Fabric Folding

Book:
Fantastic Fabric Folding by Rebecca Wat

I have always loved the bright flowers from the quilt on the cover and so this book is still in my library waiting... until I open it again and try making it. With this personal challenge to discover new techniques it is finally accomplished. However, that is not how things unfolded...

Book, Fabrics

I went ahead and picked out my fabrics, and cut out all the shapes I needed for the folded flowers and the background. Then I proceeded to go through the instructions and as I needed 16 of these flowers I realized after making only 4 of them, that there was a problem with my ability and determination to continue.

All that ran through my mind was, "How am I going to make a quilt for this book to show on my blog?" So with a bit of time to get my wits back in order, I thumbed through the book to find another project. And even tried another flower, this time only cutting one fabric piece and it flopped too.  Oh dear!!

Had I still lived near my daughter, I could have asked her to make the flowers and then successful went ahead and made this beautiful quilt. Not everyone is so able to work with their hands... I felt like I was all thumbs and didn't know how I was going to proceed without pulling my hair out. As I believe that even though these techniques are new to me, they still need to represent well for the designers.

If you look through this book, you are in awe of the beauty that the author/designer has taken to create all these perfectly folded flowers for these quilts. I don't know the answer to this, but just the other day, when I was thinking about my review, I wondered if she put the project that I did finally choose, there just for me.

Time to reveal my project from the book - I choose to make the quilt - "Kimono Sampler" (page 78)

It was because I felt so determined to succeed, that when this was the only project I felt I could do well, it was perfect for my challenge. My goal was also to create a small quilt of the project and so was able to use the sizes for the kimonos from the Kimono Sampler II and use the design from the Kimono Sampler I.

As I am using fabrics from my supply, I still try and find the best choices and believe they still show well in this design. I want you to see that you do not need to go buy new fabrics to try new techniques. If you find you didn't enjoy the process, you haven't gone out and spent money on something you will not complete.
 

New fabrics shown

There was a lot of cutting for the pieces, but this is the only way to achieve the finished result. I enjoy cutting so this step was fun for me, especially after realizing how I had flopped with the fabric flower folding process. 

Fabrics cut for the kimono and background

The pieces for embellishing the kimonos

I enjoyed the assembly process, as it looked like I had been successful at putting all those pieces in place and they still looked like the book illustrations.

The quilt top

I finished the quilting of the three layers by following the shape of the white blocks and stitched the outer borders with a gold color thread.

The stitching on the outer borders

A close-up of the finished quilt

Would I make another quilt from this book? That may be an easy guess for you, however, there are two other quilts in the book that demand another look.  I love their design layout and may consider them, if I recreate the flowers in applique.

My advice: Try out the different flowers first with paper and scrap fabric pieces to determine what you like or dislike. Then, continue on with your chosen project.

Kimono Sampler

Finished size: 27.5" x 27.5"

Next week...
My next book choice and then a reveal the following week. If you wish to see what books are being featured you can also check out my website for more details.

Happy stitching!!