Wednesday 4 December 2013

Bamboo? Who knew!


Christmas is still coming. Not everything is done by December first, we are very close but just not quite there!

This week I finished my wall hanging for Christmas, very creatively named by my husband... "Christmas"... he is so creative. I made this wall hanging by taking a rectangle of plain backing, taking about half a meter of red Christmas print fabric, and basically jumbling around until a tree formed!

I drew a raw triangle on the back of the red fabric then just cut out blobs that filled out most of the triangle. I then attached Heat n Bond fusible lite to the red fabric. Apply that to your plain rectangle of backing fabric, applique around the shapes and voila! 



I finished it off with some free motion swirls and a string of battery powered LED mini lights! I layed out the lights on the back of the quilt, marked with a pin where every light landed and sewed a buttonhole there where I could pop the light through. 

This was fun and I promised myself (and my husband hoped) that this would be my last trip to the fabric store this week before Christmas. I needed some material for a border, some backing, thread and maybe some batting (depending on sales). I worked at said fabric store last year so I knew Dec sales are good. 

I found all the fabric I needed and turned around to see a big red sign and some little stickers on some fancy looking rolls of batting. I grabbed the tag, flipped it over and read "bamboo batting, needle punched, 13$/m. This stuck me hard. Normally this batting costs around 28$ per metre (remember Canadian measurements!). I decided right then and there I would try it! This quilt is for my husbands grandmother for Christmas and if anyone deserves fancy batting, she does. I have never ever used this before so it will be a very big learning experience. 

http://www.wildfibres.co.uk   (raw bamboo 'wool')
I am very excited about using this eco-friendly, supposably luxurious, batting. I will keep you posted on how this goes!

This leads me to the last topic today... My husband always asks me "What do you need at the fabric store today?" I always answer with my list and he will inquire about my projects and offer help or suggestions. He is a pretty supportive guy. Also, he is kind of a pushy guy and always says with a smile "Will you show this to the guild?" I normally answer with "doubtful...maybe...I don't know!". LOL. Anyways, it kind of sparked this blog post. If I had not had gone to the fabric store this week, I would have never seen the bamboo batting, I would never have thought of trying it, I would never have had the conversation with the sales lady. Quilting is very much about the community, and it has really become one of the best parts of my life, it has truly become and art that I am proud of.




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