Playing With Highlights

There was a lot of flurry when Kona announced their Color of The Year.  The refreshing shade of Highlight can be as bold as you want, or toned down with coordinating colors.  I was intrigued with the color and immediately jumped on the 'gotta have' band wagon.

Robert Kaufman held a Highlight Block challenge on Instagram that produced some pretty amazing blocks.  Check out  #konacotychallenge and see for yourself!  I decided I may as well make a block too!  Who doesn't love a good challenge?  

18" x 16 1/2"

I've been wanting to make this design for well over a year, and the challenge seemed like the time to work up the design.  

I first had to make my templates, which I did in EQ7. Drunkards Path with a few modifications.  The hardest part was getting the proportions correct for the triangle.  I nearly got it perfect, but there are still a couple pattern wrinkles to iron out.

      

I should have ironed first, but I couldn't wait to get started!  With my pieces cut out, I was ready to tackle the curves.  

There are any number of ways to sew Drunkard Path blocks. Pin the hell out of them, take a chance and don't pin, or glue baste.  I had never tried glue basting before, so I decided to see what all the hoopla was about this technique.  

Now I get it.

     
I began by making a crease in the center of both pieces.  This will be the most important part of the block.  You want things to line up.

The glue is your everyday Elmer's School Glue.  Since I'm new to this, I don't have a fancy Applicator Tip and I didn't really need it.  You have to be careful applying it to the fabric, but it worked just fine.  Besides, I nearly always was my quilts when they are done which will take care of any glue splotches.

I put a fine line of glue from the center crease along the edge, lined up the top piece and placed the tip of my dry iron along the edge for a few seconds.  Working my way around the curve, I lined up the edge, iron, line up, iron.  

It wasn't long and I had a pile of pieces!  It was really fast.  The glue held in place perfectly! No pinning needed, and I love that!  

It made sewing the curves fast and easy.  All in all...I'm a glue basting fan!  Not on everything, but Drunkard Path block...absolutely!

With the three blocks completed, I still had to make a couple adjustments so that the center triangle was perfectly aligned.  And it worked.  

I should mention that I went a little crazy when piecing the individual blocks together.  I stitched the black with black thread and yellow with yellow thread.  I wanted to keep it clean, which is hilarious since I didn't think about how the black fabric would show when the curves were pressed!

I started quilting 1/4" lines in a simple triangle design and then echoed the outside of the circles.  At which point I was stuck.  It sat over night while I pondered over the next step.  

You can see the quilting better from the back.  It might look complicated, trust me...it wasn't!

I'll make a confession:  I used my regular foot attachment for all the quilting.  No dual feed here!  I wanted all the lines to be 1/4" (or close to it).  I moved my needle to the left until I had 1/4" from the left edge of the foot.  Then I just follow the previous line over and over using the edge of the foot. 

You say it looks like a Pac Man or The Legend of Zelda, I get that!  I think I'll call it 

Self-Deception.  

I tried another version of this pattern using Studio E Peppered Cottons today.  The first pattern was slightly off, the second pattern is slightly off...shall I go for #3?  I think so!  I have a plan!

LINKING:

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