Cathedral Windows
Mr. Peabody made the mistake of telling me this quilter's trick: if you like the look of a quilt, try making a block to see how you like the technique/idea/etc. This led to me immediately starting up with a Cathedral Windows made from some leftovers from hemming my Ikea curtains and some scraps destined for the Hexagonal Quilt.
And here's the resulting block.
I even tested out Blind Stitching
vs. Top Stitching.
I like the look of the blind stitching, but I really find it hard to make it through all the layers of fabric and feel like it's very secure with this stitch.
Working a couple of blocks with the first tutorial, I found it difficult to get good points on the parts of the frame that aren't stitched down. And I really feel this method requires stitching through to the back for best results. With my hand sewing skills at this point makes it pretty sloppy looking on the back which I REALLY don't love. Though I totally dig the oragami folding and ironing, I really wished there was some sort of basting or sewing keeping the loose fabric bits in place. And oragami with fabric makes getting perfect corner folds quite difficult.
But then I read a bunch of different tutorials linked from the Cathedral Windows Flickr Pool. It seems there's another method that suits my fancy thus far. It means more sewing and less oragami which isn't as much fun, but I feel like it leads to a better result. And because I'm REALLY crazy, I'm hand sewing it all.
To be honest, I don't really like sewing with a machine. I have yet to set up a good work location for my machine. It's all in a table and everything so lives in my kitchen which isn't really where I like to do my crafting. There's no TV in there. No couches. There's just appliances and food and dishes and stuff. Really the kitchen is just not my room. Which is kind of funny since it's the biggest room in my apartment. And like I painted it last summer and everything. It looks really nice...after I've done all the dishes and put them away.
K. Back to the quilt. So I've been looking at lots, ok like all the photos from the Flickr pool. And I had a huge eureka moment and came up with a brilliant plan. This photo was my inspiration.
Tuesday Night Sewing Club: Installment 3, originally uploaded by Melissa Dettloff.
Isn't it wonderful how the stripes are affected by the folding of the fabric to create the frames?
Here's the big idea. Cathedral Windows where the backing fabric is woodgrain. Pure genius right? Well I bought some fat quarters and made up a test block.
It looks pretty much like I imagined. Like super awesome right? The downside is the feel of the block. It's it's it's. It's just not the same feel as the block made from Ikea curtains. Yes. Curtains. Curtains are better.
The woodgrain block uses a nice sleek Joel Dewberry print and it's the sleekness that's the problem. The sleekness and the nice flat. It's just not quite as squishy and cosy feeling as the curtain block. There's also the cost to take into consideration. To make a lap quilt I need about 10 metres of fabric which online is like $100 US worth of fabric. Versus the Ikea curtain fabric which is $2 a metre. And really it's muslin not just curtains. Plus it's kind of ridiculous for the amount of fabric I need despite how cool the effect is.
So I went for the muslin. I spent an evening washing and ironing. It took me 4 hours to iron it all. It was pretty epic. It did get scalded a bit in one spot. I just hope that I didn't wreck my iron for having it on that long. I think I'll let it rest for a while.
And here's the resulting block.
I even tested out Blind Stitching
vs. Top Stitching.
I like the look of the blind stitching, but I really find it hard to make it through all the layers of fabric and feel like it's very secure with this stitch.
Working a couple of blocks with the first tutorial, I found it difficult to get good points on the parts of the frame that aren't stitched down. And I really feel this method requires stitching through to the back for best results. With my hand sewing skills at this point makes it pretty sloppy looking on the back which I REALLY don't love. Though I totally dig the oragami folding and ironing, I really wished there was some sort of basting or sewing keeping the loose fabric bits in place. And oragami with fabric makes getting perfect corner folds quite difficult.
But then I read a bunch of different tutorials linked from the Cathedral Windows Flickr Pool. It seems there's another method that suits my fancy thus far. It means more sewing and less oragami which isn't as much fun, but I feel like it leads to a better result. And because I'm REALLY crazy, I'm hand sewing it all.
To be honest, I don't really like sewing with a machine. I have yet to set up a good work location for my machine. It's all in a table and everything so lives in my kitchen which isn't really where I like to do my crafting. There's no TV in there. No couches. There's just appliances and food and dishes and stuff. Really the kitchen is just not my room. Which is kind of funny since it's the biggest room in my apartment. And like I painted it last summer and everything. It looks really nice...after I've done all the dishes and put them away.
K. Back to the quilt. So I've been looking at lots, ok like all the photos from the Flickr pool. And I had a huge eureka moment and came up with a brilliant plan. This photo was my inspiration.
Tuesday Night Sewing Club: Installment 3, originally uploaded by Melissa Dettloff.
Isn't it wonderful how the stripes are affected by the folding of the fabric to create the frames?
Here's the big idea. Cathedral Windows where the backing fabric is woodgrain. Pure genius right? Well I bought some fat quarters and made up a test block.
It looks pretty much like I imagined. Like super awesome right? The downside is the feel of the block. It's it's it's. It's just not the same feel as the block made from Ikea curtains. Yes. Curtains. Curtains are better.
The woodgrain block uses a nice sleek Joel Dewberry print and it's the sleekness that's the problem. The sleekness and the nice flat. It's just not quite as squishy and cosy feeling as the curtain block. There's also the cost to take into consideration. To make a lap quilt I need about 10 metres of fabric which online is like $100 US worth of fabric. Versus the Ikea curtain fabric which is $2 a metre. And really it's muslin not just curtains. Plus it's kind of ridiculous for the amount of fabric I need despite how cool the effect is.
So I went for the muslin. I spent an evening washing and ironing. It took me 4 hours to iron it all. It was pretty epic. It did get scalded a bit in one spot. I just hope that I didn't wreck my iron for having it on that long. I think I'll let it rest for a while.
Comments
Thats all i have...just..WOW.