Playing around with quilting patterns.

A friend has asked me to make her a bag to carry her tapestry loom in.
I have one, I made it using a piece from a workshop with Jane Sassaman. It was just the perfect size for my loom. I didn't do anything fancy on the back, just some random shapes.

However, my friend has some fabric pieces she would like me to use. I have added some of the multitudinous squares I have left over from a cot quilt I made.

I have spent hours on Pinterest, looking at various designs that I could try. I am trying to be creative and make my own design, possibly using a Modern Quilt sort of design.

After hours of looking, I have ended up using a fairly traditional pattern.
I used the squares, cut the other fabric to the same sizes and put together what started off as a nine patch quilt.

But then I realised that is would not be wide enough or would be much too wide, if I continued the nine patch idea. That's because the squares for the cot quilt were rather large for a nine patch. So it became rows of patches.

I came across some sites that mentioned making a piece and then recutting it. (Apparently, this can be called disappearing nine-patch. I mentioned what I was doing when buying some cotton and the lady in the shop (GJ's discount fabrics) told me that is what it is called.
I don't know about the disappearing nine patch but you certainly have disappearing fabric - making the cuts means lots more seams! You lose half and inch (approx 1.25 cm) every time you do a new seam.

Anyway, I bravely cut up the fabric and rearranged it and sewed it back together. I had cut it vertically.

This method produces some lovely narrow bits but it also shows up any inaccurate cutting and sewing! I had to abandon one strip because it was so wonky.

Next I cut it horizontally and sewed it back together.

I have quilted the piece to batting and backing, ready to use it when I have all the other pieces made.

I am going to try something different for the other side, possibly some crazy patchwork, something I have not done before. The method I plan to use is done on a backing fabric and that will suit me well because one of the special fabrics is wool while all the others are cotton, so it will help me to keep things in kilter.

A Pig in Clover

Well, I made the decision to put the bright green background, I liked the way it changed the colours of the collage.

I put the head and body onto yet more adhesive interfacing and sewed over all the bits of fabric.

Then I pinned and sewed it to the background which had a layer of cotton batting under it and a calico backing. (I won't use calico again, it is rather boring even as a background.)

The pig was sewn onto the layers and I quilted a rough clover leaf pattern to hold it together.

The border is on, all I have to do now is put on a hanging sleeve - later.

Photos taken at different times of the day, mostly evenings, give very different images!