I can’t say I’m suffering from Zoom Fatigue, but my number of Zoom meetings in a single a week reached an all time high this week. Nothing compared to what I expect students, teachers and people working from home face. Still enough to erode my studio time. Nevertheless, I did manage to finish quilting Turbulence.
Last Week
Last week I shared what Turbulence looked like as I was quilting. You can see how there are areas that undulate and are uneven along the edges. No matter how accurately I piece, this is an inevitable part of the process. As many people are learning during this time of DIY mask making, fabric weaves come in different densities and stretchability. If you tug on fabric along the grain (direction the individual threads run, either vertically or horizontally) there is a little give. However, if you tug on the bias (cross grain at a 45 degree angle) there is noticeably more give to the fabric. The act of piecing and quilting cause those threads to reorient ever so slightly, BUT do that thousands of times and that slight variance begins to show.
This Week
There are several ways quilters like to square up their work. Many opt to treat it like a tapestry or knitting project. They dampen the work, tug it to square, pin it in place and let it dry. It may work for them, but I much prefer to cut to square, trimming away the undulations and unevenness. One of the advantages of making art quilts versus traditional patterns where triangles need to finish at the edge with their points in tact, is you can lop off those points and not miss them. Another advantage of this method is you don’t run the risk of discovering one or more of your threads or fabric isn’t color fast. There is nothing worse than washing a quilt and discovering that the turquoise fabric ran into your pristine white fabric.
I used a spiral motif, a favorite of mine, to quilt the green sections
I am linking up with Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Fridays.
