I am taking part in the
BQL challenge on Yahoo - a 12 x 12 inch mini-quilt for each month of the year. This month it is a log cabin challenge. I think I suspected this one wasn't going to go well when I couldn't open the passworded ( is this a verb?) instructions on e:mail. The moderator kindly sent me another version and then the issues started:
- it is log cabin and this isn't one of my favourite techniques
- I decided to make this with some of my precious, ie "get this right as you only have one chance" silk kimono fabric
- I also thought it would be fun to use some faces from a Michael Miller fabric that I have had for some time
- I thought it would be interesting to try an off-centre log cabin, with thick and thin blocks
- I am not a quilter who plans ahead - serendipity and " why don't I add.....?" are more my style. this was NOT the project for me.
- I did try to draw out my blocks but realised I would need two different layouts to do what I wanted. I have never done this before, but in between the gnashing of teeth, I did learn some functions on our photocopier that I wasn't aware of.
- After this failure, I remembered that, somewhere,I had some printed vilene, that would give lovely accurate logs - but this was a 1cm grid and not a quarter inch grid
- some calculations later, I got to an approximation of a 3.5 inch block, but now having stitched the blocks, I realise that my calculations for the seam allowance are completely wrong
- while stitching the blocks, I realised that the faces would all have to appear in the same direction to have the impact I wanted - another layout had to be chosen
- ran out of the right colour of thread on a Sunday afternoon
- the silks turned out to have different finishes on each side, which show up on some lights but not in others - the way I have placed these is of course deliberate to give variation to the surface texture!
- I continually sewed the logs together in the wrong order - silk doesn't respond well to a seam ripper
- the silk strips held together so effectively in my cut piles that one of the blocks has two strips sewn in on top of each other - again, a deliberate variation in surface texture
- after all this, the quilting was never going to be perfect, so I thought I might as well make it prominent, so used a variegated orange thread to draw speech bubbles
Still someone once said that lots of mistakes, made in a consistent manner, are not mistakes, they are design elements. So, it is here now, full of design elements, but strangely likeable. I'm going to call this " Careless Whispers on Facebook" for reasons that are not appropriate to discuss here.
