Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Quilting Northern Lights

In November, we once again welcomed instructor Hazel Wainwright from Yellowknife to teach in Inuvik. Hazel is my Brownie instructor from 1989 in Yellowknife and now so many years later is my good friend. She comes to teach in Inuvik once per year and she can take a lot of credit for the amazing quilters our community has produced. I always tell people that the actual project isn't the important of taking the class, the important part is all the little tricks and techniques you will learn during the class and from a good instructor. Hazel has taught us all a lot over the years.
 
 
This year Hazel brought patterns and some kits to complete a Bargello wall hanging with applique. I wan interested in the actual bargello technique and I was not disappointed, a great technique to learn in a class and not from a book or YouTube. I just chose to use scrap scraps of fabric and that seemed to work just fine.


Preparing the strips for the bargello. A good technique to capture the image of Northern lights.

Strips are all sewn together for the bargello pattern.
 
All together, just need quilting. Hazel taught a great technique to square off the quilt after you add a small border. Good tip!
I loved the class but I also needed some time in the day for abstract creativity. So this happened! I stole the bits and pieces of scrap fabric from everyone in the class and created this wall hanging. 
 

I managed to quilt it a week later with all over circle pattern but I once again realized why I bought a new sewing machine! I used my old machine for quilting with a walking foot and the drag, even with the walking foot, is so bad. Lots of distortion and wrinkles everywhere. It is still great for free motion but not for walking foot work. And so now I have a fully finished wall hanging with wrinkles and waves and bumps all over it. What do I do with that?!?!?

Shona


No comments:

Post a Comment