Washing Line

August was Corey's month in Ringo Pie so I am playing catch up.  Her theme was Quilts on a Line, and I struggled for a long time to come up with anything that really gripped me.  When I buy vintage and thrifted fabrics from the carboot, there is nothing I like more than the line of freshly washed fabrics and tea towels flapping in the breeze later the same morning, 

that  is what I wanted to capture.
Pinterest is useful for finding and storing ideas as I get my head around a project and you can see my board for Corey here.   I sketched my idea onto grid paper, traced on to freezer paper and set to work.

Soem of the work was done for me by the fabric- the crazy hexagon cheater print (which you can also see it in the top pic) was perfect.  I imagine this as a throw that might go on a sofa.  A quilt comes next, made of strips of Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks Voiles, perfect for mini items as the fabric is lightweight and doesn't bulk the seams up.  The tricky bit was where the hexagon quilt flaps over, don't even ask about that bit- it was a long night gettting that to work.  The next quilt is a vintage bed quilt, I thought I wuld show how I worked this one out.  I started with 1.5 inch squares framed with half square triangles cut from 2 inch squares.  I made up enough mini blocks to cover the length of the freezer paper template plus a half block.

I then arranged the squares to follow the lines of the template...

I had to allow for the quarter inch seam allowance at the top and I pinned  on o the ironing board as I worked my way down joining the seams at angles with pins.  Once these were sewn together, I placed the mini quilt  on the template and cut the edges with scissors to follow the lines of the finished shape.

I used wide strips of ditzy flowery fabrics for the mini quilt borders- they needed to be wide to be trimmed down to the wavy shape.  By laying the mini quilt on the fabric- both right side facing and rotary cutting following the wavy edge of the mini quilt, it creates an border that will fit on perfectly.  I then trim the whole shape so is the shape of the freezer paper plus seam allowance.

The washing line is some perle cotton attached by couching stitch.

This is the back, just long stitches of the fine thread which can't be seen on the right side.

The final fabric is meant to be a tablecloth with its kitchen themed print.  I added some clothes pegs and a bird for a little extra hand stitching detail, Corey is the queen of embroidered blocks after all.   Click on the pic to see more details.

I do wish I had shaped the Little Folks Quilt more at the bottom but too late now.  I am pleased at the flappiness of the line, they do feel like they are blowing in the breeze.  Next I need to think about Christmas for Amber's block...