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Friday, June 24, 2011

Work in Progress - paper piecing

Oh haha, if I posted every work I had in progress right now, you would think your friend Libby was certifiable. But the one I'm showing you here is really special...
This is a hand-sewn proect... Made by a process called "English paper piecing" where you baste scrap fabric to little shapes of paper and sew them together before popping out the paper. (no need for am iron to get perfect shapes)
It's been a WIP for probably 6-9 months now. I work on it in the car as I wait outside DCFS 2-4 times a week while baby has his visits with mom and other various family members. I do a few pieces at a time and stick them back into a project bag. I had about a hundred little squares going on and was stumped for a while as to how I could do some modern type of setting for them... So I decided since this is all scrappy anyways that I was going to use about 8 different whites to make brick shapes to offset the bright squares. This summer, I've been bringing it out at night and cranking on it... Now it's about 60"x20" and I'm hoping it gets to 60"x60". That's just the quilt top. I'm thinking though, that since the whole top will be hand-pieced that I'll have to quilt it by hand, so I'm currently practicing my hand quilting on another project (I'll show it later).
The other thing is that since it works in the car, i can actually get some sewing done during the day. The kids don't really let me get anything done during the day, let alone sewing. The big kids are starting summer camp this week, so soon I'm just going to be a baby mama for 8 hours a day (playdates, anyone?) -at least until Baby moves out, which, sadly, is likely to be soon. ...In the meantime, this has been a great way to channel my stress. And boy have I needed a channel.