Sneak Peek

Yesterday I went to the quilt shop and I worked for 5 hours on my quilt! The top is almost finished and I really like it. I have to sew on a couple of more border pieces, and then I will take pictures. It's kind of an artsy thing, and although at first I wanted to use it as a throw, now I'm thinking I might hang it up. but, it's kind of big. So, we'll see.

Here are some of the blocks.






















My piecing isn't perfect, but it is certainly better than any I've done before. I was excited because my instructor said that my quilt was "exceptionally good"










But, seeing the blocks individually like this isn't really a "fair" preview. The whole idea of the quilt is putting the blocks together in a way that creates a certain movement, theme, or overall design. I'm very pleased with how mine is turning out. You'll see what I mean when I post the finished top - of course, I have to find a place big enough to put the finished top and get the picture.







On the home sewing front, I've started making some cropped pants from a New Look Pattern. I think it may be OOP (out of print) since I couldn't find it on their website. I can see why - the pants have about a gazillion pattern pieces, and I'm not even doing any of the additional tabs, loops, or patch pockets! I'm hoping to get these made up in the next few days. I did not make a muslin. Somehow, I lost one of my favorite fitting books "Fitting Finesse" by Nancy Zieman. So, I ordered her new book, "Fit with Confidence" which is basically a revised version of the former. Anyway, the reason I ordered it was because I used her measurement fit method for pants once before and I liked it. I don't think I did it right last time though - either that, or I didnt' do it right this time! Anyway, I'm making these pants according to her method (or at least my interpretation of it) and making the pants without a muslin. I would like to say I am going to make them with wide seam allowances, but it seems that I forgot to cut them out that way. Hmm, I guess I better hope they fit!

One Block Wonder

I am taking a quilting class and am excited about it. There is a type of quilt called a one block wonder that is made from just one fabric and just one shape (equilateral triangle)
Here is my fabric:
























First you find the repeat in the fabric. Then, you tear on the line of the repeat. It's best to have a repeat of 12" or more. Mine is 23", so I'm going to have a fairly large quilt. (Why can't I learn to do "smaller"? I would be done much quicker I think if my quilt weren't so big!) You need six repeats so that you can get six layers. Once you have all of the layers torn, you line them up as perfectly as possible using pins. Next, you cut them into strips, and then triangles.







Now you will have stacks of 6 indentical triangles and you lay them out like hexagons. You really need a design board/wall to make this quilt so that you can arrange the hexagons. Here is my poor-man's version - batting pinned up on the wall with push pins. It works great! (I can also roll it up and take my quilt to class without having to mess up the order of anything.)





The class is just 2 Fridays, but I'm going in today to work on mine a little bit. I have all of my triangles cut, and most of my hexagons sewn. Actually, you lay out the hexagons, but you only sew halves. That way, the quilt can be sewn in rows instead of fiddling with all those inside corners.

I'll keep you posted as I progress.