What a great day Monday was – we were able to spend the whole day at our favorite pastime -  quilting.

The Gang

We started off with an all day class with Linda Hunter on Redwork.  We’ll be putting the embroidery in this cute wall hanging.  She shared tips on making easy half square triangles using  Thangles, a grid and the Easy Angle ruler (I’ve had one of these rulers for some time, but have never used it);  as well as tips to addsetting triangles to finish the quilt and discussed some border options.  At the end of the class she challenged us to finish our quilts within the next couple of weeks – Sure -  right!   We all enjoyed her laid-back teaching style.

As the  guest speaker at our monthly Guild meeting Monday evening, Linda treated us to a Trunk Show of some of her beautiful quilts along with a lecture on the History of Redwork.

In addition, we  showcased our 2011 raffle quilt at the meeting.   The Thumbstall membership has been working on the applique borders and pieced blocks for the quilt over the past few months.   The pieced blocks are from the pattern, Granny Stars by Nancy Mahoney.  The border pattern was designed by one of our Guild members, Sandi Holland.  She based it on the  fabric we’ll be using in the center of the block.

Elegence

Center Block Fabric

Well it’s finally done.  I put the final border on the Delectable Mountains quilt tonight.  Those triangles really took a lot of patience to complete.  Unfortunately I had to unsew t and resew  – All those points!

I definitely would sew the half-square triangles by the using Sew and Cut.  The BellaOnline website shows how easy this method is:

With a pencil and ruler, draw a line on the wrong side of the light color square.  With right sides together, layer the lighter square on the darker square and stitch a 1/4″ seam on BOTH SIDES of the drawn line.  Cut apart on the drawn line and press seam allowances toward the darker fabric.  Trim points and you are done. You now have two half-square triangles that measure 2-1/2″ on all sides.  They will measure 2″ when sewn into the block and then into the quilt.  This method lets you avoid handling the bias edges, therefore yielding half-square triangles that are more accurate in size.

This week I’ll be spending time quilting:  Delectable Mountains, the Challenge and  Silent Auction pieces for the guild’s biennial quilt show.

My miniature quilt from Lori Smith’s Fat Quarter Quilting is coming along – but not without some backtracking.

I added the saw tooth border and put in up on my design wall – Oh no! I had placed the triangle blocks wrong and now have an ugly secondary pattern.

Ugly Secondary Pattern

Out with the seam ripper for a bit of unsewing.  (If there’s anything that I like to do less than sew triangles, it is resewing them.  But sometimes you just have to do what you have to do!)

Putting it back together I found that I still had the ugly bar.  ????????????????  I checked the placement diagram -  I had placed the

Corrert Triangle Placement

squares  exactly as directed.

So I turned the blocks around -  the result was exactly like the picture of the quilt in the book.

I thought I should notify Lori Smith of the error so it could be corrected in the next printing.   I also suggested that since this is a miniature which requires precision piecing, it would be helpful if the sizes of each finished section were published with the instructions.

Here is the email response I received:

"Sorry you are having trouble with the book.
I will forward your comments to the publisher
Martingale. While the quilts are mine, the
publisher wrote the directions and did the diagrams
in the manner they considered appropriate.
I think you have some very valid points and I hope
they will take that into consideration.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Lori Smith"

I was really surprised. I’m not sure that I understand why the publisher executes the pattern and not the  designer – But what do I know?

One of the projects our guild is working on this year is fat quarter quilts.  During the next year we will be making 4  quilts from Lori Smith’s Fat Quarter Quilting. When I saw the quilts, I just couldn’t resist!

Our first project is Delectable Mountains – and it is full of flying geese and half-square triangle blocks.  I just hate working with the bias edges of triangles.  There has to be a better way.

First I made a sample using the pattern directions to determine the final size of the block.  Then I went to the Internet for help and found a site on How to Make Flying Geese.  The method for making several flying geese at one time certainly was easy, but the finished size was too big.  I decided to try cutting the squares the same size as called for in the pattern – and it worked!

Cut one 3-1/4″  square for ‘goose’  and four 1-7/8″  ‘sky’ squares

Draw diagonal line on each of the ‘sky’ squares

Place two ‘sky’ squares on top of  ‘goose’ square,  right sides together.

Sew 1/4″ seam on either side of drawn line.

Cut on drawn line

Press open

Place ‘sky’ square on corner of ‘goose’ triangle and sew on either side of drawn line.  Cut on drawn line.

Completed Blocks:

Finished Flying Geese

Perfect Flying Geese – and no stretchy bias edges to worry about.  I still have to go back to the Internet directions and find out what I did wrong – but for this project I’m home free.

We arrived here on Sunday night and decided that not to wait until New Year’s eve to open our presents.

My son was very surprised and pleased with his Adirondack quilt.  I was happy to see it on his bed. 

A king size quilt just does not show on a queen size bed.

The original pattern was for a double bed and was square.  I enlarged it to make it a king size rectangle by adding pieced and Seminole patchwork borders along with plain borders.

I named the quilt Adirondack Dreaming and printed the label with one of Tom’s pictures of the Adirondacks.  I found the perfect sentiment to use for the label:

Adirondack Dreaming

“You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind…because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.”

Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth

It seemed appropriate for someone who enjoyed the Adirondacks so much when he lived in upstate New York.