FOTY Triangles – Late August 2011

FOTY Triangles - Late 8/2011
FOTY Triangles - Late 8/2011

Bad news. I don’t think I like this triangle shape. What I really want to do is kind of row quilt like the Fons & Porter Kalamkari Strippy. I like the space between the rows, though you can’t see it very well in the size information they provide. Still, I want to be true to the idea of the Fabric of the Year quilts and continue with that series. The bottom line is that I have too many triangles to make that quilt unless I want to make one to cover half of San San Francisco – the City not the people in it!

I considered, briefly, cutting squares out of the all the fabric already cut into triangles. I like the idea of simple shapes and may have just gone too far this year in the shape department. That would cause a problem for the smaller triangles. I know myself and would not pull the fabrics out again to cut squares.

The other idea I had was to intersperse light colored or neutral triangles in between the colored ones so that I can give the fabrics some space.

I think I have decided to lay all the triangles out and see what I am really dealing with and go from there. I may lay them all out on the Pat Bravo Pure Elements white linen solid color fabric and see if I get the space effect I want.

I can’t leave you all fretting and worrying. There is good news. I am almost at the end of the giant pile of fabric needing to be pressed. My machine is back, though, so that effort will be slowed a bit. I do have a pile of fabric to be washed that will also need to be pressed, but for the zillion loads of fabric I did at the beginning of the month, I am almost through it. More good news is that the fabrics on the bottom of the pile had sort of pressed themselves!

FOTY 2011 Triangles – End of July 2011

FOTY 2011 Triangles
FOTY 2011 Triangles

The triangle collection is growing, but not fast enough. The halfway mark for the year is long past and I have piles of fabric to wash and cut. Sigh.

I pressed a bunch while I was on the phone over the weekend. Being on the phone is an excellent time to press fabric. Get yourself a headset and try it out.

Still I have to cut the bits I need for various projects, too and I am behind on that. I realized that part of what was holding me up was the difficult to read list of patches I need to cut, so I have to redo that. Hopefully, that little project will speed up my process.

_______________________________________________

FOTY Triangles, also late July 2011
FOTY Triangles, also late July 2011

After writing the above, I got busy pressing and cutting. I have a much larger collection of triangles now and a slightly smaller pile of fabric to press and cut. I got into a routine and ended up getting a lot of prep work done for the Food Quilt.

All the fabric I bought is now washed and just waiting to be pressed.

FOTY Triangles

FOTY Triangles, early July
FOTY Triangles, early July

I have been making a big effort to press the fabric that I have washed recently. First it is really uncomfortable to sit and sew with a big pile of fabric poking me in the back. Also, I felt so guilty last time TFQ was down as she spent hours on her feet pressing my fabric. Of course, I greatly appreciate it, but I’d like to avoid the guilt this time.

I have been trying to press fabrics, in general, in groups based on how I am thinking of using them. I may not end up using these all together, but that is in my mind now. Most of these fabrics are from a Piece O’Cake group called Daisies and Dots. I am not liking it as much as I thought I would. I do like the dots, of course, but some of the designs make me realize I have to be more discriminating when I pick fabric. I am looking for a project for this group at the moment.

 

FOTY 2011 April 2011 Pieces

FOTY 2011 Triangles - 4/2011
FOTY 2011 Triangles - 4/2011

Here is the first group of triangles that will end up as Fabric of the Year 2011. I am doing something this year in that I am including many fabrics that I am using this year, but aren’t new. The large triangles are the new fabrics for this year and the small triangles are the fabrics that were already in my fabric closet, but were used in a quilt.

I have already realized that I am not going to be able to cut ALL fabrics that I use. I just am not organized enough. I haven’t developed the habit, but I am getting better.

I have the idea in my mind that I will make this more of a scrap quilt rather than arranging the fabrics carefully in a colorwash kind of order. I may not, though.

The other idea I have is to arrange it like Fons & Porter did in their Kalamkari Strippy.
We’ll see how I feel at the end of the year.

Early Mid December Diamonds

Early Mid December Diamonds
Early Mid December Diamonds

These diamonds could also be called Late Early December Diamonds. You pick and I’ll go along with it. I am nearing the end of my pressing and cutting. I don’t think I have anymore fabric enroute and I plan on keeping it that way. Famous last words, right?

That stripe at the top is my committment to making another Interlocking Triangles quilt. I have the Mixmasters Fizz and the P&B Fizz which are destined for that type of quilt as well. I worked on a design, but am thinking I may just use the same design I used for Spiky Stars. It is a good design and will look different with different fabrics. We’ll see.

Shall I make a New Year’s Resolution to that effect? I never make New Year’s Resolutions, so that would be new. We’ll see.

And More Diamonds

Diamond 8/16/2010
Diamond 8/16/2010

If you thought I was kidding when I said that I had cut a lot of fabric on Monday, you were mistaken. I think that is the way I shed those Crankypants I had been wearing for a week or more.

This group looks a little more light and airy than the last batch. The next group of fabrics I have to press are for the Frosted Stars, so I won’t be cutting diamonds from those until I have used all the fabric I need. I don’t think it will be long. I am almost done cutting fabric for those stars and then I can cut diamonds.

I am getting scared about how big this quilt will be.

More Diamonds

FOTY Diamonds 8/2010-2
FOTY Diamonds 8/2010-2

Here is another batch of FOTY Diamonds. I diligently pressed and cut for a good portion of the weekend. This isn’t a very lively batch. I am working my way through the stack that TFQ pressed and for some reason this is not a cheerful batch.

