Wednesday 25 May 2011

Applique Adventures in Knitterland
eight more blocks started

ETA: This post was scheduled to be published at 8:09 this morning (I wrote it at 1:15am) - I don't know why it wasn't published!
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It's amazing how much work goes into the simplest of products, like making these eight (incomplete)blocks.


I know many who read here are quilters but please, bear with me as I walk you through my process.
  1. Go to a store with thousands of bolts of fabric and choose ONE! Make sure it's one of the most expensive lines of fabric they carry! LOL
  2. Take the fabric home and admire your choice for a few hours (or days).
  3. Go to the laundry and press the fabric, being sure not to distort it!
  4. Return to the studio at the other end of the house. Fold the fabric in half; make sure the grain is straight!
  5. Cut three twelve and half inch strips from the 44 inch wide fabric. Don't forget: measure twice, cut once.
  6. Cut three twelve and half inch squares from the first strip and repeat for the second. Cut only two squares from the third strip.
  7. Choose eight checked fabrics for the houses and eight coordinating fabrics for the roofs. Keep in mind the fabric combinations already used on the first seven blocks (one shown here, the other six here) and don't repeat them.
  8. Iron the fusible webbing onto the wrong side of the house and roof fabrics (don't ask me why I needed to emphasise that!).
  9. Return to the studio and cut the houses and roofs from the fabric using a rotary cutter.
  10. Fold the remaining fabric and put it in a neat pile on the side of the cutting table, throw the usable scraps (bigger than 1 1/2 inches) in the scrap basket two metres (6 1/2 feet) away and the unusable scraps in the scrap bucket.
  11. Return to the laundry, taking the blocks, the pieces of "houses" and "roofs" and a twelve inch quilting ruler with you.
  12. Press a block, let the fabric cool, place the ruler three and a quarter inches from the bottom of the block, peel off the paper backing of one of the house fabrics, place the fabric one and three-quarter inches from the left edge of the block along the top edge of the ruler.
  13. Check all measurements at least twice.
  14. Remove the ruler without disturbing the fabric, press the house onto the block.
  15. Remove the paper backing from the coordinating roof, position it carefully so that the fabric just overlaps the fabric at the top of the house. Press into place.
  16. Repeat steps 12-15 for the other seven blocks.
And that's how to fill in a couple of hours and get some exercise while enjoying one's crafting time!

2 comments:

  1. Yup-better than any aerobic dvd available! And 'immediate' results!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh yes there's definitely a lot more movement in sewing than knitting isn't there! I like how it forces me to get up and go to the ironing board numerous times!

    ReplyDelete

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