I have been looking forward to this weekend for over a year. Two day-long workshops with Jennie Rayment. Jennie is an author and teacher who takes the characteristic of fabric exploited in the cathedral window technique and takes it further than you could ever imagine.
That characteristic is that a bias folded edge can roll and curve. And once you've worked out how to create bias edges in a block by folding fabric cleverly and inserting squares and rectangles into seam lines, the possibilities are endless - and I'm still trying to get my head round them!
Today we did a project called "Does it Need a Button". A central 12" block, plain 3" borders, an ingenious 3" border with more bias edges to roll, and a final 3" border. I chose to make mine in a single colour. Jennie is known as the Calico Queen in the UK and the Muslin Mistress in the UK (she's happy to be referred to as the muslin mistress as she works with muslin and has been a mistress - apparently it's best to test drive in this day and age!) and some of my favourite pieces by her are made entirely from calico, with the folding and rolling and manipulation providing texture and interest rather than colour. Last time I did a class with her I used brightly coloured batiks and ever since I have wanted to repeat the blocks in a single colour. So this time I started with a single colour - turquoise to match our bedroom.
I now have to make a decision: the piece at the moment is 28" x 28" and I have a few more edges to roll and stitch in place. I could stop there, layer it up, minimal quilting, matching binding. Ta-dah. Or. I could use it as the centre of a medallion quilt: take some of the blocks we made the last time Jennie visited (I already have the book), and make a whole quilt, finishing it off with a matching border to the one we did today. I need more long term projects like I need a hole in the head, but this would certainly be different. And long-term.
Today finished with an hour-long talk by Jennie. Even if this type of patchwork isn't your thing, if you ever have the chance to go to one of her talks - I haven't laughed so much in years! Tomorrow we have our second day long class. I've just finished cutting the fabric and this one is anything but a single colour :)
That characteristic is that a bias folded edge can roll and curve. And once you've worked out how to create bias edges in a block by folding fabric cleverly and inserting squares and rectangles into seam lines, the possibilities are endless - and I'm still trying to get my head round them!
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| The full piece so far - there's still a lot of rolling to do on the border, but eventually it will all look like the top right corner |
Today we did a project called "Does it Need a Button". A central 12" block, plain 3" borders, an ingenious 3" border with more bias edges to roll, and a final 3" border. I chose to make mine in a single colour. Jennie is known as the Calico Queen in the UK and the Muslin Mistress in the UK (she's happy to be referred to as the muslin mistress as she works with muslin and has been a mistress - apparently it's best to test drive in this day and age!) and some of my favourite pieces by her are made entirely from calico, with the folding and rolling and manipulation providing texture and interest rather than colour. Last time I did a class with her I used brightly coloured batiks and ever since I have wanted to repeat the blocks in a single colour. So this time I started with a single colour - turquoise to match our bedroom.
 |
| The centre panel - the colour isn't true, but you can see the rolling and folding and piecing in this picture |
I now have to make a decision: the piece at the moment is 28" x 28" and I have a few more edges to roll and stitch in place. I could stop there, layer it up, minimal quilting, matching binding. Ta-dah. Or. I could use it as the centre of a medallion quilt: take some of the blocks we made the last time Jennie visited (I already have the book), and make a whole quilt, finishing it off with a matching border to the one we did today. I need more long term projects like I need a hole in the head, but this would certainly be different. And long-term.
 |
| You can see the "blind hem stitch" I'm using for stitching down the rolled edges in this picture. The insert is called a Baltimore Rosebud |
Today finished with an hour-long talk by Jennie. Even if this type of patchwork isn't your thing, if you ever have the chance to go to one of her talks - I haven't laughed so much in years! Tomorrow we have our second day long class. I've just finished cutting the fabric and this one is anything but a single colour :)
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