Saturday, July 23, 2005

How to Make a Pattern

1. Make the quilt
2. Trace the quilt
3. Get the tracing copied
4. Write the directions
5. Take the cover photograph
6. Copy everything
7. Wait for back-ordered packaging envelopes for two months.
8. Quilt the quilt.
9. Name the quilt
10. Put the quilt on the patterns page of the website

Ok. I did #1 and #9.
It took 11 hours to make the quilt top if you count transpired time, which includes dawdling, eating, making coffee, emptying the dishwasher, opening and closing the door for the cats, and of course playing on the internet.

Things I just had to look up on the internet:
Yarn sales
Ebay: Conversion Vans ( Nevermind. I'd rather stay in a hotel)
Art quilts (looking for ideas in vain. Nobody has already made my quilt for me to copy)
Chicken recipes
Latest episode of This America Life on NPR
knitting patterns for capelets (another wacky style that will surely be defunct before I make one)
Karen Stone (for border ideas. For. Get. It.)
Jane Sassaman ( just to make myself miserable)

Then finally I got to work. Actual time to make the quilt top, 2 hours, in increments of 10 minutes, with 60 minute breaks.
It's not that it was difficult, but, well, it was difficult. I had to work without YELLOW!

This is new for me. I have grasped that there is a huge amount of yellow in my work and I have vowed to curb my enthusiasm for it. You will note, there is some yellow, but not as much as usual. Really.


I substituted ORANGE.
Brilliant! A Stroke of Genius! Revolutionary! Fill in appropriate triumphant phrases. I think this has altered the mood of the piece somewhat. I wouldn't go so far as to call it subdued, but it definitely has a Southwestern flair. I call it Fern Fiesta, which is probably a tiny bit dopey, but it is short and will fit nicely across the top of the pattern envelope.

click

Fern Fiesta
18x 24" Cotton Special Edition Fabric

The Ferns


and the dots (must have dots) .

The space for fancy quilting. I swore I would leave out that space for fancy quilting, but it needed open space really badly.


This is how I make my designs. First I draw the whole thing, and then I trace it using the Wonder-Under release paper (what is left after I have fused the web onto the fabric). The I cut out the shape with paper scissors and place it face down on the fusible side of the fabric.


Using the tip of my iron on a stick, I fuse the paper pattern in spots, rather than pin it. Then I cut around the paper, not through the paper, and make the piece slightly bigger than the pattern. There are lots of other ways to do this, but this is the one that works for me. Frieda Anderson uses a Sharpie marker to draw the pattern onto the fusible side, but that means that she has to cut off the markings and that seems too hard for me. I am lazy.

The leaf shape that I cut out is then placed on fabric that will contrast nicely and fused into place. All my fabric is already fused, so the fabric it is placed upon is then cut slightly larger than this rib shape and that is the backing for the top. No other supporting fabric will be used. I will overlap the leaves and use bits of underlapping fabric to fill in the voids and when that is finished, it goes directly onto the batting. Sigh. Then I will quilt it. Tomorrow.

Tonight I am knitting!

8 comments:

  1. These are fantabulous (could you ever make anything other than?)!!!

    The color is radiant and my most favorite croton/leaf thingy. YUM. I am jealous.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8:50 PM

    > Frieda Anderson uses a Sharpie marker to draw the pattern onto the fusible side, but that means that she has to cut off the markings and that seems too hard for me. I am lazy.<

    You crack me up. I do like it.

    teri

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love all the orange. To me it doesn't come across as southwestern, but more like tropical. But either way it looks HOT!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yummy colours but then I adore orange especially with blue and green! And you are so generous with your working descriptions. I feel I am there with you watching the process. Wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Who said you use too much yellow? I don't even *like* yellow and I think your use of it is just fine.

    Not that this doesn't look gorgeous with the far-superior-orange, which it does, but phooey on them for making you feel bad about your yellow habit!

    (ok, now I have this picture of you as a frenetic, margarita drinking, ole shouting nun dressed all in vibrant yellow. I don't think the world is ready for that!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love it, of course, but what I want to know is how do you cut your perfect little dots - which I love?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gerrie, I am often asked what I used to cut the tiny dots.
    The answer is Tiny scissors.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well, that is what I do! No magic there! I guess it is a good thing to do while watching junk tv!!

    ReplyDelete

Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com