Blue on Blue

Around about June 2014 I decided that the craft group that I was going to every Monday (Nimble Fingers) was not for me and had decided to join a different one. Just as I made that decision, one of the first group set us all a challenge. She gave us two paint colours each and told us to make something with those two colours before Christmas. I made “Blue on Blue” fairly soon after that, so I would not be rushing to finish it before Christmas. The variety of things that members of the group made was incredible – cushions, quilts, mirror with photos, Christmas stocking, scarves etc and my wall hanging.

“Blue on Blue” is not representative of anything, I just wanted to do something flowy and this is how it turned out. If you want to see water in it, then you may. Otherwise, anything goes.

I really enjoyed putting the cording around each colour. It was quite interesting figuring out which cord should go where. I am pleased with the result.

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Obviously I was not too concerned with neatness at this stage. I used duck bill appliqué scissors to cut off the excess material and then the stitching and cording covers the rest.

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You can see the two paint colour charts in the bottom right, the light blue to the left of my name etc and the darker one to the right. At this stage I had not put any batting on the back. In hindsight, it would probably have been better to have sewn all these pieces onto batting but I did not learn that until my next project.

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It is amazing what a few stitches can do.

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In the end, all the stitching was covered by the cording anyway, but I guess the zigzagging will hold it together a lot better than just the original stitching.

My machine does not have many stitches but I do love this one that I have put around the border. Using variegated thread also makes a difference.

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This is the back. You can see I put a backing on to cover up all the stitching. A row of fancy stitches around the edge keeps the hem neatly inside.