a quilt top
First, wow! I'm thoughtfully eating up your comments on "where have all the Blogs Gone?". So much to consider. They're so rich, I'm still reading them! Thank you, thank you, thank you for being generous with your perspective and your encouragement. Yes, of course, I plan to keep blogging! In fact, your comments make it absolutely clear that blogging still has an important contribution to make to our quilting community. Hurray for that! Thanks to you I've added a few new blogs to my reader and feel a renewed energy to be a good reader as well.
But back to the making.
I finished piecing my Twirly Top quilt, but... um... it ended up smaller than I planned. Triangles are tricky like that. They shrink more in width than they do in height, a lot more, as far as seam allowances. In this picture the upper rows are already made into triangles each composed of three half hexagons. Look at how much width I lose to seam allowances when I join the triangles to make a row (below). My goodness! And that's in addition to the seam allowances from joining the half hexagons as triangles. Sheesh.
To finish throw quilt size, I added a 5" border around. The border is mainly Kona Cadet, a favorite of mine, plus some leftovers Cotton & Steel from the quilt top. I used a range of solid blues to compliment my Porto & Beyond bundle, plus a dusty purple called Kona Plum (it's not as dark a plum as it appears in this picture). To me the finished palette is peaceful and vaguely vintage-inspired.
One of the fabrics from the Porto & Beyond bundle is a border print. I saved the kitty cat border rather than letting it disappear in half hexagons. Shows off perfectly down here in the border.
My interrupted borders allow the solid Cadet to surround without stray seams. I also like the modern, asymmetric appeal of interrupted borders. Do you know I almost never buy fabric especially for borders or quilt backs? I much prefer using what I have on hand and the extra bits of creativity that are born from necessity. That kind of improvising is something I love about patchwork. You can fix almost any mistake or fabric shortage by adjusting your approach.
Next, quilting and finishing. Soon!
But back to the making.
I finished piecing my Twirly Top quilt, but... um... it ended up smaller than I planned. Triangles are tricky like that. They shrink more in width than they do in height, a lot more, as far as seam allowances. In this picture the upper rows are already made into triangles each composed of three half hexagons. Look at how much width I lose to seam allowances when I join the triangles to make a row (below). My goodness! And that's in addition to the seam allowances from joining the half hexagons as triangles. Sheesh.
To finish throw quilt size, I added a 5" border around. The border is mainly Kona Cadet, a favorite of mine, plus some leftovers Cotton & Steel from the quilt top. I used a range of solid blues to compliment my Porto & Beyond bundle, plus a dusty purple called Kona Plum (it's not as dark a plum as it appears in this picture). To me the finished palette is peaceful and vaguely vintage-inspired.
One of the fabrics from the Porto & Beyond bundle is a border print. I saved the kitty cat border rather than letting it disappear in half hexagons. Shows off perfectly down here in the border.
My interrupted borders allow the solid Cadet to surround without stray seams. I also like the modern, asymmetric appeal of interrupted borders. Do you know I almost never buy fabric especially for borders or quilt backs? I much prefer using what I have on hand and the extra bits of creativity that are born from necessity. That kind of improvising is something I love about patchwork. You can fix almost any mistake or fabric shortage by adjusting your approach.
Next, quilting and finishing. Soon!