[sekrit project] mischief managed

[ironymaiden]

scarlettina and markbourne were successfully rebirthdayed yesterday, so now this doesn't have to be locked up anymore.

right. so i took the themed gift idea and tried out a new (to me) quilting technique.



one-inch squares of fabric arranged on gridded fusible interfacing. (ironing makes the squares stick to the interfacing and the grid lines are visible on the back side. with seam allowances, the starting dimensions are approximately twice the finished size.



fold on the grid lines and sew 1/4" seams. halfway there.



all there. see the red pencil in this pic and the first one for scale.



quilted, finished, run through a normal wash and dry. it was significantly softened - that's good - between the folds of interfacing and the heat-resistant batting, it was hard to fold. now it's as flexible as i would want a potholder to be. it should be sturdy enough for daily use.

Comments

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

And the potholder was just as pretty--if not more so--in person!

Thank you thank you for the party! And thank you for the beautiful pendant. I'll remember the day forever.

[pedantka.livejournal.com]

That is beautiful. You are slowly inspiring me to overcome my fear of sewing and try quilting.

[katybeth]

That's really pretty!

[shadow-and-veil.livejournal.com]

This is cool.

There was some un-stitching at some point, wasn't there? What happened?

[ironymaiden]

a little - i ended up catching a fold into one of the seams and had to take it back apart. i was afraid it wouldn't survive being unpicked, but it's pretty resilient.

the unsewing i complained of elsewhere was for my big project, a queen-sized quilt for our bed. first i underestimated the amount of fabric i would need for the outside border. then once i managed to find a source for more fabric, it turned out that it was from a separate dye lot (not entirely unexpected for a batik) and it was apparent when they were side by side. instead of sewing on the final side i needed to undo and replace a panel for balance.

[shadow-and-veil.livejournal.com]

Ah. Do you think this method is better for someone experienced, or would it be okay for a (methodic) beginner? I'm thinking of pointing L at it.

[ironymaiden]

the method i used for the potholder? i think it would be pretty cool for a beginner, because you can see the entire pattern come together before sewing anything and matching points is taken care of. there are details about how to handle the seam allowances that i left out - if she wants to try this i can explain further.

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm not getting it. You iron the fabric squares onto the fusing, then you have squares of fabric ironed onto fusing, but no quilt, and as far as I can see, no way of sewing the squares of fabric together to make a quilt, because they're already fused right next to each other. And yet you clearly ended up with a quilt, so what am I missing?

[ironymaiden]

the fusing just holds them in place. then you fold on the grid line and sew a 1/4" seam from each grid line in one direction (i did the verticals first). that sews the fabric together on two faces, the left and right side. this would be the equivalent of sewing the rows of squares into horizontal strips. you get a bunch of flaps on the back side with the raw edges of the fabric on the inside. if you view the right-hand side of this large picture of the back side you can see the flaps of the seam allowances and the lines of the horizontal grid.

after that the seam allowances get clipped to the threadline along the horizontal grid lines, then the fold and sew process repeats on the horizontal lines. this sews the fabric together on the top and bottom faces of the squares.

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

Makes sense now! I thought about that, but I rejected the idea because of the flaps.

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

That potholder is GORGEOUS. I need to learn to quilt.