Equilateral Triangle Quilt Progress

Summer break has gotten the best of me! Sleeping in too late and staying up too late with no schedule in between. This is my last week of that before I head back to work so I've decided that I need to get some sewing projects finished!

I'll be thrilled if I can complete this equilateral triangle quilt. I've been fascinated with triangles lately and after creating this mini quilt, I really wanted to do another project with this figure.

After many different arrangements on my design wall, I decided on 3 fabrics for the triangles to face up and 3 fabrics for the triangles to face down. This photo is close to the final layout. In the last few rows I changed some triangles around.

Since two equilateral triangles create a rhombus...I wanted to use that figure on the back. (This quilt is for a friend, so I have more reasoning to this design that I'll share later!) The rest of the background is blue. There was probably an easier way to piece this together, but I didn't know what that was! Better pictures of the quilt back to come.

Thank you, Annie Kitty, for lounging in the sun and not on the quilt sandwich while I was pinning.

Now I'm trying to decide on quilting. I'm thinking I want to do a free-motion design vs. straight lines. I sketched this idea out, but I'm thinking that the actual quilting will not be quite this dense. Any suggestions out there?

Hopefully I can make my mind up and get this baby finished! :)

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

My Interactive Fraction Strip Quilt!

Have you ever used fraction tiles before? You might recognize them if you saw a photo so here is a link. Fraction tiles can be a very useful model in understanding fractions, however, math educators...be careful! Sometimes these tiles can hide the true understanding our students have about fractions. Who needs fraction tiles when you can have this gorgeous interactive fraction quilt that starts at the top (white) with one whole, and continues with (red) halves, (pink) thirds, (black) fourths, (green) fifths, (purple) sixths, (yellow) sevenths, (teal) eighths, (orange) ninths, (gray) tenths, light pink (elevenths), and dark purple (twelfths)?!

The free-motion quilting on the back highlights the unit fractions quite nicely. The greater the denominator the smaller the piece is!

"Flow Zone" Block of the Month Introduction

Up in the second floor of the administration building for Leander ISD, there are a bunch of passionate people working together to do their part to improve student learning. After working up in this office for over four years, I also realized another special thing...these kind people are seriously creative! In fact, one very special lady, Jeananne, is the reason I started quilting! She handed me a pattern and said, try it out. Those three little words are what I am now inviting you to do this year...

Here's how this is going to work:

• Jeananne and I, along with Carol, Shannon, Karen B. and Laura are going to host a "Flow Zone" Block of the Month for any LISD peeps...past and present! We picked "Flow Zone" because it is the nickname for our office space! No, we won't be making quilt blocks during work time...this is purely a night and weekend *on your own time* community building experience!
• Each month a different host (named above) will design and/or pick their own block for the quilt. I'll post a link to every block on this blog tab so you can join in on the fun! You don't have to be a host to participate! By the end of the year, you will have 12 blocks to be made into a quilt!
• Here are the people who will be selecting blocks each month:
• January-Bettina
  February-Jeananne
  March-Carol
  April-Karen
  May-Laura
  June-Shannon
  July-Carol
  August-Bettina
  September-Jeananne
  October-Karen
  November-Shannon
  December-Laura
• Each block will be 12 1/2 inches squared.
• Materials Needed: 12 1/2inch square ruler (for squaring up your blocks), rotary cutter, cutting mat, 6 x 24 inch ruler, basic sewing supplies (machine, thread, seam ripper, scissors, etc.)
• Fabric needed: It's hard to say, but we recommend 1-2 yards of 3 or more of your favorite print fabrics and a few yards of a solid fabric that matches OR a stack of coordinating fat quarters and a few yards of a solid fabric that matches. This doesn't include the back or binding, but you could buy extras for that or you could just make those scrappy.  Here's what I am using:

A stack of fat quarters from Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry

Here's another photo...I also have a few yards of a solid white fabric to match! Comment below to share what fabric you are using or if you have other suggestions.

• Jeananne recommends before beginning: wash your fabric, then iron with a little spray starch (this gives your fabric some body and makes for nicer cutting and sewing)...if you have already cut your pieces for your first block without this step, it's ok...on your future blocks, start with this and see if you notice a difference. 

I will be posting the first block tomorrow just in time for the weekend! ;-) From there, we will post a new block the 1st week of every month. In December, I will link instructions for finishing off the quilt (making a quilt sandwich, binding, etc). We will definitely end the event with a show off your quilt Christmas party! For long distance folks, we will be doing FaceTime at the party!

Okay! We look forward to having fun and learning with each other this year! *2013* We hope you'll join us and spread the word to anyone who might be interested! :)

Come on Ride the Train!

Or at least hang out with Thomas the Train and his friends! This beautiful, gorgeous quilt is specially made for my dear cousin's little girl, Kendall. She absolutely adores Thomas the Train, but if you know Thomas the Train, he is blue and red! Big problem here...Kendall loves pink! 

The front of the quilt has a variety of Thomas the Train fabrics mixed in with a neutral gray to make the pink and red fabrics stand out. At least that's a tip I just learned in my Craftsy class by Elizabeth Hartman. The binding is mainly a bright pink with a few pieces of the coordinating red fabrics from the front.

The quilt back is made of a bright pink minky fabric. When making the quilt sandwich, I used batting so this quilt is extra snuggly for the winter!

Process photo! Keeping my rows organized for sewing each row.

Of course, I quilted squiggly train tracks throughout the entire quilt with bright pink thread. Notice the Thomas the Train fabric as well...it's so cute! 

Here is a better picture of how it looks with the super soft-snuggly-let me cuddle with Thomas-minky back fabric. I thought that using the minky fabric would be extra hard to quilt, but it was not a problem...it just took time. I also love the train tracks. If I was a kid again, I would get out my toy trains and play all over the back of this quilt! Overall, I hope that sweet Kendall loves it! :)

Grandma's Charm Square Quilt

In the quest to make my grandmother something for Christmas, another Elizabeth Hartman pattern, the Charm Squares Baby Quilt Pattern, caught my eye. My grandmother is not a baby, but she certainly does not need a large quilt when she is resting on her new couch! For her, my mother and I thought this would be the perfect quilt.

Front

Back

During my mother's visit last week, little did she know that we would be having so much fun in my new sewing room! She assisted me in selecting, cutting and organizing the fabric. A few of the fabrics are from Salt Water by Tula Pink and one of them is from Field Study by Anna Maria Horner...if I remember correctly. I'm not a fabric expert by any means, but I can definitely understand how buying fabric could be an addiction!

I sketched out the plan for the back over morning coffee!

I quilted a personal note on the bottom, but I almost wish I would have just quilted the entire thing with wavy lines. Oh well, Grandma will probably love the note more anyway!

My favorite part in making this quilt was my mother right by my side experiencing the entire quilt-making process. She did all of the pressing while I did the sewing. Together, we created not only a quilt but memories that will last a lifetime. Thank you, Mama, for all of your hard work! This quilt was a team effort!