Wavelength on the Snow

 I used the same fabric as the backing for the binding of the Wavelength quilt.

Since I had to get it in a box and on the way to the West Coast ASAP, I machine sewed the binding down.

 This really is a pretty quilt.

I brought it outside for some beauty shots.

I took pictures of it in the melting snow. (I hear you all thinking... "AAAARRRGGGH! It's gonna get WET!" or "It's gonna get DIRTY!!!" My answer: That's what washing machines are for.)

I thought this would be a nice juxtaposition, because in a week or so the quilt will be living in warm, sunny Mexico and will never encounter snow again.

It's so annoying. You find a great spot - rocks, trees, branches, untouched snow, for the quilt, and you take the picture. Then you look at it in the camera and you see the dark shadow of a tree.

Oh well!

You can click the pictures and then click again to enlarge them and see all the details. The quilting on this quilt is particularly lovely.

Wavelength, Quilted

The Wavelength quilt is quilted and as you can see it is stunning. I'm in the process of adding the binding to the quilt, because I have to ship it out to LA next week.

Somebody commented that my brother wasn't as crazy as their brother. I doubt it. This is my brother in a portaledge on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

And this is the view down below him. Yes, that is about a quarter of a mile down. My brother is a rock climber, and a well known one. He has climbed El Cap at least two dozen times.

Lies, Lies, Lies!

Remember this quilt? It's Wavelength, the scrap slab quilt I made in January.

Ostensibly, this was the inspiration for the quilt.

That was a lie.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED... was that my brother, the retired guy who lives in his van and spends his winters in Mexico kitesurfing... wanted me to make a quilt [as a surprise] for a woman he wanted to be his girlfriend.

He wanted me to make a quilt based on the colors of her workout clothes - hot pink, purple, teal blue and lime green.  BUT!  I couldn't tell that story because he told the woman about me and my blog, and she followed it for a while. I couldn't tell the real story, or she might figure it out.

So when my pal Julie sent me the picture of her grandson's Winkel toy, I knew I had a plausible substitute.

EXCEPT!

The other night I got a text message from said brother. "Ha! Well don't ask but it looks like I'll be giving that quilt to someone else."

 ANYWAY....

Now he wants the quilt ASAP so he can give it the new person (who lives in Mexico) and there is a friend who will be driving down to Mexico in a particular date range (I have a week after I pick it up from Janet-Lee, who is quilting it) to get the finished quilt (somewhere) where said friend can get it in time before (she/he?) leaves the US and travels down to Mexico with quilt for the new person.

JEEZ!!

It's a damn good thing I love my brother!


What a story THIS quilt has! I wonder if he'll ever tell the person he's giving it to?

Backing for Wavelength

The backing fabric for the Wavelength quilt came in yesterday. After a quick trip through the washer and dryer, I draped it across a chair while I made my dinner.

Millie saw it as a place to have a bath.

Wavelength Gets a QA Check

It may not have been obvious in other photos of the Wavelength Quilt, but these colors in the quilt are really intense and vivid.  Here, my cat Millie gives the flimsy the once-over.

I am happy with the way I have started pressing the blocks has really made a difference in how the quilt lies flat. Here's a view just before I pressed the last seam.

I've made a page showing all the scrap slab quilts in the same place, so you can compare them. It is very interesting how the selection and placement of the black and white side triangles contributes to the different "feeling" of each quilt.  I think it proves that having a wide selection of those fabrics improves your design options.

If you want to make a scrap slab quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. 



I'm going to take a little break and may be off line for a few days. I'll be reading, cleaning the office at home, watching tennis, and getting ready for my next class, free pieced birds at Quilted Threads in Henniker NH on January 27th.

And I've got to start writing my next series of tutorials - about how I make free pieced letters!

Seams To Me

This seam pressing thing worked well. I do not press seams open on the blocks, but when I sew rows of them together on the scrap slabs quilt, I do tend to press those open.

Yes, this works.

This is now in three giant pieces. Two more long vertical seams and the quilt will have reached flimsy status. The quilt measures about 60-1/2" wide by 73" tall. (154 x 185 cm). 

Wavelength Progresses

I'm sewing the Wavelength quilt together, and have eight of the ten vertical rows sewn together, and the left most four vertical rows are now one big piece. It's looking good, and I am happy with it.



