June 1st Quilt Block Exchange

[katsdar]

half-square triangles

 

[kimmie6067]

kimmie, get some B12 in you that is your energy vitamin, you being sick may have depleted your stores.

Kat funny thing is I started taking some B this week. I don't why I decided to but they were there and thought can't hurt. With the stupid Lupus thing I have to be careful what I take in. I am on a immune suppressant for it.

I would recommend some yogurt too. If you can eat it plain and unsweetened, all the better as sugar kills the beneficial bacteria. The way I started with it is to stir together some plain yogurt with unsweetened applesauce and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon. It also works great as a sour cream substitute you can put on potatoes or an omelet or whatever you like.

Actually that don't sound bad, with the apple sauce what does it do for you? I know its good for you but....

Seriously? I need to plan on putting my name on all these blocks? I wonder if I could find someone who has an embroidery machine that would do that for me... hmmm.

Well, I don't want my name on there to detract from the block so I will make mine so it blends in with the colors, for instance, on a green part, I'll embroider it in green. Or on a white part, I'll embroider in white.

When I was talking about putting names I just figured we would pin and piece of paper or index card so we know who is who when we open them. Please lets do it.

Does anyone other than me have any problems with colors? I have been quilting for a little over a year now, and I still have some problems putting colors together. I am getting better but it is still hard for me. Don't worry it always comes out pretty in the end. I am wondering if this will ever go away?

I think with practice and going to quilt shows, books and magazines you'll develope your own style.

I have been quilting for over 20 years, and I think I will always have problems with colors. I am terrible at figuring out what I want to use, and which colors go with what. I go to quilt shows, and admire the spectacular quilts, especially the ones using really striking color combinations, ones that utilize an entire rainbow spectrum, etc. I love to see things like Piece O'Cake patterns done on colored backgrounds, but I don't think I could ever attempt one myself.

There are several ways I deal with this --
1) I plan a quilt mostly using one (or just a few) color(s). I have a kaleidoscope planned that will be black & pink (and variations thereof). I'm planning a Farmer's Wife Sampler in shades of purple. I took part in a fabric swap for fabrics in shades of gray. Those all look great together, and there's a surprising amount of variation on the gray scale.

2) I do scrap quilts, but generally from a particular style of fabric - all kid prints, or all civil war fabrics, or all 1930s repros. One thing I've seen in the quilt world in general that doesn't appeal to me is quilts made entirely from one designer line - as in "General XX line", "French something 2012 fabrics" - those tend to be a little too flowery, with all the fabrics a little too... something. Too similar in tone, too faded in color, etc.

3) I do kits. I happen to have a current love affair with Block of the Month programs that come in the mail - along with one BOM that I pick up at a local quilt shop. I'm currently working on 3 BOMs, but have 5 coming in the mail (one just the pattern, one pattern and fabric that's just getting saved for now).

Either way, it's not going to be me putting together one of those show-stoppers. Some of mine look fabulous, some are nice, most are serviceable, and use fabrics that I love (civil war prints, 30s prints, purples or blues). I've made two scrap quilts in tightly grouped colors - one for my oldest boy in black and white prints - blacks, whites, black fabrics with white prints, white fabrics with black prints. The other was for my youngest, in shades of oranges - his favorite color.
I don't have a photo album with all of my finished quilts in it, but I do have pictures of current BOMs on my blog.

Here's the black & white quilt


This is a baby quilt made from "leftovers" from the jewel box in oranges I did for youngest DS.

Don't look like you have problems with colors to me! Beautiful.

half-square triangles

I like doing the HST by laying the two color right side together then marking down the middle then sewing 1/4" seams on each side of the marking. Then cut down the middle. Does this make sense? I only do it with one square though, this would even be a lot faster and very accurate.

 

[katsdar]

I do this with the squares but in half not fourths, I learned this very quickly when I got tired of cutting out every triangle and then sewing them together.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Actually that don't sound bad, with the apple sauce what does it do for you? I know its good for you but....

The beneficial bacteria in the yogurt are fantastic health builders not only for your colon but every part of you. The applesauce just makes it so you can eat the yogurt if you're not used to the sourness of it as well as the pectin in apples actually feeds the bacteria in the yogurt so they can multiply.


When I was talking about putting names I just figured we would pin and piece of paper or index card so we know who is who when we open them. Please lets do it.

I thought you wanted to do "signature blocks" of which I am not a fan but I can put my name on a piece of paper or whatever and attach to the blocks just fine. I just didn't want to have my name on the front of the block. For the April swap, I put my name on some tape on the back.

This looks like a really cool way to make the HSTs. Eight of them, lickety split!

 

[CarolineNH]

This page is good for printing out papers with the HST diagrams on them. They don't go up to the 3.5" finished size we need for this pattern, however.
http://www.quiltingandwhatnot.ca/Half-Square-Triangle.html

Thangles work well, too, if your local quilt shop carries them. http://www.thangles.com/Thangle_Packs.html They also have instructions and a video for using Thangles on that page! I have used Thangles previously, and they are easy to use and quite accurate.

I will be cutting my pieces at 4", then drawing a line and sewing 1/4" on each side, similar to this video. Instead of drawing the line on the diagonal, though, I draw a line 1/4" away from each diagonal and sew on the line.

There are a couple of other ways to make half-square triangles on this page as well.

Hope this is helpful!

Love the talk of making butter & foods from scratch! I don't make butter (goat milk is naturally homogenized, which means it doesn't easily separate into milk & cream the way cow's milk does) but I do make foods from scratch, do some canning, etc. Today I'll be working on continuing to boil down my maple sap for syrup, as well as baking bread and some school snacks.

 

[katsdar]

Fresh real Maple syrup sounds yummy. I'd love fresh goats milk, so I could make some cheese, goat cheese is really easy to make and instead of rennet use lemon juice does the same thing. I can stuff out of my garden. I used to make bread have not done that in a while. Does it take a while to make the syrup?

 

[katsdar]

I'll put a label of some sort on my blocks.

 

[CarolineNH]

Fresh real Maple syrup sounds yummy. I'd love fresh goats milk, so I could make some cheese, goat cheese is really easy to make and instead of rennet use lemon juice does the same thing. I can stuff out of my garden. I used to make bread have not done that in a while. Does it take a while to make the syrup?

It doesn't take long to set up - set the tap in the tree, hang the bucket. I started with 10 buckets, I'm down to 5. I collect the sap from the buckets about every other day, and boil it in a stainless steel pan over a propane turkey fryer setup. I run the propane burner for at least a few hours a day; that part is time consuming, but I don't actually have to supervise constantly, just check on it every half hour to an hour. It takes a few days; when it starts getting close to finished, I have to bring it in the house and boil it on the stove for a couple of hours (that does need to be watched closely) before bottling it in canning jars.

 

[katsdar]

If you sell your syrup I'd like to buy a jar.

 

[katsdar]

you just tap a regular maple tree?