Monday 24 October 2011

Roman Blinds

A couple of weeks ago at my monthly quilting group Trudi, who blogs as 'Quilting Prolifically' gave a workshop on piecing Roman Stripes (not Roman Blinds as I keep calling them!).  Probably for the first time ever I have actually come home and finished off the project and made something with the blocks. 

This cushion, which is a bit overstuffed until I can get the proper pad for it, is made with my Roman Stripes made from 2 commercial fabrics and my hand dyed greeny fabric and my hand dyed background fabric.  As I ended up with 9 blocks I played about with them until I had an arrangement I liked.

The evening must have hit my inspired button as I couldn't wait to have a play with a collection of batik strips that I had bought last year and which were reclining in my drawer begging to be used.  The first step was to sort the 2 and a half inch strips into group of light medium and dark and then to select groups of three to join together along their length.











Once you have joined each set of three strips you need to cut a 'backing' strip from your background fabric, the width and length of the joined strips.  These two pieces are then sewn together with right sides facing. (Sorry I forgot to photograph that step).  This is my background fabric:


Once the fabric sandwich is made the fun starts!















Take your quilting ruler and line the 45 degree line up along the bottom edge or line of stitching of your block. (The arrow above shows that I lined mine up with my stitch line).  Once you're sure it's straight cut along the edge and discard the end piece.














Next slide the ruler up so that the 45 degree line lays along the top edge or top line of stitch and cut again.



You will end up with a triangle which opens out to reveal the backinground fabric and magically makes a square!

How good is that?!  Continue along the strip and every subsequent strip until all your squares are cut and you are left with some excitingly shaped scraps!  More photos to come!

I have currently got 42 blocks to play with and because of the width of strip I used my blocks will finish at about 7.5 inches so I have enough for a top which I will probably add borders to to make a bed quilt.  At the moment I am trying to decide whether I could possibly make these up in a Quilt As You Go fashion.  Any advice anyone?

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9 comments:

Heather said...

Your Roman 'Blind' cushion is lovely and doesn't look overstuffed to me - I like fat cushions. The batik strips are beautiful - such lovely colours. I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

Anonymous said...

No advice, but the work is fab, I like your "blinds" very much! xox Corrine

sweetypie said...

wow! GOOD WORKSHOP THEN?

Linda Vincent said...

Enjoyed this post Julie as I'm trying to do something similar at the moment (with a bit of help from Maggi ;-) )
Love that cushion...it looks so comfy!
xx

Angela said...

Your cushion looks great. This is such a nice technique to do when you are between projects or just need a little distraction because you always end up with some useful blocks. What are you going to dowith yours?

quilthexle said...

Thanks for reminding me of this wonderful way of working with strips! your cushion looks great - and the quilt-to-be will be lovely, too ;-))

Timaree said...

Once you have strips made, you could add the batting and lining to a strip and then pieces those together. You'd end up with a stripe quilting but you could add more quilting afterwards. I don't know if I am being clear and I never did do a quilt-as-you-go one but read about them. I'd certainly use a very thin batting to make it easier. Good luck!

Maggi said...

I'm with Heather, I like fat cushions. The cover is great. Looks like you are on a roll now. Quilt as you go sounds like a good idea.

jassy kent said...

Ah..very eye catching and nicely designed roman blinds cushion.I'd certainly try out the techniques to give a new shape to my design too.