I've been having great fun figuring out how to do cathedral window blocks so I can make a pillow for a friend who needs more fun cushions on her couch. It's definitely a learning curve, although the process itself isn't hard, it just has about a million steps. I've discovered that it's the points that make or break it, so I'll have to be more careful with those mitres next time I try it - which I think I will. I'm using this tutorial at House of a la Mode.
A question for experienced quilters about templates - I've been using a thin cardboard one to form the blocks, it's just a big 15" square that you use with an iron to mitre corners and fold over the edges evenly. The cardboard hasn't really held its shape all that well with the heat of the iron, and I think it's partially the reason why my corners weren't perfectly mitred. What would you recommend instead? Can you iron template plastic?
This is so cool! I wasn't sure what you meant by cathedral window (not being up with all the terminology). This is beautiful, and quite a surprise after the linen introduction - I take it that was the back.
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure how you are using the template, but I have a 15" perspex quilting square. It's brilliant for squaring up blocks of most sizes. There is also some template plastic that you can get and custom cut. The problem is that as it is soft enough to custom cut, it is also soft enough to warp a little under the iron. Perhaps a plastic or wooden point turner might help? I though these things were pretty silly until I started using one.
ReplyDeleteI'll show you how it works next time I see you, the arty little teaser was actually the front of one section - each square of colour sits over the intersection of four squares of grey fabric that has been folded a little bit like an origami fortune teller.
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For this pattern you cut your squares of fabric and then place the template on top and mitre and iron the corners over and then about a cm over along each side so the iron comes into contact with the template a lot. So from what you say ironing the plastic template isn't going to be a goer! A big sheet of thin balsa wood would be great but I'm guessing cardboard is my best bet on the whole.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, I love my readers!
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This is AMAZING it looks fantastic
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