Each year for Christmas I try a new quilt pattern or design. I get out the giant bin of holiday fabric and start digging and then usually spend a few weeks in the quilt room. Only thing is, with me when it comes to quilt patterns (and fabric for that matter) I'm like Steve Martin's character in the movie "The Jerk" in that scene where he's picking up the *only* things he needs and the list just keeps going and going... "The ashtray, this paddle game, and the remote control, and the lamp, and that's all *I* need." It's almost to the point of a sickness.. I can imagine the scene now.. me and a room full of old ladies with eye glasses that have those decorative chains on them so they can take the glasses off and hang them around their necks like my high school homeroom teacher Mrs Smith... then I gingerly step to the podium and say.. ".. Hello.. my name is Kim and I'm addicted to fabric and quilt patterns.. " to which they all respond "HELLO KIM!" and then clap.
The reason is easy, for me, the Christmas pattern designs are festive and colorful and since they're given away as gifts you haven't been sitting there looking at them all year getting tired of them. Also, I still enjoy making each of the designs I create during the holidays, so I don't want to give any of them up and keep them in my project list and then add a new one each year. A few years ago the Christmas project was the Bethlehem Star, which I'm
sure you're all sick to death of since it's become my go-to project.
I'll admit it.. I love sewing stars.. so sue me! Then last Christmas I did a star and added a wreath wall hanging. and this year the wreath became a throw and I added a new pattern, a 'twisted Rudy'. I know what you're thinking, 'sounds like the name of a cocktail from an awkward Mary Tyler-esk dinner party'. Yeah, but it's really cute and turned out to be super fun to make.
I had looked online and in some books for ideas for this year's new Christmas quilt pattern. I wanted something that I'd never done before.. something interesting. So I stumbled upon a 'youtube' video for a ruler that makes Twisted Squares.. looks like a helpful product and for $8 it will make creating twisted blocks fast and easy. A twisted square is a square made from a 4 patch block where the seams are set on a 30 degree angle. Now, I enjoy a good quilting gadget as much as the next person... but $8 plus shipping for a 4 inch square of plexiglass with a few lines printed on it just wasn't going to happen. Some might even choose to use the word "cheap".. I'll stick to frugal
and maybe crafty. Well, anything to save a buck.. or possibly 8 bucks! To add insult to frugality, the pattern for this quilt could be downloaded, but wasn't free.
I had some fabric that I felt fit the project well and who am I to let a good pile of fabric go to waste... so.. if this quilt was to be made I was going to need a pattern. That's where my nerd meets quilter's brain came into play and it was time to reverse engineer the Twisted Rudy design. Not real hard to do, about an hour, some graph paper and my son's Crayola colored pencils and whalla.. I had a plan.I cut this project with the help of a ruler that I already had in my quilting ruler stash that had many triangle markings on it, including a 30 degree indication. It wasn't as fancy as the special one that only does one thing, but didn't cost me $8 either. The finishing of this project was done by machine tying the quilt with a double polyester batting which made for a really fluffy warm little throw blanket.
This twisted Rudy was donated to a very worthy cause, a fund raiser to raise money for a family who has a baby girl who was very ill and the Mommy had lost her job after having to be at her daughter's hospital bedside. Since this is a Christmas project.. and Christmas brings about the spirit of giving, I figure donating it is somewhat fitting.
This was a fun project, I'm also thinking that perhaps I'll do a few other "twisted" block projects and perhaps a tutorial on this 'Twisted Rudy'.
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