Monday, May 31, 2010

Sweet and Sour Design Changes

I was uploading some quilts to a Picasa album today, when I came across the quilt below.  I'm thinking of doing something similar for the Sweet and Sour Quilt, rather than a plain Turning Twenty.

Bicycles and Baseball

I made Bicycles and Baseball a few years ago for a co-worker Chris, who likes to watch the Tour de France and plays softball.  I wanted something more complicated looking than a plain Turning Twenty, so I played around and ended up with this design.  I can't remember exactly what I did, so I'll take my best guess.

Cutting instructions, maybe

Disclaimer:  After writing the directions below, I think they aren't quite right.  According to the Process Pledge, I'm supposed to express my thoughts, even if they don't work out.  So here they are.  I'm going to take notes as I actually make the blocks and post more accurate instructions later.

Take 20 fat quarters and square them up to about 18". At this point, if you have any large prints that you'd rather not get too chopped up, set them aside for later. Stack several of the other fabrics, make three wonky vertical cuts to create stacks of 4 strips (step 1). Mix the strips Stack the Deck style, and sew sets of strips together to make strippy blocks. By the way, the edges will be out of whack for a while, but that's okay. Repeat until all strippy blocks have been created. It's okay if the cuts are not identical from stack to stack.

Divide blocks into two stacks. If desired, turn one stack on its head to create a variety of directions in patches. Mix the stacks together A-B-A-B, etc. This should create lots of variety of fabrics within the blocks. Pile several blocks and take two wonky horizontal cuts to create stacks of 3 strips (step 2). Mix them up Stack the deck style again and sew blocks together. Repeat until all the blocks are done. You should have crazy patchwork looking blocks now.

Now take your large print fabrics and distribute them among the patchwork blocks as evenly as possible. Take one wonky vertical cut, mix up the strips and sew together (step 3). Take one wonky horizontal cut, mix strips and sew back together. Your large prints should still be pretty big chunks, and right side up if directional.

Trim each block (20 of them) to the desired size. I like 12.5" unfinished. Arrange on design wall 4 x 5 blocks, and sew together. Add a border if desired.

Jungle fabric added to the collection for Sweet and Sour.
Colors work well, and relate to Hawaii.  From stash.

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