Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Charm Quilts #6 and Triangles


More charm quilts from the New England Quilt Museum exhibit in Lowell MA.  Current exhibit is Rhode Island quilts.

This little charmer was made by Pat Nickols, owner of many of the charm quilts in the exhibit.

Always interesting to see tho I have seen it many times, the Boston Pavement (aka tile quilt) is in the permanent collection of the museum.




Small quilts are always a favorite of mine.


Even simple squares make beautiful quilts!!






This is a Millenium Charm Quilt.

This is a unique touch....she had a square postmarked!


Postage Stamp quilts are another favorite (yes....I have a Lot of Favorites!)




Sorry for the blurriness! 






And there are still more Charm Quilts from the exhibit to come

The following is my method for making the Second Triangle border on my Medallion Quilt.  I did not want to follow the easy directions from Fons & Porter because that would yield me 4 Triangles alike and I wanted all to be different (nothing new there!).  So this is the RoundAbout way I approached it using only my trusty 6.5" square ruler from Creative Grids.  Not being a ruler collector as much as a fabric collector, I have only the squares in several sizes and the very necessary 6.5" x 24"!  

Some Fabric choices for the lights...guess I failed to take a picture of the darks...


 First I drew a 7-1/4" square on 1/4" graph paper (the size the pattern called for to be cut into four quarter square triangles).  Then drew in the diagonal lines which would have been the cutting lines for fabric.
 Placed my ruler over a single triangle until it fit perfectly.....now I know the size I need to cut: 3-5/8" x 7-1/4" rectangles.  The ruler shows that the lower corners need to be at 5-1/8".
 First fabric triangle seems to fit perfectly!  The proof will be when I finish a row to be attached to the Half Square Triangle border!

 Cutting another triangle from the rectangle.............
 Soon discovered I needed only 3-5/8" strips.....making sure the lower corners were at the 5-1/8" mark worked fine!
 Nice size triangles and 2 half square triangles for the HST Box .......that's another "story"!
 Selecting the lights and darks for the first border............I like "busy" fabrics for both the lights and the darks.  In original pattern in the magazine, it looks like the same light fabric was used for the entire Triangle border, and it was beautiful fabric, but I like the variety!
I check corners to be sure they are square......see how the diagonal line on the ruler follows the diagonal sewing line and the edges align with the ruler? Good indication that things are as they should be.
 Sewed alternating light and dark triangles......make sure you "offset" the triangles so that there is 1/4" seam allowance point on both ends of the seam.  Most points are fine and the ones that aren't?  I will live with them........


Tuesday, July 8, 2014

More Charm Quilts/Medallion Progress


Hexagons are a favorite pattern for a charm quilt......these are a bit elongated.  
Lots of interesting fabrics in this one....love the cat in the basket!
Nice Bird!  Upside down in the quilt and I did not notice to turn it!

We see that bright blue used in many quilts here in New England.  Pattern also came with red flowers or tan flowers.
At first glance, it looked like a duplicate of the blue but the patterns are different!


I think the floral at the top (next to the blue) was reproduced by Judie Rothermel about 25 years ago!  Hers was blue/tan and can't remember the name of the line but think it had "Blueberries"?  Anyone remember?
?


Here is that fabric again in the red flowers.....think it may have been Hamilton Mills in MA. late 19th century.
Nice Sunflower!
A little cherub next to red/blacks, also popular late 19th century.


What a nice selection of florals all in a row!!
1000 Triangles are another favorite choice for Charm Quilts.
This quilt has a lovely border....would love to have flowers like that for our broderie perse quilts!!

Looks like a cheater fabric made it into the quilt and look what it is next to....there's that bright blue again!

More Hexagons....this time someone with a deep, old scrap bag....you will see what I mean as you scroll down.....
Darling "Conversational" kittens and mice!
What's this?  1920-30's thrown into the mix!



Just noticed that I took over 200 photos of the charm quilts so there are lots more to go!  Am saving my Favorites for last!  Bet you can guess what those are!!!! 

 Below is some progress on my Hewson Medallion.....another round of triangles.  Next round is a plain fabric and then it is Sawtooth Stars....36 of them.....I'll be making stars for a while!  Love making them and have several fabric combinations picked out so I can sew whenever I have a few minutes!! Am using the rectangle/square method for the flying geese star point units which gives me lots of Half-Square triangle units for something mini in my future!

I love Medallions and have a couple more ideas I want to try.  Sorry the quilt looks like it has border already on the right.....I don't have a design wall so had to pin it to a hanging quilt for the photo.....maybe I should learn to crop photos (if I could corral a grandchild long enough!).  There!  Granddaughter showed me how to crop .....so easy I should have figured it out myself!!