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Blue Batik and Leaves….
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
I seem to be congenitally incapable of making abstracts. Using Kathy Schmidt’s Cell Block Blues pattern, from here Rule-Breaking Quilts book (see my post here reviewing the book), I started working on a quilt with a selection of ten blue and white fat quarters purchased at the AQS Tennessee show, where I was teaching. The picture above shows the beginnings…my first ten blocks, along with the recently returned (after a year away at shows) Field of Gold and the ribbon it won in Houston and a table-runner that needs to be quilted.
This AQS-Knoxville show was my last big away-teaching of the year, and I thought I’d treat myself to some fabric and totally unlike-me quilting, possibly as a project for another book. I thought it would be fun to help support friend and fellow-author Kathryn Schmidt by using one of her projects, and thought it would get a good stretch for me. So what do I do with this fun, easy abstract? I make it into more work (splicing in those bright colors) and into leaves—I just can’t seem to make something if I don’t relate it back to reality! Anyway, I went to the Batiks by Design booth and made my own assortment of ten fat quarters and, amazingly enough, forgot to take a picture before I started slicing them up! By the time I got the center of the quilt done, I was left with less than a fat eight total out of all ten! Fortunately, I found them online and have ordered more for the borders and binding (that’s a wicked teaser!). Most of the batik designs we see are from Bali, but these designs are from Java and are more like the old-time designs.
In Rule-Breaking Quilts, Kathy Schmidt teaches how to stack and slice, then swap, fabrics for an improvisationally pieced block. See my review of her book for more information and where to order!
Here I'm auditioning a bright yellow-hand-dyed that I intend to splice into the seams
In this photo, you can see that I've stitched the first side of the inserts. On the left of each block, the piece is ironed, on the right the seams are as-stitched.
The right hand side of the blue block assembled and pressed
and the yellow block in process; you'll note that the edges are uneven and will require smoothing out with the rotary cutter
Sometimes (often!) after sewing the first seam, I like to fine-tune the shape of the spliced-in color to match the next bit of batik
The yellow block with the "leaf veins" sewn, but the center stemline needs to be refined and re-shaped
The stemline has been trimmed and smoothed, and now I'm getting ready to cut the yellow for that inset
Same process, but for a light blue block; here I have already trimmed the wonky edges to create a smooth space for the center stemline
Blocks sewn but not yet pressed or squared up
Pressed blocks, looking a bit more presentable!
After I made my blocks I squared them up. Most were able to come out to 8 inches cut, but a few were smaller. As you’ll see when I get to showing you the way the quilt came together, this really didn’t matter as I filled in odd shaped rectangles with strips and rectangles of batik (talk about a LOT of partial-seaming…erg! I NEVER seem to do anything easy, but I must say I’m pleased with the outcome so far….)
