Fracture - a WIP
Well ... here's the "easy" fracture that has been giving me so much grief. I still maintain that the pattern IS simple. It's all strip pieced and gosh-o-golly I can do that in my sleep, however, it's probably best that I be fully conscience and lucid before attempting to measure or cut as that is where my problems laid and all as a result of plan old disengagement of the grey cells.
Picture 1 is the panel as it was purchased. You can see where my first problem started. After laundering (because I'm a die hard pre-washer), the panel ended up SO wonky that no amount of stretching, wetting, blocking, starching, ironing, cussing, cajoling, and threatening would work. I was never intending to use the black & white border in the fracture (what would be the point?) but I would have like to use the whole area inside of the border (the triangles and the tea cups at the bottom). But alas ... I was able to cajole the vase and flowers but NOT the tea cups so off they went, and without the bottom triangles there was no reason to use the top triangles.
The second picture is the completed fracture. It is straight - it's just hung crooked. I need to trim the edges of course, and add borders. I was hoping to be able to use the black & white border that I stripped off but they're not long enough, and unless I can piece it so it looks good I'd rather just use a solid border and save the B&W border for another project as I'm always looking for nice printed border fabric.
I might take the tea cups and without the top part attached - I might be able to get those to match well enough to fracture them separately and add them centered across the bottom, perhaps under a border.
It IS easy ... trust me! I just learned A) never pre-wash fabric that is going to have to be matched to multiple copies (like fractures, Stack-and-whack, or OBW), and B) PAY ATTENTION TO THE DIRECTIONS BEFORE YOU CUT!! Stupid stupid mistakes but I think I saved it.
This is the first time I've ever worked with a panel, and I normally don't like panels, but as soon as I saw it I knew it needed to be "fracured". I love the way the flowers just BURST!
BTW - this is from the book "Fabulous Fractures" by Brenda Esslinger. There is another method of doing fractures where squares of fabric are used and it's more technical and reading it through multiple times it still didn't sink in. Brenda's method is super simple as it's all strip pieced. You need 4 copies of the same design.