{"id":1115,"date":"2010-11-03T12:16:14","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T17:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2010-11-03T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2010-11-03T17:16:14","slug":"lines-and-edges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=1115","title":{"rendered":"Lines and Edges"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the heart\u00a0of the universal appeal of patchwork or pieced fabric constructions, whether traditional or contemporary style, is the potential for colours to interact either side of the line\u00a0separating them.<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 Numerous techniques\u00a0of construction within the patchwork\/piecing world,\u00a0freehand or carefully cut, some employing rulers, templates,\u00a0covered paper shapes,\u00a0strip and paper piecing, are used separately or in combination to\u00a0produce geometric\u00a0or more organic less precise shapes to make\u00a0what is in effect a ‘new fabric’, and with further treatment\u00a0this becomes\u00a0a quilted houshold item such as quilt for the bed or the wall, or a garment\u00a0to wear.<\/p>\n

Although I have blogged this before,\u00a0I am posting it again today so that people who have never pieced this way can have a go at what is widely called ‘ improvisational piecing’\u00a0\u00a0 in which lines range from organic or non-straight to the very, very\u00a0curved lines possible with some practice.\u00a0 (There are more detailed instructions in my articles in Quilters Newsletter Magazine nov.2004<\/em><\/span> and in Down Under Quilts magazine nov 2004<\/span><\/em>)\u00a0\u00a0Since 1992 when I learned this way of working, this has been the way I work to piece fabric.\u00a0 When it suits my design,\u00a0I often\u00a0combine my pieced work with precisely cut squares in a grid, so I haven’t entirely abandoned quilters tools.\u00a0 But for the most part, my pieced work\u00a0is all cut freehand\u00a0with the rotary cutter and\u00a0 pieced using machine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In\u00a0two galleries on this website, mostly\u00a0in the “Colour Memories” and the more recent “Ebb & Flow”\u00a0\u00a0there are many examples of my works using these construction basics and the more advanced techniques I have developed.\u00a0 (shown is detail from “Ebb & Flow 11” )<\/p>\n

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Although you could use\u00a0 this technique to piece some wavy lines\u00a0by hand, when you want to cut across those lines and put in inserts\u00a0to make\u00a0more complicated, multi-step constructions, it becomes pretty well impossible\u00a0without machine stitched seams.\u00a0 I mean, you probably could <\/em>persevere with it and eventually succeed, but the question would be, ‘Why on earth would you?’\u00a0… unless of course you are one of those I meet from time to time who says, (with a superior sniff) ”\u00a0Oh, I always do\u00a0my<\/em> piecing by hand”\u00a0\u00a0as if that somehow makes something better.\u00a0 But many of us are past taking any notice of the quilt police who still seem to dictate\u00a0such rubbish\u00a0to the gullible out there.\u00a0 So,\u00a0although\u00a0my instructions say it\u00a0can be used by\u00a0good hand piecers, if you piece by hand, just realise that it really goes only for the single unbroken wavy line.\u00a0 I apologise for that wording which I only just noticed, after all these years … hmmm.<\/p>\n

By following the instructions and\u00a0diagrams for each step, without too much trouble and a little perseverence (hey, you could even ‘get it’ first time!) \u00a0you too can master this fast construction technique that is widely used by art quilt makers today.\u00a0 It’s really\u00a0a modern tradition if such a thing can be said, since it is so widely used by fabric artists in non-traditional patchwork and piecing.<\/p>\n

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The basic steps in the construction of 'improvisational piecing'. <\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0This kind of technique also goes well with ragged or unfinished looking edges, which however can be carefully finished behind to be stable while still looking ‘raw’ or rough\u00a0from the front.\u00a0 I have blogged elsewhere on this and may post again on it sometime soon.\u00a0 Or may not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the heart\u00a0of the universal appeal of patchwork or pieced fabric constructions, whether traditional or contemporary style, is the potential for colours to interact either side of the line\u00a0separating them.\u00a0\u00a0 Numerous techniques\u00a0of construction within the patchwork\/piecing world,\u00a0freehand or carefully cut, some employing rulers, templates,\u00a0covered paper shapes,\u00a0strip and paper piecing, are used separately or in combination […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uxpF-hZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1120,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}