Ripe for Triangles

Quilt-making fills so many rolls in my life. Some quilts are very aesthetic and extensively planned, like the Penny Sampler or Nineteen Thirty. Others are emotionally expressive and thus cathartic to sew, like Never Easy or the NICU baby series.

I make some quilts as gifts or as charity projects or for my children. With these I think, of course, constantly about the recipient. That is an outward-looking, outpouring process. Then there are the ones I make to let off steam. These are usually scrap quilts, and when I sew them it is as if the fabric and colors are pouring into me, filling me back up with energy, perspective and joy.

I needed to let off some steam this week, so I decided to mess around with this roll of pink/red/white fabrics. It’s called a Honey Bun, and is made up of 1.5” cut width-of-fabric strips from the Zen Chic collection Just Red. Looks like Valentine’s Day, right? That’s good timing.

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I’m not really a precuts kind of girl, so I needed inspiration. I browsed online for patchwork ideas that use a thin sashing, preferably nothing too traditional. I happened across a Film in the Fridge tutorial called Two Triangle. Crazy small world - I longarm quilted a Two Triangle quilt for her years ago!

That’s funny. Anyways, the Film in the Fridge tutorial is clear and very do-able, but then a lightbulb went on in my brain. Scraps! And not just any scraps.

Triangle Scraps.

Those are my scrappy nemesis. They’re so tricky to work with. Usually incredibly time-consuming. I pulled them out and asked myself if I was really up to the challenge. While I mulled it over, Elora helped me sort them into different stacks, based on approximate size.

Then I realized that I could chain-piece the triangles in mass on the long honey bun strips. That would be fast. I wouldn’t trim them to size first. I would just go for it and trim later.

Plus, and this was the kicker, I could use triangles of different sizes. I could combine tiny triangles to make bigger triangles to use in the very same block. Wowzers!!! And that, my friends, is triangle scrap jackpot!