If you want to make a scrap slab triangle quilt like this one, you can find the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so be sure to download the file when you complete your transaction.

Wavelength Waving

I've sewn rows 1 and 2 together and rows 3 an 4 together. Then I sewed the blocks together for rows 5 and 6.  But I can see the light black and white side triangles are in fact doing the waving effect I want them to do, so I am pretty excited.

Oops and Not Oops

This is an oops. I sewed the wrong side of the polka dot fabric to the other one. I did not get out the seam ripper. I just kept on going. Nobody will notice, so I just left it alone.

This is not an Oops. This is intentional. As I was moving the template around to find a way to cut this shape, I noticed I could fit this little kitty cat head in the shape perfectly.  So I did.  It's in the Wavelength quilt somewhere.

It's getting there. This particular layout - with the blocks forming diamonds - is difficult to press flat on the back, so I am experimenting with getting the seams in each vertical row to go in opposite directions. The only way to remember is to put them on the design wall wrong side up. (And to sew the blocks one at a time.)

I'm not sure if this is going to work out, particularly where the sharp points join, but we'll see.

Wavelength Develops

In case you didn't see it yesterday, here is the final layout for my newest scrap slab triangles quilt, Wavelength.

The colors in this photo are as true as I can get with a photograph. If you want anything truer to life, you'll have to come to visit me at my house.

Here's the inspiration for the quilt. It's a baby toy, and just goes to prove you can find inspiration anywhere. You just have to look. If you read my blog regularly, then you've heard me say this over and over and over. If all you've done is just READ, then I want you to keep your eyes open today and really NOTICE when something catches your attention. You'll probably be walking past it before it hits you. Turn around. Take a picture. Try to notice more. And stop and look whenever that little alarm goes off next.

I sewed the blocks together that form the two vertical rows on the far left, but haven't sewn the two of them to each other yet. I'm eager to see if my arrangement of the black and white side triangles works.


(I'm writing this while watching the Golden Globe Awards. I've just listened to Oprah Winfrey's amazing speech. It's here. If you didn't hear it live, go see it. Really.)

If you want to make your own Scrap Slab Triangle quilt, you can find my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

More Wavelength

I made more of the limey green blocks and got them up on the wall.  I knew I'd have to make more orange blocks, so I put up some old yellow ones as placeholders, and put up some dark blue block as placeholders as well. This gave me a sort of guideline as to how I was doing.

To be successful, I believe this quilt needs at least five colors. This one will have Orange, an intense Pink (which is really a light red violet), Red Violet, a Limey Yellow Green, and a dark Blue Blue Green (which is a teal that has more blue in it than green).

When I'm on a roll, I just sew and forget to take pictures. Last night and this morning, I was on a roll.

This is where the quilt is going. It's very much a quilt with a contrast in hot and cold colors. In this case the orange is the only hot color, the yellow green is slightly warm and all the rest are cool.

It's really amazing how the colors change the feel of any of these quilts.



If you'd like to make a scrap slab triangle quilt like this one, get the tutorial at my Etsy shop, here. It's an instant download so be sure to download the file before you exit.

Wavelength

I worked all evening on laying out the rest of the black and white side triangles, and came to a startling conclusion. That if I was going to go "there" I had to go all the way.

"There" was making the black and white side triangles an important part of the design of this quilt. If I am going to make those triangles do the wave, like they are doing now, I had to be willing to complete the pattern they make. This means the top and bottom edges of the quilt will feature half sized colored triangles.

Oh well. I am not interested in making the same quilt over and over again. I always want to push ideas around, and if I am going to do that, then nothing is sacred. I have to be willing to go the extra mile, to go past the edge other people can see, to break the often self-imposed rules we make for ourselves.

Now I get to fill the holes. I'm excited about that! I am in the path of the big snowstorm that is barrelling up the East Coast of the US. Our area is expected to receive between 8 to 12 inches of snow. I'm going to be in the sewing studio having a grand time. (Let's hope I don't lose power.)

These are the colors I will use to make the scrappy triangles that will fill in the "holes" of this quilt, which is tentatively named "Wavelength," unless my pal Julie, Champion Quilt Namer, comes up with something better.