I get so much satisfaction from taking place in a group made quilt. Some of my Verb friends are working on a little quilt for a new baby, so I got the opportunity to participate and make a block.
I decided to get SUPER fancy and use Thangles to put some half square triangles into the block.
And wow, did I get fancy. Maybe TOO fancy. Ok, definitely too fancy.
Thangles are pretty cool - they are paper foundation base that you sew fabric to that helps you make half square triangles without wasting fabric. I have used them before on several projects and find them to be pretty handy.
They've been around for a long time and they come in different sizes so you can work them into whatever you are doing. I used 3/4" finished size.
The fabrics I choose to use for the thangles are awesome and beautiful (and Japanese of course), and even look pretty good together until you attach them to each other and eat up seam allowance.
Once you actually sew them into the block, the fabrics need to be significantly different from each other, and also relatively un-busy in pattern.
I'll have to show the final block, but it turned out that my fabrics were too busy to really stand out.
Live and learn.
You are right there when it comes to combining those Japanese fabrics. I have a box of odd pieces I didn't want to cut further. I think the biggest is maybe four inches square and spme are multiples of 1x1 or 1x2 etc. I thought I would combine the assorted bits into maybe 6inch units and make something interesting but it is not that easy putting them together so they stand apart.
ReplyDeleteoh I can't wait to see more, I love thangles too when your sewing a lot of hst! I am starting to collect japanese indigo fabrics I want to make a little quilt with them and hand quilt it densely with pearle cotton thread!
ReplyDeleteKathie