More Sweet Sixteens

 

I've sewed up another batch of four patch strips, then I sewed the pairs into 16 patch blocks. Unlike the last batch, there aren't enough strips to make 16 patch blocks that were consistent, so in this batch I tried to pair up strip sets that would be similar to each other. 

At first glance these are consistent blocks, but when you look closer you can see the differences. I think they are kind of fun. I don't know if I will use these with the other blocks yet. I have some more blocks to break down into 4 block strips, but the ones I have left are all yellow. More "harvesting" to come!

Making Lemonade

 When life gives you lemons, you are told to make lemonade. When you make quilts, you have scraps. 

I kept all the scraps from when I made my Zebra quilts. It is A LOT OF FABRIC. This bin is full of them. I have a lot of the striped triangles, I have strip sets and long strips of fabric. It took me a few days to figure out what to do with them. I decided to cut the strip sets and the striped triangles crosswise into blocks of four, and then combine them into sixteen patches.

Then I got smart. I decided to focus on the strip sets, and make sixteen patches from those. It would be a more efficient way of working because it would eliminate any decision making.

I went through the box, and removed all the 8-strip stripsets, and folded them in half and pressed them.

Then I used my seam ripper to rip out the seam. And I mean RIP! I did not "un-pick" them.

I used a lint roller to pull out the threads.

I cut the stripsets crosswise.

I paired them up, then sewed them, and then matched the pairs to make the sixteen patch blocks.

and more blocks,

This is fun, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna fill up my design wall pretty quickly!!

Corinne's Zebra Quilt

 

I am always interested to see quilts made from my tutorials. This Zebra quilt was made by Corinne, who lives in Fairbanks Alaska.

Corinne wrote, "Thanks for the inspiration... I've used several of your ideas to create my own quilts.

"This is a wall hanging for my daughter to hang on her living room wall above her couch. It's about 50 inches by 70 inches. I ended up making my strips 1.5" wide finished... I spent a few days coloring in multiple variations of page 59 from the tutorial and then had discussions with my daughter about what colors she wanted the quilt to be. It was a really fun project to work on and went together so quickly!!

"The tutorial was great. It explained things very well. I've been quilting for a lot of years so usually can figure out the pattern once I see it but [the tutorial] still made things easier for me. I did buy the ruler you recommended and it made life so much easier. I usually make scrap quilts and this quilt ended up with 16 fabrics plus the black but I still like the way it came out. Now to try something more scrappy."

What excited me the most about Corinne's quilt is that she took an idea of mine and made it uniquely her own. If you would like to make a Zebra quilt, you can get my tutorial here, in my Etsy shop.

Tutti Frutti in the Sun

 It's hard to see the true colors of something in a photograph, especially a quilt that's five feet wide and six feet tall from a distance of ten feet away in an enclosed space. If  you take a picture of the same quilt outside in the sun, a lot of the colors are a bit washed out. If you take a picture of the same quilt on a sunny day with the quilt in the shade, the colors will have a bluish cast because of the reflection of the blue of the sky. If you take a picture of a quilt when it is overcast, the colors are much closer to reality.

LAST WEEK, the Firebird quilt was photographed on an overcast day.  

As you can see it was sunny the day I took these pictures of Tutti Frutti. But I needed to show that this is not a dark quilt, that it is bright and fun and cheery.

I live in New England, in the northeastern US. It's very green. It's something that's easy to take for granted. So when I have an opportunity to take a picture of one of my quilts in very green New England, I do it. So yeah, if you visit me, when you are in the driveway and look up, you see this.

Tutti Frutti is a Zebra quilt. If you are interested in making a Zebra quilt, you can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Tutti Frutti is Finished

 

The Tutti Frutti quilt is finished. I'll take it outside tomorrow and hang it up so you can see the whole thing.

 

I really like this one. I like the pizzazz.

This is a Zebra quilt. If you would like to make one, you can get my tutorial on my Etsy shop, here.

BTW, the Firebird quilt now lives at my sister's house. (Yes, the same sister who helped me build my ironing table. I only have one sister.) She has a yellow living room and a red sofa, so the quilt is right at home. She loves it. I can't visit her at her house (sigh) so I don't have a picture of it, but I'm working on it!

Binding Tutti Frutti

 

The binding of the Tutti Frutti quilt is the same fabrics as the inner border, which is to say I used the same low-key creamish fabrics. For the inner border I cut the strips WOF and then cut those in half, sewed them all together end to end more or less randomly, then attached them to the quilt. The inner border is about 1-1/4" wide. I decided I liked that effect and decided to do the same thing for the binding.

 

I didn't have all the fabrics I used in the inner border, so I did the best I could, but I didn't add any new fabrics. If it is in the quilt, it is in the binding. 

Regular readers know I sew my binding to the back of my quilt and fold it over to the front and do my hand-stitching on the front. You can get all my binding hints in my Binding tutorial on my Etsy shop.

 

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So now as I "watch" TV, I sew the binding down.

 

 

Yellow Ribbons

 I added a border to the Yellow Ribbons quilt. I didn't want one that was too light or too dark. This was just right. Now I will hunt for a backing.

This is a Zebras quilt. If you would like to make one, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Firebird Outside

 

Here is the Firebird quilt, all finished, hanging outside so you can see the real colors. 

It looks good from across the street too.

Yellow Ribbons

 As soon as I backed up and looked at this from across the studio, I liked the way the bland blenders made a waving shape up and down the quilt. I immediately wondered if they were getting TOO much attention. Should they be swapped with the big busy prints? Only one way to find out.

Starting at the right I began to shift the triangles. As soon as I had done two columns I knew this was better and that it was a layout I would sew together.

