Monday, January 4, 2010

Cutting a Rug!!


Wow.... I've got a long way to go and a short time to get there. This simple fun exhibition piece (55W x 30L) must be finished within a week. I usually have 2 weeks minimum for a piece this size but no such luck this time so I will simplify some of my quilting. I first secured a good portion with clear monofilament so I could remove a number of safety pins (yes... I generally prefer to pin my quilts rather than spray). Now I am working on the rug that sits beneath the 2 figures seen in earlier blog photos. I decided to use a pattern in the rug that some call worm trails (a name I hate). I'd never used this texture filler before and once I played with it decided it was more like meandered finger points. It looks more difficult than it is. So... to get into the grove of this pattern... you might first try the traditional meander on a piece of scrap quilt sandwich.
If you can meander, you probably have tried your hand at directional meandering which consistently moves meandering in one direction.. in this case horizontal.


If you can master a directional meandering, you can master directional pointers. To teach myself this pattern, I practiced within a square on a practice quilt sandwich.
This pattern is much like directional meandering but you are regularly changing direction to allow interest and consistent fill. Here's the start:
Then continue "pointing" in different directions trying to keep the spacing between lines fairly consistent.Keep going til you've filled the marked off area. You'll have this texture mastered by the time you fill it. Really!
Now.. taking it to the real quilt top.

No comments: