of pressing soon. I can highly recommend it, when it comes. Taking her pressing classes has been the cause of a major improvement in my patchwork and dressmaking.

Well actually just by me. I’m referring to my activities this week for the C&G course, in other circles known as the chenille technique. I did a bit of reading up on the web beforehand as I had a vague feeling of some differences between the description in the class notes and what I had previously read on the subject. I used the combined wisdom for my experiments.

The first lot of samples were made from these 3 fabrics:

I made 3 samples by rotating the top fabric each time. These samples were slashed on the bias, which is the usual recommendation for the chenille technique. It is interesting to see just how different the 3 samples are.

As I liked the sample with the green on top best, I then used the same order to make the fourth sample (bottom right above), which was slashed on the straight grain. This causes the fabric to fray rather than to go fuzzy. I was quite skeptical, but in fact after a bit of encouragement with a wire brush to cause more fraying, I was pleasantly surprised by the finished effect.

I wet the chenille samples and rubbed them as if scrubbing the dirt out to encourage the fluffing. Not satisfied with the finished results, I gave them a bit of wire brush treatment too, once they were dry.

The final sample was made on a grid of squares. I decided to cut open only alternate squares. The cuts are on the bias so the effect is fluffing rather than fraying. This time I used a reasonably stiff nylon nail brush on the wet fabric to get the chenille effect. This was the most successful method.

I don’t really like the finished effect as much as the slashed lines of the first samples. I was also surprised how little pink from the background fabric showed through onto the top. Although I saw the bottom fabric as being predominantly pink, when you actually look at the colour revealed by the slashing there is more off-white than any other colour. Shows our perception of colour is just that - perception

The top and bottom fabric squares on this last sample were cut from a piece of rainbow dyed fabric that was then bleach discharged. The middle layer is some finely woven purple and white striped cotton. It actually bloomed quite well, despite the advice from most sources to use more coarsely woven fabric.

Yesterday evening we installed my new sewing table in my studio. It has been a long process getting the remains of the oil off the table top. It was getting rolled into sticky messes by the buffing pads and I was getting sick of washing out 6 pads after each new attempt at polishing. So yesterday Sqeze went out and bought a new orbital sander. It was an extra expense to the cost of the table but speeded up the process no end. He first of all sanded off the remaining gunk and then polished the surface using the same machine. I now have a wonderful smooth surface on the table.

Here a couple of photos of the finished table. I must say the machine sits quite a bit lower now and feels quite different when you are sitting behind it. But I sure it will be much more ergonomical to use. I used to get knotted shoulder muscles if I sewed for too long before. I hope that will be a thing of the past with the machine sitting lower now.

or Rome wasn’t built in a day
The base of the mask is dried out and ready to roll. In the end I decided not to add any extra bandage around the edges. After I’d trimmed it up I thought it would be stable enough as it is. It’s going to be covered in fabric so it should be ok.
Here’s how it’s looking.

And from the side

This afternoon I made a start on the actual mask itself. I’m not sure about how I’m going to go around the nose bump yet. Didn’t think about the lumps and bumps on the ceramic mask when I used it as the base for the bandages. I’m hoping some will disappear under the batting. Ever the optimist!

This is the beginnings of my piece made with an unusual starting point. I decided to try my hand at making a mask. Sort of building on the faces theme. I did some research on the internet and am having a go at making the foundation of the mask with a sort of fabric papier-mâché. I am using up out-of-date bandages. Here in Germany it is a legal requirement to have a first aid kit in your car. But they have a sell by date and have to be replaced now and then. We have 2 cars so that’s a lot of out-of-date bandages. If this works I have a neat way to recycle them.
Take bandages

And wallpaper paste

And a base covered in cling film

And start with a layer of bandage strips soaked in wallpaper paste.

I used a mexican pottery mask as my base. It has a fairly simple shape for my first attempt. The first layer is currently drying out. I am aiming at doing 3 layers of bandage. The research I’ve done seems to think that this will be sufficient to be stable but flexible. We shall see.

I was having problems with one of my quilts bulging out at the bottom when it was hanging up. I asked Dena if she had any ideas on how to fix it. This is what she suggested:

Try this trick, Ruth:

Lay the quilt down flat, but don’t try to smooth it down. Don’t force it to do anything it normally would not do.

Get the bottom edge to lay as flat as possible, even if it means the upper parts are all scrunched up. Draw a chalk line from one side of the quilt to the other about 2-3 inches above the bottom edge. Draw a straight line, regardless of how crooked the bottom edge may be.

