Tuesday 21 January 2014

I know I am picky.

This is Di Ford's original of the mystery quilt as it appears in the magazine. If you look closely at the large flower which hangs over the flower pot, you will see a ring of the background fabric round the edges.  This matters not when the flowers are on the background fabric but I don't like it on the dark of the pot.
So....
I found the flower and drew round it with one of my back wash out pens. (See here)
This was so I could flip it over and mark the outline again on the back of the fabric.
This enabled me to iron a piece of freezer paper to the back and trace through easily.
What I should have done next but stupidly forgot was to iron the freezer paper to two other layers all shiny side down. Then I cut very carefully on the inside of the pen line.

I then ironed my new freezer paper template to the wrong side of the flower and using a glue stick fold the small seam allowance to the back. But STILL there a some little bits of the background showing round the edges. We have a limited amount of this fabric so I cannot waste this flower.

Inktense pencils from Derwent to the rescue.

Some time ago I did this little test piece of the pencils so I could see what colour they are once set.
For this flower Carmine Pink was just about right. I went round the edge with the pencil and then followed with a wet paint brush. If you haven't seen these pencils before, they are quite magical.  You can draw on fabric, wet the pencil marks, then once dry, the colour is set. Be aware the colour of the lead will be different from the colour once wetted and then dried so it is worth doing a little sample piece like the above.
This is the flower after  it has been prepared for applique and coloured. The greyish smudges are from were the marking pen got wet when I set the Inktense. This will rinse out when this centre is washed to remove any glue etc.

I am nearly finished sewing down the stems so it might be a little while before I get to the part when I sew these down.

6 comments:

  1. Great description!! Your suggestion to outline on the back of the piece you want to use for BP is really smart and I will definitely give that a try. Had thought about using pigma pens but your colored pencils are so much more versatile.

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  2. Well, aren't you a resourceful girl! You are picky because you want something as close to perfect as you can get it. And I don't blame you :)

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  3. this may be a duplicate - having trouble with Google log in. Thank you for the great description! Will definitely try your method - outlining the flower on the back is a smart idea.

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  4. Thanks so much for sharing what you did. I'm every bit as picky as you are and will give this a try!

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  5. It isn't picky - it is having high standards and conforming to them!
    And it has led to a really useful set of tips for the less skilled/experienced (eg me). Many thanks.

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  6. Much nicer! I love Inktense too...have coloured blocks that weren't quite right in the past...!

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