Sunday, November 7, 2010

Design Wall Monday

I got a little preoccupied this week.  I've been going through things in my sewing room and straightening up at the same time.  I purchased a couple of shoe racks and a storage unit to organize my art bin containers.  They were stacked on top of each other and of course every time I needed something that case was on the bottom.  I did work in the Pineapple Nine Patch quilt.  I now have all the blocks sewn and half the quilt top sewn together.  I was a little disappointed as I couldn't get the pinwheels to match up accurately.  I guess this will be that quilt that I'll get to use some of the buttons in my stash (of course blogger would turn my photo AGAIN. )
So in frustration, I decided to work on the blocks for my guild's optional block program.  The one on the left was due in October; we have a month's grace period to get them done.  The leaf block is due at the November meeting.  I hope to work on these ahead of schedule, maybe getting all the blocks done by the end of the year.
Then I cut and pieced the center block of my Tessellation Pinwheels work in progress I started last week.  You can see the details here.  I'm planning to put two rows of blocks completely around the center.  The goal is to have each pinwheel made from a different fabric.  That means I'll need to cut more squares.  I've already used 57 different prints and need to make 24 more blocks.

I've been looking at this free pattern, Cotton Candy Quilt, from Robert Kaufman's site.  However, the pattern uses templates to make the block.  After staring at this for a while, I decided I could cut the print units with my GO! Chisels die.  However, what about the triangles that make the pinwheels?  I then thought maybe my GO! Bountiful Baskets die would work.  
Cotton Candy Quilt Pattern from Robert Kaufman
Yes, it worked!  I'm about a 1/16" too short but I can make that up in the seam allowance as I'm only missing the triangle points that I'd trim any way.  My block is larger of course than the pattern and I have bias seams on the outside of the block (which has been happening a lot lately with the techniques I've been working with.)  In addition, I cut the 8-point star using the GO! 2.5" Strip Die that I pieced into the block on the right.  I need to tweak the size of the setting triangles and squares for this one.  No plans to make the star into a quilt, just testing cutting on an angle with the die cutter.
To see more design walls, visit Patchwork Times.
-------------------------- Type-u-later, http://www.teaquilts.com

14 comments:

  1. WOW! Your pineapple quilt is fabulous. Love the pinwheels too.

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  2. Thanks Tea! I love the "Twister" (tesselating pinwheel) blocks. Would never have thought to do these this way as individual blocks. Great idea!

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  3. You have some AWESOME projects going on. LOVE, love, LOVE the pineapple.

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  4. Templates??? Templates??? What's those ??? LOL Didn't they go the way of the 8-track?? Geesh!!

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  5. I LOVE the way your tesselating pinwheels look. They are stunning :) I saw Norma at the Quilted Fox First Sat and she mentioned the scrap quilt club. I'm interested, can you give me the details?

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  6. I haven't been on for a while, you are really booking it, aren't you. Wish I had your energy!

    glen: beautiful

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  7. Yikes, I am so far behind on my pineapple quilt. I'm still stuck at only 6 blocks sewn together. Yours is looking beautiful, and so are the pin wheel blocks.

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  8. The pineapple quilt is phenomenal!!

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  9. I love the pineapple quilt too. And the tessselations. Seems like your GO cutter is getting lots of use.

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  10. Way to Go! LOL! Love the pineapple quilt; very nice.

    I've found a little trick that works *every* time (so far) when blogspot turns my photo the wrong way. I go back and reload it, only when I click "browse" and get to the file I want, I right click on it and turn it counterclockwise. Once it's changed the orientation, I right click on it again and turn it clockwise. Now it should look like it's supposed to. Double click on your picture and I bet it loads correctly for you! :)

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  11. Your Pineapple quilt looks fabulous. It is getting so close, don't give up. The pinwheels look so cute in separate blocks like that. Good luck figuring out how to use your GO to replace templates. Anything is better than templates, even bias edges.

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  12. As always your quilts are just wonderful-love the pinapples and the tessellation blocks are awesome.

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  13. Wow, just fabulous projects on your DWM! Thanks for sharing!

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