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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:

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

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  2. 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!

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  3. 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

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

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

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

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  7. 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!

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