Half-Square Triangle Trick

April 20, 2012October 1, 2022 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

So, I’m pinning along on Pinterest, chasing down Crossed Canoes, checking out boards (it’s the after-lunch slump) and found this tutorial for a new way to make half-square triangles.

The drawback: all the outside edges are on the bias. Like the video says, squirt them with some sort of spray starch.

The benefits: about the easiest way to make half-square triangles I’ve even seen. I found this on WhipUp.net, and she included a chart (WhipUp is no longer available):

Now I’m going to go and dig up about a hundred HST (Half Square Triangle) type quilts and make them all tonight, just like I usually do (cough, cough). I love the one below, found on QuiltBarn’s website (and titled Rainbow Zig-Zag).

I”m making progress on my now-in-its-fourth-incarnation Scrappy Star. Yes, I am. Stay tuned.

Sewing Up A Storm (or a maybe a Breeze)

April 9, 2012April 14, 2012 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

So why lead with this picture?

Usually I put up a quilt (keep scrolling, they’re coming!), so you quilters all go ga-ga and quickly pin it into a file or a pinboard, and because, mainly, I try to keep this site aligned along quilt lines. But this is a prelude to explain what I did this weekend. That is a photo of my daughter and I, and now she has a little girl–actually two. But once upon a time, before puberty hit and all you-know-what broke loose, I used to sew us matching clothes. This was a summer outfit: Laura Ashley jumper and blouse for me, sweet little ruffly pinafore with eyelet slip (and a blouse) for her. I was a Clothing and Textiles major in college and sewed clothing before I could sew quilts, but have done them in tandem since I was young mother, like many in the blogosphere.

I haven’t sewn a lot lately, but last week on the way home from school I stopped *here* and bought this:

It’s some of the Riverwoods Colletion by Karen Combs, which looks batiky, but isn’t. I bought extra of the one on top (who wouldn’t?) yet realized that it would make a wonderful summery skirt.

I got out my roll of Zyrtec examining-room-table paper, given me by a former rep for a drug company, as it is perfect for clothes patterns (ask your doctor for some!), and got to work duplicating a pattern of a favorite skirt. Why, even though I have that pattern sitting there for a prop in the photo? Because the skirt I like is cut on the bias, with a comfortable waist and the right amount of ease.

I wore it to school today. And while you can’t see them, I have blue toes to match (that took six rounds of trying different blue nail polish).

And since I’m headed into making another skirt (Oooh–we wanted the Scrappy Stars! Nope. Not today), I thought I’d show you what some of my quilting friends are doing.

Bert Garino, who is the creator of the In Perfect Harmony quilt, flashed this picture up on Facebook one day. Wow. I was totally blown away (reference back to storm in the title of this post) by the colors she used. Okay how many of you have made a quilt using the Storm at Sea block? Okay. And how many of you used sea and storm colors? Yep. Just as I thought.

It would take a woman of Bert’s vision to turn this quilt into a total stunner by using such delicious jewel tones in her quilt, and avoiding those aquatic sea-colored tones the rest of us use. So I wrote to her and she sent me some more pictures, including the label, as she is one of those wonderful women who makes stunning quilts and gives them away:

Thanks, Bert, for sharing these.

Lisa stopped by last night to show me her watermelon table runner, for which she’d borrowed my triangle ruler to fit the end pieces together.

She also has been busy with EPP, too:

Lisa’s daughter is in band — if you have ever had a band kid, you know what we’re talking about — but in case you haven’t, that involves sitting around a lot, waiting waiting waiting. She said she would have gone nuts had it not been for piecing together her rose blocks.

My friend Judy went to visit her sister in Utah, and that sister and her daughter were working on the above quilt. At first you can’t quite tell what’s going on, but then your eye begins to believe that you’re seeing hexagons everywhere.

And then you see that it’s a triangle–kind of a kaleidoscope/StackNWhack sort of enterprise that is happening here.

But instead of that awful (sorry, but it’s awful) dresden-plate looking affair with the stacked-n-whacked medallion plopped down into a sea of plain blah (like the one to the left–in the old-style way it is usually made) this quilt is sheer brilliance for how those pieces interact with each other.

The niece’s name is Lisa DeLong and her website is wholegrainart.com. And maybe she has hexagons on her mind because she just entered a fairly prestigious worldwide art competition and was accepted, and her piece of art is based on hexagons:

Prayer Circles • Elise DeLong • Handmade watercolor and ink on paper

And last but never the least, is Elinor Peace Bailey, the dollmaker of quite-a-bit-of-reknown. You know her daughter, Laura Gunn, as the woman who brings us that beautiful painterly fabric which we all love. Elinor has been making dolls and dolls and dolls but her creativity just leaks out of her in boundless ways. I was entranced with her recent bag, and asked if I could show it on the blog.

