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| Design
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Design
2 |
Hawaiian
Garden |
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| More than 3,000 years
ago the Chinese began using wooden lattice designs in their
windows. The smooth inside of the lattice has traditionally
been covered with paper, which is replaced each year on New
Year’s Day. In the 1920s and 1930s, Daniel Sheets Dye
collected over 1,200 examples of lattice designs, and these
were later published by Dover Publications in two books: Chinese
Lattice Designs (1974) and The New Book of Chinese Lattice
Designs (1981). Using such diagrams, I have had a wonderful
time making quilts from a 9" by 9" miniature to
a twin bed size. |
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| Oriental
Fern Garden |
Garden
of Happiness |
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| Many of the lattice
designs can be easily drawn on graph paper and then strip
pieced in fabric such as I have done in the following pieces:
November, Oriental Fern Garden, and Garden of Happiness. This
method requires a busy background print since some of the
background sections are made up of several pieces of fabric.
This piecing method is a good one for beginning quilters who
want to work on their accuracy in cutting and piecing. In
these pieces the lattice is finished 1" wide. These pieces
are all hand quilted. |
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| Gateway
to Paradise |
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| With all the new fabrics
with beautiful large scale prints that would be a shame to
cut into little pieces, I wanted to develop a piecing method
using lattice designs that would not distort the background
image. I could have simply appliqued strips onto the background
fabric, but decided not to for two reasons: I do not care
for appliqueing and I was not sure I could get the consistently
straight lines or sharp points needed to make the lattice
look right. So I developed a method of drawing my lattice
design on the wrong side of the background fabric, carefully
cutting it apart, and sewing it back together with the lattice
strips in place. The lattice strips are a finished 1/2"
wide, so all I am removing with the lattice strips is the
seam allowances. This method uses a lot of insetting and is
definitely an advanced sewing method. I used it to make Hawaiian
Garden, Lilac Serenity, and Orchid Spree. These pieces are
all hand quilted. |
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| Chinese Lattice Designs:
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