Rainy Day Fabric Comes In Handy

Sometimes the plan and design comes before the fabric, and other times the fabric is something that catches my eye at the fabric store and I can't leave it behind.  As was the case with this bit of fabric, I just couldn't leave it behind I knew it would fit just right for some project on the horizon.  So I bought it and saved it for the proverbial 'rainy day' project.  The fat quarters that you see in this photo were presented in a pack of 5 ranging from light to dark in a variation of white, gray and black floral prints.  Alone each one of these would easily fit into many quilt projects, however I was determined to keep them together.  When I purchased these fat quarters they had displayed next to them the two additional fabrics, a bright yellow geometric design that held all the colors in my 5 shade stack as well as a floral with the same shades plus this same vibrant, bright yellow color, obviously from a designer's pattern family.

For literally months and months when I finished a project and my quilting table was empty waiting for the next I pulled these out and looked at them, moved them about on the table, imagined a design to use them in, but nothing came to mind for these.  I just couldn't find something that I wanted to use them in.  Then while scrolling around some images on the internet I stumbled across a quilt done with log cabin blocks that had various black and white fabric designs within the log cabin squares while the center square of each block was a bright red print.  The red was used just as an occasional accent, I was inspired.  I got the pile of fabrics out, my extra long pad of graph paper, colored pencils that approximated the colors that I had to work with and off I went.

Since I kept the design fairly simple this project went together extremely fast.  This photo is blurry because it was taken with my cell phone and a lot of times I don't realize it but I'm taking pictures through finger prints on the camera that is on the back of the phone.  This is about half way through the center portion of this quilt top.  Not certain you can tell from this but most of the way through I followed my quilt plan and used the map as a guide.

As I often do, I attempted to calculate my center field pattern of the quilt to fit the width of a twin sized bed.  That was the design, but I had taken a gamble that the fat quarters that I had for the shades of white through black prints were enough to finish the project.  They were literally just enough, but not without a little re-positioning of a bit of the design map I had made.  Once the quilt top was complete, before it went up onto the frame it got a dry run on Jason's bed to make sure my placement of the quilted field appeared correct.  It appears here as though the center extends beyond the mattress top boarders but when quilted it will loose an inch or two on either side.  Should fit a twin bed nicely.

 When this one came off the quilt frame I had prepared two different colors for the binding; gray and black.  I thought the gray would lighten it up a bit as there is a lot of black in this project, however the gray seemed to fade away and just wasn't bold enough.  I went with a black binding and I think it ties the fabrics together.

This project will be one of two that will be donated to the Salem Christian School spring auction this year, hopefully it will earn a good amount of money for the school.

The binding, backing and quilting.

The finished project.

Great Expectations

I know, this doesn't look like my usual color pallet, more like a color wheel exploded all over the quilt room.  These fabrics were selected by a client of mine who had hired me to create a quilt for her.  This quilt was a gift for her first great granddaughter due to be born this May.  She knew just what she wanted, picked out and purchased all the fabrics ahead of time and even selected the pattern / design.  All I had to do with it was piece and quilt it. The pinwheels came together very quickly and were a lot of fun; check out my previous post and tutorial on the process I used for putting them together <HERE>.


The in-process photos of this B&S quilt project.  This was a fun project for me because the lady who hired me chose a full sized quilt pattern and wanted her version of it to be a crib size.  It sounds simple to do, but when the dimensions of a pieced design need to be shrunk it all has to be done .. every dimension of every shape.  Good quilt math practice for me, my 10th grade geometry teacher (Mr. Cataldo) would be proud. :)

Colors chosen were bright and vibrant and off set by  a contrasting fabric called 'confetti', named for the specks of bright colors through it.

Quilt top complete and awaiting backing, quilting and binding.

 

A bit of an up close photo of this quilt top.  As I mentioned, a little more of a a busy design and colors than what I usually use.  However, the purple in this pattern (along the boarder and in the lattice design) match the color in the baby's nursery.  For a little girl's room this should fit right in.

On the quilt frame...

 

Had some extra fabric so the client asked for a small pillow to match...

I had some fun with this one, quick project to put together that was really appreciated by the client who ordered it.  Hopefully the baby that it was made for will enjoy it for years and years.

Pinwheels In A Flash

Need to make up a lot of pinwheels but hate piecing fabric triangles on the bias?  Me too... So, I had found a tutorial a long time ago in a desperate search for ways to make half square triangle piecing easier.  For those of you who may not know what that is, a half square triangle is just simply a square made out of two right-angled triangles.  A traditional way of making these is to cut your triangles and then sew them together via the long side of the right triangle.  The problem I have with this method is that it is often my experience that the small point of the triangles at the beginning of your seam tend to get all stuck and  bunched up in the machine, not to mention the fabric stretches along the bias cut of the triangle.  I needed a faster, more fool-proof method; and that just what I found.  Since you're reading this now, now that's also what you've found.

In this project the pattern called for 12 large and 12 small pinwheels.  This method creates 8 half square triangles which in-turn will make 2 pinwheels which makes this prep work a really a fast method for pinwheels.

Step 1  - Create squares of fabric that will make up your pinwheels.  For this project I have solid colors with a white 'confetti' background fabric.  The squares size will depends on the finished size of your pinwheel.  Mine is an odd size here as the final project is a quit for a crib that is slightly larger than the crib mattress size.  You would need to measure is the size of the triangles needed for the half square triangle pieces and work that into determining the size here.  Like I said, mine were a odd size so the squares I've made are approximately 10 inches square.

 

Step 2  - Lay your fabric squares together, right sides of the fabric touching. 

 

Step 3 - Draw lines on the lighter color of fabric in the pair.  Here I've drawn a line from corner to corner, then the other corner to corner and then pencil lines in the center of each straight side.

Step 4 - Use the diagonal line(s) as a guide and sew your 1/4 inch seam on either side of ONLY those diagonal lines.  I've flipped this example over here so you can what this looks like so far.

 

 Step 5 - Cut along the pencil lines that you drew in step 3.  This step will leave you with 8 pieced half square triangles.

Step 6 - After pressing your seams all you need to do is assemble the final block.  For the project I'm working on with this fabric it's pinwheels, but you can use the half square triangles for any pieced block that calls for them.