Ripped and Torn Fabric #12

   Meow first. Meow first. It's been a fantastic cat week. Even though my scratch pad throne is in the middle of the room and on the floor, all is good and I reign.

Tee Hee, even got mom trained to drag the ribbon beside the throne so that I only have to stretch out instead of chase and capture.

As you can see by all the little cardboard pieces around the throne I'm an awesome ripper and shredder. Just call me Shredder. 

   Here we are on week 12 of the Splendid Sampler II block. Free As A Bird by Irene Blanck of Focus on Quilts.

For the tree branch, we cut the fabric on the bias to make the curve smooth and pliable. What we did was: 

• cut a 1.25" strip, 
• folded it in half wrong sides together, 
• stitched it closed with an 1/8" seam, 
• rolled the seam to the back, 
• pressed the seam open, 
• decorative stitched on the edges.

We also used different stitches to give the bird a feather like appearance on the edges and made a Colonial knot for the eye.

   Many of us, including myself, have problems with people ripping instead of cutting our fabric. A friend rips the 108" wide fabric to find the true grain when selling as well as getting her back ready for the quilter while I shudder. Sometimes the fabric is up to 6" off grain.
This link to National Quilters Circle is worth a view and you can decide for yourself.