Annies Crazy World

I joined another 4 Pairs of blocks today…When I started this quilt in 1993 I cut the foundation blocks 7″, I probably intended them to be 6″ with 1/2″ seams but since I have been working on them again this year I have assumed 1/4″ seams, I measured all the blocks to find the smallest which was 7″ so my finished block size will be 6 1/2 “… When I assembled the all that Jazz Quilts the blocks varied in size by up to an inch and to assemble them I trimmed all the blocks to the same size.…The blocks in this quilt only vary in size by about 1/4 inch and rather than trying to trim them all to the same size I am using freezer paper to size them…Freezer Paper is the American freezer paper that has been adopted by quilters, it has a waxy side that when ironed adheres lightly to the fabric and then peels off easily without causing damage and can be reused many times…I cut a 6 1/2 inch square of Freezer Paper, which is my finished block size and ironed it to the back of the smallest block of each pair and then stitched the seam down the edge of the Freezer Paper, by doing this I can visually see that I have sufficient seam allowance on all edges and that the seams are straight.

The post joining the all that jazz blocks gives tips on how to sew over bulky beads and embellishments.

Tongitht I joined 5 pairs of blocks and embroidered one of them before I remembered that it was Monday night and that I hadn’t done the TAST Stitch for this week.

This weeks stitch is Satin Stitch, not a stitch that is easy to work into a crazy quilt seam so I thought I might experiment with using it to put the design ( a beach ball) onto a beach towel to hang on the cloths line…the somewhat tiny sample I did probably doesn’t really count as having done the stitch but it was enough for me to know that satin stitch wont give me the texture I want.

Really doing this stitch is going to have to wait untill I find a place to use it, below are some visual journal ideas for things I want to put on this quilt that may suit being done in Satin Stitch.

When I made the block on the left I put a large white lace motif on it…As I got more blocks up on the wall I realized that the motif was sticking out like a sore thumb, I used the white lace on the block beside it in a attempt to draw attention away from itbut it didn’t work…my next option was to use fabric dyes and a paint brush to add colour to it, I think that would have worked but when I decided that I wanted to put the clothsline across the green patchs then the white motif just had to go to make room…when I removed it I tried to find a smaller coloured lace motif to replace it but in the end I went with the simplicity of matching the beads and filling in the gaps that had been under the motif.

I ironed the seam opened because they sit flatter and took the extra time to tack them back with a herringbone stitch so that they don’t get caught up when I am embroidering over them.

on the upper part of the join seam I have done coral stitch with silk ribbon which is what I will do on most of the joins, the fine line of coral stitch done with the silk ribbon is just enough for the seam to be covered but not so much that it will compete with the embroidery on the blocks.

The unexpected arrival of interstate visitors this morning has meant that I have had a lovely day but have got no stitching done…actually the visitors arn’t the only reason for not having done the next block, I actually only have one of the 4 photoes that I need to finish the blocks, and that one is mum’s and I was wanting to leave hers till last, I am waiting for brothers to send me the others…In the meantime so as not to loose the momentum that I have to continue this quilt I have decided that I will start joining the blocks.

And will start with joining the 2 blocks where I have decided that the clothsline scene can go…below are my visual journal sketches for this scene…the first shows 2 lines as they as they originally where but there is not room for that level of detail so I simplified it to one line…the third image I have done to the approximate size that will fit in the space I have with cloths approximatley sized in proportion to each other.

It is the first day of winter down under and it is starting to get cold.

I didn’t get any stitching done today so I will take it as an opportunity to post the finished sample block that I have been doing some of the TAST stitches on…It looks a bit bare across the top but when it is made up into a bag that area is gathered and covered by the flap.

I did use the the wire guy, he was flat enough not to distort the fence which was what I thought might happen…I painted the silk ribbon for the fence adding extra flexs of black after stitching it…just a few stitches of green add texture to the grass…
and I was going to make wooden stumps but when it came to it I thought the simplisity of embroidering them would suit the scene better letting the focus be on the bat and bowler…So Howzat!!!

