It's How You Look at It

 

I love taking an idea and pushing it around, to see what else it can do. These blocks are arranged the same way as in Saturday's post.

Here is the photo from Saturday's post, so you don't have to go anywhere else to see it. In the top photo the orange triangles form open six pointed stars and they have different colored diamonds in the middle.

In the bottom photo the same six pointed stars are less obvious because I have made them with different colored triangles. Your eye is more attracted to the dark blue diamonds at the center of each of the stars mostly because there is a strong light/dark contrast between the dark blue diamonds and the white background.

It's interesting how different they look.

The layouts above are about four feet across by three and a half feet high, so not quite big enough to fill out a whole quilt...

so I added more dark blue diamonds above, below and to the right of every "bowtie" pair of blocks. I like where this is going.

and because looking at something in a different way is always instructional, here is the same photo rotated ninety degrees.  It looks completely different, and oh, the possibilities this has!!!

But back to the unrotated view. Here I added more "bow tie" pairs thus surrounding the blue diamonds at the top and bottom with multi colored six pointe stars.

Now I am really loving this. I love the "graphic" quality of this. By "graphic" I mean "modern," "flat" (no three dimensional space), and "geometric." I love the traditional Amish quilts for the same reason.

While this is now five feet wide (60") it still isn't quite tall enough for me as a quilt. Remember I live where the ground freezes and it snows in winter. A lap sized quilt won't cut it here.

Here I have filled out the left and right edges and added more blue diamonds to the top and bottom. 

This quilt would be about 60" x 78" and that works for me.

Now this is a Scrap Slab Triangle quilt. You can see the others I have made here. And should you want to make one (and use up your scraps), you can get the updated tutorial here. I

n the past I have used small prints on cream or white fabrics to fill in the spaces around the slab triangles, but I have decided for this quilt, I will fill in the empty spaces with WOW fabrics.

Long triangles, left and right, which are NOT interchangeable in White On White fabrics which can be hard to tell apart.

What can possibly go wrong? (ROFLMAO)

By the way, Mom's boyfriend is doing very well. He can drive short distances and is going to physical therapy. 

More on Black Light

 

Turns out I had a black light. It was nowhere near as powerful as Randy's but. I bought it years ago when one of my cats (pre Millie) had issues with the litter box.)

Here are the WOWs I bought yesterday. Hard to tell what they look like, right?

My little black light only worked in complete darkness, and then not very well. However...

When I ran the photo through my photo editing software, add added a bit of light... I got this. I mean it isn't terrific, but you can see the patterns of the WOWs I bought.

I think it's pretty cool!

Randy is BRILLIANT!

 

While I was waiting for my sewing machine at the sewing machine spa (Aka Bittersweet Fabric Shop) I was browsing their fabrics. 

While I am trying to work my way through my stash, my collection of White On Whites is getting bit thin, so I decided I would get some. The WOWs at Bittersweet were on a shelf just above my eye level and I was having a hard time seeing what they looked like. When I mentioned it, Randy, the owner, said, "That's why we have a black light right there." So I took the light down and pointed it at a bolt of fabric. 

OH HOLY HELL!  Randy is BRILLIANT!

I had to share. I told Randy I was going to post it on my blog. "Oh right," he laughed, "now quilt shops everywhere will have to have black lights available for their customers. You'll start a trend."

Hell yeah!

Anyway, I bought 10.

Asterisks, Front and Back

I am sewing the asterisks together, and since they are arranged any which way, sewing them together is pretty interesting. I try to visualize how to sew them together without sewing into corners. First I trim the edges of the asterisks straight, and I usually add a chunk of background WOW fabric to one side, then put it up on the design wall to figure out where the next piece goes, and keep going from there. I don't usually end up with "exactly" what was on the design wall, but as long as I have a photo to guide me (hint hint: use your phone to take photos for reference) I'm in good shape.

 I'm not done. I still have to add one asterisk in the upper right hand corner, and I have to sew two more to the left side.

In these photos you can tell I use WOWs interchangeably. I like the variation they provide. I like the way the light hits them differently. Whenever I go fabric shopping I always buy about five or six WOWs in half yard pieces.

Here's what the panel looks like from the wrong side.

How do I get it to look this nice? I press the crap out of stuff, and I use steam. After I press, or before I sew one piece to another, I trim the edge to make sure it is straight. When I sew I pin the pieces together.

Julie watched me when she was here. "I pin stuff," I told her as I was getting ready to sew something together.

"You use a lot of pins," she said.

I shrugged. "Whatever. It works for me."

At any rate, the backs of each and every quilt I make look as nice as the back of the asterisks you see above.

B&W on WoW

This is what happens at my house when I buy fabric. 

Over the weekend I went up to Quilted Threads and bought several yards of WOW fabrics for the Digital Pinwheels quilt. After running it through the washer and the dryer, I dumped it on my work table, intending to iron it later.

Apparently I wasn't quick enough!

Old Box, New Box

Judy in Michigan wondered if the white inside of the box was a moire fabric.

Nope.

It's the same White on White as it was in the original box.

See?

Woo Hoo!

Now THIS is the effect I was looking for! Finally I know exactly how to get precisely the effect I was after. Oh boy, I am really going to have some fun with this technique.