Another Perpetual Project

My new perpetual project combines two types of quiltmaking I'm particularly interested in: tile quilt construction and tessellated piecing.  And I'm hoping it results in a dancing, calligraphic overall look.  


The quilt top will be constructed of identical, irregular four-sided blocks in which each side is a different length.  They will tessellate, which just means that as long as all the blocks are right-side-up they will fit together to form a gapless plane.  Any four-sided shape will tessellate. 


The blocks are constructed in a hand-applique tile quilt method.  See Tile Quilt Revival: Reinventing a Forgotten Form for instructions on preparing and stitching tile blocks.  The look that results is that of fabric "tiles" surrounded by narrow channels of background fabric "grout."  See the Orange Peel block at the top of this column, the cover of Tile Quilt Revival, and the workshop block to the right for examples.


Here are a couple of photos of the few individual blocks I've stitched so far:

With these blocks my idea was to make the calligraphic "tiles" dark and the other "tiles" very close in value to the scrappy background fabrics.  


Here's a photo showing how the blocks will tessellate:

As you can see, the two blocks on the right are pin basted but not yet stitched.  There will be less background fabric between blocks when they are pieced, which will improve the flow of the darker shapes.


Should keep my hands busy at stitch group get-togethers for quite awhile.

Perpetual Projects

Being involved in a couple of small stitch groups that meet at least weekly, I like to have a long-term hand sewing project to carry around and keep me occupied.  Emphasis on long-term--a perpetual project, one that will keep me occupied for many, many, many months and during that span of time will be ready to grab as I head out the door.  So it was with some regret, but mostly with real satisfaction, that I recently completed a perpetual project.

I used a traditional applique pattern, Hickory Leaf, very slightly modified from Barbara Brackman's book, America's Printed Fabrics, 1770-1890.  Here is Barbara's version, which uses large-scale reproduction prints on neutral background: 

I love that quilt.


Here's what I did with contemporary prints:

Bad photo of a quilt that is too large to light well and too large to fit flat on my design wall...  The color shows better in these details:

It's festive.  Kris Barlow did a terrific job of machine-quilting it.  I love the way it looks on a (queen-size) bed:

Next time--a preview of the new perpetual project.