5 pieces

Do you remember I made these two long flowing pieces?

I decided the way I wanted to hang them in an exhibition - if they ever get into an exhibition - wouldn't work.  So I chopped them up, and using the mechanism Roger made me for my first piece, I made three long pieces from the original two.

This is the first piece I made in the canal series

 There are two other pieces.  One I finished in February

And the one I finished last week which could have been Venice but fits better with these canal pieces.  So think aqueducts!

I've been working on one more canal piece.  I decided to take all the leftover bits of fabric from all the other pieces above and make them into one last hanging.

None of the photos are really wonderful.  I don't have anywhere I can hang the pieces of work to photograph them.

I thought I would try mocking up what the pieces might look like as an exhibition.

I rather like it.

I'm going to have a rest from canals now but I shall probably come back to them.

For now I'm going to delve into something different.  And no, not Venice!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

What I did next!

Remember this post?  About these fabrics?

Well, I sold the squarish piece on the left. I cut it up and put it in bags with other fabrics.

Then I took the piece across the top and the wide piece in the middle and cut them up into 4.5 inch squares.

I tried laying them out

Then I stitched the squares together in strips.

I joined 3 of the strips together and 2 of the strips together.  And you know me, I cut them up and inserted narrow strips.

I joined the 3 strip piece to the 2 strip piece.  I put the squares onto a piece of calico and a backing cotton.  Then machine quilted - after a fashion.  I trimmed the whole piece and added the binding.

Yesterday I spent the day handstitching the binding whilst listening to podcasts.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Next stage

Do  you remember my post 'Lots of Work'?    Well, I've started work!

I machined the strips together.  Of course there are lots of assumptions to be made about this!  As in:

1. Have I accurately cut the strips?
2. Can I sew straight lines with my machine?
3. My ironing and pressing skills are up to par!

I'm fairly sure I'm nowhere near scoring 100% in any of those 3 areas.

These three pieces are all different sizes although the photos show them the same!

Now I have to decide what to do next!  Cut them up some more or leave them as they are.

Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Lots of work

When I was at Committed to Cloth, I pinned all the fabrics I was happy with up on the design wall.  I grouped together the fabrics I had printed at the same time for the most part, but because on the whole I stick to the same limited palette most fabrics go with something else.

I tend to have the Venice or Florida colours of pale blues, turquoise and shades of orange and the canal themed fabrics of petrol blue/green and rust.

I started cutting up the fabrics.  Firstly I cut the those fabrics that could make hangings just as they were starting with these that look like bridges., viaducts or aquaducts.

I took the two fabrics on the right of this photo and cut them both into strips.

I took the strips and randomly put them back together by pinning them on the design wall.  The next task is to machine stitch the strips together and then decide what to do next!

Next I took this breakdown printed fabric and cut it into strips.

And assembled the strips ready to machine.

I took these fabrics and cut them into strips.

And yet again reassembled the strips on the design wall.

Leslie made a suggestion to swap two pieces.  Can you tell which they are?

So now I have a lot of work to do!  I just hope I have enough thread!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

One finished, one to go!

In the post Another new piece, I showed you how far I had got with piecing some bought fabric togther.

And this is the finished piece:

I went back to the other hanging which I had got stuck on.  I realised it was because I was trying to replicate the Paul Klee work too closely.  Stepping away from it for a while was a good thing.

I continued to cut up fabric and stitch the fabrics fairly randomly together.

I made some strips narrower and some wider than the original 6 inch strips.

I sewed some of the strips together and kept making extra bits.  I made the rust coloured strip at the top narrower.

I sewed all the strips together and trimmed the whole thing.

It's ready for the wadding and the backing.  I haven't decided whether to bond the layers together and then add the binding, or use a technique called stitch-in-the-ditch to quilt it together.  Stitch-in-the-ditch involves machining where the seams join.  I would only do it in the verticals.  There are far too many horoizontal seams!  However I've never done it before so I'm a bit wary.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice