OLFA Expert Collab: Autumn Wreath Part 1 of 3
Designers: Amanda Brown - My Fabric Heart
Randa Roberts - So Comfy Designs
Marcia Izabel Marchiori - Marciabel
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Hello! We hope you are enjoying the fall season!
We are excited to finally share the result of a collab between our Canadian OLFA Experts. They met up to make this amazing autumn wreath project together, and now they will share with us the process of making it from scratch.
They first got together to define the project and, with the sketch and all of the details in hands, it was time for each designer to start their own steps, and here is their experience:
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Part 1 - Quilt backdrop for Wreath, by Amanda Brown
Hi! I’m Amanda of Fabric Heart. I made the backdrop for the wreath centre. As a quilter I knew it had to be a fun patchwork. Although, I now have so many more ideas for centres!
Tools:
- OLFA CMP-3 Circle Rotary Cutter
- OLFA RM-CG 12”x18” Green Double-Sided Rotary Mat
- OLFA 45mm RTY-2/NS Quick-Change Rotary cutter
- OLFA QR-4S 4 1/2" Square Frosted Advantage™ Acrylic ruler
- OLFA SCS-2 Serrated-Edge Stainless-Steel Scissors
Making the Quilt Backdrop for the wreath was the perfect place to use up some scraps. The backdrop needed something scaled small and I always have a tiny little pieces left behind I can’t bring myself to throw out. No fabric scrap goes unused!
These small projects are also a perfect time to practice a skill or audition new techniques. I couldn’t resist getting out my OLFA Circle Rotary Cutter. I love working with curves but many of the curves I use are large scale. (Could you imagine making a bed sized quilt with 2” circles? Why did I say that? Now I feel like this is a thing I need to try.) This project would be a great opportunity to work on working with tiny curves.
Using OLFA’s Circle Rotary Cutter with a small setting places the cutting blade close to the pivot point. The ratchet handle really helps with these tight curves! Our wrists only turn so far so being able to stop and readjust without moving the blade is so helpful.
I was all about embracing chaos in this backdrop so I had fun mixing and matching colours and placing them mostly randomly. I did try to keep the colour balanced.
I stretched and secured my pieced top with a layer of batting around a metal ring which was larger than the opening of the wreath. I could have hot glued this part but found it really effective to stitch the edges of the quilt over the ring and into the batting back. Stretching it as I went allowed me to have the perfect tension for hand quilting.
I am not typically a hand quilter but I do find the act of hand stitching very relaxing. I decided that I would hand quilt spirals all over the backdrop. I was worried that my spirals would be completely wonky and not work well but I really LOVE how this turned out! I need to create more opportunities for time to just sit and let creative, no rules magic happen.
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Click HERE for part 2 - Making the Autumn Leaves, by Randa Roberts
