Tuesday 19 January 2016

Choosing Fabrics and Patterns,A Challenge For Me


Finishing off my Hazel Summertime Flowers blocks into a quilted hanging has been quite the adventure.  I thought it was going to be so easy...silly me.  I figured I would sew the six blocks together, figure out a sashing, sew that on and then make my quilt sandwich, use the free motion quilting feature on my new-fangled sewing machine to quilt it, stand back and admire.
 No siree, not so fast.

As you know I tried any number of fabrics to see which would suit these embroidered blocks.  Was I being picky or blind.  I finally settled on the red with small blue flowers throughout.  Decided to set the blocks on point.  Took a day cutting the red into suitable triangles and sewing them on.  Hung up this piece, stood back to take a look and realized that by setting the blocks on point, I created two huge red blocks where the four triangles met.  These were down the very middle of the hanging and something needed to be done with them.  Groan.



It was starting to make my EPP of the Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks a piece of cake.  Which by the way, Hubby, after reading my posts about my struggles with that project, asked with concern in his voice, was it maybe a little too much for me.  He said it sounds like it's really difficult. :)

I started to draw and sew applique shapes in these large triangles when it occurred to me, perhaps this wasn't the way to join these blocks. So it was back to the drawing board or in this case, back to the stash to find something different to work with.



I've had this little bit of bee cloth for awhile and always wanted to use it for something flowery.  I wondered how it would 'go'. It  is a light yellow and the other two are a medium blue and pink.  Using my Marti Michelle stencils, I made a block from her brochure. I joined it to an embroidered block and liked the look of it and decided to proceed.


Btw, you'll notice this isn't the bee fabric; I didn't want to use it on the beginning blocks till I was sure this was what I was going to do.








Please don't look at that messy sewing corner of my dining room!

So Saturday proceeded in a haze of measuring and cutting and stitching. The fabric was excellent to work with, not flimsy at all. I listened to several episodes of Fifth Estate and Dr. Phil on my laptop as I worked away.  I decided on Chicken Caesar Salads for supper, something more assembly than cooking, so I could keep stitching till I lost the light.


It is a soft pink, not red.  It was late afternoon when this got pieced and the light was very dull so the colours are not showing true.


Meanwhile, I have it hung on the china cabinet so when I go by I look at it and it's growing on me.  Though I still have moments when I wonder if all the rounded lines of the embroidery are calling out for something rounded in the quilted blocks.  Ugh.
 Maybe there is a point when you just have to say, this is it!

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