Crooked Path Designs

Travel Sewing Kit

I love when I have an idea, map out a plan and it works up just with way I envisioned. It feels like a series of fortunate events that lead from idea to finished project. It doesn’t always happen that way…

Travel Sewing Kit – Inside

But in this case, it did. The print for the cover of this travel sewing kit was put on the fabric using Transfer Artist Paper (TAP).

Here’s another example: While Linda was working on the Inklingo collection for Judy Martin’s Waltzing Matilda, she was posting preview blocks on the Inklingo Facebook page. Some of the photos featured quotes she had added to the photo—not the fabric as one commenter thought. There was also this post on Linda’s blog with EQ7 designs for the Waltzing Matilda Collection involving a Christmas design that I really liked at the end of the post. All these things intersected in my brain with a memory of Christmas quilt I made 10 years ago and a new idea was formed.

I have really had to restrain myself not to run with this idea like right now! A trip to the storage unit to retrieve the Christmas quilt and a $100 in Christmas fat quarters added to an online shopping cart later, I finally got a hold of myself. LOL First things first. Let’s see if this idea is actually going to work!

Transfer Artist Paper? – check

Fabric suitable for using TAP to showcase the quotes? – check

Suitable Christmas fabric? – check

Fabric printed with Waltzing Matilda shapes? – check

TAP printed with mirrored-image Christmas quotes? – check

First test block? – check

(I did reprint that center octagon and will be fixing those upside down ho ho ho’s and the scorched transfer. Sometimes I can live with a flaw in my sewing and sometimes I won’t be happy until I fix it. This is one of those “won’t be happy” times.)

Second test block? – check

Last two test blocks? – check

Looks like a go for this idea! As you can see from the photos of the blocks, the idea behind the Christmas fabric with the quote in the center block is to use fabrics that coordinate with the quotes. A quote about snowmen gets snowmen fabric, a quote about home gets snow-covered houses, a quote about Santa gets Santa fabric, etc. (Hunting down that perfect fabric to offset the quote was half the fun in making the original quilt.)

I didn’t do any fussy cutting with my fabric. I could have, but I think the blocks work without fussy cutting. I can imagine using some Stonehenge metallics in white, gold, red & green in the blocks. The wonderful thing about the 12” Waltzing Matilda block though, is that fussy cutting options are available even if you aren’t fussy cutting the center octagon. The squares for the corners are large enough to use fussy cut fabric as are the HST that surround the octagon.

I stuck to a red & green palette so that I could use the test blocks in a four-block table topper if everything went well. For sample blocks they came out fine. The TAP does make the fabric a slight bit crisper where the transfer is applied and changes the color of the white fabric just a bit. Using TAP is NOT like using the old-school T-Shirt transfers which is how I did my original quilt. Using the TAP makes the transfer come out much nicer. It holds up well when washed and you can iron over it. I may use a 4″ square of text if it fits in the octagon instead of a 3.5″ square.

Christmas Waltz – 74 x 88 inches

So here is my plan. I am calling it, Christmas Waltz. I might enlarge it to five by five 12” squares if I decide to find some more quotes. (My original quilt was 4 x 5 blocks so I only have 20 quotes.) It will be more scrappy and colorful than this EQ7 rendition. I will be using song lines from Christmas carols and quotes about Christmas, family, snowmen and angels. You could do this with any type of quote—family, mom and grandmother quotes for a mom- or grandma-to-be, quilting quotes for a quilter friend, inspirational quotes for yourself and even family photos. (I hope some of you are inspired!) I can do a little tutorial about using MSWord to print quotes and photos and how to transfer images to fabric using Transfer Artist Paper if anyone is interested. Leave me a note in the comments.

I need some more Christmas fabric to continue and I want to use a nicer Kona cotton or some Northcott Toscana for the octagon centers, but I am holding off until July 2015. JULY. I will not work on this until J-U-L-Y.

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Judy Martin’s 12″ Waltzing Matilda

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