Whizz Bang!
It's time to have a closer look at Whizz Bang!.
There are so many blocks with different details and we'd be here all day if I tried to squeeze everything into one post so I've decided to spread the infornation out over a few posts. Think of it like progress posts but in reverse.
So where did this quilt begin? Inspiration came from a few places but the initial spark occurred a few years ago, before my blogging days in fact. I made a pot holder using folded points. I followed the instructions of a tutorial on the Internet (I can't seem to find it now) and soon ended up with an interesting circle of points. I loved the look of all the layers and best of all it was fun to make!
There are different styles of blocks in my Whizz Bang! quilt and the blocks in this post are most like the pot holder I made. I've constructed these circles in a different way from the pot holder but the points are neatly laid out to create patterns rather than the more haphazard placements of Pine Burr blocks that I'll show in the next post.
This was the first block I made for Whizz Bang! People often say it looks like licorice allsorts and now that it's been pointed out to me I can't help but think that too. mmm licorice allsorts, yum!
After making a few bright coloured blocks I decided to try something in softer, pretty, colours. The lace trim was the perfect finishing touch.
Here is the last block I made, and one of my favourites. Anything with ricrac wins my heart.
If you look at this block you'll see my fabric selection is really quite scrappy. I used different fabrics but in the same colourway. I like the interest mixed fabric adds and I believe it makes the overall look a little more dynamic, even if it's not so obvious.
This photo shows some of the hand quilting with perle8 cotton through the points. Every secord or third row of points has been quilted. It was heavy going but I used big chenile needles and just got on with it. I broke a few needles along the way but that's okay. I've hand quilted a few denim quilts so I'm getting used to these big hefty quilts by now.
My best tip of working on heavy quilts is to lay them over trestle tables. Whizz Bang! was resting on three trestle tables and I'd just swing it around or fold it to get to different areas I was working on. The reason I use trestle tables is that I can fold them up and put them out of the way when I don't need them.
Here I am working late at night, like a busy little worker bee.
At the Sydney Show when I was chatting to people it was interesting to hear stories of them making these types of folded point blocks years ago for pot holders, cushions, decorations for childrens jackets, table mats Christmas decorations. A woman who had grown up in Malaysia had memories of making edges of photo frames with points of folded cigarette boxes.
Let's leave it there for now. I'll be back with more colourful Whizz Bang! photos soon.