Hidden Spools
This month’s project
started as a challenge. We were sent the brand new GO! Spool Die (6” Finished)
and asked to come up with other ways to use it. I approached the project like a
puzzle. First I had a Fat Quarter Bundle of Chroma from Andover fabric. I knew the wanted to quilt to have a fresh
modern look and this beautiful batik collection fit the ticket. I also wanted
the colors to pop out and shine, so I chose to use black as the background
fabric.
To begin with, I did not
work out the design before starting, this was a stretch for me. Usually by the
time I am ready to cut the fabrics, I know exactly what I am up to. This time I
wanted to experience the puzzle aspect of the project. So I cut all the shapes
on the die from all of the colors in my fat quarter bundle. I repeated with a
couple layers of black fabric for the background. Now it was time to play and
happily this project needed to be done while I was at a lovely quilt camp for 5
days, so I had plenty of time to play!
First I had to sort all
the pieces and parts into piles. Then I laid out several different combinations
from the parts I had cut. Below is a graphic showing you what the original
layout was for this die and the combinations I decided on for this project.
So now you can see the secret
behind the project name “Hidden Spools”. Once I had the blocks figured out, I
realized I needed a lot of 1-1/2” finished half square triangles from the
background. So I got out my favorite Go! Qube set-6” finished and used the
correct die for the background triangles. Note this die is cutting the same
size small triangles as on the spool die, but using the die from the GO! Qube
set cut down on the amount of fabric needed just to get these triangles.
So now it was time to
start assembling the blocks, I started with the easiest part first. I paired up
the small rectangles into pairs and then created them for the centers. I am a
pattern girl who usually struggles with scrappy so I made my block centers
uniform. But you will notice when follow our instructions, you will have extra
pieces and parts when die cutting this project, so sky’s the limit. If you are
a scrappy girl at heart, mix it up and have fun with all the colors to make the
block centers scrappy.
Now for the behind the
scenes story, since I did not plan anything to start with, once I made the bar
centers, I realized I did not have enough centers for all the frames I had cut.
So now what? I am camp and I only have the pieces I cut with no extra colored
fabric, but I did have a lot of background fabric available. SO choices! I
could make a smaller quilt or figure out what to do with all the little
triangles I had die cut and did not need. So I came up with a second center
block. I created Diamonds with the background.
Next design decision…
pairing up the colors in the centers with the frame colors to complete the
blocks. This took me alittle while and it truly tested this non-scrappy girl
skills, but eventually I had all the blocks made. I also decided to turn half
of the bar centers vertical rather than all of them being horizontal. It seemed
like a good idea to the time, but more on that later.
Now I decided to lay out all
the blocks to make the quilt top. I know I wanted to add background sashing to
the quilt layout to frame each beautiful block. Then I added corner stones in
between the sashing strips to help break up all the black and help carry the
colors throughout the design.
Now I realized I had
created a box that I had to get out of. Originally I had decided to alternate
the diamond center blocks with the bar center Blocks. But as I mentioned above,
I had decided to rotate half of the bar blocks to run vertically. Now I had
this strange layout where the alternating bars did not tell the story I wanted.
I had to go back to the drawing board for the layout. I could “live” with it,
change the vertical bars back to horizontal, or change the plan. Well with
ripping on the line guess what I choose to do……
I took down all the
blocks and played with the layout until I was happy. What made me happy was
having the vertical columns of diamond center blocks, alternating with columns
that had the vertical and horizontal bar blocks, that in turn alternated down
the column. Complicated but it did finally make me happy with the layout and no
ripping was involved with this solution.
For someone who has
designed quilts digitally and rarely just plays with her fabric. This project
was so much fun, I had to stretch and grow with the project as it took shape. I
have to admit usually I am under such tight deadlines, that this method would
not work for most of our projects at work. But for one weekend in August at
Bear Cabin Inn surrounds by wonderful and amazing quilters that I am so lucky
to call friends, I got to play and I am really proud of the end result.
So now that all the work
is done, I have created a pattern for both die-cutting and traditional cutting.
The pattern for this month’s project is free from The Whimsical Workshop. You
can download the free pattern at www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com along with our past free patterns.
As always please send along your
projects to us at info@thewhimsicalworkshop.com
and we can add you to our bragging rights page on our website.
Make
sure to visit my blog each month where I will share with you some tips and
tricks on cutting and assembling of the project of the month along with posting
the free pattern on our website The
Whimsical Workshop You can also see
our pattern and post at www.accuquilt.com
Until next time…..
Heidi
