Kathy's "Interwoven World"

This is one of those times that I knew exactly what I wanted to do when we got our new challenge theme and I was so excited !    Inspired by Anna Faustino's book, "Simply Stunning Woven Quilts," I turned to page 31 and found the perfect model.   I've previously made several "woven" quilts, and was eager to add some new techniques to the weaving process.      Fabric selection:  6 pale yellow to bright orange/red hand-dyed fabrics; 6 pale lavender to deep purple hand-dyed fabrics; 1 deep red hand-dyed; 1 deep black hand-dyed; bright orange-glittery tulle.

Block construction: (1)  Make two identical  13" x 13" Log Cabin blocks in the courtyard style with the yellow to orange/red and lavender to purple fabrics.   (2)  Then cut two circles (one deep red and one black).  Applique one circle onto each block using a zigzag stitch.  From the back side of the Log Cabin blocks, cut away the pieced-block fabric under the appliqued circle to eliminate the extra layers.

(3) Fuse "Wonder Under" (or other adhesive) to the backs of both blocks, and cut the blocks in strips [as shown in the book]:  one with vertical curvy strips and the other with horizontal curvy strips.  (When cutting through the circles, use the parallel and meridian lines of a globe to make the circle look like a sphere.)

Weaving the blocks together is described in Ms. Faustino's book starting on page 24.   The major challenge here was to get the deep red, and black "circles" to line-up with each other; this was a bit more challenging than I'd anticipated !    When I was satisfied with the weaving process, I placed the quilt on top of my batting; placed bright orange-glittery tulle over the top, and free-motion quilted through all layers using Madeira mono-filament thread in both the top and bobbin.  The glittery tulle added just the right 'punch' to make this little quilt glow !

To bind and finish this piece,  I used what I describe as a "keyhole" binding technique.  I cut a circle in my backing fabric, and using a contrasting fabric "faced" the cut-out circle to cover the raw edges.   With right sides together, I sewed the backing fabric (that had the cut out circle) and the quilt together around all 4 sides.  Then.... gently pulled the quilt through that cut out / faced circle.  Voila !  all edges were concealed !    I pressed the quilt, then hand stitched that faced-circle to close up the opening.  [The next time I use this technique, I'll take pictures of the back to better illustrate what it looks like !]