South By Southwest

Quilt in Progress for Joseph

When my youngest daughter Kristina was killed, I was devastated.
 Kris loved my decor of the southwest, where I grew up on a desert ranch.
 Some of the items I had given her survived

 the house fire that took her life the
 same month her only son Joseph turned 21.

For Joseph's birthday in 2018, I plan to gift him the quilt

South By Southwest.

Eager to start the quilt before the pattern arrived, I thought I had the

pattern figured out. But months later, when I tried to finish

using the pattern - nothing worked! Although similar,

my quilt and the pattern were critically different.

 I would sew for a day and

 rip for two days. 

Quilt Assistant v.2.25

To the rescue! It is FREE block drawing software, designed
 not to replace The Electric Quilt, but

to provide a CAD for specific drawing tasks.
 It has proven easy to learn, and use

to create and print my own personal pattern.

Color Plan #1

To create the interesting corner treatment, I made two color plans -
 with a difference only in contrasting corner colors.
 Otherwise, the coloration is only a guide for

a scrappy look made with 2.5" strips on
 a cream background yardage.

One fourth of the block is created 4 times,
 and joined to make a 20" block set on point.

The direction of the angled cuts are important.
 I hate wasting fabriccutting pieces that won't work.
 So I labeled the pieces:

NE and NW refer to the angle of the cut

If you  think of a compass,
 the NW angle points to the West, and the
NE angle 

points to the east. 

The number inside each unit indicates the finished size of the
 longest edge of the unit.

(After mindlessly cutting some "F-NE" units -
 I realized I couldn't use them

and still follow my plan. It's OK,
they will work in the side triangles.)

A note about cutting:  

For 40+ years, I have used the rotary cutter and acrylic rulers in specialized 

shapes and sizes. Lately, I decided my results were way too inaccurate,

whether due to my advancing age, or loss of skill for relying on

oversized and trimmed blocks!

While doing Jinny Beyer's 2017 Mystery quilt, I decided to use her method of 

making templates and marking them as if for hand sewing - 

except I would sew

by machine.

 Then I saw in a Quilt Show video that Sally Collins

does much the same, but takes it further, and cuts with the tiny 

rotary cutter, being oh so careful not to cut her template.

 It works!! 

And doesn't take any more time than all that silly trimming. 

It is done correctly the first time. The method also has the 

advantage of using my wide presser foot for better control of the seam.

Instead of sewing by a scant quarter inch seam allowance, my sewing

 guides are the dots transferred from the templates.  

So nice!

Sea Swept !

The first section done on my Sea Swept quilt. It will honor the historic mariners in my husband's family - including the grandson who now sails in the Pacific on sea going tugs. Gerald's career took him around the world more than once. I envy his memories! His family history goes back to the grandfather (great?) who played a pivotal role in the confederacy ships reaching Mobile to replenish needed salt supplies.

The pattern is by Laura Flynn from The Cotton Patch Quilt Shop. It is paper pieced, combining Storm at Sea and Ocean Waves, aka Snail's Trail.

A scan in the pattern ©2014 by Laura Flynn that I used to plan my sequence of construction

 

This is a great pattern for those who "teach themselves" to quilt. It is complex enough to require thought and planning. The repetition gives plenty of practice for that pesky paper piecing upside down and backwards method - a sure thing for accuracy. And I would call it "semi-scrappy" - providing the advantages of a controlled scrappy quilt within a set color scheme.

First I purchased two small plastic drawer units to organize the many small pieces - in both prints and background. These have proven indispensable - and the drawers can be removed from the "cabinet" to serve as trays on the pressing center to have each size and color handy to laying out the fabric on the foundation paper.

 I literally hate repetitive, boring, endless cutting and sewing. The only pieces I cut the entire amount needed were the diamond shapes - I saved fabric by cutting diamonds instead of rectangles. Waiting 2 months for a bundle of fat quarters that never arrived didn't help either, so it was doubly necessary to organize the cut strips, squares and triangles, a little at a time. This aversion to boredom is also the reason I decided to make my quilt in sections, like a 9 patch. The sequence gives me enough variety to keep things interesting. I made the four blocks of Ocean Waves, and lay them out to plan the colors for the diamonds and centers...semi-scrappy at its best.

A Successful start to the New Year's Resolution to Plan My Work, and Work My plan!