Making BIG "made fabric"

I've been working on a project that needed made fabric.  And I needed a lot of it.  Since the made fabric had to cover large areas, I decided to use big pieces of fabric.  Big for me is anything bigger than 4 inches wide!  Even 4 inches seems "big".   Compare "big" with my usual bits in the picture below.

I tried different ways to do it and refined my technique as I went along.  I have been using made fabric in quilting for some time now, but if you need inspiration or directions on what to do be sure to get Victoria's new book, 15 Minutes of Play.  It is chock full of ideas.

First I pieced the fabric together free form.  This took a lot of time and I was never sure just how much of my "area" I was covering.

Then I tried paper piecing - actually sewing onto newspaper pages.  That worked ok, but I found the paper slipped easily on the  sewing machine, so that some of the pieces did not lie flat.

Finally I simply used a sheet of newspaper as a template and took fabric swatches and lay them over the paper in various angles. That gave me a good sense of how much fabric I needed to cover the paper.  Then I could mark my seam and cutting lines of each fabric (with soap) so that I could maintain the angles I set them at.  I found I could manipulate sections of made fabric that were about the size of a sheet of newspaper, so I made about l5 sheets worth of made fabric.

just a fraction of the made fabric I needed.  

So  what now?  I'll show you tomorrow!

New'Bee Blocks put together

I am a player in the  New'Bee quilt bee . The focus is using 'made fabric' (aka scraps) as much as possible.  January was my month to share my design ideas.  I asked the ladies to make a 100% 'made fabric' block like this:

I have received all the blocks and I've made a few to complete the design.  Today I sewed them all together.  I'm thrilled with the results.  The fabrics are amazingly varied, while the blocks are quite similar.

I love playing with blocks that make secondary patterns. .. little pinwheels, big pinwheels, hour-glass, big square, small squares, and 3-D.  When I first planned it, I was thinking only pinwheels.  The more I look at it, the more I see.  How about you?

Made Fabric and Roses... SWEET!

I have been working on liberated roses lately.  There are a some challenges with this block.  It isn't hard to make, being constructed like a log cabin - with strips going round and round an odd shaped center. Selecting colors and a variety of fabric that give interest and depth to the rose is challenging. But most challenging for me is conquering the effect of the last piece of fabric added to the block. Often this is the longest piece and without care, it results in what I call a flattened rose.

As you can see from the examples below, one's eye goes right to that line.  It is continuous seam and it dominates the block. This is not the effect I wanted.  I wanted to have a rose that kept its shape.

Thanks to the various connections of blogland and ultimately Tonya, I was put in touch with Brenda, who kindly wrote a tutorial on making the rounded roses that she has used in several of her quilts.  I tried the technique and like it, and I will make more.  I need to refine the backgrounds, as I do prefer the log cabin backgrounds to a single color background.  Yes, you can do curved piecing with log cabin backgrounds.  However, with the log cabin background, the long seam problem is still lurking, especially if one chooses a darker fabric.

While trying to puzzle out a solution, I looked through some of Ruth McDowell's books and enjoyed the incredibly wonderful combinations of fabric she uses in everything she does.  It dawned on me that "made fabric" looks a little bit like Ruth's multifaceted pieces.  What if?  What if I used made fabric with my roses?  I dug out some already made fabric and began fitting it around some roses. The result was just what I wanted.  The rose remained a rose and all the little seams of made fabric help to disguise that pesky long seam.  Ahhh.

(The phenomenon of the continuous line and the effect of off set seams is discussed in Ruth McDowell's book, Design Workshop.  I discovered that after I had sewn the made fabric to the roses.  It was nice to have thoughts confirmed and further explained.)

Leftovers

In my sewing room, fabric leftovers rarely get thrown away.  I usually find a use for them in some fashion.

Here are two more small studies that were made from leftovers.

Gimme an A!

'Gimme an A' was made from two hand pieced sections (above and below the orange line).  When I made them I really didn't see a way to put them together effectively, so I stuck them back in the box and took them with me to the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat.  While there I realized that all I needed to tie them together was to introduce some diagonal lines.  Taken with the orange line those diagonals make an "A"!  The A became the focus and the chopped up pieces of fabric make a background. It was one of those quilts that just happen.  No pre-planning here.

Bright Lights

This small study, also made at Beaver Island Quilt Retreat, started with a preconceived notion.  Bright colors against black, hence Bright Lights.  The chartreuse and green strips were the left overs I started with.  I decided not to piece any new color combinations, but to use striped or patterned fabrics to achieve the appearance of pieced fabric.

I like the black and white dotted triangles. Gwen actually suggested that fabric to me.  She has an eye for the unusual.  I wasn't thinking Christmas, but they do look like a row of densely lit trees with a few gifts tucked beneath.  Surprises!

I Love Crumbs

Please bear with me.  I am just starting out as a blogger and am fumbling around a bit.  My first post (Sept 24, 2011) was done with the help of Teresa.  I kept is short as I wanted to get something out there and not kill too much time.  With all the chatting, questions, and Teresa's patient explanations, we managed to kill a few more hours than I had anticipated.   Teresa,  thank you so much for your help. I am sure I will be knocking at your door again.

Since the New Year, I have been quietly "making fabric",  influenced by Victoria's 15 minutes play mentioned in the previous post.  It has become a wonderful way to work  play with my scraps.  Here are some examples:

But long before I knew about 15 minutes play, I was growing a quilt from my scraps  crumbs. I couldn't throw my little scraps away. They were little bits; many were smaller than 1.5" x 2."  One day I decided to sew bits and pieces together and see what came of it.

This quilt is still growing.  I have no idea when it will be done or how big it will be. I'm not in a hurry.  I don't work on it every day or even have it out all the time.  Next time I feel overwhelmed by all my projects, I'll make another section and attach it.   It is another form of "fabric therapy". Right? Teresa?  

In love with crumbs...
Kathy