Let us begin with a scrappy spiderweb.
I do tend to be drawn to the quilts with small pieces of fabric making the body of the design. I have a bit of a phobia though about things that join many points in the centre of a motif like this one does. 8 sections? How do you get the centre to lie flat when it collects all those seam allowances and joins together? Something I need to work on. Even in something like this next one - where you have only four corners coming together - it could be an issue.
Now isn't that impressive? All those designs are from one square made of two triangles - one black, one white - and joined on the diagonal. And the pattern will look different again when you join multiple blocks. Do non-maths people think about iterations? It's a basic method for solving equations although thinking about it I guess dyers must use it a lot too. Although dyeing is basically an equation I guess.
Something I've never invested in but will be looking out for at the Festival of Quilts is a jelly roll. 2.5" wide pieces of fabric that are 42" long - the width of the fabric itself. Strip piecing gives you lots of options. For example...
(Although that last one is apparently made out of t-shirts and not a jelly roll.)
Then there are quilts which use machine techniques to give the appearance of a paper pieced quilt. Hexagons for example.
Very clever and I would rather like to do this on a bigger scale so you get a quilt seemingly made up of great big hexagons - perhaps 8" across? When you do a simple shape on that scale it becomes more about the fabric than the design. Like this one perhaps.
Finally (because even typing is wearing me out today) there are those quilts where the piecing is creating a bigger picture. In some cases a very big picture.
I 100% admire the technique but it's not something that I would want to do. I'm not very good at light and dark which is why a jelly roll interests me as it will have selected the fabrics for you. Or perhaps something like this, although really this is appliqué.
It is definitely the quilting that makes it though. Free arm quilting is again not something I have mastered although I do like machine embroidery. You do need a long arm machine for it though unless you are making a miniature quilt. But this one is something that interests me.
I have a fascination with little houses. This one is done in small blocks and then assembled. I can imagine having a lot of fun with this, and with the little trees, and with embellishing with buttons. Maybe one day...
I hope you enjoyed the virtual quilt show. I have to go back to coughing and sneezing til my ribs ache now.
2 comments:
The magazine Molly Makes is offering an Amy Butler jelly roll as their current subscription gift. Looks very pretty and MM is a fun magazine.
I'm always drawn to those fiddly looking scrappy quilts, with lots of white in between and share your fear of points. But this book (which I bought last year and have only read and skimmed, haven't actually attempted) takes a lot of the mystery out of it and makes it look doable: http://www.amazon.co.uk/String-Quilt-Revival-Approach-Classic/dp/1440214034/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344970383&sr=8-2
it even comes with a DVD which is both nerdy and hilarious. I recommend!
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