I have to admit that cutting the patches makes me think about sewing the project together and that prospect makes me a little bit anxiety ridden. I am thinking about using the P&B Fizz as the anchor colors. I still want to do a colorwash with the diamonds, but thought that if I lined them up in color order across the quilt, I could use them to start laying out the piece.

My other idea was to arrange them like a Lone Star and radiate the other fabric diamonds off of them from the center.

For the moment, however, I need to cut diamonds out of my fabric.

Late June Diamonds

Late June Diamonds
Late June Diamonds

I have been cutting and pressing fabrics like a demon lately and here is another group. I have found that this number of diamonds is the right number to photograph, so I have a few more on the wall that will be in the next photo.

One of the things about this group is that there are a lot of the Fizz by P&B fabrics and I am really loving those fabrics. I would love it if they would come out with another dozen colors in between the colors they already have. There are a lot of colors in the group already so that would mean that their colorists would really have to work over time. I would love it if these became a staple background fabric. Fabrics go so quickly out of fashion that I doubt that will happen. I plan to use these fabrics in another Interlocking Triangle quilt.

An idea that occurred to me with these Fizz fabrics is that I could arrange them in a color wheel and then radiate the other diamonds out from them. I think that would make the piecing a challenge, but all ideas are worth considering. It might be a problem with the colors which I don’t buy very often.

I haven’t decided if I am cutting diamonds from the food fabrics for my mom. I am intermittently, so some show up as diamonds and some don’t.

The other thing I am doing is cutting pieces from a few fabrics I have pulled out of the stash. An example is the red at the tip of the diamond. These fabrics have never had a piece cut from them. My project, my rules.

FOTY Diamonds

May FOTY 2010 Diamond
May FOTY 2010 Diamonds

While TFQ was visiting, we had to attend a family event. She was invited, but declined to attend, so she stayed home and rested. One of the things she did while resting was iron the fabrics that I had washed, but had not yet pressed. TFQ is one of the fastest pressers I have ever seen! She made a neat pile for me and I needed to cut various pieces from them. The pile got moved a couple of times during the week because the ironing board needed to be used for the actual pressing of clothes!

I was feeling a bit better on Sunday, and I didn’t want to have repress any of those fabrics so I went to work and cut various patches I needed from these pieces. The main shape I need is diamonds, as you know, for the FOTY 2010 quilt. I also cut some Tumblers and Eye Spy pieces and a few food fabric pieces for my mom.

This is the biggest group of diamonds I have added to the pile thus far. I have to say that there are distinct advantages to cutting into the fabric shortly after I buy it. I have mentioned that it is helpful to know that I like a fabric so I can go and buy more before the fabric manufacturers stop producing it.

The other advantage I found this time was that I know immediately if I don’t like a fabric. There are several in this group that I really don’t like. I have decided that I don’t like little tiny splotchy dots. It could be that the colors of the fabrics with those types of motifs in this group are not my colors. I might feel differently if they were turquoise and hot pink.

I have also been testing the ‘white water’ by buying more fabrics with white backgrounds. I have also decided that there are some fabrics where the ratio of white is too much. I love coffee fabrics, but the coffee cup fabrics above with the white background are really not my thing. Something about the orange and icky green combined with the white do not make me happy.

I also have to admit that I am a little scared of this year’s FOTY quilt. How am I going to do the edge? I don’t want to cut off diamonds, so I’ll have to cut half diamonds of some border fabric and do a self bordering type border. Will I need to organize that well before the CQFA retreat? I think so! Can I do it? I hope so. Yikes! What was I thinking?

FOTY Continues

FOTY 2009 January #1
FOTY 2009 January #1

I moved the Fabric of the Year project forward all weekend last weekend by sewing like crazy. I made over 100 Zanzibar blocks, as well as cut and organized other little pieces that I need for other projects despite the rain, power outages and family obligations.

Keep in mind that these are SMALL blocks. Each rectangle is 1.5″x3.5″, so they sew together very quickly. I do about 8 at a time using chain piecing methods. I talked about the selection and resizing of these blocks on February 16, 2009.

FOTY 2009 January #2
FOTY 2009 January #2

I actually felt rather smug getting so much done. Sadly, that feeling was short lived. I haven’t done anything this week except a little pressing of fabric. Pressing of fabric is the first step in the process so that is a good thing. I, however, had grand illusions of finishing the blocks this week and making another pencil roll this weekend. I have about 18 more blocks to make from uncut/unpressed fabric. Half of those fabrics are pressed and half are not, so I still have some work to do.

I also have about 10 groups of cut pieces waiting for mates that I need to sew. I have a lot of dots, which should not surprise you, and I am trying not to put dots together every time if I can help it. In some cases I can’t help it. In the grander design of the quilt, I don’t think it will matter.

FOTY 2009 January #3
FOTY 2009 January #3

I have been trying to post this blog post all week as well and there were several days where I did not get near the computer at home. I am glad podcasts are around, because they kept me in the creative loop.

FOTY 2009 January #4
FOTY 2009 January #4

One of the things I tried to do with this batch is put contrasting colors together. I did some of that before, but didn’t feel successful. I was bored putting two yellows or two blues together, so I decided to mix it up a little.

FOTY 2009 - January #6
FOTY 2009 - January #6

I am in love with the blues. What do you think?

FOTY 2009 - January #7
FOTY 2009 - January #7
FOTY 2009 - January #8
FOTY 2009 - January #8
FOTY 2009 - January #9
FOTY 2009 - January #9

In case you were wondering, I have about a foot of design wall space because the Tarts are still waiting for me to machine applique some hearts onto the curvy teapot. Below is what I have to work with:

Design Wall - January 2010
Design Wall - January 2010