Although I think I lost a tiny bit of luster from some of them by hand-washing, I think they came out well. The next step was to make the first foundation for the block, a 14" square of muslin. I put together a cutting template out of taped sheets of plain bond paper (easier than measuring every time) and raided the scraps bag:
I did have to piece together the muslin scraps, all of which were too small to use for the foundation, but in the end I got two 14" squares:
I then piled up the scarves and started cutting and piecing by hand. Silk is a lot trickier than cotton, so the sewing took longer than my test square. This is how far I got in one night:
After two more nights:
With this first go I realized a couple of things: 1) I had no tiny scraps to use for intricate patchwork yet, so that's not going to happen until I generate them, 2) pinning keeps the silk patches I cut in place, but also leaves holes in the silk, so I need to be strategic with that, and 3) to have seams that are long enough to embroider without creating visual confusion I do need to be reasonable about sizing the patchwork. Also, not having a layer of batting to contend with was refreshing.
The patches were tricky to position but lovely to hand sew into place -- much easier for me to get the needle through silk versus cotton -- and I immediately got the feel of why Victorians enjoyed making this type of quilt. It's recycling, which is thrifty, but it's very artistic, and you don't have to follow any template or pattern. Should be fun.
Next step is to embroider the seams, and start adding embellishments. Stay tuned to how that turns out.
Comments