Artichoke

Today I am going to write about a half-made project.

In summer I went to a patchwork camp where I learned to make this artichoke. I have just learned the technique but unfortunately I have no idea what to use it for. Hopefully once I will get an idea about it.

I made some pics about the steps, so I can give the 'how to'.

First you have to choose the matching colours. You need very similar fabrics, then must be the same thickness.
Here are my fabrics:


For an artichoke you need the same size squares (I used 6 colours 8-8 pieces each, so 48 squares altogether). You cut the same size squares then fold them half and iron, fold and iron again (your folded fabric must be quarter of the original square).
This is my little mountain made of fabric squares:

You need a bigger piece of fabric (I used molino) which you can put the others to. It will be a backing, so you don't need to use your best fabric for that. Draw the horizontal and vertical bisectors and the two diagonals of your backing fabric square. They will show you the place where to put the colourful fabrics.
Then go line by line and put the fabrics on top of each other. You must sew them onto the backing (on the drawn line), use matching thread. Then fold the tops as it is shown in the picture.

You have to do the same with the eight parts. Put a pin at the end to keep them on their places while you are working on the other parts. It should be like this:

Finally sew it round about 1 cm from the edge and you can continue your work and make a pillow, bag etc.
My artichoke is like this:
The colours seem different because I used another camera for the last picture. I know it is not a very economical technique, but I think the end is beautiful. I hope you'll enjoy to work on it. Have a nice time!