Sunday, March 7, 2010

Do you stack and whack? It's fun!

Last month I signed up for a class in stack and whack. We had to get fabric that had a repeat at least six times, which I did not totally understand (except for the times I did wallpapering at our house), but the owner of the quilt shop I visited knew what I meant, so I picked out this fabric for the project and it was good. For stack and whack, the goal is to cut your fabric in six layers (all at one time) so that when you piece it together later (mine was going to be a fan), it will look like a kaliedescope.

This is one version of the fan that I cut out. I love the way it all lined up so well. If you know me, I am not always worried about perfection (a little tug, or some steam from the iron goes a long way to making things fit), but I had to make sure the layers were all perfect before cutting. It was not too bad actually once it is all pinned to match the exact same spot on all layers.
See how they all look a little different? Some look like vines going across the fan and others have a bigger design across the top. You use a see-through template so you can see which part of the fabric you are focusing on.

Our teacher, Alice, helped me pick out the background fabric for the blocks. I wanted it to look really soft and elegant when it was put together, so she immediately found this very pale purple and it looks great. Across the top and bottom of the fan will be a tiny, tiny bias binding that I made out of dark purple. It should make the blocks stand out, but not be too loud.


Another block. Honestly, when I came home from the class I wanted to start cutting up all of my fabric to make stack and whack designs. You can do stars, squares, and all manner of cool stuff with this. My quilt is actually pretty tame compared to some of the fabrics the other women in the class were using. They were making some awesome fans with their fabrics. I will be putting this together on Friday at the next class where we will finish the tops.




6 comments:

CS said...

You have been bitten by the Stack n Whack bug for sure.
I have done several different Stack n Whacks...took a class 5 or 6 years ago. You see fabric everywhere that you want to try it with....lol.
What a beautiful job you are doing!!
cs

sandy davis said...

Looks great Sheryl - I love your fabric choices too. See you tomorrow at our other class!

cinnamongirl said...

It is going to be pretty.
Mitered corners suck for me I do not know why lol forgot to put it in last post.
Stackn whack goes faster doesn't it. I have done it a few times

Stephanie Suzanne Designs said...

Hello Sheryl-Lyn

Oh my!! I've heard of that technique but never knew what it meant. :0)

This is so awesome...Thanks so much for coming over for a visit! I so agree on the comment of * so many talented souls * in the world. :0)

You are one of them!!! I think you need to be in the Guiness Book of World Records for the number of quilts you complete in a year.

Have a great day,
Stephanie ♥

Ruth said...

I had never heard of it. It seems so pretty with the fabric you have chosen. I can see why it made you want to start cutting up all the fabric.

Ruth

Jean said...

Wow, beautiful, hope to see u soon