The Bonus Is Triangles

I've been getting behind on so many things these days.  We've been going through home repairs that ended up being a bigger can of worms than expected.  It's put my normal every day routine out of whack! 

I was able to carve out some time between the jack hammer and tile removal to finish my Bonus Triangle quilt.  The quilting was a fun adventure that was pedal to the medal...yet, not my usual straight lines.  

34 1/2" x 49"

A quick refresher:  This quilt was made with the bonus Half Square Triangles from a quilt I made using my 'X-Squared' quilt block.  While it all started with this quilt: Pink With An Attitude, I have yet to start quilting on that one!  For today we'll focus on an actual, real finish!

 

So, the quilting you ask?!  I will admit I'm a bit smitten with this quilting design.  When strolling through Blogs, Pinterest or Instagram we always come across something that sparks our interest and we put it in the back of our mind for 'one day'.  Sadly I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw the quilting that inspired me.  I'd be happy to give credit where credit is due and I apologize for not remembering.

I decided now was a good time to use some variegated thread.  Not just any thread, Aurifil Pink Taffy (4660) 50 wt thread.  Aurifil kindly provided me with this spool as part of the Aurifil Artisan program.  The shades of pinks in this spool are so pretty!  It's feeding my new obsession with all things pink these days.

The blocks are 2 3/4" finished squares, and the options for quilting something like this are pretty endless.  Yet, that inspiration quilting I had tucked in the back of my mind was all I could think about.  

It's like an orange peel and organic straight lines combined.  I did not mark the curves or the distance from the seams, I relied on my eagle eye for semi consistent curves.  Using my walking foot, I started at a corner seam and stitched a curve to the next corner seam.  It's much simpler than it sounds.

For those who need a visual aid, I made a quilting diagram.  It is sometimes easier to show that tell!  I quilted vertical lines and then the horizontal lines.  From this diagram, it looks like apple cores!

  

After the first rows, I repeated the process except quilting on the opposite side of the seams.  After a little while you find a rhythm and the curves become easier.  It really is a fun design and I know I'll use it often now!

With the front being bonus HST's and scrappy, the back seemed like a good place to make a scraptastic backing!  I had a couple 16" X-Squared blocks left over and decided to combined those with some solids.  A double sided delight!

I really wish I had more bonus HST's!  There couldn't possible be a more versatile block on the planet...could there?!

That being said...what's your all time favorite block?  What do you think is the most all around multipurpose quilt block?

LINKING:

Oh Scrap

Main Crush Monday

Let's Bee Social

Needle & Thread

TGIFF

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Finished or Not 

Another Secret Surprise!

It's that time again!  I've made another Mini Quilt for an unsuspecting victim person!  I can say that there are so many amazing people in our little quilting world.  People who inspire, people who have become friends, people who support, people I can't imagine living without. You know the saying 'there is nothing like quilty friends'.  So true.  

I decided a couple months ago that I would start thanking random people for making my journey a hundred times better than I ever thought it could be.  In May I made my Crystallized Glacier Mini Quilt for one such person.  They were truly surprised, shocked and it made their day!  

Let's do it again, shall we?!  Rainbow hearts are everywhere and I gotta say I'm honored to have been a part of the quilt drive sponsored by  The Orlando Quilt Guild.  I'm sure many of you have saved and even used the sliced off corners from the hearts.  I couldn't let them linger or get tossed away.  And in the end, they inspired me to make my next secret surprise quilt.

14 3/4" x 14 3/4"

A warm welcome to Mama Heart and Baby Heart!  How could I resist showing both together?!  

I grabbed the rainbow corners and stitched them together giving me one big stack of half square triangles.  I was able to pick and choose my rainbow colors which was harder than I thought it would be!  I trimmed the HST's to 3" square, arranged the heart shape, and then added the low volume squares.  The rest was a breeze. Sew the blocks, press, sew the rows, press and done. 

Which left only the quilting and binding.  I had just read a blog, A Quilters Table where Debbie had quilted her quilt using a grid design.  It obviously stuck in my mind, because that is almost exactly what I decided to do with this heart.  Sweet inspiration!

The squares are roughly 1/4", and the grid is just in the inside of the heart.  I quilted the vertical lines using a neutral thread, but I still wanted to bring in some color and fun.  I decided to quilt 1/4" horizontal lines in each heart color using a matching thread, and carrying it through the center with double lines.  

I ended up using 12 different thread colors in the center.  The corners and center were finished off with the neutral thread.  I couldn't be happier, I do love dense quilting!

I couldn't stop there, now could I?

I've done this before, its been a while...piecing the binding to extend the color.  One more fine detail!  I can't say I didn't struggle, cursed a few times, or even that it's perfect.  Do you ever get to the point when you want something done?  You work too fast, make mistakes and it usually takes twice as long?  It wasn't even that I was sick of this darn thing either!  I was so anxious to see it finished and get the binding sewn on!

So yeah, it's a little off here and there.  Aren't we all?!  Let's not go that far, won't speak for everyone!

You can see the quilting a little better on the back.  And that my friends, is just what I was hoping for!

(Tutorial for Hanging a Mini Quilt)

The backing is Architextures Crosshatch in grey (Caroline Friedlander).  A fat quarter that has lingered a while in my stash was perfect for the backing and the corners.  

This is a simply simple, delightfully delicious way to use those corner HST's you have stacking up!

LINKING:

TGIFF

Oh Scrap!

Can I get A Whoop Whoop

Fabric Frenzy 

All Good Things Must End ~ For The Moment!

I get tunnel vision when it comes to some things.  Like my hand dyed fabrics!  I tend to dye a big old stack of every color in the rainbow, cut them in to squares and make a ginormous pile of half square triangles.  There's something about the texture, the subtle variation in colors that never seem to bore me.  Which always leads me to make a quilt, or two or three, until every HST has been carefully sewn in to one big (or small) quilt!  (Here is Quilt #1)

33" x 45"

One of my all time favorite designs, my 'go to' baby quilt, is this one.  I arrange and rearrange the blocks until I get just the right combination.  Pink, yellow, purple, green, blue and orange.  

The key is to pick four different shades of one color for each block.  The half square triangles were trimmed to 7 1/2" and the center squares are 2".  I layout the HST's into color groupings, pick four 2" squares for the centers, mark a diagonal line, sew and trim. 

The block itself is pretty simple, pretty basic.  Maybe its the colors, or the hand dyed fabric, perhaps the borders or quilting?!  I'm going with all of the above...it can pack a punch when it's all said and done!  

I often add an inside border, usually 1 1/2" to 2" and finish it with a 3"  wide border in grey. Quilting is another way to add some punch!  My favorite quilting is straight lines in a geometric design.

This was the first time I used 'wild colors'!  By wild I mean, pink, green and aqua.  I thought it would be a fun twist and something different for a change.  

Once I have divided the quilt into sections, I grab my 24" ruler, my trusty Hera marker and proceed marking 1/2" to 1" lines in each section.  Marking the lines gives me a guide to follow while I'm quilting.  They are rarely perfectly perfect!  I can only imagine how they would look if I didn't mark first!  

   

I like the effect, especially when they converge and make a grid!

The cherry on top is always the magic of a 'wash & dry'!  

That was quilt #2...this is quilt #3:

53" x 77"

This baby is all HST's!  Not randomly placed, there was actually order involved!  

And this is quilt #4:

54" x 79"

When I say I get tunnel vision...I'm seriously not kidding!  I used every single HST I had! And when that wasn't enough, I added grey to the corners.  It made for a nice frame and also, different from my usual!  

Maybe I'm afraid if I don't use all the fabric or HST's all at once, I'll never use them?!  I don't exactly know, I can't figure myself out either!  What's done is done! 

What is your 'go to' 'fail safe' design or block?

LINKING:

Let's Bee Social

Needle & Thread
TGIFF

Curiosity Got The Best Of Me

Do you ever wonder just how long a quilting step takes you?  Especially when you are doing a big stack of something?  For instance, half square triangles.  It feels like it takes forever to do each step, so I set out doing a very uncontrolled controlled experiment.

Arguably, the part that takes the longest is cutting your fabric.  It hadn't occurred to me when I was cutting my fabric that I was going to time each step, so that part...sadly is not a part of my experiment!

I started with a stack of 100 8" squares that I paired up making 50 sets of soon to be half square triangles.  When I cut my squares I always grab my Hera Marker and ruler and draw my diagonal line from corner to corner.  It seems to save time when it's time to pair up the squares. 

Chain stitching 1/4" from the diagonal line, I began the first phase of completing my HST's.  

The total time:  13 1/2 minutes  

Cutting the chain apart:  2 minutes

Much as the first phase...the second line took...

Second line: 13.17 seconds and Cutting the chain apart:  2 minutes

Rotary cutting the blocks in between the stitching is one of the parts I like the best!  You get to see your original stack of blocks miraculously multiply!

Cutting on the diagonal:  8 1/2 minutes

You know what's next!  Pressing.  I press my seams to one side when I'm making a big batch. The reason is,  I use my Bloc-Loc ruler to square up the HST's.  The groove in the ruler locks on the seam making trimming so much faster and accurate.

Total pressing time: 18 1/2 minutes

The one part I never really enjoyed when making HST's was squaring up the blocks!  Ugh! Hate is a strong word, but I really hate that part!  That was until I got my set of Bloc-Loc rulers. Honestly.  One of the best tools I ever bought.  The rulers come in all kinds of different sizes, they even have half rectangle and flying geese rulers.  I'm considering adding one or two of those to my collection.  And for the record...I'm not getting paid to say this, I wish...but I'm not!

I can honestly say I have no idea how long it would take to trim these the 'old fashioned' way. Far too long especially if you have a lot of them.  

When I use the Bloc-Loc to trim, I always use the back of my cutting mat.  I don't need the markings from the mat, and it saves the front from repeated use with the rotary cutter.  

The first two sides took: 23 minutes 50 seconds

The second two sides took: 23 1/2 minutes

Obviously trimming takes the bulk of the time other than cutting the fabric.  And lets not forget about assembling the quilt top, and pinning, and quilting and binding...YIKES!  

I ended up cutting my HST's to 7 1/4" square.  I'm pretty sure I could have squeezed another 1/4" out, but sometimes you just gotta make progress.  And how about that pile of shavings?!  

In the end I was left with a heaping bowl full of what should be garbage.  Should be.  Really it should be.  

But me being such a dorky freak...I did something with them...are you curious?  Something other than take crazy 'quilt porn' photos! There should be a law!  I'll share a little bit later!

For now, the total time for 100 - 7 1/4" (total) trimmed and ready HST's took:
1 and 3/4 hours

I've always felt like some of the steps take far too long, like I'm drowning in a process and can't get to the end of it.  It wasn't until I timed each step that I realized 10 minutes, 12 minutes or 30 minutes on it's own, isn't that bad!!  It just seems like it!

Of course, you understand that this isn't a scientific experiment, totally uncontrolled except for my phones stop watch!  It was a fun test and why not?  I'm sitting there chain piecing and trimming, might as well have some fun!

This is one of the quilts made from my labor of love!  I'm still quilting it, but you can see I didn't just time myself for nothing!

Do you ever wonder how long a step in a process takes you?  Do you use Bloc-Loc?  What other type of block do you think seems to take a painstakingly amount of time to finish?

LINKING:

TGIFF

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop