An Old Shoe

I really appreciate all the understanding, empathy and compassion that were expressed in response to my dark week post.  I especially liked the idea of framing Dixie, but then realized that the dog and half the background are already quilted - very poorly.  I just can't keep it, but I will redo it.  In the meantime, since I like the results so much (sans quilting), I will keep the bad one as a guide for a much nicer new one in the future with a different fusible material.  It was fun to do until it came to the quilting, which was truly a nightmare.  My real doggie gave me a sweet, loving lick to let me know it was OK...or maybe she just wanted a taste of my hand lotion.

Meanwhile, "Onward ho!"  What do I mean by "An Old Shoe?"  My mother used that expression to describe a new acquaintance who was able to settle into our life like family we had known forever.  Comfortable.  That is how I feel about the new quilt that I started this week because I am familiar with and enjoy the technique.

My new project has paper pieced spiral elements in it.  So, you say, "What is a spiral quilt?"  A spiral quilt can be made from any and many geometric shape(s) and is sewn like a log cabin block, but is made with triangles instead of rectangles.  I will try to give you a general, but admittedly skimpy idea, but if you want to try it I recommend RaNae Merrill's "Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts."  Her directions are clear and precise, covering the drawing, designing, and sewing.  Her second book, "Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts" is also excellent.  I design my spirals on Adobe Illustrator, but they can be drawn on paper with pencil, ruler and eraser.  They are sewed with foundation/paper piecing.

Step 1.  Draw the outline of a shape.  In this case I started with a triangle.

Step 2.  Draw a ring of small triangles inside the outer border, one along each side.  You can measure or make your triangles any size that you like.  I make mine kind of free form as I find the measuring tedious.

Step 3.  Draw another ring of small triangles inside the first ring.  Continue making similar rings until you get to the center.  RaNae Merrill goes into different ways to draw these triangles.  The way I am showing is the easiest to sew.

Step 4.  Fill all those inner triangles with color.

5.  Print or draw your design on paper (I use Sulky Paper Solvey and print it from my computer).

But....that is only one triangle. Let's play with that single triangle:

Now here is what you can do when you combine several geometric shapes into a 60º wedge.  This example is symmetrical, but you can get some interesting designs when you introduce some asymmetry with your shapes:

Symmetrical
60º wedge made with several different shapes.

Then rotate six copies of the wedge around its center point:

Six wedges can make a quilt.

See the wedge?

Now fill with color.  It is full of primary, secondary and tertiary design possibilities.  Talk about an adult coloring book!  There are so many ways to portray this and no one can figure out how you did it!  You can turn your imagination loose and it is not hard to sew one of these, but it takes time and attention to detail.

TIP:  Try a simple design or two this week.  It is fun.

Sew a Happy Seam this week.  I wish you some designing fun.

Spiral Quilt IV: Organization

One of my readers wrote that she is confused by what I mean by "flipping" the pentagon (see Spiral Quilt - Part III).  This means nothing more than creating a mirror image.  If you put a mirror along the the A-B line you will see the pentagon reversed/flipped in the mirror.  It is not rotated although the pentagons give the illusion that they are rotating because of the layering of the internal triangles.  Once the internal triangles are drawn the pentagon is no longer a completely symmetrical design.  Even if the outline is the same, the internal design has definite right and left sides.  In the example below I colored two triangles to clarify.  I tell the computer to make a copy and flip/mirror the copy horizontally across the A-B line.  If you are drawing on paper you will have to draw a copy, and turn it over across the A-B line.  Of course this is difficult if you are using opaque paper so I would suggest using tracing paper.  Does this clarify or confuse?  Let me know.

TIP:  The only bad question is the one not asked.  Please share if you don't understand, and I will do my best to clarify.  These designs look very complex, but are really not hard to draw or sew.  One step at a time.

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Now on to the organizational aspects of creating a paper piecing pattern for this.  I add 1/4 inch seam allowance markings on my major shapes using a ruler for accuracy.  This will be your basic pattern.

TIP:  Using a ruler to add 1/4 inch seam allowance and trimming after you have sewn your pieces will work, but it is very easy to forget that little bit of a 1/4 inch when cutting.  It also helps you to be sure that you use a big enough piece of fabric to include the all-important seam allowance.  Ask me how I know!!  I highly recommend that you add and clearly mark the seam allowance on the pattern so there will be no question about where to trim the finished piece.

Below is my pattern almost ready to print.  Notice that I have reduced the transparency of the colors, but still have enough color to serve as a check on my fabric choice.  You will also see that I have made sure the sewing lines are dark enough to see clearly.  If you are drawing your design on paper you can color a swatch in each little triangle with colored pencil or marker.  This will be the wrong side of your finished shape.  If right or wrong side is important in your design be sure to reverse your pattern at this stage.  If you print it on translucent paper you can sew from either side.  Just don't get mixed up!

TIP:  Whatever way you decide to do it be sure to be consistent or you will end up with a different looking design in your finished product.  Remember that when holding the paper in front of you, the right side of the evolving fabric piece will be facing away from you.  (Note:  I did not reverse this design so either my piece will be the mirrored version, or I will sew with the back side facing me.  (Choices!!)

In order to cover my bases even better I next add text to each and every little triangle as below.

