Friday 3 October 2014

Paisley Daisy Feathers





Hi, its my first day here, so be gentle with me! For the benefit of those who don't know me, I'm Trudi, I'm a Quilter, Long Armer, mother of both a teenager and an adult child, allotment grower, and on other days I also work part time.  Mostly, I'm a quilter.

I'm absolutely thrilled to be here and have plenty of ideas of how to make life just a little bit simpler with the Sizzix Big Shot.  I've been quilting for close to 25 years now, a stroker and collector of fabrics, and mainly make big quilts.  I guess I am a modern traditionalist, I like all the pretties!  Since my children have gotten to the stage they can forage for themselves I get more time for quilting.

So, to break myself in gently I recently went on a retreat, and part of which was to decorate the ticket tote for another attendee,  As a long arm quilter, I love feathers, and was recently lucky enough to demonstrate with the Nel Whatmore dies at Festival of Quilts.  Whilst there I had time to percolate a few ideas.



I selected some Art Gallery fabrics from my stash, and the Paisley Daisy die, and with a few bits of packaging from a recent purchase cut myself some plain paisley shapes. 


Having roughly cut the shape about 1/4" bigger than the cut papers, I like to glue baste them.  I use a cuticle tool, to smooth down the edges and ease the fabrics evenly on the convex (outside) sides.  It also helps snipping within a few threads of the edge on the concave (inside) curves as it  persuades the fabrics to lie flat. 


Once the glue is dry, after a good press with a dry iron, I removed the papers, pressed again to ensure my seams would lie flat, and machine appliqued my paisley shapes to the back part of the bag.  Nothing fancy in this, I just used my normal sewing foot, and a straight stitch, but was careful to pivot with the needle down when I needed to adjust my direction of sewing. 

As my bag had been deconstructed, I could load it up on the long arm for quilting.  As the quilting is small scale and dense around the appliqued shapes, they take on a trapunto feel about them. 

The circle for the center was cut free hand, however, the Circles die would be a great addition for this, as it has 3 sizes to choose from. 


I am pleased to report the recipient of the bag was thrilled!  As was I with the results, so much so, I have a  table runner planned, along with the addition of the Leaves die, which I intend to hand applique. A nice project for the cooler evenings now the nights are drawing in.



Til next time, when I hope to have something a little seasonal for you. 

8 comments:

  1. There is something so beautiful about the paisley shape. Nice to have a die that does it.

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    1. its such a pretty Die, and so versatile too!

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  2. Ooh pretty!

    Also great if you want to suggest a splash of water I guess - just need a wellie boots die and a puddle shape and you are away!

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  3. I love that bag and can't wait to see the runner!

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  4. Love what you did with that paisley shape T! Jxo

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  5. Whoop! As the recipient of the bag I can absolutely confirm both my delight and appreciation of my beautiful bag - interestingly I have taken it to all my classes this past 2 weeks and my students have been trying to analyse its construction (all in awe of the wonderful quilting too) - delighted to read the process you followed Trudi - several of my ladies were convinced that you had Trapunto'd the paisleys. Thank you again.x

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  6. Hello Trudi! Great job on your first Sizzix post. I don't sew very often and could definitely benefit from some sewing lessons, but your tutorial is wonderful and it inspires me to break out some fabric that I am hoarding and give your applique technique a go. Your Paisley Daisy flower is darling and I can't wait to try it out on a future project. I would love to see your runner and looking forward to All your post. Thank you!!

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