The count down begins!

 The count down has begun to my project

101 Free Motion Quilted Cameos

The idea of this project is to produce 101 6" squares, each a sample of free motion quilting.
Many of the designs will be my own original patterns. Some will be well known and well loved patterns but perhaps done in a different way. And some will be just for the fun of it because I love them! I will be posting them twice weekly - I hope!

I want the finished project to hang together and also work as an exhibition piece, so I have decided to use one colour only. I was never a fan of indigo until I had a commission to make chair covers to go with the colours of an oriental rug in reds and dark blues. The white quilting I did sang on the dark colours and gave me the inspiration to use indigo quilted in white for this project - and converted me to indigo in the process! So, out with the dyes. I tend to dye small quantities of cloth in a wide range of colours and shades - which means that plastic pint beakers serve my purpose well. Enough fabric for 101 7" (to include seam allowance) squares required something a bit larger - like a big bucket - or two.

Stacks of squares - 2 shades of indigo and wadding reading for sewing

Fabric dyed, dark for the front and a lighter shade of indigo for the back, I set to work with a rotary cutter. A lot of cutting later and I had 3 neat stacks of squares ready to be assembled.

Yards and yards of neatened ribbon

 I spent some time experimenting with ways of making loops to hang the squares. Any kind of folded strip was just too thick, so I ended up making a  looong 1" ribbon. Zig-zag neatening all that edge went on forever.

The ribbon cut up into 4" lengths ready to form the loops

Two loops per square - 202 4" pieces.
Now all I have to do is sew them all together.

Thanks for dropping by.