Equilateral Triangle Quilt Part 3- Piecing

Time to start putting this quilt together!  Today I am going to walk you through how I piece a quilt.  Piecing consists of sewing fabric together and pressing it, that's pretty much it.  When I work I try to space out my work stations and alternate tasks, otherwise my neck and shoulders tend to get stiff and sore. So I have my quilt laid out down stairs by my ironing board and my sewing machine upstairs. 

To keep things orderly, and because my machine is upstairs, I am going to work one row at a time  Here I am starting with a blue triangle and I am going to pin it to the charcoal triangle where I want to stitch it. 

I do this for the entire row, pinning one to another and then take the stack to my machine for sewing. I use cotton thread, a stitch length of 1.8, and sew a scant 1/4" seam using a 1/4" foot.

To make this process faster I chain pieced, which simply is continuously stitching one after the other without cutting my thread. It's really easy to do. As soon as one piece is finished take a few stitches before feeding the other piece into the machine.

Once I stitched all the pairs for that row I cut them apart.

Then I bring them to my ironing board for pressing.  First I press along the seam using a hot iron, no steam.

Then I open the pieces and press the seam to one side. I do this for each piece, making sure I press all seams in that row in the same direction.

Once pressed I then join those two pairs to each other, and on and on until I have a completed row.

This is the back, see how the seams are all pressed in the same direction.

Now I'm going to move on to the next row working in the same way except I am going to press my seams in the opposite direction as the first row. I am going to continue working in this manner until all my rows are sewn together.

Its starting to take shape! Like I said piecing is repetitive, but also rewarding when you start seeing all those pieces come together.  I am going to get to work finishing up those rows and will continue as soon as they are completed.  

Equilaterial Triangle Quilt Part 2-Layout

Now that I have cut my triangles I am ready to layout my quilt. I always do this on the floor.  Some people lay quilts out on their beds or a table but I prefer my freshly vacuumed dining room floor. I dont know why, but I can't layout a quilt on a bed. It's very awkward an uncomfortable for me.  However, crawling around on the floor is fine lol! I must be part monkey! So here is my quilt during layout. 

I just randomly placed my triangles row by row until the size was what I wanted. This is the point where I like to step back and really look at what I have done so far. I think of it the same way as looking at art work: up close to see details then back to view as a whole. I do this in two different ways. First, and probably the easiest and most accessible, is to take a picture with your phone.  Which is what I did in the above picture. Second, I have this handy little tool called a quilt viewer.  It is a reducing lens that lets you see what a quilt will look like from a distance.

It was one of my Tuesday Morning clearance finds (I believe it was a whopping 80 cents! I love a deal!) and has turned out pretty handy.  Also in case anyone was wondering no, I am in no way affiliated with Tuesday Morning nor did they compensate me in anyway for saying nice things about them. I just really like that store! So, here is what the quilt looks like through the viewer.

Pretty neat right? Again either way works. I just stumbled upon the viewer and though why not try it and thought I would share how it works, but you don't need it. The objective is simply to step back, look at it as a whole. This helps me see if I like the color placement and where to make changes.  Once I am happy with that I take another picture. I always take a picture of my final layout. This way if a piece gets moved, a pet decides to run through the room, or if I have to get it up out of the floor I can lay it right back out the way I wanted. Now its time for the next step: Piecing!

What do you think? I am pretty excited about it! I like how colorful it is.  Perfect for a bright nursery. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think, or if you have any questions or tips!

Equilateral Triangle Quilt Part 1-Cutting

A few months back I kept seeing equilateral triangle quilts on Pinterest. I loved them! Especially those made from solid fabrics. I usually gravitate toward cute prints, but the bright, simplicity, of some of these made me want to try something different. I have already chosen my fabrics, 6 in all- turquoise, pomegranate, grey, charcoal, pumpkin, and lime; all cut into 5 1/2" strips. Now the fun part cutting the triangles!

This is so easy to do you just use the marking on your quilting ruler and your rotary cutter. I want equilateral triangles so I find the 60 degree mark and line it up along the bottom of my fabric strip:

Now cut along the long side of the ruler.

Now rotate the ruler to the other 60 degree mark, line it up along the bottom of the fabric while simultaneously aligning the long edge of the ruler to the top of the now formed triangle.

Cut

Tada! Easy peasy triangles. Now just keep rotating your ruler lining up the 60 degree mark and continue cutting out triangles until you have the desired number. To make this faster you can cut multiple layers at once. Up next:  Part 2-Layout

Craft Supplies

Lets face it, as much fun as it is to make things supplies are not usually free.  At times just buying all the supplies needed for a project is enough to make any crafter think "Maybe I should just buy this instead of making it myself."  So today I though I would share one of my favorite places to find discounted art and craft supplies:  Tuesday Morning.  I love this store! For the longest I thought it was just a home goods type store but they have a great craft section and very good prices.  Here are a couple of pictures from their crafting isle.

Yes, that's right they have fabric!  While they dont have a vast selection they do have some adorable prints at great prices.  Today I mostly found fat quarter bundle packs which started at $3.99 for five fat quarter fabric pieces. To put this into perspective one $4 bundle is enough to make a baby size quilt top!  If sewing is not your thing they also have a variety of arts and craft supplies such as scrap booking paper, paint brushes, paint even oil paints, die cuts, yarn etc.  You never know what you might find.  Today I was lucky and found a 6"x24"June Taylor quilting ruler for $6 and a Sizzix die for $8, I left very happy!

Woodland Themed Quilt and A Tiny Human

Good morning!  Yesterday I finished this adorable woodland quilt. A big thank you to Jedi Craft Girl for sharing this pattern on her blog! Here is a link to her page with the pattern http://www.jedicraftgirl.com/?s=birdie

Usually I take my photos indoors. Yes I know outdoors is better and more interesting, however nothing frightens me faster than the thought of getting a fresh from the sewing machine, brand new quilt grass stained or otherwise dirty! That said I decided to give it a try and was pleased with the outcome.  Ironically the one time I do try this someone was mowing their yard off in the distance so if you look closely at the top you can see what looks like the tiniest human head ever!  Too funny!  How about you, any tips for outdoor photos or funny mishaps?

Hello There!

Just wanted my first post to be a little bit of an introduction and a welcome to anyone reading-so here goes.  I am an artist named Rae.  I love to sew paint and do anything crafty!  To me nothing is betting than making something (or fixing) something yourself.  I decided to write a blog to share some of my crafting know how as well as my current projects, and to meet other craters along the way.   So please feel free to comment and be engaged!  I think we can all benefit from each others talents and experiences.  Now on to some fun!