Then, from that chalk line, measure straight up the quilt at about 3″ intervals, to an equal distance above the chalk line. Say, for example, you measure up 58″. Make a chalk mark for each vertical measurement up from the chalk line that you make towards the top of the quilt. Make these chalk marks all across the top of the quilt.

Here’s the important part: When measuring, smoothe the quilt down all the way up, each time you measure - along the line of measurement.

What you are doing is to force the extra material from the middle of the quilt up to the top of the quilt.

Then, draw a straight line through the chalk marks at the top. THAT is where your sleeve should be sewn. Even if that line appears to be crooked, because it is running parallel to and equidistant from the bottom chalk line, there’s no place else where the excess fabric in the quilt can go but UP!

Reposition and resew the sleeve in place; then try hanging the quilt again. Of course, you may have to move the sleeve higher on the quilt in order not to have the top flopping over, but always do that so that the sleeve placement line is parallel to and equidistant from the bottom chalk line.

Let us know how this technique works for you. It’s the best way I can think of for solving such a problem AFTER the quilt is made.

This afternoon I took the bull by the horns and had a go. The quilt had been “resting” on the floor in the cellar for a good 36 hours to get used to being flat again. I found I had to move the hanging sleeve down on both sides by about 1/8 - 1/4 inch. It is now hanging again and although not perfect it is certainly a big improvement.

Thanks Dena! When you think about it, it’s obvious, but I admit I hadn’t thought to measure up from the bottom to make sure that you get the hanging sleeve in the correct place.

Did I mention that I was going to make a fabric book from my filament samples? I made a start on it this weekend. The idea is based on the photograph albums that my Dad used to make.
First I made my last block. The thread square is made by sewing on Solvy, making a network and then washing away the Solvy.

Then the thread square is attached to the background material and the block is quilted.

I made the cover from some of my purple hand dyed fabric with a strip of the left over machine embroidery on the front. The cover is made in one piece and will wrap around the stack of blocks.

The inside of the cover is made from the same material I have been using as the backing for all the blocks.

After neating the edges with various fancy threads and stiches, I made eyelets on each of the squares with my sewing machine and then punched holes out of the centre with the hole puncher.

On the cover I will use proper metal rivets, but the pages would have been too thick with metal on every one. The cover gets wrapped around and a piece of cord through the holes keeps everything tied together.

I have all my nails left and I’ve finished cutting chunks out of my quilt. Here’s a couple of photos to give you an idea as to what it is that I’m doing:

The squares were easy to do as I explained in my last posting. There wasn’t a lot of choice as to where they went. The circles were trickier because I wanted them in a particular orientation. So I had to tack them in place first before I could turn the quilt top over to fix them for sewing with the iron-on interfacing.

Last night the circles all got their satin stitch edging. Tonight I’m playing with ideas for the next stage.

I worked most evenings last week for at least an hour on sewing down the edges of the weaving on my latest quilt. I finally finished yesterday afternoon. It must have been at least 10 hours work, not to mention the metres of sewing thread that went into it.

Today I cut the first shape out and reinserted it. The piece is held temporarily in place with iron on interfacing of the thinnest sort. The edges are joined together again with satin stitch on the machine. More metres of thread! I ran out of the right colour thread late this afternoon, so that stopped play for the time being.

The nail biting moment is past now though. I’ve made the first cut and seen that the idea is working.

Recently I wrote about where I go, to get inspiration for my quilts. One of the things I mentioned was using the Google image search. Another thing I use images from the internet for is to get ideas for colour schemes. This is what I then do with them.

For example I chose four pictures - a beech wood in spring with a bluebell carpet, a beach sunset, a lavender field and a red admiral butterfly sitting on a bright yellow/orange flower. I use a program called OmniGraffle (it’s for Apple computers) to pick out the colours using the equivalent of the eye dropper tool. I then create a set of little squares each with a colour chosen from the picture.

It’s a really interesting experience as the graphics program also shows the value of the colour chosen. You can learn a lot about how much our impression of a colour is influenced by the colours that surround it. Sometimes a colour I expected to be light turned out much darker then expected when viewed in isolation. It also taught me that you can get some very interesting colour schemes with quite muted colours, so long as there is something in there which acts as an accent. The proportion of a colour in the final image is important. When I look at my colour palettes where all the squares are the same size and therefore the proportion of each colour the same - some of them are not as inspiring as the original picture.

You can have quite a lot of fun and some real surprises. I shall continue to play around like this. It’s a good learning experience.