Most of my life I have been one of those women who carry along handwork to do while waiting; at the doctor's office, in an airport, on the plane, in a meeting, just about anywhere. I've had many interesting conversations with people who want to know what I am doing, or tell me about their quilting/embroidering/knitting/etc. experiences. And, eventually, I usually finish the project and look for a replacement. When my husband was ill, 25 years ago, I started a couple projects that wouldn't have an ultimate end, but just go on and on until I was sick of whichever it was and switch to the other unending one. This one is 3-1/2" Snail's Trail blocks (it has a number of names, among them Monkey Wrench, and Whirlwind). The purpose of the blocks is to make small bags for jewelry or other things that need to be enclosed.
I glued scraps of flannel to squares of cardboard so I could lay out the fabrics in the correct order (not possible to haul bags of triangles around) on the flannel and laid the muslin on top. With a stack of these "design boards" I could hand sew for hours. In the bottom right corner of the image below is a stack of completed blocks.
The muslin for these blocks is stamped with permanent ink. The stamp belonged to my friend Betty Lou Lucas who moved to Grant's Pass and took her stamp with her! When I was visiting her one time I was stamping more muslin and she said I should take it with me and mail it back when I had enough stamped. Unfortunately, she died before I mailed it back. So, now I stamp in her memory. I did send her one of the little bags, so she was able to see what the "product" was. You may notice the curved red lines on the muslin - when I was tired I would sew the values going the wrong way, so I marked the muslin with a red permanent marker to remind myself that the twist is clockwise.
Although all the blocks are scrappy, some have a color scheme. Here is a jewelry bag made in 1996 with red/white/blue blocks. It has a double loop grosgrain ribbon tie that gathers and closes the top.
The scraps needed for each block are very small, so it is possible to have an enormous variety of combinations. This bag requires six pieced blocks and two equal strips of fabric, plus a lining and the grosgrain ribbon for the tie.
One of these days I will dig out the basket blocks and post about them. The arthritis in my hands somewhat impairs my hand sewing ability, but I can still do it most of the time.
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3 comments:
A truly wonderful idea and the results are lovely and useful! Thank you.
The snail's trail is my absolute favorite block. If I had a barn, I would paint a snail's trail on the side of it. I like the optical illusion of curves although all the components are squares and triangles.
Cute!!
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