But OOPS, I saw a mistake (again!)

This is almost it. The layout is all set, but I am a bit concerned about the light streak in the middle and the slightly too heavy right side. But this is 95% there. I wasn't sure I'd EVER like these fabrics all together, but now I do.

 

THIS IS IT! And it has a name. Yellow Ribbons.

 

THIS, believe it or not, is a Zebras quilt. If you would like to make your own Zebra quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Break It! Break It Good!

 It is said that before you can get out of a rut you have to know you're in one. When the wind blew the blocks off my design wall it was as if Fate was sending me a sign. MOVE ALONG. But where?

I sat at my sewing table, looking back at the mess on the design wall. I shifted in my seat, knocking something to the floor. I bent down and picked up this page. It's a page of triangles from the Zebra tutorial, designed to be cut out so students could design their own arrangements. I looked at it and saw six distinct vertical columns. Maybe I should arrange my big prints in half diamonds facing in one direction and the blander ones facing in the other...

I got up and took all the blocks off the wall and stared to lay out the big colored triangles. but then I remembered this, from the Parade of Zebras quilt, where, if placed correctly, a series of four big triangles could suggest a curve.

So I arranged my big prints

and used the bland blenders to fill in around them. As soon as I did I knew I had an arrangement I liked. I rearranged the blenders a bit to get the best effect.

This wasn't quite IT, but I liked it A LOT better than anything else I had tried. I stepped back and realized I had made a mistake.

The big triangles with the big prints weren't directly above and beneath each other, as they needed to be to make that S shape I wanted, so I fixed them. I really liked this, but it was late, and I was tired. Something was jiggling in my head, but I knew if I didn't get to bed I'd stay up another hour or two.

Sleep matters, so I went to bed. I knew what I would do next, and I could wait.

Slogging Away

There's an old saying, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince."

I discovered a few fabrics that just didn't fit. They were too brown or too orange or too pale.  Ok, no problem. Those went.

 

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I was not happy with this. I worked all day long and just couldn't get it to come together.

It wasn't like I didn't know where I was going. I had a plan. (Thank you Cathy, for making me make outlines to draw on for the Zebra Tutorial.)

I kept at it. Finally, after almost 12 hours, I surrendered and went to bed.

The next morning I bowed to the inevitable, and admitted my previous plan just wasn't working. I began to arrange the blocks in the Golden Zebra layout.

But that didn't thrill me either. It wasn't even OK. I didn't even LIKE it!

But me being me, I persisted.

And persisted.

And persisted. Finally I just walked out of the studio and ignored it for a couple of days.

When the big storm Isaias (?) blew through, the winds knocked some of the blocks off the wall.

I left them there.

Good riddance, I thought. It's BROKEN! HAHAHA! Let it stay broken.

Then I remembered that sometimes you have to BREAK something in order to FIX it. Break it again, and break it good.

As usual, when I get stuck, I walk away. I spent the rest of the evening on the couch reading. I could fix it TOMORROW.

And I did.

Sewing Strips

Last week was, shall we say, a very interesting week on this blog. I want to thank all my regular readers for their support, and new ones for visiting.

I have been working on a yellow-ish quilt and have a lot to tell about it, but for today, this photo of pairs of strips sewn together is going to have to do. I am making another Zebra quilt.

Lynne's Zebra Quilt Tutorial is Live!

It's official! Lynne's Zebra Quilts Tutorial is LIVE!

You can get it here, at my Etsy shop.

Zebra Tutorial Progresses

The Zebra tutorial is humming right along. I've already received terrific feedback from some of my beta testers and I have modified the tutorial accordingly. It covers everything from fabric selection, to design variations, hints on sewing, and all kinds of other stuff my head is full of right now. There's even a gentle rant on so-called perfection and how I keep my design straight when I am tinkering on the design wall.

As usual I tell you why I do everything.

There are pages that describe how to make the Zebra quilts that I designed, and there's even a page that tells you how you can design your own variation.

If I had to guess I would say it will be out by the end of June. Maybe sooner. It depends on how much sleep I plan to get between now and then. I still have lots of work to do. (Making sure the elements are centered on the page; making sure the footer is consistent; the formatting of the fractions is consistent; the headers are correct; the grammar and spelling is OK; the page numbers that refer to other pages in the tute are correct; the spacing between words and sentences is consistent and proper...  You know, the kind of stuff you NOTICE if it's done wrong.

Oh, Leftovers...

Last night after work, I went into the studio and gathered all my leftover triangle blocks, and after a bit of fussing, had this. It's OK, but nothing to write home about. I sent a photo to my pal Julie who asked if I could turn it sideways.

Neither one of us liked that.

However we both liked it better upside down.

We talked about seeing all the Zebra quilts together (yesterday's post) and I said, you know, it would be interesting to cut the Firebird quilt in half vertically and swap the two halves. You'd get an X in the middle. Then I got an idea.

About ten years ago when I was making Nine x Nine, I took a picture of my colored words, printed it in color and then cut the words apart. I was able to figure out how I wanted to arrange them without getting up and down the ladder sixty million times. I don't have access to a color printer at the moment, but I DO have a printer...

It's amazing what you can do with a picture and a pair of scissors!

Oh, the things you can discover if you use your noodle!

So OF COURSE I had to back into the studio and pull the blocks off the wall and see what this would look like in real life. You know, kinda sorta. Ignore the colors and just look at the shapes.

Now, THIS has potential! Dunno if I am ever going to SEW it, but it will be fun to think about. What's really funny about this layout is it uses the same blocks as in the first photo above.

There's nothing I like better than pushing an idea around and seeing where it goes.