Sunday, November 23, 2014

 Well that didn't take long! Thirty blocks joined together, and I'm still not sick of this pattern. I had fun using lots of different greens, there are grey greens, blue greens, limey greens, dull greens. Overall they go together, but they're certainly a varied lot.

I couldn't find exactly the red I wanted in the stash, but Keryn suggested this cheerful fabric, with it's large yellow and pink design, and it really does liven things up. I was going to just have long sashing strips across the width of the top, but then I remembered how I hate lining up the blocks. I usually measure and draw marks on the strip which is time consuming and fiddly, but accurate. It seemed easier to put a square of low contrast fabric in between the sashes  so that the setting looked as if it were one fabric, but it was easy to match corners up. I like this and will do it again, it was a neat  solution to the problem.

There are still piles of green fabric littering the cutting table, so I think I'll have to try a piano key border in an attempt to use even more scraps in this top. They can be my leader-enders while I finish another project- I'm working on my list of tops to complete before 2015 and trying to be realistic about what I can actually achieve. But this one will be done for sure....

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Friday, November 14, 2014

 I've been meaning to make a Sister's Choice quilt for a while, but a photo on Bonnies's blog here tipped me over the edge. Does anyone know who this lady is, so I can give her credit for inspiring me?  I've been trying to use up green scraps, and this seemed just perfect. It's also vaguely Christmassy, and we're heading into that time of the year, aren't we?

I was going to use Bonnie's instructions, until I realised flippy corners were involved. I will use this method on occasion, it's certainly quick and easy, but I cannot bring myself to throw away the cutoffs and I have bags and bags of them waiting to be dealt with already. I wondered if I could use the Companion angle to cut the background pieces, and it was blindingly easy. I love speciality rulers!
These are 2 1/2" strips and I first trimmed a triangle with the Easy angle. This block doesn't need any light triangles, but it's an easy way to get the proper angle and not waste that first little bit. The triangles went in the drawer to be used somewhere else.

Then I flipped the strip over so that the angle was sloping the other way

and put the Companion Angle on it, lining up the sloping edges and making sure the 6" mark is on the bottom of the strip. This means the finished size, after the triangles are sewn on will be 6", just the measurement we need.

I kept flipping the strip, and also I only do one layer at a time. If you make a mistake with big pieces like this and multiple layers  you run the risk of wasting a lot of fabric. I found it still went really quickly, and you eliminate so many steps of the flippy corners, (marking the sewing lines, sewing the second line, trimming them off..) that it's well worth it. At the other end of the strip I cut another triangle, or a square if there was room.

I could get enough pieces for two blocks from a WOF strip, and  needed another strip for the corner squares.

Then I cut eight triangles from the star point fabric, 2 1/2" strips again.

Sewing them was so quick, I chain pieced about seven blocks worth at a time, then pressed them all. I love having all the different parts stacked up ready to go.

I've made about twenty now, but I'm having such a good time I think I'll increase that to thirty. The green scraps aren't disappearing fast enough for my liking...

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