What to do when the bestest most perfect piece of fabric for the job, is just not big enough!!!

and no shop in the entire universe has any more of it!

CreACTIVE Process - Marilyn

The theme this year for the Husqvarna Viking quilt show stand is Girls on Film.

So immediately in my mind is the classic Marilyn Monroe image of here standing in a New York

street with her beautiful white dress blowing up in the hot air from the subway...the classic scene

from The Seven Year Itch. Good opportunity for lots of gold and glamour and a pair of sexy

legs. Here is the problem. I have a piece of fabric perfect for the job. It is a Ricky Tims fabric

from his printed range, not a true hand dye but a faux hand dye. It is dark moody purples, olives,

navy blues and a burnt orange highlight sort of like a starburst, camera flash in the middle...

sounds weird but its perfect. Right colours, has a glowing light patch for variation,

is the right mood but it is the wrong size!

Finished quilt needs to be 80 x 125cm ish. (32 x 50”) . I want to add gold fabric and glamour

for Marilyn and black is always a good base to start on for high contrast of colour and impact

of design, especially when I am adding lots of gold and white. But how to stretch this piece of

perfect fabric.

So I forge ahead knowing I have to maximise this minimal piece of fabric. It only measures

50 x 90 cm (20 x 35”) In one evening, I researched Marilyn online and the image I want is

easy to find. I sketched her and was happy with her look...then I googled New York 1950

street scene evening and found lots if images to get my head around the shapes and angles

and mood of the Broadway night life I was imagining. I drew the scene with a exaggerated

linear perspective...that means a high angle vanishing point and drew the shapes and

silhouettes of the buildings. I added lots of windows and words for neon signs to add

the atmosphere of the 1955 era.

 Once happy with the design, I looked back at the fabric to see if it had miraculously got bigger

....nope.

So I ironed on the fusible web to the back and started to draw the cityscape. I decided the only way

to make this fabric bigger was to cut it up into smaller pieces and spread it around on the black base

and let the black become part of the foreground design. This is called reverse applique when you let

the background become a part of the foreground. So I created the city scape and then cut into it

some sections, creating groups of buildings, allowing me to spread the perfect fabric around more

and let the black in between to become more shadows of buildings.

The coloured piece I had left was now about 50cm x 60 cm and need to cover the bottom half

of the quilt to create the road way going back to the horizon vanishing point...so got my rule and

drew 9 radiating lines from the centre top edge and cut out 10 slices of pizza wedges...long skinny

triangles only about 3” wide at the base. They were lay out on to the black, radiating across the

street like a painted line down the centre with black spaces in between. Bingo!..adds movement,

gives a strong sense of perspective and points to Marilyn, gives the piece drama and stretches

out that fabric.

Now to secure those edges I decided Satin stitch would give it a feeling of solid, bulky structures

and enhance the lines and angles of the buildings. This masculine geometric backdrop will contrast

with the curvaceous flowing feminine lines of Marilyn. So to the beauty of the Husqvarna Sapphire

870, it has no foot lift so my hand is not flashing around to the back of the machine every 5 seconds

to lift the leaver to allow me to pivot. With the Husqvarna Sapphires range, with the needle set to

the down position it stops in the job every time you stop sewing, the foot automatically lifts by a

fraction, enough to allow you to pivot easily and change direction for the next small section of

satin stitch. Then as you start sewing again, the pressure comes back on the foot and is ready to go.

.....my hands do not come off the job to lift the foot lever up and then down again. Nor does my

knee have to do a wiggle to the right to operate a knee lift...this machine just knows that if you have

stopped sewing, you obviously want to move the job a little, so it lets you! I love it...It definitely

makes the job much quicker and neater. Next time you are satin stitching or any machine applique,

take note of how many times you have to stop, put your hand through to the back of the machine,

lift the lever and turn the fabric and put your hand back a second time to lower the foot lever......

it all adds up to a lot of time operating the machine and less time actually sewing. I love my Husqvarna.

...I love that advertisement on the TV too...(with a swedish deep voice)

Don't give me no other stinking chain saw!

Love that ad or maybe its just the big, rugged handsome swedish Viking I imagine saying it! Hmmm

I shall get on with the stitching and get back to you soon.