Thursday, April 21, 2011

Flying Colors Continued

Last post on Flying Colors I left off with just the bottom pc. added to the window of this block.  Now I've added the top pc. shown here. These are templates I and J.  I cut strips 1 1/4" wide x WOF (width of fabric), then the angle cuts using two strips of  fabrics right sides together (or wrong sides together) and one template to get the angles.  With the fabrics laid together I got one of each template angle this way.  I needed 168 lights and 168 mediums for the design I am doing.


Then the next side pc. was added. Templates E and G.  This time I cut my strips 1 5/8" wide x WOF.  The angles are cut at 45degrees but I used the same method as above and cut two strips of fabric using one template to get my angles.   These pcs. go on the shorter side of the center (window) pc.
I cut 168 lights and 168 med. in the same colors to go around the center pc. so that the lights and med. would make sets.  Press all E towards the center and all G out from the center.



My next template pcs were "B" cut as 1" wide x WOF, then cut at 5 7/8" lengths.  These go on the longer side of the center pc.  And I used two different prints for these. One was a batik green and the other a Ombre print that went from lighter yellow green to a darker green.  I pressed these in the same direction as the E and G pcs. above.
Note: After doing the layout shown at the bottom of this post, I realized to add my little missing squares I needed to remove some of these strips going horizontally.  So if your doing this project, like i am, you may want to do a layout of all pcs. BEFORE adding these, so you know which ones you can add to the pc. right now, and which will have to wait. If you use the templates printed out in the pattern, you will be ok.  More on that at the bottom of this post.


I did a quick layout of my pcs at this point.  I had cut more then this, but not enough to do the whole quilt.  I just wanted enough to give me a good idea when I laid them out - to see where I wanted the pattern to go.

Next I wanted to fill in the missing squares.  So I chose two fabrics. One a yellow the other a blue/green like the Center pcs. that I had already used.


Next pc. "F"  is to be cut into 3 1/2" squares, then cut once on the diagonal creating (HST) half square triangles.










And they are sewn to the tops of "E and G" like this.
Again, press the same direction as you did "E and G".










Here is how my layout is looking now. I just love the blue diamond now appearing in the center.  I think I'm going to outline this whole center pc. of the quilt with a dark border.  But at this point there are still little squares missing which I will have to address in the next step - before I start to sew these all together into rows.





Here is a closer view of the blocks.  Since I didn't want to use the little hst to make up the little squares in the middle of these blocks, I had to remove the 1" strips going horizontally so that I could add squares to fit.







The original pattern templates call for a small hst to be  cut and placed at the end of each of these groups.  I find this very hard to do for my limited amount of skills in quilting.  So I chose not to use them.  But if you are working on this project and want to use these, they will give a whole different pattern design to the quilt depending on how you use your colors.
Here it is sewn on to give you a better view of how it looks.  These now fill that little square area that is missing in mine (above), once these pcs. are all sewn together.  (see next image)








Here is how it looks if you go with the little triangle method.  I used a very lose stitch so that I could take it apart later.  I just wanted to give everyone an idea on how it looks.  I used two of the blue/green and the rest yellow. This is so that if I were to use this method, it would finish off the tip of the diamond in the center of this quilt.  I took a quick photo of it below to show you how it would look.




But like I said. Because I have trouble with these little triangles going together.  I had more in my attempt to use this method that didn't turn out then that did.  Not sure what it is I do wrong, but I finally gave up and decided that I would use squares in most my center horizontal strips and only use these for the tips of my diamonds.  Much less frustrating for me.

Now for an update on making my EQ files into pdf files so that those of you who want to follow along can.  I so far, have not been able to do it. I may be able to print out the templates, then scan them into a jpg image, which than can be placed in a pdf file - but until I buy more printer ink, I haven't been able to try it.  So if you have EQ6 or 7 or maybe it will work with the earlier versions, I'm not totally sure - but if you want this pattern, just leave a comment to this post and an email address and I can send it to you in EQ format.  Meanwhile I keep trying to get this as a pdf file.  

Have a great day.







Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Hearts Desire

I've been participating in the Hearts Desire - Applique Mystery - BOM  over at (Ester Aliu).


I've never really sat down and tried hand appliqué.  Really never felt much need to-- until this past winter when all the sudden it seemed that something was missing. I felt I needed to be doing something while I watched tv.  I tried crocheting, but that lasted about a month and I was bored with it as well.  So when this BOM came along,  I knew I had to give it a try.  


I had this little daisy print (heart fabric) and thought it would make a great fabric to give this quilt a little country look.  And lots of green and yellow check - yards of it even.  So last trip to town I picked up a coordinating small daisy print that went well with the larger print for my center and corners.
  
At first I was frustrated as I really had no idea on how to start.  It's not the needlework that alluded me, rather how to  get the design perfect in size and layout from pattern to fabric and then onto the background. So I talked to other appliqué hobbiest, searched the internet, and then tried out a couple different techniques before settling on the wax paper technique.  I then still didn't know exactly how to get my pcs lined up correctly on my background block.  So I folded my block in half, then in half the other direction and centered my design.  I was still off some but not bad for the first try.  I need to find out a good way to transfer the layout though as the next block is much more difficult and just folding my fabric in half is not going to work for this upcoming one.  


I have to say though, that hand appliqué is very relaxing.  I wish I had started this years ago.




  

Flying Colors

I've been busy this past week on Flying Colors. I'd love to do this quilt in several  different layouts as well as scrappy.    Do you remember in my earlier post that is is a pattern from a paper airplane designed by a friend of mine's son - Darrick Yarbrough?

You can see several idea's that I did in EQ6 in my earlier post, but I found several other layouts and idea's like the one I posted here to the left.  So if anyone wants to quilt along with me, you can be as creative as you want to be with the layout and color scheme.  Just please do not share the pattern as it belongs to it's creator.

I would love it however, if you'd share your progress on your blog,  along with a link back to mine, or (if you don't have a blog) send photo's and comments to me and I'll post them here for you.

To get started you need to decide on a basic color scheme.  I'm doing it in mostly greens and some dark blues.  That is because Darrick requested these colors. But like I said before, you can go with a huge array of color schemes or totally scrappy colors - the results , depending on your layout, will all be wonderful.

1.  I cut 9 strips of each light and medium greens by wof (width of fabric)- 18 strips total.
Then cut the strips at 2 1/8" rectangles.  For the whole quilt you will need 336 of these little guys.

2. Cut strips 2 1/8" wide by wof.
You will need to cut 168 of template H and 168 of template K. These are the windows of the airplane. : )
Or you can do like I did, and just fold your fabric wrong sides together and cut your strips, then using one template,  you will get both angles out of each cut .
Next I sewed my rectangles  to the lower edge of the H and K templates.  Here is mine.

I will try to do a pdf file that can be uploaded of the templates, but until them if you want to do this project just  comment to this post and make sure your email is included and I can send it to you.

Oh before I forget - I didn't cut all my pcs. out yet.  I only cut out all my windows and the colors around most my windows,  as I knew that these were the colors I wanted to use throughout this quilt.  But if your using several colors or you don't know where your layout will go yet, you may want to just do enough for four or six blocks to start.

Left is the image of one block.  It is made up of four squares and some sashing. You can rotate each square, remove the center sashing, use a square in the center instead of a pinwheel, etc.  Every change makes a totally different look to this quilt.  So you will want to play with a few of these square on your design board, "BEFORE" you connect them to make one block.
 Have a great day.  : )