Mock Celtic Knot Cross . . . (Completed)

It was not a good week:  last Monday evening, I was gonna fuse the pieces of my mock Celtic knot cross to the background.  I unpinned the bottom two pieces and shifted them straight down an inch or so, thinking that I could shift the entire cross by degrees as I fused the pieces.  What could it hurt??

PLENTY!!  (I'm sorry, there are no pictures of the results . . .)

So, Tuesday evening, I went shopping and bought more fabric and fusible web, and started over again.  This time, I pressed vertical and horizontal lines in the background fabric to serve as guides to keep the pieces aligned.  When I was satisfied with the arrangement, I slid a small, portable ironing pad under the background, and ironed all the pieces in place with no shifting of pieces (I at least learned THAT much).

Saturday morning, I was ready to quilt . . .

I originally planned on quilting around the shapes with a narrow zig-zag, but a quick trial showed how difficult (and unwieldy) that would be.  So, I decided to grid-quilt the entire top to at least stitch down the long edges of the pieces in case the fusible web gave way.

I took the quilted (but unbound) piece to church yesterday . . . it was a big hit!!  Some people gave me some great marketing ideas, and others requested a workshop on the no-sew technique (which only served to give me MORE ideas)!!

Last night, I made binding from the last of the fabric; this morning, I attached it.  What do you think of the results?  The quilt measures 44" by 67".

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Mock Celtic Knot Cross . . . (part 4)

Last night (or early this morning), I laid out most of the pieces for the cross.  It turns out that there are FOUR different shapes, not three; I decided they would wait until morning.

I went to bed.

I got up early this morning to lay out my pieces, but first I had to peel off the paper backing.  The paper backing had curled up overnight; I was afraid the fabric wouldn't lay flat, but it did.  I traced and prepped the missing shape (and made a few extra straight pieces while I was at it).

It took about two hours to lay all the pieces in position, then pin them in place.  I pinned them down because I wanted to hang the piece on the wall to take a picture of it; I will remove the pins as I fuse the pieces to the background.

Are you ready for this??

I can say that I get a better feel for this when I'm looking at it head-on than when I'm looking at it lying on my worktable; I can see that there are some pieces that I'll re-position before fusing them down.

Take a moment to "follow the knot" with your finger . . . I had an extra set of pieces in the lower section originally.  When I followed the knot, I came up with two interlocking knots, not one.  When I removed the pieces, I came up with only one knot.  Who would have thought??

Mock Celtic Knot Cross . . . (part 3)

It was a productive evening . . .

I traced the Celtic knot pieces on the Wonder Under . . .

Then, I cut out the pieces and ironed them to the back of the fabric . . .

Then, I cut the pieces out . . .

Tomorrow, I'll pin, then fuse the pieces in place on background fabric . . .

Mock Celtic Knot Cross . . .

Remember this cross??  I reckon there's only three shapes that make up this cross:  the corner shapes, the curved shapes, and the straight shapes (as I've highlighted).  There are twelve corner shapes, twenty-two curved shapes, and 24 straight shapes.

Since I posted the last post, I've sent a jpeg of this cross to Kinko's to enlarge to 36" by 60"; I've gone to Hancock Fabrics to buy Wonder Under and cotton fabrics in white and Kelly green.

After dinner, I'm gonna trace the needed shapes on the Wonder Under before adhering it to the green cotton.

Later, sweet 'taters!!

A mock Celtic knot cross . . .

Today, I'm starting a new project.

I'm making a prayer quilt for a friend who requested a Celtic knot quilt years ago when Celtic knots were not my thing.  They still aren't my thing, but I think I have a "workaround."

Here's a picture of the knot:

Now, looking at this, what do you see??  You see what looks like a continuous braid in the shape of the cross.  What makes it a continuous braid??  Well, the band is woven:  it goes over and under itself until it returns to the beginning.  But, is it REALLY woven??  Well, no . . .

Keep your eyes on this space, there's more to come . . .

The Three Lessons I Learned From This Baby Quilt

This is the quilt I made for Ava, the 1-year-old daughter of a co-worker.  It measures 36" x 48" and is a multi-colored 1-shape tessellation.

I learned several lessons while making it.

1. I used various fabrics from several fabric swaps I participated in.  I thought I wanted a "scrappy" look, but I think too many colors detract from the single shape tessellation.  What do you think??
2. I used multiple fabrics for several of the colors (purple, red, yellow, cream, and green).  Except for the green, the fabrics were close in hue, so there wasn't much contrast.  In the lower left corner is a shape using different greens which didn't work out quite the way I expected.  Elsewhere, I used matching greens with better results.
3. I experimented with a different construction technique for the blocks.  I used a muslin foundation, but I sewed the individual pieces to it from the front, instead of from the back as usually done with paper (or foundation) piecing.  Mind you, there was no design printed on the back of the muslin; this was pretty much sewing the block together using the seam allowances as guide (just with a muslin foundation underneath). I stitched around the block through all layers in the seam allowance before trimming the blocks to size.
    I had perfectly square blocks, but the joins were less-than-perfect along the seam lines; my points did not necessarily match.  I was less-than-thrilled with the results.  I will be returning to my muslin foundations with the block printed on them with my very next project.

I feel that each quilt is a chance to learn and grow from whatever mistakes I've made.  I don't dislike this quilt, but I have learned what I need to do to improve it.

Baby Quilt!!

This morning before work, I finished binding this baby quilt.

It measures 48" x 36", and is actually two smaller pieces using the same fabrics, joined into one (look at the color changes down the middle).

I made this quilt for the baby of one of my co-workers; the baby is now 20 months old (ok, so I'm a little behind).  I have two more to make:  one baby is a year old, the second baby is only weeks old (I'm catching up, at least, lol).

I also need to make a prayer quilt for a woman at church, and maybe an additional baby quilt (if the interested party can find additional funds).  It could be a busy time for me, yes??