Sunday, 4 March 2012

Treating myself :)

I treated myself on Friday.   For those of you that know me, no, I did not consume an entire giant white Toblerone, nor did I have a fabric shopping spree.  This treat involved four uninterrupted hours sitting at the sewing machine, sewing something just for me!  It was bliss!  Little Felix was at the childminders (and I am happy to report that she now adores the place and cries when I make her leave) so I decided that rather than doing washing (surprise surprise) or even sewing something to sell, I'd just do something I wanted to do.
Modern Mini Challenge
I'd seen the Modern Mini quilt competition going on over at Ellison Lane Quilts and had been inspired by all the amazing ideas that had been posted in the blog hop that Jennifer had organised in the run up to this competition.  A few ideas were buzzing around in my head for my entry...and one of them was getting to grips with triangles, and I mean the tricky equilateral ones rather than the (also tricky) half-square ones I work with more often.  Lynne, over at Lilys quilts made a fabulous triangle mini-quilt, and Laura at Needles, Pins and Baking tins worked some magic with equilateral triangles on a large quilt recently too.

So, I started slicing some up, using any nice rainbow-y scraps that I had.  Rather than make a template, I used my 12" x 6" cutting ruler which has a 60 degree angle marked on it.  I used the edge of the ruler to determine my triangle size, so ended up cutting triangles that were 3" tall.

Once I had a few, I started playing with the layout, and liked the triangle shape so much I opted to stick with that and graduated the colours from one point to another, filling in any gaps by slicing into my stash. 

I ironed all the triangles to a large piece of interfacing and planned to piece them by folding each row over and stitching a seam into the interfacing (this technique) but my plan was foiled!  As soon as I seamed a couple of rows, I found that the diagonal rows became misaligned (see below), and therefore it wouldn't be possible to stitch them all in this way.  Don't ask me why, the maths is beyond me!

Not to be beaten, I had a cup of coffee and then sliced the big triangle back into little triangles (now handily interfaced!).  And then started pieced them into strips in the traditional way!

My four hours was over by this point, so the piecing and the quilting has been finished over the weekend.  I opted for a natural linen coloured furnishing weight fabric for the back, and a dark grey binding.  I quilting the triangles in the ditch in a dark grey thread.  This was a "should I, shouldn't I?" moment as the dark grey thread really shows up any inaccuracies in the piecing (and there are some I'm afraid!) but I wanted the triangles to pop, and thought the grey thread did this better than white.  Finished,  each side of my triangle measures about 23", and the height of the quilt is 19.5".

So, want to see it?  Here it is :)



This is my new favourite thing I've sewn!  

I keep popping by the sewing room and stroking it!


I love that looks cool whichever way up it is, so I added a fabric hanging corner on each point so I can rotate it whenever I feel like it, and have hung it next to my sewing machine...hoping that it'll inspire me to treat myself more often!

x

34 comments:

  1. Gorgeous, Ceri!
    Perfect points too x

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  2. looks great, love the triangles and the colours.

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  3. Oh this is so cool Ceri! You've just upped the competition! Jxo

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  4. Great arrow head to point to the next fabulous thing you make! It looks great and love the colour graduation! Isn't it great when something comes right in the end!

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  5. Oh, man, Ceri. I'm in love! Plus 4 hours of uninterruped sewing time? What a treat. Good luck in the competition! :-)

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  6. Wow! That looks amazing, the layout of the colours looks fab. I just want to TOUCH it :))

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  7. This is just fab!
    The colours are just brilliant
    x

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  8. It's my new favourite thing you have sewn too, absolutley blooming gorgeous!

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  9. This is really fun, great job!

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  10. Gorgeous - love that you can rotate it too!

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  11. Sigh...quilting bliss... Love it!

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  12. Hi! Your quilts is so beautiful! Triangle looks so great and unique! I love your colours and fabrics! x Teje

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  13. I'm getting a headache trying to work out how you've done this quilt, so I'll just admire it instead it's beautiful I love the rainbow colours.
    Emma x

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  14. Lovely as always. I need some rainbow in my life. I'm feeling inspired.

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  15. Are you frickin' kidding me? Ceri this is utterly gorgeous!!

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  16. I love the triangle within a triangle idea

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  17. How how how did you do it??? I absolutely love it, and I want to do one for my living room wall. It's utterly fab!

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  18. What a lovely mini!! It`s full of some of my most favourite fabrics too and so beautifully pieced!

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  19. OMG! What a beautiful rainbow mini, Ceri!

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  20. Ooh that looks absolutely fab, well done for conquering it!

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  21. i really love this mini! You made good use of your free hours, and now you have a gorgeous mini to show for it!

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  22. This is so unique! I've never seen anything else quite like it :) Well done, Ceri! And as I start to wedding plan more, I'll definitely share!

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  23. Here's to sewing just for you! It's a beautiful mini!

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  24. Oh my goodness this is absolutely stunning! I love it!

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  25. I love this! You have done a brilliant job and I would be walking by and stroking it too, if I made something that wonderful! You are justifiably proud!

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  26. It is just fabulous! Love those amazing tiny triangles and the rainbow of colors. Thanks for linking up and entering the challenge! Good luck!

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  27. It's stunning! I love everything about it - you're right to be proud!!

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  28. this is so lovely, I love the deep colours: well done on all those little triangles!

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  29. YAY! So cool to see it finished, I absolutely bloomin love it :-)

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  30. aww ceri this issooooooo fab!! I love it what a joy to the eye, u have got some seriously awesome colour skills. x x x

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  31. so incredibly adorable! and i had never seen that technique before, so thank you!

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