QAYG: a sneak peek
Monday, July 21, 2014I know. Like I didn't have enough projects on the go.
I took a break from weaving threads in on my animal alphabet quilt. Next time, I'll get rid of the ends as I quilt. I've learnt that lesson the hard way after two hours of sewing in ends and counting! I'm almost done on the back, and still need to flip over to the front. Breathe.
I wanted something quick, fun and colourful. A zippy pouch? Maybe. I cut out some wadding and started piecing together strips of fabric, randomly choosing colours as I went.
Quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) sewing is great. You start off with one piece, and quilt it directly on to the wadding. Then, add a strip on one side, sewing it face down with a small seam allowance, and flipping it back to the right side. Quilt on top. Repeat. Grow a giant pile of quilted panels.
My little panels grew. And grew. I used up a lot of scrap strips of fabric I bought from the Quilt Festival last year, and added some blocks of my favourite fabrics.
Like these newsprint penguins (Nancy Wolff for Kokka). Some of them wear hats, some of them have bowties, some of them have briefcases. And that green.
That's when I realised that these couldn't be zippy pouches. Oh no. They had to be cushion covers. And they had to live in our lounge, replacing our muted, purple cushions that currently adorn our cream-coloured chairs. I want to look at these bright colours and happy fabrics EVERY SINGLE DAY.
There are chickens, cows, penguins, bugs and butterflies. There are camels, elephants, swirls, dots and honeycomb patterns. All in tiny strips of fabric, in alternating colour tones. Yellows, reds, pinks, greens, blues, black and oranges.
I'm not sure where this colour overload has come from, but it is fun and oh so happy.
I'm going to make the back panels (unquilted) out of plain linen to calm things down a bit, and I made miles and miles of lilac binding which I'll use to make piping. Ambitiously. I had about a metre of the lilac fabric leftover from sewing a cot skirt - I'll share pictures soon, when I've cleared off all of the things stored on top of the cot and made it look a bit neater.
Crafting seems to be going really slowly around here. I'm not sure whether it's the being-pregnant, the piling-up of work, or the London heatwave - or perhaps a combination of all of these? My goal for this week is to cut out the backing fabric for the cushions and assemble the piping. Small milestones seem so much more achievable. Hopefully, by this weekend, I'll have a finished cushion or three to share with you.
Incidentally, I've also started sewing a dress and - can you believe it - I bought some more fabric to make a second weekender bag. Small milestones eh?
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