since the only things i'm making right now are patterns and ice cream :) i thought i'd share some things i've made in the past and show you how to make them too.
when i was pregnant with ella i had three friends who were pregnant at the same time--we formed the pregnant girls club and spent most of our free time sitting around a coffee table with our legs propped up and talking about crazy stuff like how utterly delectable crushed ice had become.
that summer i made baby quilts for these three friends and about a dozen for project linus. all the pictures in this post are very poor quality owing to the fact that the digital camera i had at that time was already about 5 years old and my photography skills were equivalent to my skills as an astronaut. but i think you'll get the idea. most of these pictures are quilt tops in progress (you'd probably figure that out without my help).
these quilts were all made using stash fabric and the exact same piecing technique: instead of cutting the half square triangles (HSTs) the traditional way--which for those who have not made them, the traditional way is to cut little squares and sew them together diagonally and then cut them apart one by one--i cut long strips of fabric and stitched them together on both long sides, then i cut the triangles en masse from the strips (click to enlarge):
using this method the edges of the squares are on the bias and the seam is on the straight grain, whereas in traditional piecing the diagonal seam is on the bias and the edges are on the straight grain. i know what you quilters are thinking: bias edges = bad, wavy quilt. NOT TRUE! bias edges are your friend, you can make them do all kinds of neat things like stretch out or shrink, and for all i know they can even be taught to juggle. anybody who makes clothing sews bias edges on every single garment and things usually turn out just fine. :D once the thing is quilted it will be nice and flat, i promise.
(ok, if you insist: to avoid bias edges on your HSTs, simply cut your strips on the bias--when you cut your triangles they will have straight grain edges. but beware--stitching long strips of bias is more iffy than sewing short edges of bias-edged squares to each other. it will also take way more fabric to get the same number of triangles. but do as you wish. i'm just saying).
in making these quilt tops all i did was make piles and piles of HSTs then i laid them out to make a design after the fact. each quilt was different, i just played around with the HSTs until i had something i liked. most of them were made as mazes (this was linda sue's quilt top):
some were made as echo designs (this was holly's quilt):
once i had a layout i liked, i pieced it together and then used any leftovers on the back as filler:
for brenda's quilt top i used strips that were a combination of two or more more narrow strips, which gave a more complicated final look but was as simple to make as the others. since these strips were smaller, i added a border to make the quilt the size i wanted (the quilt inspector to the left is bea, who still inspects quilts long after they have been finished and are on the bed):
i first saw this method about 7 years ago on a website that i cannot find now, it is either long gone or long buried beneath the mountain of other websites that have been published since then. and naturally someone has now invented a tool that is supposed to make this job easier--the wonder cut ruler--but you don't have to have that--i didn't. the only thing the ruler does is guarantee your triangles will end up a specific size. if you are willing to use whatever you end up with, you can just cut your strips and triangles without it, they will all still be the same size as each other so they will all fit together no matter how big or small they are. and once your triangles are cut, you can use them for any other quilt design, for example you can mix them with nine-patch squares and create a completely different look, even traditional if you wish (this quilt was for a couple we worked with at vandy who had their first child that same summer):
now for the very complicated math: i cut 6" wide strips simply because i had a 6" wide rotary cutting ruler. when i had cut the triangles i measured them and made nine-patch squares to match. no pre-planning for me, that would have required me to figure out something in advance and i'm not always in the mood for that. besides, the beauty of these quilts, to me, is the serendipity, which seems the right approach when making a quilt in celebration of a new baby.
guess whose baby is the only one i didn't make a quilt for? mine. :D but in an ironic twist, i have made her many pairs of shoes. from a dancer that is probably not terribly surprising but it is just another example of how motherhood warps a mind.
