Oh My, Oh No!

January 31, 2009

I documented the process for my next wall hanging.

Step 1. Get freezer paper. And a ruler with a 45 degree mark on it.

I use freezer paper because it is relatively larger than and more flexible when it comes to pinning that regular copy paper.

Step 2. Draw a 45 degree angle from one corner of the paper.

Step 3. Start creating your design. Here I did a star. The shaded part is going to be the foreground fabric.

Step 4. Cut out the outline with scissors. I left a 1" strip on the paper and named it "Joint" so that two two pieces of points will be connected. This "Joint" will be removed when I start appliqueing the foreground fabric on the background. The end result will look like floating stars.

Back to Step 1. I realized that I don't know what the angles are to make an eight pointed star. So I gave up. My husband was not home, so I could not have him help me with the math. It's pretty funny around here when I need assistance adding or multiplying. Usually I would shout into the other room and have him do the math for me (and this would go on for 5 -10 minutes). So I gave up on the eight pointed star design and decided to do something else.

So above was another draft of the eight pointed star. I started squiggling and above is the what turned up.

Step 5. Next attach your design onto the foreground fabric.
To fold the foreground fabric, lay the fabric flat and fold it in half away from you. Then fold the fabric in half again from right to left. Next, take the upper right hand corner and fold it to the bottom right hand corner. It is usually better to start with a square, but I do get lazy and do not usually do this.

Now pin the design onto the fabric. Make sure the long side of your design is on the bias side (the longer side).

Step 6. With all the pins in place, start cutting the fabric.

Step 7. Open up your cut work and lay it on the background fabric.

Here comes the fun part. In the above picture, the background fabric was what I originally planned. After looking at it, I am not too happy with it. It just looks busy. You have to be happy with it, because you are going to spend a long time doing it. If you're not happy with it, it will probably go to the UFO pile.

Below is another fabric I have. But I don't think I am happy with it either. I guess it is another excuse to see what the fabric store has. I am thinking of using a brown background. I'll see what I can find at the store and post back. At 40% off per yard, can't beat that price.

Once I figure out what the background fabric will be, I'll continue this tutorial.
(Update: February 4th, 2009: Tutorial is continued on posted dated February 4, 2009)

Happy Quilting,

Quilt & Bitch