Still Thinking Pink

I'm thinking on the theme of Pink, after yesterday's post: I've pulled out the quilt top I made with the pink corduroys earlier this year: It's a quick and easy quilt top for a quick and easy baby. Baby B's birth was so easy, she ended up arriving in the rumpus room at home! Meanwhile, she has been growing up and I haven't got as far as finishing off this quilt. So . . . today I have to go to the warehouse to pick up the quilt wadding for my Patchwork by Machine class. Hopefully I can get as far as basting this quilt today or tomorrow. The quilting will be, you guessed it, Quick and Easy and Pink!

Personal Style

I finished the Triangle block yesterday. I've posted a pic on the Quilters at Sussex blog, last night since that's where I'll be teaching the class. The block came together ok and I'm happy enough with it, though I'm always going to be striving for more accuracy. I'll make another sample before the class begins. That will get me warmed up a bit more and also provide a different colourway for the students to look at. I'm conscious that several of the students who are signed up for that class really prefer the pretty floral quilt look and the block I've made is rather dramatic in black red and gold. That got me thinking about why I haven't done more with triangles in my quilting. It's not that I don't like them, but my own designs tend to be more fluid and pictorial.

This little wall hanging was a postcard challenge at Essendon Quilters many years ago. There are several things I'd like to improve technically if I were making it again, but it hangs on the wall in my living room and makes me smile.

I guess the variety of options is part of the fun and the excitement of quilting. If I made a different quilt every week, I can't imagine ever running out of options and possibilities . . . then again, if I made a different quilt every week, I can't imagine getting much else done at all!

Now that the triangle sample block is done, I'd better do some work on my spinning before class on Saturday. And my loom is still on my table where I dropped it when I walked in the door on Saturday afternoon. I don't think running out of options is a problem that I need to worry about much.

Requirements

The calendar's done it to me again! It's nearly August already and last time I looked, August was a long way off.

Way back in first term I taught a beginner patchwork class at the Neighbourhood House. The plan was to keep it simple, so we made nine-patch quilts. That means all the blocks were made of squares. At the end of the course, the students were keen to learn more, so I promised a follow-up class to teach the basic techniques of working with triangles. I kept an eye out for my sanity and resisted the pressure to do it right away. First I needed time to work out a design and make up a sample. So the triangles course was scheduled for August. At the time, August was ages away. But the last few months have been really messy for me and now it's just about August already. I've had a few polite calls asking for the requirements list for the new class. But my sewing room isn't in a fit state to be used yet. Yesterday I had another look at the sewing room and threw up my hands in despair. Then I scrounged out the things I need to make a sample block and cleared off the kitchen bench:
I found my quilting rulers and rotary cutter--they were under the insurance files on my desk! The cutting mat was in the shelf with my fabrics and I had a selection of fabrics in a "to be sorted" box left over from my last project back in March. I'd found the graph paper and sketched out a design last weekend. Now I have done all the cutting and I've marked and pinned the pieces for the centre star. I think I can have it all done this weekend and mail out a requirements list on Monday. OK, I think that's achievable.