Thursday, January 23, 2014

Owl tea towel progress

I have made a start on my tea towel challenge. My first task was to stabilize the tea towel since it is made of a looser weave linen than the usual quilting fabric. I decided to baste some light weight interfacing to it rather than use iron-on. I've had some bad luck with iron-on stuff lately.


My plan is to use shapes from the tea towel design, so I drafted a half circle block to go around the first orange border.

This morning I made a prototype of a cross block that will be a top and bottom border - this should square it up a bit more. This is a fiddly block that I drafted to match the shape of the owl feet. I have to cut it "old school" using a template because of the odd angles. These will take a while to cut, but they go together quickly like a crooked 9 patch.

I will probably make one more pieced border, no specific plan yet. The beaks are equilateral triangles and I might take my inspiration from them.

One of the parameters of this challenge is to do something that I've never done before. I guess everything I do is somewhat new since I rarely use patterns or do the same thing twice. But, that seems a little weak.

I have been pondering the ultimate "thing I never do" - hand quilt (EEEEK!). It seems appropriate for a little retro quilt like this. I am envisioning chunky stitches in bright colors...hmmm...

Join me for the Tea Towel Challenge 2014

5 comments:

  1. I think your owl foot cross block is brilliant! I realized today I need to put my tea towel on the design wall as a reminder to work on it ;-)

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  2. I like the repetition of the foot motif. Very clever. LOL re handquilting! Look forward to seeing it progress.

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  3. Oh it's looking so good...& hand quilting will be the icing on the cake!!! Linda

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  4. It is very cute so far! I love those little owls kickin up their legs!

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  5. wonderful start Laurina! the cross block is lovely and so apropos for the towel!

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