Liberty, English Paper Piecing, and one of the fiddliest things I've ever made

[Music] [Music] so welcome to another series in the Liberty series this one is going to be based on this book here that I bought a few years ago and it's all about English paper piecing now this is a Dutch woman William Hammerstein who is really really interesting woman she born in Holland mum was very very creative so she grew up being surrounded by sewing she sewed at school when she left school she loved to sew all her own clothes and so when she then trained to be a lawyer she would be traveling to courts and meetings and so on on trains and hanging around in waiting rooms in courts and she would make little tiny bits of patchwork that she then pieced together in the evenings so this book then is firstly it's written in French but fortunately for me in English as well and it's several different amazing tessellated quilt patterns beautifully explained with layouts and so on but the one that I want to talk about is this one which is I mean it's just unbelievable how complicated and intricate it is now a few years ago these were all over Instagram it's called lapis Scalia and people were making blocks like this and parts of blocks cushions and big quilts as well and I would follow them on Instagram and I got really interested in them so much so that I bought the book so this then is the description of how to make in French and fat fortunately in English how to make these little separate quilt blocks now it's all English paper pieced so you know that's what I like to do anyway but what I about it is that the Liberty patterns and designs lend themselves absolutely brilliantly to this kind of pattern so I'll show you what I made so that was one of the ones that I made I realized when I'd completed this with these these are the papers that I cut out very accurately and this is the selecting the designs in a very very particular way so that you make a secondary design with the Liberty fabric but I realized when I got to the end of making this that I didn't want to make a quilt out of this I just didn't so this is a map one of the little mandalas I made this one as well which moves the one out from underneath and this one it shows beautifully how one little element like that can create a really lovely pattern when it's all sewn together and then this is the peacock feathers here around the outside from the design called Hera and then I made this little one as well and these of course aren't finished I could carry on and make more of these if I wanted to but by the time I'd done these three little mandalas I'd got to the realization that actually I don't want to carry on and make a full quilt of these and I'll tell you what it was that was the death knell of this for me it was this shape this tiny tiny tiny little triangle it's absolutely minut let me show you how big the paper piece is that's how big the paper pieces and if you look at the design there are little in this dark green and it makes a star when they all come together and you can perhaps see the star can you see the star here there that one there but I got to the point where I thought I can't do this it's driving me around the bend but I'd really really enjoy doing it to that point and so I love doing it but I knew that it wasn't going to be something that I wanted to carry on and do now I'll explain to you then how the construction of this works now this woman amazingly wrote this book and made this quilt and then you can buy kits of the paper pieces where all the pieces have been accurately die-cut for you so that you can have them all ready to go ready to use on your project but you can also buy which is what I did because I cut these myself you can also buy these so I went online and I found in Australia a company called sunset seams and she laser cuts the pieces that you can't see it against the green map very well can you let me get something here's some white paper let's see if that will work that's better so these laser cuts perspex pieces here which I've bought from as I say from sunset seems in Australia so that the way that these work is you have the shape that is needed for the piece and see where does that one go that one's there so that piece there is that one but you also have a border so that when you're cutting your fabric you can line it up with the piece that you want to use I've chosen green again it's not very easy to see see if it's easier on this yellow okay let's imagine we're going to be cutting out a piece from this yellow fabric and I could place it really carefully so that I would get the right sort of image I wanted liberty lends itself to this absolutely beautifully it really does and so once I have the all the template pieces they're beautifully cut very very accurate indeed then I started to specially select Liberty fabric that had the kind of designs I needed so this one for instance which is a beautiful Liberty fabric but it's got these little elements in it here and so if you're making that piece there you could isolate that and cut that out of the fabric so that it would make the piece you needed and then you would end up with a little pack like this so those are the five sided pieces those are little diamonds so you see you don't you that you end up with a piece of paper piecing that has got that little design centered there and so this was these are all my spare bits here from making these there's another one where you can see that the design when it's put together with another one just like it would make this amazing secondary design so this I have all these pieces still there's another from that lovely purpley fabric and there's another of the the hero but in pink this time so that one is it's that piece and so if you were to place them all the way around like so you would make a secondary design it's mad completely mad and once I realized I wasn't gonna do this I was quite content just to have this one and the other two they're just to have on my wall as beautiful things so that unfinished and they will always will be unfinished but the Liberty fabric works perfectly now if you look at the back of this and we look at the stitches these tiny tiny little stitches I'll tell you when I did this I did this at a time when I was working on a project that I've written about in fact in this book I wrote this book which is called quilt block therapy it's over there in the shop and it's a project that I did a few years ago at the same time as I discovered this method of working and I was working in a place where I needed to I had a lunch break that was an hour and a half long and you know after you've eaten your sandwiches and your banana you know that takes five minutes and then you've got the rest of the time to kill so I would take these little component parts in with me and and needle and thread and I sat and stitched all of these tiny tiny tiny little seams in my lunch break so when I look at this now it reminds me of that project which was actually quite a project and yeah it's done now it's