Have had a week at work, so when Esther's Love Entwined was released last Friday, I had 3 days to think and plan.
Oh dear, not enough of my background fabric that I love, and bought without knowing the requirements, a silly thing to do but I love it and always had a plan B which is,
Make a smaller quilt OR buy the same fabric in deeper shade for the outer borders.
I love this, it has a pink tinge plus an almost green tinge depending on the light. From Ginny Beyer's Essential Neutrals range, but it really shows as a cream/beige fabric.
Monday I started my compass and finished the inner yesterday morning, Thanks to Glenda I dropped one colour from the outer piecing., and am very happy with it.
Wish there were not so many R's in what I am typing as the R button fell off yesterday and it is a precision touch to get it to work, Lol
My center is fussy cut from my inspiration fabric. I will show this at the end of this post, it is going to drive my fabric choices and there will be a lot of fussy cutting from this fabric.
So far it is all from my stash except the background.
Pink and Blue points are Fairy Frosts and I will be using a lot of these. The other compass points are synthetics.
Took these photo's as I made the last quarter's, thinking they may help some that are new to paper piecing
or foundation piecing as I know it.
It may be easier not to cut your fabric to the exact measurements, but to cut rectangles instead. For me it is
easier but it does waste a little fabric.
These were my measurements. for all the outer triangles I cut fabric at 2 1/2" x 1 1/2"
For the 8 outer pink points 3" x 1 1/2", for the 4 secondary Aqua points 4" x 2"
The center star I cut to the template.
You can cut them larger if you wish but this gives good coverage of the pattern area.
My Pink fabric is completely covering the point and the second fabric is lined up by holding to the light and allowing a 1/4" seam.
After stitching and pressing I fold the paper foundation back and trim the pink fabric back to 1/4"
From the pattern line. I know the longer lines on this ruler are quarter inch and I find it easy to work with for trimming.
Trim the second fabric the same way and line up and stitch the next,
All fabrics added, just need to trim to the foundation edge, bottom of my pink is already trimmed
.
Had to help with stock take at work yesterday afternoon but had time for a couple of false starts with the outer ring as wanted a gold fabric but nothing worked, just before leaving I found the answer and also the solution for my little circles which also hadn't been coming together for me.
An Icy Blue Fairy Frost,. it is raw edge machine appliqued with tiny blanket stitch, the outer edge still has to be trimmed to size. I used fusible web to hold it in place.
My pink shot Gold fabric shows better in this photo, the truest colors I think.
Knowing the compass edge was going to be under my outer circle made me to rethink my options for the little circles using machine applique.
My bead box gave me these, Paua, or Abalone shell circles from a necklace I bought for the other beads.
Only one hole but if you look at the top right quarter, I am using tiny pale blue beads to secure them in place. Shell side up for the 4 points and polished side up for all the others.
Can't attach them till my compass is in place as will not be able to machine stitch the outer edge if I do.
I have now attached a layer of iron on Viselene or Pellon padding to the back of my compass, restitched around my center circle with metallic gold triple stitch for more definition, and 1 row of metallic gold around the inner edge of the outer circle to make sure the pellon will not move. As you can see the pellon is cut 1/4 inch inside my outer trimming line. The above photo's have the pellon already in place.
And my inspiration fabric.
Fell in love with it a few weeks ago, and just had to buy a couple of meters, not intending it for LE.
You can see on the lower right the medallion I fussy cut for my compass center.
Not sure where this is now taking me but I am going to enjoy the journey.
That's it for this week, Cheer's Jenny
What a gorgeous compass, Jenny and I love how creative you've been to add the elements of the block to it. Way to go. Where did you get that luscious black-blue fabric?
ReplyDeleteI wandered into Spotlight, just to check out what they had as I don't normally buy fabric there. I fell in love with this. On sale I couldn't resist buying what they had,
ReplyDeleteNot thinking for 1 minute about LE at the time, but when I couldn't fasten onto a look for LE this fabric kept almost haunting me in the middle of the night.
My quilt is not going to be a reproduction of a 1790's quilt by any means, but it will be my expression of Esther's design.
Your compass is just beautiful love the colours and I just know your quilt will be outstanding. I love your inspirational fabric my favourite colours.
ReplyDeleteBunny
Great compass, what a stunner and what a great 'points' idea too, using beads like that.
ReplyDeleteFabrics are always hard; I am now facing another fabric hunt, oh well... Regarding your middle fabric, you definitely could go darker working outwards if you wanted to, that background fabric looks like a great blender, tone wise. Can't wait to see your progress along with everyone elses, next month is a real step up. Thank you for sharing this.
Beautiful and elegant. Love your focal fabric, this will be stunning! Just a note, wait until you have quilted your quilt to put on the embellishments!
ReplyDeleteThanks Connie, I have just packed my shell circles up, until much later!!!
ReplyDeleteThey will break if forced.
Thanks Esther, my background fabric is an Essential Neutral or blender and has several more shades going darker, which is why I risked buying it, I thought a colour wash background could work well if I needed more fabric..
ReplyDeleteBeautiful colour choices! Love your inspiration fabric and where you've gone with it so far!
ReplyDeleteThis is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful! I just love the fussy-cut centre!
ReplyDeleteYour compass is lovely Jenny. I am sooo tempted!
ReplyDeleteCertainly has the WOW factor, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteReally like your compass section!!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely stunning fabric. I haven't had a chance to even pick out fabric but downloaded and printed everything out.
ReplyDelete