WainwrightAL #4: Appliqué Progress.
Now that I’ve been spending a little bit of time with my blocks basting and appliquéing them, I’m finding myself thinking about all kinds of project variations. Do you do this too?
There’s something about thinking about and discovering new ideas when working on a project, which is probably why I like sewing so much. It gets my mind going.
This week specifically, I’ve been thinking about grouping my blocks and fabrics more tonally. Instead of having a lot of contrast within each block, I kind of like the idea of keeping things fairly similar. I reorganized my pairings to do this a bit.
Nothing is set in stone yet, but I am leaning towards making a pair of pillow shams at the end of this, and I kind of think it would be cool if they were split up by color. Maybe one has the darker blocks and the other has the lighter ones? OR, I could arrange them another way. For now, it’s fun to continue making blocks and dreaming about all the ways to put them together.
Have your projects been giving you ideas?
Tips:
+ Now that I’ve started appliquéing, I thought of another tip to share. You’ll notice in the pic above that I’ve basted all the way around the block. I like doing this because it allows you to baste continuously, and it holds the appliqué fabric to the background so nicely. You don’t actually need to appliqué those outer edges, but I like leaving the basting threads in place because they can hold all of your layers together until you end up sewing your blocks together.
+ Get cozy! Don’t be uncomfortable when doing handwork. I’m always positioning myself in the right chair, with the right foot stool, pillow, etc. so that I’m comfortable when I’m working. It’s never good to feel achy and sore! Make sure to get up and stretch out, move around often. I easily get locked into my project, so I have to remind myself to do this. Having plenty of tea/your favorite beverage on hand can force this. 🙂
+ Sidle up with friends or a good show/movie. Since I’m currently in between having a good show to watch, I’d love to hear some tips from you on something good to watch!
+ Inner points can be tricky, but they do get better with practice! In WainwrightAL #2, the last tip speaks to this. You can always head back over to check it out.
Thank you for giving some insight into your creative process. I am working in quite the same way as I have not really a plan for my quilt apart from the fabric pull and the size (wall hanging). I do have to see the fabrics in front of me to decide what works best. Thus, I choose five or six squares at a time, get the basting and sewing done and after that play around with the layout.
I already learned so much about color and composition during the process. A problem is that I have only a six-inch-stack of Gleaned as fabrics are so expensive in Europe. So this trial-and-error strategy is a bit risky. I hope that it will work out in the end.
I prefer listening to music via Spotify while sewing – on my playlist were Adele and the German singer/songwriter Philip Poisel.
Thanks so much for following along, Andrea! I think that batch-planning your blocks is a fantastic idea, and I think it’ll be fun in the end to lay out the final project. Spotify sounds good!
In addition to being comfortable, and getting up to stretch periodically, I also find that I need TONS of good light for my handwork!
Two shows on Netflix that we have been enjoying are Queer Eye, which is an update of Queer Eye for The Straight Guy. Hilarious and sweet at the same time! And the David Chang show Ugly Delicious, but make sure not to watch that one on an empty stomach…! Both are good for watching while stitching.
Awesome! Thanks, Sam!! Those sound great. 🙂
OK, am I being super dense – how do you cut this shape out from the template? I feel like it won’t all be attached if I cut out the cut lines?! 😛 What am I missing?!
Hi Enjoli! I talked a bit more about the templates in the previous post for week #3, so definitely check that out. But basically, if you follow the folding and template aligning instructions, you’ll get 3 separate pieces that you can mix and match together on your backgrounds. Happy cutting and arranging!
Detectorists and The Great British Bake Off are my favorites on Netflix. 🙂
Ooo, great! I’ll have to check those out!
This looks great, as usual! Which blue solids are you using? I really love that tone-on-tone indigo look.
As an aside to the Great British Baking Show, I like The Big Family Cooking Showdown. It’s a similar set up, but with teams of three family members battling to become Britain’s best home cooks. I like the friendly ambience and banter and the recipes look fairly doable (the bbc website has a lot of the recipes too). Also Midsomer Murders is a stalwart sewing companion. 19 seasons of feature length episodes of murder and mayhem in the bucolic English countryside.
Awesome! Those all sound great.
As for the fabric, I’m using lots of Robert Kaufman basics. They’re actually shades of grey and black–although they do photograph blue for some reason. I’m using Essex, Kona and their poplin.