finished it's not something I want to do again the other thing it's very wasteful of Liberty fabric which is a shame because it's some it's pretty expensive stuff as I think I've described to you and when you're cutting this out you end up with the rest of the fabric looks a bit like Swiss cheese and so that was quite wasteful which is why probably I've got quite a lot of tiny little scraps of Liberty but hey that's I wanted to tell you about the story this woman's story is lovely in the beginning of work there she is let's have a look at her I feel looks great doesn't she and they're like women the world over surrounded by all her fabrics and bits and pieces what a remarkable woman so there you are there's a very very complicated bit of English paper piecing that I did try out once all based on this woman's fantastic book I'm sure you could get hold of this if you were really interested in doing this kind of work she sounds like quite an amazing woman okay so next time we get together to do some talking about Liberty find something else to tell you about it thanks for watching I'll see you next time [Music] I'm going to read the introduction from the book for you I was born on August 11th 1943 at helvis um in the Netherlands two younger sisters would follow my family was a traditional one of post-war laborers my father worked and studied diligently and my mother looked after the home as it was custom at the time my mother did a great deal of sewing she sewed our clothing knitted warm sweaters and under clothes embroidered tablecloths and crocheted pot holders and bed coverings this when I was very young I was taught to work with yarn and thread and fabric at primary school strict nuns gave sewing classes several times a week and I learned very much there after secondary school I studied law at Utrecht it was a wonderful time outside of class I was active in community life and was a tourist guide in Italy in the summer I loved the many parties for which I sewed beautiful dresses in 1969 I began my law career at Rudd bound University in Nijmegen I enjoyed training thousands of students in civil law I met my colleague Fred Hammerstein there and we were married in 1974 our daughters Friedrich and real were born in 1975 and 1977 I think that might be very said her name wrong their childish drawings and their touching little error filled letters gave me an idea to embroider them and incorporate them into quilts one example is the quilt from my inaugural address in 1988 when I was named University professor of personal and family law a new world was opened up to me when I visited a quilt exposition at the Arnhem open-air museum I made my first quilt using the English method Friedrich and verily verily yea folded the fabrics with paper clips on the templates and I sewed the pieces together we had such fun after I took my first course at Maurice southmont mu I attended others in the Netherlands and other countries my pronunciations not great is it sorry my visits to quilt shows markets and stores were enriching experiences for me the closets filled with books magazines fabrics on my head filled with ideas fred always brought something to read with him when we went out together just in case i was bitten by the quilt book and this malady remains incurable in 1994 i was appointed member of the council of state at the hague this meant many trips between Arnhem and The Hague and much reading to prepare for hearings and meetings in the evenings I found rest and time to reflect making quilts and doing embroidery at that time I had an idea of making quilts with men's ties family and friends gave me bags of ties and the stories that went with them finally I made 8 large quilts that were exhibited for years in the small white palace of the Council of state although I took the National Art quilt course I preferred to make traditional quilts using antique patterns for inspiration I try to add a personal touch by means of my color and fabric choices I'm particularly interested in fabrics I have history for example printed calicoes dutch scarves Indonesian batik s' Provencal fabrics and the remnants of ancient Japanese silk kimonos my greatest pleasure is to choose the patterns and fabrics to cut the fabrics and so the little pieces together I can pass many hours in my studio in the Attic with classical music playing in the background and a profusion of books and fabric all around me sometimes inspiration comes from an unexpected perspective for example the mathematical figures of the mathematicians mr. Penrose or the geometric patterns of Islamic culture the possibilities for discovering in these sources a pattern that can be translated into a quilt are limitless I always have several quilts in progress and make a small piece of each one and put these pieces in baskets on my table with the chosen fabrics in the evening I choose from one of the baskets and thus each sample becomes a large quilt to make a quilt while lacking enthusiasm just for the sake of finishing it does not suit me at all I always compare this method of working with preparing a good meal doing what pleases makes the finished product more satisfying I find the sewing machine and necessary evil and in fact I use it only for the quilt border another very pleasant aspect of this hobby is the possibility of frequent travel with several friends we have been to North America and have visited many European cities the annual trip to France with Trudy wass skin is always a great celebration my trip to Japan in 2005 with my daughters and my son-in-law for a quilt show was very special the quilts were unsurpassed in their sophistication precision and originality Fred looked after our little grandson aged one and a half years for that week and for me that was true proof of love our quilt group meets once a month we admire and critique each other's work help find solutions to problems that arise and chat amicably about the highs and lows of our daily life at the age of 67 I retired after a career of almost 42 years as a jurist I've never experienced the well-known black hole the days passed quickly with sports to stay in shape a French course our grandchildren Bella and Amy live in France and of course making quilts and embroidering and giving courses in these subjects these are very pleasant to share one's hobby with others to let them know the many creative possibilities and to forego and to forge agreeable ties with those who cross one's path I would like to continue to enjoy this Second Life for much longer and in good health with those I love and to make many many quilts and stitchery projects heyyou I enjoyed reading that I thought you might enjoy hearing it too see you next time

Channel: The Last Homely House

Views: 67,948

Rating: 4.9530745 out of 5

Keywords: liberty fabric, liberty quilts, english paper piecing, millefiori quilting, willyne hammerstein, the last homely house east of the sea, the last homely house

Id: nzZ9iN83uY8

Length: 19min 43sec (1183 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2019