quiltingtraveler

MORE CREATIVE PLAYTIME

Earlier this summer I decided to take one of the sketches I had drawn a year ago and tweak it a little here and there to see what it would look like. I had already made two small quilts last year from this sketch. On one I had painted the design, on the second I had machine appliquéd the design.

This time around I doubled the size of the design, removing some shapes, and adding some new ones. I already had a general idea what fabrics I was going to use. Ever since I got home from the class I took at Asilomar Conference Center this year I wanted to make a quilt using some non-quilting fabric. My teacher was Rosalie Dace and she encouraged us to use silks, velvets, and fabrics not usually used in quilting. Since I had only brought a small selection of silk fabric to the class I couldn’t wait to make something at home using my collection of “party” fabrics from years of sewing gowns and dressy clothing for myself.

Just like quilters who never throw out even the smallest of fabric scraps from their quilts, I never threw out any of the leftover pieces of fabric from a lifetime of making clothing. I guess I am a wee bit of a scrap hoarder! Ages ago I spent some time going through my “collection” of sewing (not quilting) scraps and I discarded everything that didn’t resemble a cotton, or a party fabric. I was able to trim the scraps down to one trash-sized bag. And in that bag are scraps from clothing I made back when I was young to the present. I’m just positive some of those vintage fabrics will come in handy one of these days!!!

The party fabrics I stored separately from the cotton. I was surprised at how many different satins, brocades, and silks I had, as well as some sparkly netted fabrics. It took me quite awhile to decide which fabrics to use on the different design shapes in the revised sketch I drew.

I ironed a lightweight interfacing to the back of the silk fabrics to prevent raveling. Wonder Under was used under all the fabrics on the quilt. After they were fused onto the background I went around the outer edges of each shape with either a blanket stitch or a zigzag stitch. On several of the shapes I zigzagged a metallic cording to add some sparkle.

Once this top is sandwiched and machine quilted I plan to sew on beads for that extra touch of pizzazz.