The centre of my Split Tumbler is now done. Keryn and I have both had miserable colds for over two weeks, and it derailed my sewing schedule somewhat. We're on the mend and to get back into the swing of things I finished these blocks and sewed them together, and then added this little striped border.

Both Keryn and I love this fabric and have used it multiple times over the years. It's a Jo Morton stripe with a black background. When we were buying fabrics by the bolt they accidentally sent two of this design but we realised how valuable it would be and happily paid for both.

Because I cut the stripe lengthwise I could calmly reel off two metres without a qualm. Bolts of fabric give one a delicious feeling of abundance...

I cut quarter of an inch beyond the little tan stripe, to make the seam allowances, and then I sewed exactly on the line on the back of the fabric. Or rather very slightly to the right of it. I almost went crosseyed I was concentrating so hard but it turned out well so it was worth the effort.

I mitred the corners and they looked very classy; this fabric is very forgiving and I didn't need to take any trouble with where the corner fell.

I think there will be more borders but I haven't decided on them yet, I'm just happy to have got this far after feeling awful for weeks. I'm making progress on other projects, so I'll put this to one side, and something will occur to me down the track. It's great to be sewing again!

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 I said that I'd started a second quilt using the Triangler ruler, but this one isn't in the book. When I was looking through the patterns, this little graphic jumped out at me, as well as the information that you could cut two of these shapes from a 3 1/2" by 4 1/2" rectangle.

I happen to cut some of  my scraps into this size, and I had quite a stack in the drawer and I decided to use them to try out an idea.

The  image of a triangle quilt in an old Ladies Circle Patchwork Quilts magazine (July 1988) floated into my mind  and I started cutting and sewing. I didn't bother to track down the issue and refresh my memory, because I was changing things around anyway, but I've just looked it up and I'm surprised that this stuck in my memory for so long. It was a tiny little part of the background of the photo, but something in it spoke to me.

(The caption says it was made by Janet Grimal, so at least I can give her credit.)

I always thought that I wouldn't like matching  the points of the triangles but the points are blunted in my version, so I don't have to worry about that.

 You can see that the triangle quilt is made of much wider shapes too- the pattern  says a 60 degree diamond cut into quarters. The tip of the Triangler is a 45 degree angle. Two of my pieces joined together look a bit like a tumbler, so I'm calling it a Split Tumbler.

 These went together really quickly, but I made some rules concerning lights and darks and mediums, and I also had to work out when to reverse the shapes. This is one of those simple patterns that can be tricky if you don't take notice of which way the shape slopes- you can't just rotate it around because it has to be flipped, or reversed. I'll do another post telling you how I remembered what to do, if you're interested.

I plan to make this a lot bigger, and have a pile of pieces waiting to be sewn. I just love the overall pattern of this, even though it's only one shape it has an almost prismatic quality.

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 A while ago I got out these Compass blocks and decided to set them together somehow. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted, so I put them up on the design wall and I've been steadily working away at the borders since then.

 I pieced the diamond borders first, and then stared at them for weeks until the cream border occurred to me, and then the floral strip suggested itself and all I had to do was work out the proportions. I'll be able to do some nice quilting in the cream border, methinks.

  Yesterday I redid the centres of two of the smaller blocks, changing them from machine applique to hand stitching, and then I sewed everything together in a matter of an hour or so.

I really like how this turned out, and I will probably add another border, when I've stared at it for a bit longer. It looks very Quilters Newsletter Magazine- ish, but it's not really my style. I won't make a full size top from it, but it would probably be nice as a wallhanging, so I won't pack it away just yet.

It's only taken me four months to get this far, so I'm obviously not in any hurry!

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