Thursday 7 February 2013

Contemporary Crazy Tutorial.

In my VERY tidy and organised sewing room I am going to demonstrate how to create 'Contemporary Crazy' strips similar to the strips I have made for my 'Flora' piece. 
The border strips below are 3.5 inches wide, but will end up at 3 inches when pieced.


I used this same method for a piece during my City and Guilds course.
The border strips below are 1.5 inches wide.



A few easy steps.
Start with a strip of fabric. If you want smallish shapes keep the strips small. This strip is about 2 inches 
wide.


Cut different shapes of similar proportions.


keep the shapes 4 sided.


Attach to the strip.


Cut with a rotary cutter into separate pieces.


Again keep the shapes four sided and try and vary the shapes slightly.
Get another strip.


I have used odd fabrics from my scrap basket...



..and they don't particularly go so well together.
But for the purpose of this they are fine.


Attach to the strip as before.


Again FOUR sided.

This process can go on and on, using as many strips as you wish until the four sided shapes grow and grow.
Here I have joined some together.


And made them four sided again. Which may be best achieved by creating two shapes out of one piece.
As you can see here.


Then I attached them to a pink strip.



Joined some of these together.
You can get some lovely little pieces poking through in the middle, which you could never achieve with other techniques.
Like the lime piece below. Imagine if you used all white and grey fabrics and this was a small piece of red jumping out.


I then cut the shapes into 2 inch strips and joined a few together.


And then it's up to you what you do with them. They could be used as they are within a quilt or as a border, or piece some sashing strips around them as I have done here.


Look at the teeney weeney glimpse of lime green.



I have to say the only negative about using this technique is that there is a bit of fabric wastage.
Although the bits you trim off to make the four sided shapes could be used again to add to strips in a similar fashion as before.

If there is any of this you don't follow or are unsure of let me know.

Now I need to start as I mean to go on and tidy up.

4 comments:

  1. Claire taught us this I remember. We did learn a lot that year. How are you getting on in your course? Are you doing a course next year?

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  2. hi angela, Im on to my last craft pathway - a felt panel......the business stuff is very time consuming. Dont know what Ill do next year...do you know of any courses? ali

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  3. I think I might go full time in work so a course wouldn't be possible. But if I were to do one I think it would be a print course. I suppose I could do one at night.

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