Courtesy of Periwinkle Quilting and Beyond
That’s the big picture of a wall-hanging that I “finished” this week.. Actually, I sewed 99% of it a few years ago. I had sewed some beads on to it and had run out of them, and although I looked for more, it was only recently that I found some that matched enough to use. So, this week I finished outlining some of the arcs with the beads, and the wall hanging is technically done… that means I don’t intend to do any more to it.
I sewed the project about 5 years ago from using a book called “Strips and Curves”, by Louisa L Smith:
It was so much fun!
First you sew a lot of strips together in gradations of color, and then cut out various sizes of arcs, like drunkard’s path blocks, and superimpose other arcs or circles on the blocks. You can have so much fun in playing with the juxtapositions of colors and patterns. It is hard to know when to stop. In fact, I might just need to go make another one right now!
Seriously, it wasn’t as “hard” as the finished project would have you think. I had already sewn my blocks together when I decided to add a few more arcs, and so I just used fusible web and machine appliqued some extra pieces right on top:
You are probably wondering what the shiny fabrics are– the green one is a gorgeous shot silk that I had stumbled upon in a clearance bin someplace, and the patterned ones are “batik lame” (lam-ay) I loved those fabrics. We had them in the shop some years ago, and they were great to work with, and you could iron them without shrinkage, but I was never able to find anywhere to obtain them again. Sad.
When I was adding the last beads, I was quite surprised by how much thought i had put into the quilting back then! (pat on the back). I think that I’ve gotten a bit lazy these past few years. However, I will try to remedy that! I have a quilt in progress right now (the Japanese x and pluses one) that I will try to do something more ambitious than meandering on.
But a wall-hanging is really a place where you can do something special isn’t it– the smaller size means that you can twist and turn it more easily, and you can quilt it quite densely without worrying that you are making it too “stiff”.
I like to do echo quilting, where you just do rows side by side around the edge of a seam… It’s like mowing a lawn, around and around…
I think I had also just sewn a new york beauty, and so on this arc I made these “rays” like you would draw on a sun.
I sewed the beads on with an invisible thread, which was a bit finicky. and I see that I also couched on a line of navy thread as a little frame.
Now I must go see what all the others in the Work in Progress Wednesday have been doing!
Thanks for visiting!
and Molly, I was wondering where you have been.
@Joyce, thanks,
