These two fans are hand me downs from my mentor. She gave them to me a couple of years ago and I was not up to the challenge. So, they've lived on a hanger in the sewing room closet since then...taunting me quietly. They're supposed to be two perfect circles. She started with strip sets and cut a 9* wedge from one side and then a second wedge from the other side, planning to end up with a circle that was tan in the center and one that was aqua in the center. They aren't completely joined yet. What you see is about 5 chunks that I've laid out to see where she was headed and how far she got.
She loaned me the 9* ruler and she gave me the leftover fabrics and the wedges that are cut but not joined. The dog was doing her best to help me organize the fabrics, but she and I had different ideas of how they should lay.
Anyway, I was trolling around for something to work on this morning and thought of this. I don't want to start piecing anything new. There's plenty of stuff that's either waiting for inspiration or waiting for skills and there's no need starting something new that will end up either waiting for inspiration or skill. So, I pulled this out to see whether it was worth finishing (and to shake the dust off of it).
As I drove to work this morning, I came up with an idea that would mean that most of it is already pieced for me.
What if I turned this into a figure 8...sorry the inspiration was not early enough for me to lay it out and take a picture, but I think I can describe the idea, so open your eye of inspiration and try to envision this.
What if I took the first fan and turned it on it's side. Instead of completing the full circle, what if I only completed 3/4 of it. Then, complete 3/4 of the other circle and turn it on its side and let them meet so that the tan center meets the tan outside and the aqua center meets the aqua outside and create an overlapping figure 8.
The benefit of that arrangement would be that I wouldn't have to worry about whether my skills are sufficient to make a perfect circle from either of these two units. I'm just not that precise. But, if I overlap two circles, then it wouldn't matter whether either one of them is a perfect circle. If I end up with more than 360* (which would never lie flat), I could take out the extra with a bit of skillful applique work where the beginnings and endings are overlapped by the center.
Then, I could applique that whole thing onto a piece of fabric...or, if I'm feeling really special, I could bias bind the figure 8 and leave it rounded instead of the traditional quilters square or rectangle.
My only thing now is...what would I do with a quilt in the shape of a figure 8?
And, is not knowing that enough to keep me from working on it?
I don't think so. After all, if most of the physical work is already done, then I have plenty of time to work on inspiration to finish. And, I really think this deserves to be finished. And, once it is finished, I get all the leftover beautiful fabrics to go in my stash...mwahahahaha!
Have a great Tuesday. Lane
4 comments:
Aaah, Lane, that looks terrific, eh... for me terrifying =^}
I think I would end up with a 3 instead of the 8 you have in mind.
I'll better have some sleep now, this is a good "last post" to read/hear for me ;^}
Have a nice day.
Irene from a dark Amsterdam...
Lane - perhaps a figure 8 shape would work well as a table centre/table runner? And used in this way, you would also have the delight of being able to look at all that intricate piecing up close every time you sat down to dinner.
Megan
Sydney, Australia
I think a figure 8 would be cool. But I also think that you could make them into the full circles if you put your mind to it. You've figured out lots of harder things-- like that orange peel quilt.
For me, sometimes I only have part of a plan in place and can't see quite to the end, so I put of working on it. When it finally comes down to it, inspiration usually comes while I work on it. I think it would be beautiful if you left it curved. Maybe you could throw it over the back of the sofa?
xo -El
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