Tuesday 3 March 2015

Oma's Blues- I've started!

A new sewing week and hardly anything else in the diary this week at all. All my fabrics are washed and pressed, I have all the notions I need, so, no more excuses, I'll start Oma's Blues.



I traced all the elements of the centre straight onto the Wash-Away appliqué sheets. These are cut out now and put into separate plastic bags. Some of them are so tiny that I'm afraid of losing them.
My first real sewing is the round border for the medallion. This is pieced from alternating light and blue triangles. I traced the ring onto the sheets which I had joined together, numbering the triangles. I separated the sheets and cut the arcs of the circle with a rough ¼" border. The fabrics I chose are a pale blue and a dark blue and white flower print from the Oriental Blue fabric range from Makower. If you are sharp you will notice I have reversed the placement of the dark and light fabric. I would like to say this is a design element but truthfully I got them the wrong way round and there is no way I am doing the circle again!



I will finish the circle today and trim the fabrics to ¼" from the triangle points. I am undecided about the technique I will choose to turn the seam allowance under. Leah Day has a You Tube video where she makes a template from bonded sheets of freezer paper. The strengthened template is inserted behind the fabric and then the edges are turned with starch and pressing before the template is removed. The turned edges are then sprayed and pressed again. The alternative is to snip the inside circle, apply glue stick to the back of the Wash-Away sheet and turn the edge to stick down which is a technique used by Lynette Anderson. Advice has been offered on the Esther Aliu Yahoo group for both methods but I may go for the more time-consuming template method as it is said to give a smoother curve.

The weekend passed so quickly. My granddaughter Isobel turned 2 and came to stay with my daughter and the rest of the family. Aunties, Uncles and cousins arrived along with the other grandparents and we had an old fashioned birthday tea with cake and jelly and then a couple of party games. The adults all stayed for supper too so it was a very full day.


So by my next post I hope to have finished the ring, prepped the white fabric square and started on making a few of the elements for the centre.

12 comments:

  1. That circle is looking so good. It also looks challenging.
    You (?) look so happy with Isobel on your lap. Grandchildren are so fun!

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  2. Shhh! It's a design element ;) After your last post I went and had a look at the quilt - it will look amazing. I'm really looking forward to watching it grow/

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  3. Well done for making such a good start. Reversing the colours just puts your own stamp on the project!

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  4. Love the darker inner circle and gosh it looks complicated but really striking.
    2 is such a lovely age, you watch them achieve so much and they are more able to express their character and so much fun - especially when asleep lol

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  5. Nice job on your circle. It is time consuming but as long as you are having fun. It's all worth if.
    Bunny in Canada

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  6. I am beyond impressed and beyond words!

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  7. It looks incredibly complicated and I too am beyond impressed.

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  8. Your ring is looking amazing! And the party sounds like it was fun - Happy Birthday to Isobel :)

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  9. Love your reversed colour way, it looks fabulous. Jenny in NZ

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  10. I love it! And I completely agree - there's no reason why you shouldn't call it a design element, you can make it any way which suits you! I just love the fabrics you've chosen and love seeing your progress and how you make it too. Thanks for showing us your work, I can't wait to see more. Happy returns to your beautiful GD :)

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  11. wow - that looks so complicated, but completely amazing :)

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  12. Hi Catherine, yes I agree with you family does come first, such lovely photo's of your wee DGD. I've said it before that dark blue fabric is gorgeous, sure gives a strong contrast. Cheers Glenda

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