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Wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, great-aunt and friend....and fur-kid mum I love Quilting, stitching, photography, cooking, baking, gardening, blogging and making new friends...stop by and say hi!

Thursday 1 May 2014

April NewFO.-.Folded Cranes

So it seems I've started yet another NewFO this month so let me tell you about it.

PART I
Recently I had to swap one of my work days (a Tuesday for a Wednesday) and it just so happened that there was a class on at my 'Local' on the Tuesday that I was really interested in doing.  Tania was going to show us how to make "folded" cranes.  I was given a handout when I signed up and had a little look for some fabrics to add to the ones I knew I had in my stash. I should note, at this time, that I had grand ideas for a nice size quilt.
The handout also had a sheet of shapes that we had to cut out before the class.  I had a thought to stick the sheet onto some templastic before cutting them.  I was planning on using these templates more than once and did not want them to deteriorate too quickly.  I was all set for the class.

PART II
So armed with my trusty Pfaff and my fabrics and supplies including the templastic templates I joined 5 other ladies for a morning of sewing. Even though I knew all the ladies I was spending the day with, I was especially glad to have my dear friend, Zita, there as well. Tania gave us verbal instructions on what we had to do with the cut out shapes.  They all have letters and numbers and the underlined ones where to be the parts of the crane and those not underlined were for the background.
The other ladies were pinning their shapes to the fabric which created a bump and they had difficulty cutting them out.  Because mine were on templastic, they stayed in place when I placed my ruler on the edge while I used my rotary blade and I was glad I thought of that.   I perfected this technique when I got home by putting a dab of stick glue on the shape and sticking it to the fabric and also using my swivel cutting board.
Once we had our fabric shapes cut out we were given another handout, once again with the shapes, but this time they made up the shape of a folded crane.
This a tricky technique and you have to be so careful sewing the pieces together.  Once I got the hang of lining up the seams I started to forge ahead but for some reason I could not get the A section to match the D section seams and I wasn't the only one.  Tania showed us how we could fudge it in and I think it worked out........what do you think?
The edges are really wonky but they just need to be trimmed up.  I was going to make a small quilt using this technique but during the class Tania  mentioned that we could also do these cranes using paperpiecing and she would be happy to show us that way as well so I am just going to make 3 of these particular cranes and turn it into a small wallhanging.  Here are my three cranes so far

PART III
I spent a couple of days just looking at these three cranes and trying to decide what to do with them. A table runner or a wall hanging?  The original sample in the shop that got me interested in these cranes was a wall hanging so I decided to go with that. At this stage, I decided not to go with those fabrics that I had bought at the beginning of this project but attack my stash for something else. I think these will do nicely.

Because of those wonky edges I had to trim my square down quite close to the wing tips of the cranes and when I added a border, I was sorry to lose those lovely sharp points but there was nothing I could do about it.

I added the outer border and decided to go with a triangular piece at the bottom with the scope to add a tassel. I had a lovely gold one from a present, two or three Christmases ago. Firstly I had to quilt my piece. The piece is too little to load onto the big quilter, Ava,  so I tackled it on my Janome. I went with bubbles for filling in around the cranes.  I enjoy doing this much more than stippling.

 And I did some curly swirls around the outer border and added the tassell on the pointy bottom when I attached the binding.
And so guess what?  In April I started a NewFO AND I finished it! It was not the NewFO I had in mind for April but that just means I have something in mind for May.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my Folded Cranes. I will be linking in to Barbara's NewFO Challenge over at Cat Patches.  You would be more than welcome to visit and see the other NewFO's for April


ps......I have since resigned from my job which means I have all the time in the world to dedicate to my Creation Station and countless NewFO's......unless I am lunching with friends!

20 comments:

  1. I love the wall hanging. The quilting is great for the background, the colors wonderful, and the tassel a great finish.

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  2. Lovely Cath. Enjoy your new found time off.

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  3. Your wall hanging looks fabulous Cath. Have fun being a lady of leisure!

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  4. Pretty! Enjoy your stitching

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  5. Such a beautiful finish, love the colours!

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  6. Beautiful crane wall hanging wonderful finish.

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  7. I just love the colors you have chosen and you have done a beautiful job with the cranes !
    Congratulations on your new found time. Hope you enjoy it.
    Rose

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  8. I like the colours you have chosen for your cranes. The wall hanging looks lovely

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  9. Your wall hanging is beautiful Cath!

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  10. Wow! That really turned out beautifully.

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  11. I love it Cath and the end result is beautiful... the bubbles quilting really gives the cranes a lift...
    Hugz

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  12. Lovely cranes Cath and congrats on retirement :-)

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  13. The Wall hanging is just lovely!

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  14. what a great class to have attended, looks rather complicated to me though. Love how you have used these in a wall hanging and you choice of fabrics has worked so very well

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  15. Your wall-hanging is beautiful! Happy retirement!

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  16. This is wonderful. Congratulations! When I was living in Hawaii, some student teachers came in and taught us to make origami cranes and also origami balls. Even at this ripe old age, I can still remember how to do it. Very sweet wall hanging.

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  17. Oooh! The cranes are lovely!! I do know what you mean about beginning to make a large quilt & realizing it would be a bit too much - I have a nice Storm at Sea block that I made as a trial for a wedding quilt gift, still sitting on my stack 5 years later! lol (They did get a quilt for a gift though)

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  18. Got to laugh about this - I bought the pattern for foundation pieced cranes - yes was going to make a zillion 'cause they are quite small - (well maybe 16 or 25 or so)...made one - that cured me I think!!!
    Yours look lovely..
    Think of all that sewing you will be doing now . . . .(bit green eyed here)

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  19. how beautiful. Your cranes' wall hanging looks gorgeous.
    I had a pattern for paper pieced cranes that sat for years in case i miraculously would know how to make them, gave up and rehoused it.

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