Art Quilts Maine

At the Art Quilts Maine meeting on Saturday two members showed us how to make these wavy checkerboards from two fused fabrics. They used a technique described in Simply Stunning Woven Quilts by Anne Faustino. You apply two-sided fusible webbing to two pieces of fabric, mine were about 9x12 inches. You pick one as your "warp" and the other as your "weft".

The purple strip was my warp. (Can you turn your head so that the piece is vertical? Thank you.) I cut the purple first with a rotary cutter in wavy strips. Set each strip aside after it is cut and keep the strips in the same order that you cut. Do the same for the second fabric, but cut crosswise and keep those in order, too.

Pin the warp fabric to a surface to hold in place. Then weave the weft fabric in, keeping the same order as when cut so the wavy pieces fit together. Snug everything up so there are no gaps. Oh, and do this on a foundation of some sort, muslin or batting, as the whole thing will be ironed onto the backing to fuse in place.

It was really fun to do this as a group. Many interesting fabric choices and combinations. A couple of people who had done this before chose to make a circular shape and a dome shape. Very interesting and lots of design possiblitis, for sure.

Here is my block in black and white. My finished piece is about 8x11. These would make fun placemats. Also good for background for an applique piece or a section of a wall hanging. Try it, you'll like it! Send me your pics if you do!