That’s 26 Blocks Done…4 to go

For those that may like to know more about cricket Here is an explanation of the game.

And I will leave you with a Humours description of Cricket You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

Above is my first visual journal sketch for a backyard cricket scene seam…you will notice that there is a lot more detail in this sketch than what my finished seam will have, the purpose of this sketch was to explore and play with ideas.

I made a cricket bat in preporation for this seam but then I lost my way, The only other detail from my sketch that I felt I had to have in the scene is the fence, because the only rule that I remember is that ‘Over the fence was six and OUT’ (to discourage big hits which had the potential of breaking the neighbours windows) but every way that I could think of doing the fence was going to take a lot of fiddley work (OK I can hear you all laughing at me but there is fiddly and then there is fiddley) which was putting me off…and then I received a comment for the knitting scene seam which simply read ‘The result is really worth the work’(Thank your Vero), it was a really timely reminder of why I put the work into creating what I want because the results are worth the work, Vero’s comment sent me running to collect fabric, paints silk ribbon and threads…

The silly thing is that its not going to be as fiddley to stitch the fence as I thought that it was going to be…

The first thing to be done on the block for this seam is to paint the background…I use Chromacryl Acrylic paints and start with a wash of colour covering the area I want painted.

When the first coat of paint is dry it forms a base on which I add more detail, for this one I have done patches of different greens, with a touch of brown and I have added a trunk to make a tree in the background.

And that is as far as I got today…

…Because last night a friend lent me a pair of sock knitting needles, they are so skinny and I just couldn’t resisttrying them out…I have photographed them, on inch graph paper together with the size 14 needles that Sharon lent me, the ones I made from stiff wire, the size 4 crochet hook (inherited from my Nana) that I use and I will explain the items that I made when one of them appears on the Cloths Line…by now some of you will really be laughing, all I can say is that these are the first kind of fiddley, the kind I actually revel in).

I used my Double Helix seam on this block because the young lad on the block is my brothers step son and I wanted the stitches to say that our genetics are only a part of family the other part is love…I then got my thoughts twisted up because the obvious symble of love is hearts but I couldn’t see hearts on a boys block…I played around with other ideas in my visual journal, the best I had come up with was rings combined with O and X for hugs and kisses, when I talked it over with my sister she looked at the line of upside down hearts on the right of the page and said this is nice, I had rejected it after doing it because when I looked at it I saw ‘bums’, as I told her what I saw I thought well thats sort of OK because a kid would probably find that funny anyway and with that thought I came full circle, I could put hearts on a boys block.

The funny thing is that I am the only one that saw the Double Helix in the first seam, when I asked my sister and some quilting friends at a meeting tonight what they saw they all answered with either fish or gum leaves.

The Hearts are Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch based on detail 255 which had been inspired by one of Elizabeth’s stitches, When Elizabeth saw what I did with her stitch she commented that it wouldn’t take much to make it into a heart…well it was easy all I needed to do was put the pin lower (so that it was under the up an down bit) and do an extra stitch on each side to hold the shape.

This Stitch is one of the Visual Journal sketches that I did for Barred Chain stitch which was the TAST week 10 stitch…It reminds me of a Double Helix.

I started with a short seam of Crossed Button Hole Stitch on my sampler block.

A couple of quick sketches in my visual journal…

After piecing the another block for mum’s quilt I tried the stitch I had sketched…I only crossed every second pair of stitch, the alternate pairs of stitches are splayed out to meet the top of the crossed stitches…I am not sure that I really like it and may have unpiked it except that it would have left big holes in the slightly plasticed surface of the T shirt transfer that the image is on…when I looked back at the Visual Journal I realized that when sketching I must have been seeing volcanoes in it, evidenced by the puffs of smoke on the bottom line.