Back in April, I wrote about my quest for some Susan Winget Tea Time fabric. Shortly thereafter, two kind readers very generously sent me a total of two yards of the fabric, precisely the amount I was looking for. Within the next month, I acquired two companion fabrics from the same Susan Winget collection, a simple blue solid (found at Jo-Ann crafts store) and a teacup-and-text pattern fabric (found on eBay).
And now, my problem is that I don't want to cut this lovely fabric with the teacups and handwriting on it! I now think of this particular stash as The Sacred Fabric. I have spent the better part of a month scouring every quilt catalog I can find for a simple pattern that will let me spotlight this wonderful print. The only contenders that I've found acceptable are here and here. (And the more I look at it, the second one makes me fear the pieces are still too small to feature the print.)
My challenge is, I don't want to cut The Sacred Fabric into too-small pieces. The two fabrics I found on my own, including this one, well, I'm willing to chop those into tiny squares if necessary, but The Sacred Fabric can't be purchased anymore, so the perfect pattern must be found before I take a stitch. If any of you quilters or sewing friends have ideas for where to find quilt patterns that showcase large-print fabrics, I'd be much obliged if you would share! At least every other day I find myself walking by and "petting" The Sacred Fabric (it's that pretty), and I probably need to think about cutting it before I just give up and pin the fabric to my walls!
Dear Angela,
ReplyDeleteThe Sacred Fabric shall not be cut!
And it doesn’t have to be cut if you use the Trapunto Quilting method. I have acquired several pieces of Sacred Fabric during my lifetime and have used this method on them and they turned out beautiful. One of them I used for a pillow top, one was used for the front of a jacket, and another I fashioned into a tote bag for sewing supplies. The others are still waiting to be done. Here are some links that explain the technique. There are also some online videos that you might want to look at or check the library for this book.
Quilting: All About Trapunto (Quilting)by Donna Friebertshauser
https://www.craftsy.com/blog/trapunto-make-quilt-pop/
http://www.quiltingassistant.com/trapunto.html
Happy Trapunto Quilting!
Hugs,
Mary Jane
Thanks so much for the links, Mary Jane! I'm checking them out now!
DeleteI understand the issue completely! I like that first choice, you could use the "Sacred Fabric" for the long panels as well as the large squares between the 9-patches. I'll have to look to see what other ideas I could find. Beautiful fabric, all of it!
ReplyDeleteThe star would look great with the center left as a solid square instead of half square triangles then you could really showcase your sacred fabric. Good luck to you. Margie
ReplyDeleteNow that's something I hadn't thought of! Thanks for the idea, Margie!
DeleteIf you want to make a lap or bed quilt you could use the 2 yards as the back. What about using the fabrics for something else like a purse or pillows?
ReplyDeleteI think the second one would work well. Her blocks finish at 10" ... Make it a little bigger and have your blocks finish at 12". It would be 48" by 48" and if you fussy cut your prints for those half squares, you could really showcase the fabric! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Denise! I knew there was a term for cutting fabrics so as to feature the print, and I think "fussy cut" is what I was looking for!
DeleteCheck out my firemen quilt: http://sarahdidit.blogspot.com/search/label/firemanQuilt?m=0
ReplyDeleteI used 1 yard of the firemen fabric and surrounded it by coordinating blocks. I used another yard to make a pillowcase or you could alternate pieced blocks with "solid" blocks of the text fabric.
Thanks for the suggestions, and I can't believe I haven't heard of this firemen fabric before, Sarah. This is great! Thanks for sharing.
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