Hi there everyone! Believe it or not, I am writing from an airplane flying home from a family visit with my siblings in Ottawa. This is my first trip since the start of Covid, and it does feel strange… but good I think!
I’m writing to let you know that I’ve decided it is time for a summer sale. From Monday July 26 to Sunday August 15 everything in my studio will be 15% off. Now is the time to start a new project, try the newly arrived PURE solids by AGF, or get inspired with a new fabric bundle. Here’s what Gladys had to say about the PURE solids…”Hi Lorna… I wanted to tell you how much I enjoy sewing with Pure Solids (OEKO-Tex) fabric. It is very stable, does not fray, sews easily, does not stretch, etc. So happy you have decided to add this to your store. Excellent decision.”
So if you’ve been wanting to try working with solids, I have nearly the entire PURE solids line, priced at $16/M or $14.30/Yd… and now 15% off for three weeks!
You can make your booking online and come either on your own or with up to 3 friends. It will be good to get caught up and see what you’ve been up to.
New Inspiration
This lovely bundle is available as either seven half-yards or seven fat quarters. Chosen by daughter Kate, I’m using it to make her and our son-in-law a new bed quilt.
The combination of printed and woven cottons and cotton-linens gave me lots to work with as I built improvisationally on the idea of circles and lines seen in the fabrics themselves. Here is what I’ve come up with so far, shown on my design wall with which many of you are familiar.
Charlotte K. had been sitting with a collection of dupioni silk fabric samples and wanted to make them into a quilt that would be a clean design, allowing the silks to be the main story.
She came in to get a few additional silks to complete the selection and we discussed design ideas. Charlotte was back a couple of weeks ago with this stunningly beautiful quilt top. She used Presto Sheer, the fine woven cotton fusible interfacing, to keep the seams and edges from fraying, as dupioni is wont to do.
Notice how she has intentionally balanced the various darks, and created a quiet piece that encourages the eye to wander around the whole area. Well done Charlotte!
Karen K was preparing to visit a very young grandson and granddaughter in Switzerland, and wanted to bring them each a grandma-made garment.
This is the amazing shirt make with one of the Cotton and Steel cottons from my studio. Below is the wee dress made from another fabric in the studio.
And here is Anne A’s quilt top that is on its way to becoming a twin bed quilt for her granddaughter.
This quilt top is made entirely with PURE Solids from Art Gallery Fabrics. My apologies for the less than perfect photo but it is a twin size and I had trouble getting it straight on. Nonetheless you will get the idea that this is a calm, quiet quilt that still has lots of interesting variations in design that keep your eye interested as it scans the area.
A New Technique - Quarter Circles without waste fabric
I love circles as a shape, and their only downside is that there is a lot of waste fabric when piecing circles into circle holes. The circle needs to be 1″ in diameter bigger than the hole. So you can’t cut two circles the same size from fabrics A and B, and then put circle B into hole A… and vice versa.
Therefore you always have as much waste fabric as used fabric for your circle blocks. BUT if we are working with quarter circles, we can avoid the waste. Here’s how to create two blocks with quarter square A in Fabric B block, and quarter square B in Fabric A block. I’ve included some diagrams to help.
Place fabric A and fabric B squares on top of each other.
Cut a quarter circle of diameter n” (radius n/2″) (remembering to include an extra 1/4″ on the two straight edges of the quarter circle).
Keep the resulting quarter circle pieces to be used later.
Now you have to re-size the remainder fabric into the right size and shape for the background
Take the remainder pieces and cut 1/2″ off the two sides from which the quarter circle was cut.
The greyed area in the photo shows what you are cutting off.
Resize the curve of the quarter circle hole to be the curve of a quarter circle n-1″ in diameter, or ((n-1″)/2 in radius.
The photo shows the rounder curve that you are creating. The inner line on the left and bottom shows the left and bottom border of the background block once you’ve cut off the 1/2″ pieces in the previous step.
Now you have two background blocks with re-sized quarter circle holes into which you can insert your quarter circles you cut from those blocks in the first step.
The photo shows the larger quarter circle cut in the first step (in light purple) and the background block you’ve created (in dark purple). You have lost only the 1/2″ pieces you cut to make the background hole smaller, and the smidge you cut out to correct the curve!
You have a quarter circle of an n” circle going into
a quarter circle hole of an n-1″ circle! Many of you will have your favourite tool for cutting quarter circles with extra seam allowance. The one I use and sell is the Cut-A-Round.
Finally, some photos of the beautiful new fabric bundles
This is just a few of the new bundles pulled together by Kate and Carmen. They are available in either half yard or fat quarter cuts. Because I am putting them on Etsy, they are in yards not meters. And that is it for today’s post! I hope all of you are well, enjoying the summer sun, and seeing friends and family in more relaxed settings as the Covid restrictions lift. My best to you all.