Giving in to Ruffles

If you have been around this blog for a while, you will have worked out I'm a 'frilly' person. When I was a little girl, my grandmother gave me the most beautiful handkerchief sachet with woven ribbons and scrumptious frills.  I treasured it so much and I have never lost my love for pretty frilly objects.

In the light of that, I think I have actually been remarkably restrained in my designing. There is really hardly a frill to be seen in my patterns!   OK, there is occasionally some lace:

or maybe some guipure:

but I've never put an actual ruffled frill on any of my published designs.  That is, until now!  My Souffle bag and glasses case mark the "giving in to ruffles" moment in history:

See the lovely pale blue ruffles:

Ruffles have certainly been a huge feature of late amongst the big-name fashion designers.  They have even been a very popular trend in wedding cakes.  So it is time to give in to ruffles!

If truth be told, probably part of the reason for my not using them before this, is that they used to be so difficult to make! I have memories of putting yards and yards of fabric through the rolled hem foot trying to get an even, tiny little hem so that I could put ruffles on my bathroom curtains. There was a great deal of frustration involved! Then I became a quilter and learned about double-fold binding. The same principle applied to ruffles is just brilliant. No hem required! I wish I had known about this years ago!

If you're into ruffles too, then you can find my Souffle bag and glasses case pattern in the latest issue of Patchwork & Stitching Magazine, Vol 15 No 1.

I wonder if ruffles will appear again in my designs???

They certainly didn't appear last week. Most of my time was spent in creating a large banner for our Church Hall. It turned out quite well and I'll share a photo when it is mounted on the wall. Stone-fruit season is always a busy time in the kitchen and I managed to squeeze in the processing of a case of peaches between all the quilting.  Preserving peaches is a lot of work because I like to remove the skins, but it's wonderful later in the year when we come to eat them on our cereal.

Now my dilemma is which project to start next!  I have a small wall quilt three quarters finished and an embroidery design started. They are both hand-work for the evenings, so that's a good excuse to start something new! I am thinking I'd like to make a pretty needlecase. It seems ages since I made one... or will it turn into a sewing folder - to me they are so much more practical. One thing is for sure with my design process - the original concept and the finished project are usually two quite different things!

Happy stitching!

Val