Finished To-Date July 21, 2011
It was an extremely productive week from a quilting perspective. First, my family left town and drove to Denver. I got to stay home (who wants to be in a Mini Cooper with 3 other people for 20 hours???). And then, I decided to spend some evenings quilting. I even took half a day of hookie to quilt, too!
All-in-all, I think I started to get the hang of how to effectively use border fabric in the blocks. It has been a challenge. And I keep doing things like cutting on the wrong line, creating templates of the wrong size…none of that helps!
Block 6: Big Dipper
Block 6: Big Dipper
This block was pretty easy to create. I didn’t do anything fancy, just made the block. Easy peasy.
Block 7: Birds in the Air
Block 7: Birds in the Air
This block was also pretty easy. I decided to use the crystal piecing technique to make all of the half-square triangles. The crystal piecing method basically has you draw lines on the wrong side of the fabric, sew 1/4 inch in from the lines, and then cut. Someday, when I have the time, I’ll post information about this technique. The other ways to create this block would be to template cut and piece teeny little triangles or to use paper foundations. I really love the way this block turned out. I think the fabrics work really well together.
Block 9: Box
Block 9: Box
Oh this block had me STUMPED for a while! I knew I wanted to use border fabric. But, I kept trying to figure out a way to use the border fabric for the center and spokes. One thing about working with border fabric – if you don’t have opposite edges line up (such as putting two triangles together or two hexagons together), you don’t end up with a new pattern in the print. You just end up with the print back where you started, only missing the 1/4 inch seam allowance. Trust me. I’ve thought this through.
Once I realized that the border fabric needed to be placed in the four outer triangles, life got easy. Here’s the detail of the pieced triangle:
Block 9: Box Detail
Block 10: Bowtie
Block 10: Bowtie
How to take an otherwise incredibly boring block and make it interesting! I love the way this block turned out. The center diamond is pieced from border fabric:
Block 10: Bowtie Detail
Doesn’t it make the block SO much more interesting? I’m not so sure it looks like a bowtie, but that doesn’t matter. I just like the block.
While we are here, I want to add another photograph. this is a close up of the detail from Block 2: Autumn Tints:
Block 2: Autumn Tints Detail
