Susan has made several variations of this quilt design and is planning a book which will share them and her wonderful cutting, piecing and block arrangement instructions (which saved us a lot of strain on our grey matter on a Sunday morning).
We all worked very hard, there was a lot of 2 1/2", 3 1/2", 1 1/2" mutterings as we cut and then a lot of 2,4...3,6... as we arranged our blocks.
I used Japanese fabrics for my quilt but not everybody did and it was interesting to see how the quilt came together in the differing fabrics. It seems to be one of those designs that works in almost any fabric. I feel another version coming on! Susan has photographs of everyone's versions on her post about the workshop here.
I made very good progress during the workshop, getting all the blocks made and arranged in order. I was pleased with how accurate my work was on this project with everything coming together neatly. Yesterday I sewed them together and then spent a while playing about with adding the circles before deciding I didn't need circles at all on this version. No, I wasn't swayed in that decision by the thought of needle-turn applique as Susan demonstrated this and I'm sure it's really easy :-)
So now I need to think about borders and then I am going to use sashiko stitching to quilt the piece, using a cream thread. Here is the quilt so far, "Japanese Squares Without Circles":
Thank you for all the comments you made regarding the handles on my Southern Belle bag. I agreed with several of you it would be sensible to machine them as that would give them strength. I did that this morning and am now going to return to hand stitching to quilt the bag flap. I'll share that when it's finished but if you would like some Japanese eye candy please scroll down to my first post of today and see some of the lovely quilts Susan shared with us on Saturday.
Nice blog post about the workshop - next time I'll pose for a pic and look a bit more awake! Your patchwork doesn't really need the circles at all - looks good as it is. Will look even better with the sashiko style stitching.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had such a good time. Love the work that was done.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you all had fun, and it is great to see the "Japanese" design made in all sorts of fabrics and colours.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the "grey matter", but don't like to think that our brains are going soft as we age! Keep it simple works for me, and having good instructions certainly is a bonus.
I wonder why this pattern is called Japanese. I love your piece and I agree it doesn't need circles. It looks like a great fun gathering.
ReplyDeleteOf course I love your version with the Japanese fabric. Have you thought about sashiko the border with small motives? Just thought you need more stitching hehe!
ReplyDeleteLove the fabrics and pattern of this quilt - well done Liz
ReplyDeleteLoving your quilt Lis. That blue and tan colour combo works really well. Looking forward to seeing some quilting on it now.
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful how the same design can look so varied just by having different fabrics. Your sashiko stitching idea sounds good - look forward to seeing it.
ReplyDeleteTeresa x
I'm glad you too had a fun weekend. Isn't it amazing how fabric choice can make such a difference to a pattern ( quilt ) It's great so everybody's work ( quilt ) turns out looking quite different from everyone elses. Variety being the spice of life!
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