Today, I worked on the second
red hanging. I told you that the mini quilts in this one would be different to those in the first piece (
here), but I chose a pretty simple one to begin showing you.
Here are all my bits and pieces for all the left over mini quilts.
This is the first one I will put together. There's a lot in this photo to talk about. First of all, in the bottom left, are the fabrics. This one as you can see is going to be a long thin mini quilt. I have a piece of gold satin/chiffon stripe, a piece of red satin and a piece of red felt. None of the pieces are cut to size. There is an important reason for this - putting all the mini quilts together into a cohesive whole will require alterations and adjustments to get a nice fit at the end, so edges and bindings are left until the end, when all the pieces are finished.
OK, at the bottom next to the fabrics are three pairs of buttons (actually one is a pair of brads) which will make up the main motifs.
Above all this and on the right of the buttons are lots of other bits and bobs, beads, sequins, threads, etc.
The first thing I do is to glue the foundation (red satin) to the felt underlay. This is only a temporary hold, as remember, I may have a bit of adjusting to do later. I also allow a lot of fold over fabric for later - if I require it. Binding or turning under is a decision I make much later.
Here is my basic idea for the mini quilt. I have cut squares (approximately) out of the satin part of the shot chiffon and layered the buttons and brads. The first button is a very old pink button, which was still on it's card (check back to the first photo). The second one was a mother of pearl button and the third is a red heart shaped brad, which fits perfectly into the two opposite holes in the buttons.
First I frayed the edges of my pieces of satin and stuck them down in a diagonal orientation.
Next, I sewed the pink button on.
Then mother of pearl.
And then the brads.
I decided to put a border of bugle beads just inside the frayed edge. I intended to finish this step tonight, however we went visiting! So this is where I am at.
Sometimes, I find that leaving work for a day or a few days, helps me to decide on further work. At the moment, I am thinking about some french knots in gold around the motif, but you never know. When I work on this next time, I may have decided on a completely different thing.
Once upon a time I would have worked into the night, finished this and then blogged well into tomorrow, but one of the things I am learning is that fibre art, and all art, I suppose, does not need to be finished all at once and needs these little naps in order to metamorphose. I think that in my little breaks from a piece, my subconscious does a little bit of shuffling around of ideas and sometimes comes up with an improved version.
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Let's see what I get up to tomorrow!
