Tumbling Blocks Quilt

At last it is finished!
I have previously posted about the making of this quilt in April here and here.

The one thing I would change:  I really should have thought more about my choice of colours and only chosen fabrics that I really loved, as I no longer really like the aqua colour that I used as the tops of the 3D blocks.

The Quilting Process

For me, the quilting on this was a nightmare!
At first, I tried going around each 3D cube in a hexagon shape, but this meant that I had to double back a lot.  So I left it alone for a few days weeks to ponder over a solution.
Next I tried free-motion quilting but my lines were very wonky and my stitches were uneven lengths.I think I need a bit more practice with this skill before doing it on a quilt, so again I left it and went onto creating other things.
In the end, after much procrastination and delaying, a friend who does card-making suggested a solution that I tried and am much happier with the outcome.   And with a sewing-rut reminder from Danielle, I was ready to just crack-on and get it finished last weekend.

I stitched along the tops of the rows of cubes, in a wide zig-zag line, straight across the width of the quilt. Then I went back and stitched the up and down vertical lines in between by lifting the foot and pulling the thread a little to carry on stitching without snipping.  It's not as neat as I'd imagined, and there are a lot of cut threads that I clipped instead of threading through - very lazy of me really.

Here you can see the 10" border fabric as well as my pen lines that mimic the patchwork hexagons all the way over the border to the very edge.  In the above photo you can just see the blue stitching from left to right in the zig-zag. 

It is bound in an Amy Butler fabric ( I think)

Showing the two different mid-tone fabrics. I ended up introducing
a second mid-tone fabric to make the quilt a bit bigger.

What I have learnt

I really enjoy patchwork - measuring, cutting and piecing the jigsaw puzzle together, and am eager to start a new one.  But from now on, unless it's continuous line quilting, I think I will pay a professional to do the quilting.
I only have a limited amount of time to devote to creating, and the feeling of frustration, the worry and the procrastination really took it's toll on my creative output.  The monetary savings by quilting it myself just weren't equal to the cost to my creative well-being.
But on the upside - I am sure she will like this quilt, I am now out of my sewing rut and I am working on a new dress and a new quilt!

Tumbling blocks Quilt

W.I.P.

I have been working on this 3D cube quilt a little more lately and have posted about it previously.  It is a house-warming gift for a lover of all things blue.  

I knew it wasn't really big enough and I wanted to add more 3D cubes, but I didn't quite have enough of the medium tone blue.  So I have had to introduce a new medium tone that is similar in colour.  Because I didn't want to only have the new fabric at one end of the quilt, I have needed to unpick quite a few triangles amongst the strips so that the new fabric will be spread out amongst all the shapes.

I also wasn't sure how to treat the 3D cubes at the bottom end of the rows, whether to cut them off flush or to let them complete their shape.  I decided I want the cubes to really stand out, so I have let them complete their shapes.  I cut 2 and 1/4" strips of grey, then cut out triangles with a thirty degree angle and added them to the end of the strips. 

At last - all the strips are sewn together!

I asked my Mister for his opinion about finishing the left and right sides of the cubes, and he suggested not having sliced-through cubes, but letting the cubes finish themselves there too.  Oh no - two more strips to add!  But it does look better having no cubes cut in half.

Next step will be to add a grey border to match my 30 degree triangles and trapezoid shapes.  I am going to make it so that the total will be 60"x 60", so two borders will be slightly thicker than the other two, but overall it will become a square.  THEN to add the wadding, backing, and do the quilting!!

To see the next steps and the final quilt click here.

Tumbling Blocks Quilt

A Work In Progress

Lately I have been working on a house-warming gift for a grown-up niece who has just bought her first home.  I wanted to make her a quilt for snuggling on the couch with.  I don't know if she even likes quilts but they are homey and cosy so perhaps she'll appreciate it in the future if she doesn't right now.
The idea came from some of the things that I know about her.  She studied Interior Design at University and in her final exhibition she used hexagons divided up into parallelograms.  Plus her favourite colour is blue.
I saw this tumbling blocks pattern in one of my quilt books and decided to have a go at it.  If you squint your ideas it becomes 3D cubes, or you can see hexagons or even stars!  Here are the pieces laid out so far.

It actually isn't really big enough at the moment, so I am considering introducing another turquoise fabric so that I can make the strips a bit longer. Also, I am going to unpick the turquoise triangles on the very left and restitch them onto the right, so that the edge will finish with neat block shapes.

The Process

I am going to record how I did this in this post, mostly for my own records, but perhaps somebody else might be interested or curious too.
You need to choose fabrics that can be grouped into dark, light and medium tones.  I used just one fabric for the medium tone, and it needs to be a pattern that isn't too noticeable.  I used 1.5 metres of medium tone, 1 metre of darks and 1 metre of lights.  Cut the darks and lights into strips that measure 2 3/4" wide and the medium tone needs to be cut at 3 1/4" wide.

Second: Sew the dark and light strips either side of the medium strips until they are all sewn together.  Press the dark pieces towards the dark and the light pieces towards the medium.

Third:  Cut the strips at a 60 degree angle.  Darks get cut sloping up to the left, lights get cut sloping up to the right.  Cut at 2 and 3/4" intervals so that each piece is 2 3/4" wide horizontally.

Fourth: Now cut the medium tone fabric that is in the middle into a perfect triangle by cutting from corner to corner.

Fifth: Sew a dark parallelogram and triangle to a light parallelogram and triangle.

 When you sit them 'right sides together' they will always have these little 1/4 triangles poking out.  Try to sew a 1/4 seam where the little dog ear meets the top fabric.
Again, press dark seams towards the dark and light seams towards the medium.

Sixth:  You will end up with lots of these units.  They are all the same really, if you turned the top pile around it would be the same as the bottom pile.  But I separated them to stop myself from getting confused when I lay them out. 

 Take the pile that starts with a triangle on the left and lay them down in a row of four.

Then take the pile that starts with a light parallelogram on the left and lay them down in a row beneath your first row. You will see that a dark is always lined up with a light beneath it.

Seventh:  Once you are happy with the layout and you have checked that they all match, start sewing the rows of units together.

The first picture in this post was after I had sewn the above pieces into strips, just to get an idea of the overall layout.  I am looking forward to getting all those strips sewn together to see if it all really does line up and look like tumbling blocks!

To see my next steps in the process, please click here.