– Lin Clements
CATHEDRAL WINDOW
Cathedral Window is a folded patchwork technique which, as you may have guessed, was originally inspired by historic church and cathedral stained-glass windows. In essence, a square of fabric is folded so that raw edges are hidden, with sections of the work then folded back to reveal a window that contains a second, contrasting fabric. This technique can be worked by hand or machine and, if worked totally by hand, makes a great portable project ideal for lovers of hand work. Cathedral Window does not usually require wadding or quilting, plus the folded fabric squares make the quilts heavy and dense and ideal for winter warmth. Variations of Cathedral Window have been developed over the years (including rectangular versions) but in this article, we focus on the basic square method and use a mostly hand-sewn technique. In the next issue, we will look more closely at machine techniques. As we are celebrating in this issue, I have chosen to make, by hand, samples that are suitable for special occasions ‒ some with added bling in the form of metallic fabrics and added beads and buttons. The samples were made up as cushions ‒ this sort of project is ideal for Cathedral Windows as they are fairly quick to make
