The mini dresdens for the Daisy quilt are almost pieced. So now it's time to think about how to turn under that quarter inch. Earlier in the week I showed you the Perfect Circles. It would be great if they made them 5" and larger, but they don't. So I've a few options
(1)Turn them under by eyeballing the 1/4 inch, in my case that usually looks bad.
(2)Use EQ7 to print out a perfect 5" circle, but that would use expensive ink and take longer.
(3) I could inset them by cutting holes in my quilt top, I could see where this could go very wrong!
(4) sew them to fusible interfacing, tutorial here, but that cost to much
(5) Or I could quickly draw up my own 5" circle using this old throwback tool called a Compass. I bet some of you remember using one of these in school along with a Protractor. They can be purchased at just about any store that sells office supplies. And if you want a huge circle most craft and hobby stores sell them in various sizes. Mine came from The Dollar Store years ago for a $1.
So how does it work? The red arrow is pointing to a wheel that will adjust the width of the two "legs".
Before I can use the compass I need to make a nice stiff template material from 3 layers of Freezer paper.
You can see in picture below
(1) I cut a strip of freezer paper 6" wide the width of the roll. Then subcut into 6" squares.
(2) iron one square directly to my ironing surface.
(3)Leave it in place, iron the second piece on top of the first, and then the last piece on top of the second.
(4)After letting it cool for a few seconds the three layers can be easily removed. No residue is left on your ironing surface, it's magic! There maybe some wrinkles or air pockets in the paper but that's okay.
Here's where the handy dandy compass works its magic. I need my finished dresden to be 5", so the Compass needs to be set at half of 5" which is
2 1/2.
(1) Turning the little wheel in the middle adjust the "legs" in and out.
(2)Next place the pointy metal leg in the center of the freezer paper square,
(3)it'll stay in the middle as you rotate the compass around until you have a perfect circle.
(4)Then cut.... easy and cheap!
At this point I could fold the template in half twice for centering perfectly on the dresden, but I chose to eyeball it.
(1)Iron the template shiny side down to the wrong side of the dresden
(2)Apply starch to the exposed edges.
(3) press the seam allowance inward
(4) remove template and press
Ready for invisible machine applique..... One down, 49 more to go!
Sugar fuel to help complete the task!
~ Lea Anne ~
Clever...I know you though! You enjoy figuring out how to do something...you love the math, figuring out the instructions and all that....YOU NEED TO WRITE A BOOK! Your instructions are wonderful, your designs are inspired and your photos are great. Send some of your tutorials to some publishers and get rich and famous, would ya? I need a rich friend! XO
ReplyDeleteLove seeing some pencil and paper technology! Your little plates are just perfect!
ReplyDeleteCan`t beat the old tools, my compass often sees the light of day when i want a circle, plates looks so good, have not used freezer paper before, must get the roll out of the cupboard and have a play with templates well one day I will
ReplyDeleteYour mini-dresdens look just perfect.
ReplyDeleteLOL I like how the food matches the fabric! :)
ReplyDeleteI just used my compass the other day! Sometimes the simple way is the best way. I watched a video the other day about the quilting in the 70's and 80's . I laughed when they said back then everyone knew how to draft a block. So true isn't it!
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