Sunday Quilt Inspiration: N U M B E R S //past posts\\

As I was thinking of today's quilt inspiration post, I found that it's becoming quite difficult to find new ideas. I've been keeping a list of ideas for several years, but haven't added to it in quite a long time. And the ideas still on the list are pretty lame. 



This afternoon it occurred to me that I have several posts that are popular and I could try to revisit a few of those in the hopes that inspiration would come to me soon. So the next few weeks will revisit some of the posts that have generated interest. 


"Sunday Quilt Inspiration: N U M B E R S" was a wildly popular post from 2014 that is surprisingly popular even now four years later. 

One of my favorite quilts from that post is this pretty nine-patch red and white. The maker certainly knew what to do with her needle when it came to quilting this beauty. 

Other quilts that would fit into that board today include

1 patch wonder with the occasional square within the blocks 


1 HST block alternating with 9-patch HST block also in red and white
   

And a few more 9-patch sort-of quilts just for fun.

Can you find the 9-patches?

This is my guess. What do you think? 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Half-Square Triangles

I'm in a half-square triangle kind of mood. Pinterest is chock-full of them, so I thought I'd share some of the information and quilts that are available in the way of ideas.

First up: directions, tips, ideas, tutorials and cheats

Next up: 12 quilts, 12 settings (no two alike)

Last up: Lagniappe (something extra) by Denyse Schmidt

Did you choose a favorite? Not yet? Okay then, I've made a few HST quilts. You can find them on my Trunk Show Pinterest board. 

Sad Little Quilt ~~ A Finish

It's done.  All finished.  Well, almost...I have to put a label on it. Unfortunately I don't have a name.  



Because of the quilting, I called it a sad little quilt earlier today, but that's not much in the way of quilt names.  


I guess that for now it's just not going to get a label.  

 I don't like the quilting since it not the style I've become accustomed to and love.  I think it's pretty bad, actually.  Richard disagrees with me, but I see every crooked line.  Note to self: no more stitch in the ditch quilting.  

I haven't decided what to do with the quilt, so I suppose none of it really matters.  I am considering donating it and will think about where it should go.

Although I don't care for it very much, I'm sure someone will appreciate it.  I'm also proud that I finished it.  It's difficult to see a quilt to the end when I'm not happy with the outcome, but I'm getting better at pushing through the problems.  Most of the time I end up liking the finished product, but not with this little quilt.  

As I said earlier, "Sad little quilt."  
Lots of linkups tonight!  Go by for a visit!

Linking up with

Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts 

Off the Wall Fridays at Creations Quilts Art Whatever

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

http://whatahootquilts.blogspot.ca/ for TGIFF

HST's Aboard

The HST baby quilt that I played with last weekend is loaded on the long-arm.  Getting to play with it on the machine, however, has not been easy.  Remember that I wrote on Saturday how I was undecided about the design?  Well, I thought I'd share the layout that I finally settled on.  

I know, I know, I chose the layout that I was considering from the beginning.  In the end, I couldn't decide, so I went with what got me started.  It was the easy way, I'm sorry.

To make up for it, I thought I'd share how I keep my rows in order.  I write numbers on small sticky dots and put them on the end of the rows beginning at the top (in this case).  

Another thing I did was to put all the dots on the left side and on the white triangle.  Doing so helped me to keep the rows in the correct order, but it also helped me keep from turning them around.  

I find that having a touch of dyslexia increases my chances of turning blocks and strips in the wrong direction.  I don't care for ripping out seams, so I've had to figure out how to prevent sewing dyslexia.

The fabrics that I used for this quilt is from the Antoinette collection by Connecting Threads.  The main fabric is beautiful, so I wanted a big chunk of it showing.  A border handled that perfectly.

Won't this make a pretty little quilt?

Playing with HST's

Half square triangles are really a fun block to play with.  While we were on vacation, one of the kits that I sewed up was a collection of HST's that I'd cut just before leaving.


Because the blocks were 3 1/2 inches, the HST's finished at three inches or so.  It was easy to sew and store them in the camper because they fit into such small space.  

Yesterday I sewed the HST's into strips and then play with how they might go together.  I haven't decided just yet which arrangement to use, but I took photos so that I could get a good view, and I thought it might be a good idea to share my designs.

In this first picture, the printed fabrics form larger triangles while the white fabrics form a parallelogram.  

Of course, it's easy to reverse the shapes and have the negative space form the arrow points while the printed fabrics forming the parallelograms. Interestingly, the only way for the arrow shapes to turn back and forth is to create parallelograms between the lines. 

To understand what I mean, look at the white arrow shapes.  Each row of arrows is turned.

Originally I planned to use this cris-cross design.  I like the way the triangles are turned for each row.  But I'm not so sure it's still my favorite.

I figured out this design by accident.  It's the one that led me to playing with the arrow design.  Both the printed fabrics and the white fabrics are in the parallelogram shapes.  Notice the center row of arrows?  That's what started this.

This final design has arrows going in both directions, but the printed fabrics are all pointing in the same direction and the white is pointing in the opposite direction.

There are no parallelograms in the final design, but the colored arrows are all pointing right and the white arrows are pointing left. Turning either one is what creates the parallelograms in the other.

Now wasn't that fun?  I don't know about you, but I had to look up that math shape.  Who knew the name of a parallelogram? Definitely not me.