2020 Topic #18 Patchwork Patterns with I&D (by Jennie Atkinson)

      2020 Topic 18: Geometric

If you thought that patchwork was old fashioned, Jennie will hopefully shatter those illusions with her cool stamped and rearranged designs. With the simplest of supplies and a load of stitching, you can end up with some super stylish makes.

~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live The Dream) with you today, sharing some patchwork pattern ideas for our current geometric theme. 

I am not a great lover of creating patchwork with material but I do love experimenting with patchwork patterns using coloured papers. There are so many pattern ideas on Pinterest that you can spend ages looking for different ideas and inspiration. I have kept my designs quite simple for these two cards, but they still look just as effective and make great cards for sewing minded friends.

I have used Ink and the Dog stamps to pattern my papers  looking for some smaller patterns with text and postmarks:

Clocks 1

Words 4

I created background papers using my brayer and some Fresco colours I thought would go well together: Venice Blue, Mulled Wine, Brown Shed and Green Patina. I am in a bit of "brights" mood at the moment with all the lovely autumn colours in the garden, which makes such a change from my usual soft choices. I have just brayered the colour directly onto Smoothy Cardstock.

I have stamped randomly, but not made a masterboard as such. I regretted using black ink initially thinking it was far too dark, but it did work in the end.

For this pattern I have cut 2" squares and then made half and quarter triangles. The design centres around the square in the middle. The base cardstock is 5½" x 5½" and although it was easy to find the centre it was more difficult to make sure the square was straight!

Stitching around the edges of each piece does make a difference and when layered onto two coloured layers really has the feel of patchwork.

I added a sentiment using a quote from Alison's Friends and Friendship stamp set and a little cluster of ribbon and a flower. 

EAB10

My second design used 1" squares cut into triangles and was much more fiddly!

I only needed a 4" x 4" background for this smaller pattern and it was easier to get started from the middle. It is a good idea to have your design set out before you start glueing as it is easy to get lost!

Stitching the smaller triangles was very fiddly and I took a few shortcuts in trying to keep a single run without having to keep stopping. I have used the same sentiment as before and a similar cluster around the tag.

 

I really enjoyed putting together these geometric designs but would suggest that keeping your squares to 2" makes life much easier all round. It was a great opportunity to experiment with colours I might not normally put together and I was also pleased to use some of my smaller text stamps which sometimes get lost on bigger projects. Needless to say I have a huge collection of pins on Pinterest with other ideas for designs, so will not be short of any ideas.

As always thank you for joining me and I hope this idea of using patchwork patterns provides you with some prompts for cards and layouts and provides a different style of creativity for your stamps.

Jennie x

Blog: Live The Dream