Isosceles triangles quilt and class

The Village Haberdashery were I am teaching quilting and other sewing classes asked me to teach a master class in isosceles triangles. So I thought the best way to go about this is to first make a class sample...that turned out to be a baby quilt (no half measures here...).




For those who have never heard about isosceles triangles (or can't remember geometry lessons at school), they have two sides of equal length rather than three and are thus a little "taller".



I worked with triangles before and whether they are isosceles or other they all require careful handling during cutting and quilt assembly which I will teach during the class including tips on fabric choice, design, quilting etc. We scheduled two classes one in July and one in September.



I loved making this quilt and new immediately when we decided to just use solids that I wanted something with lots of blues. It took only 10 min to choose all the colours for this quilt!



I used five different blues (Surf, Regatta, Riviera, Blue Jay and Candy Blue) and one orange  (Torch). All are Kona Cotton and are in stock at the Village Haberdashery.



Often when I make a quilt that is led by clear geometrical forms, I choose a quilting pattern that is the opposite of those strict uniform lines such as concentric circle. Whilst my go-to quilt pattern is the concentric circle, I chose something a little different for this quilt. I wanted to quilt in a way that looks as if many very large circles are implying that the quilt is part of a larger piece (at least from the back).



If you know my quilts then you know that I prefer coloured threads for quilting rather than white and this one is no exceptions. In fact I went even further. I quilted in two different varigated thread colours (both Gueterman Suki), one in shades of blues and one with a distinct emphasis on orange.



And I absolutely adore the result and wished I made the quilt bigger. The quilt will be displayed at the shop from next week and as part of my classes.

Single boy quilt - continuous circular quilting - a quick tutorial

I finished piecing my 'Single boy' quilt the other day and basted it in preparation for some intensive circular quilting.

The way I do circular quilting is as follows:

• Take a round object about 3" in diameter and draw with tailor's chalk a circle around it at the point where you wish to start quilting (this does not have to be the middle of the quilt, see here and here for off-center examples)
• Then draw from anywhere on the circle a quarter circle toward the center
• Then draw another quarter circle towards the outside. This acts as your guide for the continuation. You now have instead of a circle a spiral and that is exactly what a continues circle is

• Start sewing at the point where you drew the quarter circle towards the inside  (see red arrow) and NOT at the start of the drawn circle. This smaller piece is difficult to sew with the machine and inevitably always ends up looking somewhat square as you have to stop and readjust your quilt every tow stitches or so. To avoid this I simply stitch this little tale by hand. And I do this separately for the top and bottom as decorative stitch that only catches two layers rather than quilting through the three layers. This way it almost looks machine stitched. I make sure I have enough length of thread when I start machine quilting to finish the tale by hand after I have ran out of bobbin thread the first time (because that is the first time you can actually take the quilt of the machine)

• From the start of your machine quilting process ensure you frequently adjust your quilt so you are actually going around smoothly. It helps if you keep your needle in the down position so the quilt doesn't move. Don't force the quilt around, instead sew 10 stiches or so, stop, adjust quilt, sew again 10 stitches and so forth. This will go on like this for a few rounds and soon you realize that you can stitch longer without having to adjust the quilt quite as often as the circle has grown larger. 
• At the point where the chalk circle has finished (the outer tale so to say) use either the edges of your walking foot as a guide or the guide tool that comes usually with it. It depends on how far apart you want your circle stitch lines. For this quilt I am choosing the edges of my walking foot as I want dense quilting.

• The first 10 rounds of circular quilting are still awkward even if you do the tale by hand. I generally don't worry about this. None oft the circular quilting I have done is 100 % circular at first. There are always a few jagged lines. This is after all a handmade object and not quilted by a programmed machine. 
• Circular quilting requires a VERY well basted quilt as the constant movement through the machine puts a lot of strain on the quilt.

Alternative start:

• You can also start the quilting by using a darning foot or free motion foot if you don't wish to do the hand stitching. But I only recommend this for quilters who are actually familiar with free-motion quilting as this will otherwise go horribly wrong. Once you have done the first few rounds you an switch to the straight stitch walking foot. 

Mod Century log cabin quilt

My latest quilt is finished and it might just be one of my favorites in the baby quilt category. I started of with a fabric pack of 'Mod Century' given to me by Tina from Tikki and I was determined to make the most of it.

I added a lot of complimentary text prints from my own stash as 'Mod Century' already features text as background and some solids.

Then I went onto the joyous task of making log cabin blocks with a fairly random arrangement of fabrics. The only rule I had was that the middle squares should be highlighted with a solid coloured border. When I had 9 blocks I contemplated onto twelve but instead decided to add a pretty pin dot border.

For the quilt back I used 'Seafoam' in aqua from Lu Summer's 'Summersville' collection which I think works really well with the overall design of the quilt.

I just couldn't help myself quilting in a never ending circular pattern. I love this quilt pattern because it is fairly easy and yet incredibly effective and works very well with square quilts. The binding is also kept in aqua to compliment the quilt back and gives a little contrast around the pin dot border.

You can find this quilt in my Etsy shop here