Blue Diamonds

After sewing all the rest of the blocks together for this quilt, I started sewing the blocks together into long rows. Here the top three rows are sewn up (but not to each other.)

A day later I sewed the rest of the blocks into rows and was in the process of sewing these rows together.

The top half was resting over the back of the wing chair in the living room.

Yesterday I put all the rows together.

Here is a close-up of one of the corners. You can see some of the different WOWs assembled into the blocks. I'm not sure how successful this idea is, but I like it.

Here's the body of the quilt rotated 90 degrees. I never said it was "wrong." I think it has great potential. I'd love to see somebody make it this way. I'd love to see somebody else's take on it.

 

Lazy Hexagons Grows

 I've started making the corner blocks for the Lazy Hexagons quilt (Needs a better name, suggestions welcome).

I've tried to make sure the same fabric isn't next to itself. It sure does help to have a black light.

It's easier to put these on the floor rather than get up and down the ladder to put them on the design wall.

Here are six rows sewn up. Obviously this is looking at them the "wrong" way, but it's still fun!

Rolling Along

 

I've pinned the side triangles to the remaining colorful triangles.

I've sewn them all together and pressed them. Next I have to trim them square. I trim every block because no matter how good I think the blocks look, they always need to be trimmed.

In the corners where there are no colored blocks, I plan to make blocks that are all White on White.

You Can't See It... But!

 

I've sewn all the WOW side triangles to the dark blue center triangles, trimmed the blocks so they are perfectly square and put them back up on the design wall. I have also sewn the white side triangles to a few of the blocks on the left hand side of the quilt, but you can't see them in this photo.

However when I turned the lights off and shone my black light on it, then modified the photo so it showed in black and white, you can see what I have done. You can see which blocks have the white sewn to them. 

The empty blocks are where I have moved the colored triangles so I can pin the side triangles to them. I normally do this while "watching" television.

So while you can't see much change happening, I promise you I'm really working.

This is a Scrap Slab Triangle quilt. I have made thirteen of them. This is the fourteenth. I was amazed at how many variations there are. If you want to use up your scraps to make a quilt like this you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's been updated with instructions on how to make it with the new rulers and has images of all thirteen quilts.

About Those Lazy Hexagons...

 You didn't think I was going to leave them alone, did you?

When I was first playing with this, I knew I wanted the triangles that make up those hexagons to NOT be dark blue, so I just grabbed random SS Triangles (yes, I have about 300 or so already made) from the SST bin and put them up on the wall to establish the basic design.

You can probably figure out why the triangles above are circled. In my opinion they stick out too much.

Remember, I have decided that for THIS quilt, I wanted to showcase the dark blue diamonds. 

They are not on the design wall because I have spent the last couple of days sewing the side triangles to them.

Now all art manipulates what you are seeing in one way or another. Packages are designed to grab your attention and advertising does the same thing. But good design means that the artist has considered what HE or SHE wants you to see, and has arranged the elements in the artwork (or quilt) so that you see precisely what he or she wants you to notice. I WANT you to focus on the blue diamonds. I do not want any of the other colored triangles to hijack your attention. 

The ones circled above, in my opinion, do just that. Remember the EYE is first drawn to CONTRAST of some kind. This is the way the eye in your head works. It has nothing to do with what you think you see first. We are designed to notice patterns, and that means we notice what sticks out of the ordinary FIRST. It goes back to Fight or Flight when humans first walked the earth and needed to keep themselves alive.

Now I do not mind the other triangles are different colored and I don't mind you seeing them. I just don't want the viewer to notice them FIRST or even second. I want them to be innocuous, and kinda boring. I want them to sink into the background just a bit. I want you to see they connect into those loose six pointed stars, but I don't want to hit you over the head to notice them. 

I could do that, of course. I could make them equally bright and busy. But then you would be looking at something that could be visually overwhelming and you might not notice the diamonds at all. There is, of course, a balance to all this, and good artists do it very well.

In MY quilt, I want the loose hexagons to be in the background. I want them to be the chorus, if you will. I don't want any of them to be the Divas.

So I have gone through my collection of SSTs and replaced the ones I thought grabbed too much attention with triangles that are less busy in terms of pattern or value. I have removed some triangles I thought were too dark, or the same value as the dark blue diamonds. I have for the most part left them in the same positions so you can go back and forth and see what I didn't like with what I changed. I am not sure I am finished, and quite frankly, I am not 100% sure I am done with making those changes. I have said it before and I will say it again, you can't really tell until you have ALL the blocks on the design wall. So when I have finished adding the side triangles to the 58 blue triangles that will make up the blue diamonds, I'll look at it again and reconsider. If I need to make more triangles I will.

Because I don't let one damn thing out of my studio that I am not 100% happy with. I know what I want, and most of the time I know exactly how to get it, so that's what I do.

I love reading comments that tell me you love me explaining the what and why I do what I do and the changes I make. Years ago one lady wrote that she could tell right away that something I had changed made all the difference, but she couldn't tell what I did. This post and the ones I have written and will continue to write about this quilt, will be my attempt to do just that.

Questions always welcome.

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. 

Updated Scrap Slab Triangle Tutorial

 

Earlier this year I discovered the ruler set I use to make the Scrap Slab Triangle quilts was discontinued. I found two acceptable substitutes, and have been working to update the tutorial for use with the new rulers.

As long as I was at it, I added photographs of all the quilts I have made using this pattern. I also retook some photographs to make the ideas more clear, but the basic instructions remain unchanged.

