Wednesday, 6 August 2014

Hemstitch Block



The name of today’s block refers to a type of handwork that was once used to decorate the edges of clothing, handkerchiefs or table linens. Hemstitching was often done with embroidery thread in a color that contrasted with the article it decorated, to draw attention to itself. It consisted of crisscrossing lines of thread to pull apart and bundle the web and woof threads of the fabric, creating rows of little “windows” in between. This block is a seven-patch; meaning that it was assembled using a grid pattern with seven squares across and seven down. It can also be described as “scrappy,” because I constructed it using little leftover scraps from a block-of-the-month class. I mean to make eleven more blocks like this (if my scraps can stretch that far) and use them as intermediary blocks between the B.O.M.s. It’ll be a clever trick if I can pull it off: a quilt that uses its own scraps.

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