Spiral Quilt - Part III

I read an article the other day which tells of a study that purportedly proves that there is a correlation between messiness and creativity.  I have not seen the stated scientific evidence, but I can attest from personal experience that this is a possibility.  I have several members of my family who learn differently, but are tagged with a misnomer as having "learning disabilities."  These individuals are not "disabled," but highly intelligent people who find some academic pursuits an uphill challenge.  They are incredibly creative and talented, and they tend to be unperturbed at being surrounded by chaos.

Does this mean that others of us, like me, are not creative?  I live in a box, I am a good fit in academia, and my creativity freezes when disorder creeps into my space.  I look at lots of art and quilts and it dawned on me that I have trouble creating the free-flowing designs that I love.  They never turn out to my satisfaction.  I successfully devise equally creative designs, but they tend to follow the lines and blocks of order and symmetry.  Does that mean I am any less creative?  I don't think so.

Why did I go off on that tangent?  I don't draw well, but I was never given sketch books as a child and none of my family did any freehand drawing so I got a late start.  I was given coloring books, which I loved.  I was so happy sitting down with my box of 24 crayons and would have drooled over a box of 64.  I loved coloring in the lines with plain color and later with shading.

Coloring in the lines is what this spiral quilt is ready for and I still love doing it.  It is like my coloring books and can be translated into fabric to be sewn into a lovely quilt.  Below is a colored version of the pentagon-triangle wedge (See Sprial Quilt Part II).

Versions A and B use exactly the same triangle and pentagon, but in version B I flipped the pentagon horizontally.  Turn your imagination loose and try lots of combinations and colors, then rotate the wedge(s) and see what you have.  Here are two ideas:

Once I have my spiral to a place where I like it, I head for my fabric stash and audition fabrics that I have that are close to what I want.  I always say I am going to use my stash, but you know how it goes.  You always need something you don't have so you have to go shopping!  I print (you can draw) a paper wedge, cut fabrics to fit and glue them on with a glue stick.  Then I take a photo, bring it into the computer and rotate it (you can use your mirror and/or imagination).  After flipping, switching, moving, and adjusting fabrics I settled on the design below:

"Reverie" fabric audition glued on paper, photographed, and rotated in the computer.

Because the fabrics are glued down roughly, the details are a bit wonky up close, but I was able to see a good approximation of the finished design.  I planned a black background so added the black triangles onto each wedge.  They are a single triangle of fabric added to each top side of the pentagon so there are no Y-seams.

TIP:  Turn your imagination loose during this process.  You can use all kinds of fabrics:  prints, batiks, solids, and more.  They can all work beautifully.

Next week I will show you my way of organizing this complex design so that it is easy to assemble.

Spiral Quilt - Part II

Before I go on I need to clarify one point.  My spiral quilts are not made in "blocks."  They are made in wedges for a kaleidoscope effect.  The quilts I have made with this technique have one very large, intricate circle or mandala as the centerpiece of the quilt.  For the quilt that I am designing in this and a few following posts the completed circle is 21 inches in diameter.

Did you fill in the pentagon and triangle yet?  I hope you did, as it will help you understand the design.  Below are my diagrams.  I colored the one on the right so you can see the pentagon and the triangle.  Spirals are sewn by paper piecing the main shapes:   the pentagon is stitched as one unit and the triangle is stitched as another unit.  Then they are sewn together to create one wedge-shaped unit.  As you can see on the left, the two shapes intermingle and become one.  The seam between the pentagon and triangle gets lost in the maze.  The fabrics you choose will determine what parts of the design are emphasized.

Pentagon and Triangle united.

  You then copy and rotate the combined shape at point X into a circle, or use your mirrors if you are not working on a computer, or make copies that can be cut out and placed in position.  In this case, there will be 12 - 30º wedges in the circle with side A on the left and side B on the right all the way around.  Isn't that sooooo cool?

Another option is to flip a copy of the wedge so that it mirrors the original with side A aligned with side A of the flipped piece.

You will notice that side B will also align with side B of the next wedge.  Now you rotate this 60º wedge as one unit.  See the difference in the two completed circles?

I love doing these.  Once you are to this point you can start coloring the design.  I usually color one wedge and then rotate it in Illustrator.  If I don't like it, I go back to the wedge, make changes and try again.  If you are working on paper you can use mirrors or copies to get an idea of how the coloring will turn out.  Gradations of color work beautifully in these designs.

TIP:  This is playtime.  Have fun with it.  As long as your basic shapes can be sewn together it will work.  Believe it or not, this is "quilting" too...all part of the process.

I had so much fun playing that I have too many designs.  I'll never have time in this life to get them all made into quilts!!

Kaleidoscopes

I love intricate complexities.  I love doing kaleidoscopes.  I began the following quilt before the "Stack-n-Whack" craze started.  Enter that in your search engine and you will find lots of directions and at least one book.  I tried one once and was not successful.  My daughter has made several and they are beautiful.  Strange as it may seem, I am happy to work with a template and fussy cut each triangle like Paula Nadelstern directs in her "Kaleidoscopes and Quilts."

Many of the blocks of this quilt were created from the border print that surrounds the center.  I spent one whole weekend at quilt camp putting these together and never tired of it.  Each one turned out so cool although I liked some better than others.

I can't see how I quilted it and since my quilts are buried by more snow I can't get it out to look.  I think it is probably quilted in the ditch.  If I were to do this quilt today I would stitch a pretty design into the light blue border.  That would settle the puckering down.  Each kaleidoscope block would be perfect for interesting flowers, all different from each other.  I probably would have quilted around the motifs in the the border.  However, we have to start at the beginning to get better.

TIP:  How to fussy cut the kaleidoscope triangles:

1.  Cut a triangle template from clear template plastic, including the seam allowance.  The measurement of the triangle depends on your final shape.  A hexagon uses six 60º triangles.  An octagon uses eight 45º triangles.

2.  Move a hinged mirror around the fabric until you find a spot that makes a nice design.

3.  Lay the template over the chosen part of the fabric and make marks with pencil on the plastic so you can line up the template on the same part of another, same motif for the next triangle.  

4.  Line up the template on the fabric and mark around the edge with a fine marker.  Move it to another place on the fabric to the same motif and repeat as many times as necessary.

5.  Cut the triangles carefully on the marked line.

6.  Sew together carefully by hand or machine (that is another lesson).