30 March 2009

"Sweetie" quiltlets

After reading a post on BQL about using sweet wrappers in a "sandwich" for practising machine quilting, I had to try it out immediately. A good collection of sweet wrappers had built up over the years - This is how they looked when laid out on a bit of backing, and some wadding (I used a piece of the wool blanket found in the charity shop recently), and topped with sheer fabric. Each piece of foil or cellophane was help in place by one pin -
The pins came out as soon as possible. Machine quilting was in big circles/loops, diagonally across the fabric -
I imagined doing big loops of one colour after another, layers overlapping layers, but it didn't work out that way. Working amid all that colour and sparkle was addictive - it kept telling me to do just a little more -Mostly it ended up as loops within loops, filled in with back-and-forth stitching, or with loops; and lots of circles; and straight lines, or else slightly wavy lines in some areas.
Result: three Little Gems, each satin-stitched round the edge in a different colour -
and the pleasure of a day spent colourfully at the sewing machine, with the radio on.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done you! These are so effective, I love them

Sandra Wyman said...

I'd love to win one of these! Very inspiring. Did you know cellophane does really interesting things if you apply heat e.g. by ironing (protect iron and board with baking parchment - snadwich the cellophane between two layers.

My little gems (growing in number - I now have six on the go - are in various stages of needing quilting/binding/whatever - but should reach the website soon!

Sojourner Design said...

Lovely! Guess I'll keep saving those bits of shiny wrapper. And it's nice to have another use for the several new army blankets that I have.

Thank you for sharing!

Diane

Anonymous said...

They look really good, Margaret! You've inspired me to try them! :-))
Rosemary K

RHONDA said...

Very seasonal, Margaret! They're reminiscent of childhood and Easter Eggs. They look great. I love the colours.

Julie said...

What a great idea for a quick quilt. I have plenty of foil so I'll give this a try. Thank you Margaret.

Robbie said...

How very cool and interesting. I've used wrappers but just individual pieces in my art work. Now this is enticing to try! Thanks so much for sharing!