Half Square Triangle

Handprinted Quilt Tops meet Angela Walters

I have been hard at work, printing, and piecing quilt tops made of my hand printed cloth. I have about 12 tops ready for machine quilting. And you know what? I can’t just make quilt tops!! I need to finish things!! And, my handprints deserve to be seen, shown and sold! Its time for me to remedy this bottleneck situation.

I haven’t done much machine quilting geared to more traditional quilting in a long while. In this time, free motion quilting has had a renaissance, it seems. In trying to navigate this new world, I have come across Angela Walters, Quilting is my Therapy and her set of rulers, put out by Creative Grids. Angela Walters has an extensive learning library in support of ruler and free motion machine quilting. I feel honored to be learning from all this free content! I have also joined her Free Motion Challenge Quilt Along group!!

So, I am going to upload my own series of videos to show off my newly acquired skills! Here is my first!

HST: My block of choice. Still.

I have created a quilt top using the Peacock Paisley prints I recently made with the help of my intern, Aishwarya (I miss her so, it was such a great experience). I printed a couple of yards of semisolids to go with them and sat down to consider what block I might use. I even asked my Facebook community to share what their favorite simple quilt block is. I found the answers to be intriguing and exciting, even. Especially the Snowball block. And Nine Patch.

But when it came down to it, I am not yet finished with my love of the Half Square Triangle. I like using a 8.5″ square, because I print my cloth in a 9×11″ size. I like being able to show off an expanse of the handprint, and I like being able to cluster the handprints together. And another thing? I like quick and easy, hardly-any-thinking-quilt-making. 🙂 I started cutting the fabrics over the weekend and completed the top this morning. Now, I just need to figure out what to do for the back.

I do feel some guilt in staying with my favorite block, as if I might grow and learn if I were to choose a different clock. But. No. I am still happy cutting my 8.5″ squares, pairing them with a lighter print and drawing the line corner to corner before putting them under the sewing machine needle. So, for now at least, I am sticking with this simple block. So there.

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Lace Swirl quilt complete!

Here is my first entirely hand printed quilt top using my Melly Marks Lace Swirl Kit! I am loving it, I love the movement of the zig-zag half square triangles, the gradation of colors, the simplicity too.

Later in the process of making the quilt top, I nabbed a few handprints created using Swirl Vine Kit to fill out the pattern and make a few more blocks. You can see these above. I just needed specific colors and a few more pieces of fabric, and these were quickly available.

One thing that I have totally fallen in love with because of this quilt is printing on Cotton Sateen. The peach pink at left is an example of this, though it is quite difficult to photograph the subtle visual difference and in blog post, it is impossible to illustrate how soft this fabric is. I printed just a few pieces of the cotton sateen, I don’t have much on hand, but wanted to use it anyway and think it a success. Having even a few pieces of this cloth in the mix livens up the top tremendously, lending a subtle sheen and a soft touch.

I tried to stay within an analogous area of the color triangle, from purple, reds and yellows. I printed a total of 34 Lace Swirl Prints and 54 Chevrons. This means I printed about 5 yards of cloth! From start to finish, this quilt was printed, steamed, washed, cut, pieced, basted, machine quilted and bound in one months time! Wow. Pretty snazzy.

Patchwork+Quilt Maker+Craft NAPA 2016 Blog Hop

It is so much fun to piece and use my hand printed cloth.

The nature of the printing process dictates that I print small pieces, fat sixteenths-I think, which is somewhere around 9×11″. I rip two yards at a time, and print all as quickly as possible. So when it comes time to begin piecing, I have many similarly colored squares, scraps really, all of which relate to one another color-wize.

But, they are small!

My attention span for cutting and piecing blocks is short. This ‘attribute’, if I could call it that, plays into my ‘quilt building skills’. These skills are reprehensible by anyone else’s standard!!

My bottom lines:

It must lay flat
Use as much of the handprinted cloth as possible, even if this dictates wonky cutting or piecing… ‘techniques’! (Yeah, that’s it!)
My quilt, my rules. My friend Teri reminds me of this often and I like it.

So I make blocks in batches, I might cut as many 3″ squares for Half Square Triangles as possible, given the tiny size of my scraps. I sew, iron, and join these together and then, maybe I will cut some 4″ squares for Half Square Triangles, in slightly different colors.

My process is willy nilly. And fun. My blocks never match up, or sometimes they do and I don’t care either way. I just build them out and keep on sewing! Because it is so much fun to do! I have been so deeply immersed in piecing, I am thinking deep thoughts. I like the term Quilt Maker. I am a Quilt Maker. I like this better than Quilter. What do you think? Do you think about this at all?

Here is a shout out to the wonderful CRAFT NAPA sponsors, BERNINA and Meissner Sewing and Vacuum Centers.

I am participating in a blog hop that starts today! Comment on every post and your name will go into a hopper with great incentives. I will post my contribution on the 5th and will be giving away a copy of Dreaming from the Journal Page! Below is a list of participants, and it all starts with Jane LaFazio.

The grand prize is a $500 Gift Certificate from eQuilter.com! WOOT! And do not hesitate to sign up for a class!!!

Nov 30- Jane LaFazio – http://janeville.blogspot.com/

Dec 1 – Lynn Krawczyk – http://smudgeddesignstudio.com/blog/

Dec 2 – Judy Coates Perez – http://www.judycoatesperez.com/

Dec 3 – Jenny K. Lyon – http://quiltskipper.com/blog/

Dec 4 – Jamie Fingal – http://JamieFingalDesigns.blogspot.com/

Dec 5 – Melanie Testa – https://melanietesta.com/blog/ (Here you are!)

Dec 6 – Elizabeth St. Hilaire – http://www.paperpaintings.com/

Dec 7– Leslie Jenison – http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/

Dec 8- Carrie Bloomston – http://www.carriebloomston.com/blog/

Dec 9 – Cheryl Sleboda – http://blog.muppin.com

Commenting closes on:

Dec 10 – Pokey Bolton – http://pokeysponderings.com/

And do comment, because the prizes are snazzy!

meadowlark quilt top challenge, thoughts and ideas.

Half square triangles. I hadn’t really ever considered how simple and effective half square triangles can be in designing quilts. Above are 72 possible uses half square triangles in combination.

I return to this image often when thinking about making a quilt top.

I like the idea of mega sized quilt blocks.

I caught a fancy for the ease of making a 60″ throw sized quilt. I find this size to be easy to complete and large enough to have space to play around and have fun with.

I love having a pile of quilts in the living room in winter time. We throw a few on the floor, snuggle, watch Tv. We each have favorite quilts and lots of pillows. 60″ quilts keep me making more quilts, it is my sweet spot size. Adding to the collection is great fun.

And oh! I kinda decided that all quilts should be two sided. Because real estate. (As always, we will see.)

So these are my initial thoughts on making a top for the challenge. It’s a bit cobbled together. It will come into focus soon

I have three unfinished quilts in the works right now! 🙂

Half Square Triangle

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