Iris quilt: creating the quilt puzzle pt. 1

Last time I talked a little about the iris quilt that I’ve been making for my mom. Since I wasn’t able to talk about it while I was working on it, I thought I’d make a couple of posts walking you through the steps I took in the couple of weeks it took me to do this.

Inspiration

I posted a bit about it last time, but here is the stained glass iris that was the inspiration for this quilt. It hangs in a window on one of my regular walking routes, and I thought it would make a good quilt, just looking at the way that things were broken up into small pieces.

Sketching

This quilt involved a lot of sketching. If you look at what I have now you can see that I took the idea of the stained glass window and interpreted it, and made my own version of the size I preferred. So the final sketch below was about the 20th version, I believe. There were drafts, different sizes, tracings, and  there were many discards. It started out as a rough sketch and evolved into what you see below.

Finally, there was a finished design. I made five duplicates of the final design:  one for a “progress bar,” one for a guide, one to keep, one to cut up into pattern pieces, and one just in case. I colored two of my sketches so that I could check if to see that all of my leaves were contiguous, and that the stems connected to other stems, etc. No point in having a leaf if it randomly disappears into thin air, right? This might be a somewhat abstract take on an iris, but it should have some realism, right? Plus the coloring helped me determine what fabrics I wanted for the various pieces.

The image below indicates what happens to the finished sketch when it’s being prepared to be turned into a template. Each piece got marked with a code indicating which fabric it would be cut out of. I had a stack of fabrics from my silk kimono collection that all corresponded to a “P” or “P2″ or “G3″. There were really only three colors in the quilt, but I used four or five greens, two off-whites, and four or five purples. Plus the good thing about the kimono fabrics is that some are reversible, and so I used that as well to indicate the back/front of leaves.

The template

It took a long time to cut this up into its component pieces. I cut apart small sections at a time and then immediately pinned the pieces back in their correct configuration on a piece of foam. I referred to my guide sketch a lot in order to get everything back in the right order. Once you have fourteen fourteen individual paper strips in front of you, it’s hard to tell what goes where.

But at last it was done. I left the flowers in one piece. My plan was to piece everything together excepting the flowers, and then piece them afterward and applique them to the background. In the meantime I left the flower patterns uncut so that I could test their positioning on the fabric as I sewed it together. Here’s the final pattern (which, incidentally, due to sewing issues, does not entirely match the final quilt!).

OK, I think that’s enough for this time. There was a lot of work to do in drafting this, as you can see, before I ever got to the fabric part of the quilt.

Collections

After three old (excuse me, I believe we’re all supposed to call these vintage) sewing patterns I’d ordered from Etsy arrived in the mail the other day, I realized I might have a problem. I dutifully stored them away in the craft closet, but noted with chagrin that I have too many patterns now to fit in the basket they’re supposed to go in.

So. I have 30+ patterns, some of which have now veered into the vintage category, and I’ve yet to actually make it all the way through more than two sewing patterns ever.

Seems like I might be developing a problem.

On the other hand, patterns from the 50s and 60s are quite interesting.

I’m not totally pathetic though, I also am preparing other things for their imminent final finishing:

In the Ravelry queue

Things I want to make that are in my Ravelry queue (well, some of the things). If I had the time. And didn’t have other things to do. But it would be nice anyway. (Most pattern links are to Ravelry).

1. Crochargosy. From Christie Pruitt on Crochet Me.
2. Magnolia Afghan – I’m a sucker for flowers. I just like the motif, though. Lion Brand.
3. Side to side Cowl Neck Sweater. I’m a sucker for cowl necks and vertical rows. Lion Brand.
4. Cozy Peacoat. Keep wanting to crochet myself a coat. This one by Robyn Chacula.
5. Ketjusilmukkahuivi (scarf). Raijis. Say that three times fast. I like the look.
6. Lucine Tunic. Robyn Chacula. I’d make almost anything she designs. This one, though, I’d need to alter.
7. Spiderweb cardigan. Marty Miller. From Interweave Crochet. Another good motif, one I see on old doilies.
8. Trellis pullover. Elissa Sugishita. Also from Interweave Crochet. I like vertical crochet rows.
9. Mop Top mascots. From Planet June. LEMMINGS.

With photo credits to:
1. Crochargosy, 2. Magnolia Afghan, 3. 108_6902 (Small), 4. DSC00260, 5. 4-raita1, 6. lucine tunic, 7. 100_0565crop, 8. IMG_0412, 9. IMG_0523[1]