I recently told you about a recent class I took Dayton Art Institute where you made a drawing to replicate the style of Julian Stamczak.
I wanted to replicate this style in fabric. Just the simple one with straight vertical lines and curvy horizontal lines, or vice versa - and not the diagonal lines shown in the index card.
My original plan was to strip piece two sets of fabric, The strips of straight lines would need two sets of exact opposite colors. Then they could be cut and the wavy lines would be cut and sewn together the way I have made improv quilts.
It would require some precise piecing though to make sure that the seams matched properly, and diagonal lines would probably cause problems.
My sister recommended applique, which would require extra work for me to create straight lines in applique. A combination could work - piece the horizontal and vertical lines, and then the diagonal lines could be formed with applique. But that probably wouldn't work because the diagonal lines would change the checkerboard of the existing shapes.
I then thought about cutwork. What if I layered the fabric and then cut away parts of it to form the checkerboard? I thought about layering and just cutting away a part, but I was worried that I would cut too much, since the boxes could be small.
I drew out a pattern on muslin using a washable marker. I didn't really try to make any special design, just random lines.
Did you notice that I even marked the shapes that needed to be cut out? I changed my mind and decided not to make the diagonal lines because I wanted the shapes to be big enough to easily cut. The marking wasn't easy since I had to look carefully at which lines were left. I made a mistake in the second box. You can see it on the bottom left. I decided not to make that diagonal line, but I put an x there when it should have been white. It was an easy fix to just cut out the boxes that didn't have an x.
I sewed down the lines I wanted to use on top of a red fabric. I used up the red thread so I am using a whitish thread. The tension was off so it caused some tight stitches. I loosened them and it looked like it was better, but not better enough, so I had to keep playing with the tension. I think it will be all right though since I am cutting through and that will help loosen things up.
The plan is to use the muslin as a pattern, cut out the shapes, and then layer it on white fabric to create the checkerboard. I have to make sure I save enough of the "sashing" that I don't wind up with a bunch of shapes that aren't attached to each other.
My plan was to use a craft knife, but I don't know where it is right now, so I decided to see if the applique scissors would work. It does.
There is a pucker in the border, but the rest of it looks good to me. I will now layer it on the white fabric and decide how to secure it.
I did notice that each of the photos shows a different position of the piece, but it is all one piece. In the end, the viewer can decide which side is up.
