Block 38 ~ Victory Garden & Rangeley Retreat Recap!
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| Block 38 ~ Victory Gardens ~ Michelle's Fabric Selection 1 |
I don’t think I could say it any better. I’m a journey quilter, I enjoy everything about the journey and want that final product to represent my hard work.
As you can see we have a new tool to the series, the Diamond Rects. Below, I'll provide you a pictorial of how to use the tools and step-by-step instructions. The center unit is a Square³ (Square-in-a-Square-in-a Square. If you need a refresher on Square³, make sure to check out Block 12’s Sew On the Go Blog post, there you will find a pictorial tutorial on Stacked Squares technique. Love this method! In this week's block's download, you can get multiple size calculations on the Stacked Squares technique sheet.
For color plans;
- Fabric Selection 1, I went almost with a Triadic color plan, selecting that fabulous floral that reads as an Aqua Blue (8), pairing it with Fushia (16) and then Chartreuse (2) - Note that should have been Golden Yellow (24) for a true Triadic color plan, but I felt given the floral that the Chartreuse was better.
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| Fabric Selection 1 |
- Fabric Selection 2, I went with another Triadic color plan, selecting the Blue Violet (12) for the center dark, and then the Red (19) for the medium and Yellow-Green (3) for the light.
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| Fabric Selection 2 |
For today's pictorial lesson, we are going to walk through the making of Diamond Rectangles, using the Studio 180 Design's Diamond Rects. Remember the measurements are in the download.
1. Gather the Light strip, trim off the selvage and then open up the strips so that you may cut the entire length of fabric. Place the strip either right side up or right side down on your cutting mat. This will be a precision cut, it’s very important that every diamond is the perfect size.
2. Align the proper Center Diamond guidelines of the Diamond Rects ruler with the raw edge of the strip as shown in the illustrations and cut. You will need to cut along both of the angled edges of the ruler. You’ll get an angled cut across the strip and just a few threads trimmed from the top edge of the strip.
3. Rotate the first piece around to make the second diagonal cut near the trimmed selvedge edge.
4. Then continue to make cuts along the remaining length of the strip until you have (8) Diamonds Centers.
5. Next, gather and stack your Background Fabric Rectangles. Be sure to cut and keep your rectangles in pairs, placing either right sides together or wrong sides together so you’ll have the mirror image pieces you need.
6. Using the side triangle cutting section position the ruler for proper Finished Size guidelines against the raw edges of the stacked rectangles and cut along the slanted edge of the ruler.
7. Continue to cut the Rectangles, until you have (16) Side Triangle Pairs (32 Total).
8. Lay out all the pieces of the unit, right sides up as they are going to be sewn.
9. Stitch two opposite side triangles to opposite edges of the center diamond. Align the raw edges and basically center the diamond over the side triangle edge. Sew with the diamond on top and use your best 1/4” seam. Press away from the center diamond.
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| Note: How the skinny point only gets about a 1/3 of the extra and the wide angle point gets about 2/3 of the extra side triangle. |
Note: At this point, I like to trim the dog ears to give me a nic clean stitch edge for the next step.
10. Align and stitch the remaining two side triangles to the raw edges of the center diamond, just like you did with the first two triangles. Remember to stitch with the diamond on top. Press away from the center diamond.
11. Place the unit face up on a cutting mat. Position the trim down side of the ruler on the unit, aligning the X’s for the proper Finished size and the dashed lines with the seam intersections and the sewn seams.
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| Note: how I have extra fabric, not much, but enough. If you run thin here, it is because you didn't off-set properly. Go look at step 9 |
12. Trim 2 sides of the unit, then lift the ruler, rotate the unit 180 degrees, and reposition the ruler. This time align the just cut edges with the cut size box along with the proper size X’s and the dashed lines.
13. Repeat for all (8) units.
Easy! Right. To be honest, I find my students have the most difficulty with this unit. It is important to try one first and be sure to be off setting them properly.
Well, that about wraps it up for today. I did want to share some Quilt "almost finishes" and "finishes" from Fall Quilt Camp at Rangeley 2018! Check out what these ladies completed in just 5 days!
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| Fall Quilt Camp @ Rangeley 2018 |
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| Amusement |
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| Calm Seas |
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| Galaxy |
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| In Flight |
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| Bloom |
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| Bloom |
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| Bloom |
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| In Flight |
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| Lightning |
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| Bloom |
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| Lightning |
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| Bloom |
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| Bloom |
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| Bloom |
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| Betsy's Sudoku |
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| Scrappy Jenn's Journey |
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| Lightning |
Fabulous five days with some very talented people!
Well, I hear the delivery truck beeping! My new Koala table is here! I must sign off for this week. Be sure to check out next week's post, as I will be revealing details of my 2019 newsletter/blog project.
Keep Stitching,
M