You will start in the middle and sew the first ring so I label that ring "A."  The second ring is "B," etc.  The other notation refers to the color with a lower case letter (r for red, g for green....) and a number, which refers to the shade of the color.  Look at the purple:  p1 is the lightest shade of purple while p5 is the darkest shade of purple.  The stars on some of the triangles refer to the starting place for each ring.  These notations keep me on the straight and narrow so I don't make mistakes.  Ripping is not really that much fun.

If you have not done paper piecing before, I highly recommend that you give it a try.  You can make incredibly intricate designs and achieve perfection so much more easily.

Now this is ready to print.  If you are not using the computer you can make copies.

TIP:  If you are making copies make sure that the copies are exactly the same size as the original, and make 2 or 3 extra to cover possible pilot error.

You can use copy paper or buy foundation piecing paper, which is available any place that carries quilt supplies.  My favorite is Sulky Paper Solvy because I can run it through my printer, and it dissolves in water when the sewing is done.  I usually tear the paper off when I am finished sewing anyhow, but if some gets left in, it will dissolve when the quilt is dipped in water, which I do after the quilting is complete.  Check the manufacturer's directions for information about their product.

TIP:  I print out the shapes for one wedge, do the sewing, photograph and rotate the photo in the computer before printing out the rest.  This avoids waste if there is a glitch in the pattern.  If I like the result I save it and use it as an extra wedge for quilting practice.  Then I go for broke, print more copies, and sew up a storm.

The last thing I do is glue or pin 1 x 2 inch swatches of all my fabrics to a piece of paper.  I label each fabric with the letter and number combination that I placed on my pattern.  I find I refer to this so often that it is well worth the time.  I also put this sheet in a sheet protector and take it shopping with me to use in choosing fabrics I might be missing.  More about shopping in the next post.

Log Cabin Border

The next step in this quilt I call "Lifetime" is a series Log Cabin blocks.  These are very simple and a great stash buster.  Mine are made with 1/2 inch strips and finish as 4 inch blocks.  I printed the blocks on Sulky Solvy Water Soluble Paper and foundation pieced them.  You don't have to, but when the strips are so narrow it is the best way to get the block precise.  Below is my pattern.  I used very dark blue for half of it and very light blue for the other half.  The center of each block (#1) is a 1 inch, fussy-cut flower from a delicate floral fabric.  They are red, purple, blue and yellow, but don't overwhelm the blue because they are so small.  I numbered and colored the pattern so I wouldn't get mixed up.

Log Cabin Block

It helps to organize your workspace.  Anything to keep from getting mixed up and having to rip!  I laid out 1 1/2 inch strips of different fabrics on a small table beside me, cutting the length as I went.  These strips do not need to be precise, but do have to be wide enough to cover the area of an individual piece of the pattern.  There are many Log Cabin tutorials and videos on the Internet with very precise directions that are worth looking at.

 You can arrange the dark and light blocks as you wish.  My choice is below (not showing the center flowers):

Four Log Cabin Blocks

You may have wondered why I broke the sequence with the post on borders.  Why bother with that little 1/4 border around the compass in the middle?  That was so the log cabin border would fit!  I needed the extra 1/2 inch that it gave me.  After the log cabin border was stitched, I added a 1/2 inch pink border around it for continuity.

An aside to this is that my daughter said, "Mom, you really have to break away from pink and blue."  My response was that I love pink and blue and if that is what I want, I can do it.  I have since departed to other colors, but sometimes we have to work through a perception before we are ready to move on.

Lifetime so far on Illustrator.

Lifetime so far with fabric.

TIP:  When you are paper piecing take the time to lay out your fabrics in order and pay attention to the colors and numbers on your pattern.  This will save you lots of grief and you can leave the cap on your seam ripper.

TIP:  Check out books and videos for directions.  You can always learn something even if you have already done something similar.  My books are getting tattered from constant "how to" refreshers and idea searches.

TIP:  It is great to learn design concepts, but ultimately this is your quilt so let your creative  juices carry you.

Paper Piecing

It was right about here in my journey that I learned how to do Paper Piecing, also called Foundation Piecing.  It is not hard, and once you catch on, it allows you to piece a block or shape with amazing precision.  You can piece tiny, little pieces that would otherwise be impossible.  You can look at a good video tutorial on Foundation Piecing if you don't know what I am talking about.  You can start with some simple practice blocks such as the triangle sashing blocks in this quilt.  The sashing is 2 inches wide so they really don't have to be paper pieced, but I found that the bias edges of the triangles were much easier to control with paper piecing.  I loved the way everything lined up straight and measured correctly when I put the quilt together.

Here you see again that I have a penchant for fussy cutting and kaleidoscope design.  The feature fabric is a symmetrical, border fabric that screamed for action.  The large blocks also have bias edges to work with, and they must be sewn carefully without stretching.  It may help to pin if the edges are long.  If you find that you must sew a bias edge to a straight edge it works best to keep the bias edge on the bottom as you sew and again, you probably would do well to pin first, but please do not sew over the pins.

If you look carefully you can see that I branched out to some easy free motion quilting on this quilt.  My first attempt was so awful that I ripped it all out and did it over again.  Yes, ALL the quilting!  This is frustrating, time consuming and discouraging, but I urge you to rip if you don't like the results.  You will never learn to like that quilt if you aren't happy with the job you did.  You can save yourself a lot of grief by making some 12 inch quilt sandwiches out of your chosen fabric and batting on which to practice your design.  Either way you will have practiced and learned to machine quilt a little better.