She said Yes, as along as I mentioned her upcoming hand-made journal-making retreat in July. Here’s the flier:

Maybe since I put up the flier, she’ll let me show you a doll.

Title: Sweet Harper and the Clown.

I’ve always been in love with Elinor’s dolls–and certainly Elinor herself. She’s actually my sister’s friend, and once gave me some very good advice when I was going through a divorce. Elinor can cut right through the mustard on any topic you want, and I needed some mustard-cutting at that time. Every time I think a clean, fresh modern look is for me, I haunt her blog and come away convinced that More is More and that I’d better go out buy some buttons and bric-a-brac or something and embellish a suface. Seek her out and take a class from her; an experience of a lifetime!

Sewing · WIP

WIP–iPad Cover

March 20, 2012March 21, 2012 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

Since we had picked up iPads during our jaunt to San Francisco, any self-respecting quilter knows what’s next: make a cover. And I knew just what I wanted to do. Waiting for me when I got home was this sweet little gift of some bird Spoonflower fabric from Betty–we’d done an informal fabric swap (I think I got the better part–thank you Betty!) and these birds were destined to be a part of any cover I’d be making.

But I figure I would start with my husband’s, since I knew he wanted to get his own cover, so whatever I made wouldn’t be a long-term keeper. No pressure. But he wasn’t going to get these terrific birds!

I Googled “iPad cover tutorial” on the web, read through about 12 of what was offered (quite a range!), and dived in. I chose a beige linen for the outside, some blue Minky for the inside, with a top band of blue ikat fabric so the minky wouldn’t show. I wanted it to be solid, and this had to be quick, as my daughter Barbara (read about her *here*) and her grandchildren were arriving in about an hour. I sewed on the top bank of fabric to the Minky, layered it up and started quilting narrow parallel lines in gray thread–not necessarily as a design choice, but because that’s what was in the bobbin.

Cover all quilted. This is the outside.

And this is the inside–showing the band of fabric at the top.

I trimmed it up. Good thing this is the guinea pig model, as the width across — of nearly 16″– is really too snug.

This is the final shaping before I begin the binding of it. The flap is on the lower left of the photo. I’m beginning the binding at the lower left corner proceeding all along the bottom of the shape above, then plan to fold the piece in half, and finish the binding along the joined edges. We’ll see.

I made the binding out of 1 1/2″ wide bias-cut fabric, using the same linen as I did for the cover, then folded in half, then the raw edges pressed to the inside.

Sewing on the binding, heading around that rounded flap corner.

Here’s the inside, showing the band, plus the soft Minky fabric, which will allow the iPad to be protected from scratches.

I sewed the scratchy part of the Velcro to the cover outside, and the soft part to the flap, finishing just as the doorbell rang and my daughter and her three children arrived! My oldest grandchild, Keagan, is holding the finished product, with the iPad slightly protruding. Maddie, the three-year old sister and Riley, the five-year old brother hadn’t made it up the stairs yet.

And here it is closed. I’m sure my husband is still looking for just the perfect cover, but this will get him through until he finds just what he wants. I’ll be starting on my cover when all these little people in my life have returned home, and after I finish grading the midterms. Spring Break ends this week–so sad to see it go, but summer is just a short 9 weeks from now. I’m already counting down the days.

On another note, here’s a couple of pictures with my other granddaughters in them–having received their doll quilts. They are both posing with the quilts I made for them when they were born.

Oh, yeah. I’m one of THOSE grandmas, who’ll whip out her phone to show you pictures of her grandchildren. Yep, any time. Any place.

Other projects I’m working on:
Doll quilts for Keagan and her little sister Maddie and a “guy-quilt” for Riley’s Buzz Lightyear figure
Star quilt, which adorns my pin wall and I still love
Hexagon blocks, which are a nice piece of handwork when I sit down to watch a movie (not this week!)

Thanks–no, many thanks!--go to Lee of Freshly Pieced Fabrics, who is hosting this Works In Progress Wednesday. Return to her blog to see what she, and others are working on.

Sewing

Winners! of Superior Thread Leap Day Giveaway

March 3, 2012 Elizabeth E.2 Comments

Many thanks to all who entered the thread giveaway.

All of the names are listed below–you guys are pretty amazing. I’m going to suggest to Superior that if they ever need a thread color named, I know just where to send them. I just couldn’t decide so finally my husband took me out for dinner, helped me pour over all the excellent entries and helped me select two. But I bumped it up to three. Could have bumped it up to about a hundred.

The three winners are: Diane, who chose Tangelina and made me think of that leg that’s been all over the news; Judy, who picked Princess Sunkissed, that made me think of all those sunny-colored oranges that my friend has been bringing to me; and Gwen, for Marmalady, a clever twist on a name that several suggested. I’ll be in touch via email. And yes, while I only offered two prizes, I’ll think up something fun (thread-wise) for the third winner.