It's live now. You can get my Scrap Slab Triangle Quilt tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. I've made fourteen of these and each is different!

 

Steps

 

I taught a class on my Scrap Slab Triangles quilts this past weekend at the Night Owl Quilt Studio in Amherst NH. I brought seven of these quilts to show the students, and discussed what was different about each of them. It was a great class.

Later at home I worked out how to make these look like boxes or stepping stones. So that will be my next one. This photo shows how, above. It was made with my leftover pieces and needs a bit of fine tuning, but you get the drift.

If you are interested in making a Scrap Slab Triangle quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Snow and Tell

We got eight inches of snow yesterday and last night. Looks magical out there. So happy I no longer have to worry about shoveling the driveway and getting to work.

 This is a Tourtière. It's a French-Candian meat pie. It is made with various kinds of meat and mashed potatoes. My grandmother used to make it. I haven't had one in years and decided with the snow falling outside that it would be a great dish to make. My grandmother had a little gizmo that made those rosette openings in the crust. Gosh it was good, and really took me back.

I finished the Scrap Slab Triangle Rainbow flimsy. I'll have to think of a name and order the backing for it.

Rainbow Triangles

I feel like I cheated for this one. All the triangles were already sewn together, and I had the side triangles all cut out.

I don't like to work on long rows, so I sew my blocks together in half rows. This is the upper right quarter of the quilt. Much easier to work with.

The top half of this is all sewn together. When I added the side triangles, I put then together so they created rhomboids. I should have this all sewn together before Thanksgiving.

This is a terrific way to use up all your scraps. You can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. This is the fourteenth quilt I have made from these scrap slab triangles and they are all different.

More Scrap Slabbing

 

When I clean my workspace, I often make slabs of whatever color fabrics I have. I have stacks of these triangles in many colors. Back in March I toyed around with them but wasn't feeling this love for this.

I tried alternating the blocks but I wasn't excited about that either, so I packed the pieces away. Lately I have been watching my pal Julie tinker with the same idea and I decided to revisit these colorful blocks.

Taking a page from Julie, I divided the blues and greens into lights and darks, added pinks and put the blocks up on the wall. I knew I'd have to add some blue green triangles way over on the right, but I didn't have any blocks I liked, so when I went into the studio the other day, I made a stack of them.

I was happy with that, so I started adding some creamy light side triangles. I will sew these together.

I've made thirteen variations of this quilt. You can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Not Mine!

This beautiful quilt was not made by me, but by Julie M, who attended a workshop on the Scrap Slab Triangle quilts I gave to the Rising Star Quilters in MA several years ago. The quilt was displayed in a recent quilt show in Concord MA, and now the quilt will be published in an upcoming book with pictures of the quilts from the show.

I am always so excited to see what students do with my tutorials. I would never have thought to use black fabrics in the side triangles of the quilt, but they work fabulously in Julie M’s quilt.

Thank you Julie M for allowing me to share pictures of this stunning quilt!

This is a Scrap Slab Triangle Quilt. If you want to make one, it’s a great way to use up your scraps. I’ve made 13 of these quilts and they are all different. You can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Kangamangus, Finished!

 

This is a close up of the Kangamangus quilt. You can see some of the warm brown fabrics, the creams and the spectacular quilting. I've had this for a few weeks, waiting for me to add the binding and finish it up.

I finally got to it, and actually took it out for beauty shots the next day. Such is summer in NH. 

Sometimes you arrange it, back up, and you just know that you've got the "definitive" shot. That's what happened this time. I looked at this and I thought, Yup. That's the one. Funny that.

I didn't stop though, because I have learned that sometimes what I THINK I see is not what shows up in the camera, and there's nothing more irritating than getting home and looking at the pictures on my computer and thinking they suck and knowing I'll have to go out again. At at rate, this is pretty good too.

Long time readers know I dislike brown, and I hate, loathe and despise beige, so this quilt is rather a departure for me, but I really like it. I'm keeping this one.

Yeah, I know. Live and learn.

This is a Scrap Slab Triangle quilt, and I have made a few of them. You can see them here. If you want to use up some scraps, you can get my tutorial here. I am continually surprised at how many variations of this quilt there are.

Black & White Harlequin Finished

 

The Black and White Scrap Slab Triangle quilt I am calling Harlequin is finished.

I stitched the binding while watching Father Brown on BritBox. But I must have missed a season or two because Mrs. McCarthy, one of my favorite characters, is no longer on the show.

This is another "green bird" made with scraps (actually ALL my birds are made from scraps). This guy's wing is from the leftover backing of the Little Blocks quilt, which is next up for hand sewing the binding.

This fabric has so many options for birds, and I am probably going to make them all.

There are at least 12 different designs you can make with the Scrap Slab Triangle tutorial. You can get the tutorial here, from my Etsy shop. It's a terrific way to use up your scraps.

Binding & More Green Birds

 

I've added the binding to the black and white Harlequin quilt. It is made from several different black on white prints. Here you can see the backing fabric I selected.

I've folded it over and pinned it all the way around. Now "all" I have to do is hand sew it down.

Here's another bird on a green background. This bird's wing fabric was in a pile of scraps.

The wing fabric for this bird was from the leftover scraps of the backing of the Kangamangus quilt. Yes, of course I fussy cut the wing exactly. If you've got fabric with such a great print it's a shame NOT to use it to get the most out of it.