Whirligig Tip-bits

New tools are great. Finding justification for having bought them is even better.  And size does not matter. Here are two tools I've been using to work on my Sandy Klop pattern Flying Circles, which is basically trisected triangles involving a lot of 60° and 120° angles.  My eye is not used to judging those degrees so I am using some tools - a BIG hex tool Hex N More and a tiny multi-angled quarter seam allowance tool Quilters Quarter Marker™.

The pattern is composed of three squatty triangles that join by Y-seams to form equilateral triangles. Six of these equilateral triangles join to make  hexagon blocks. Although this quilt will be chock full of color, I am concentrating on the grey and white blocks for now to develop a consistency in seaming sequence, trimming accuracy, and pressing direction without distracting and confusing myself with color combinations and placement.

The hex ruler worked very well for cutting out the squatty triangles that make up the pieced equilateral triangle blocks.

The small quarter marker tool was great for placing my stop dots for the Y-seams using a fine tip lead pencil and the 120° corner C.

Used with my Olfa turntable, the 60° corner D was very handy for trimming those dog tails off the trio of seamed squatty triangles. I could align the marking access hole along the seam and get accurate corners for the next stage of assembling those six triangles into a hexagon.

I did try aligning several triangles at once and trimming the corners but the effort to re-align them three times, once for each corner, was more trouble than it was worth. Doing them one at a time with the turntable and the quarter marker ruler was more accurate for equal effort.

I do not normally use leader and enders when I sew. I know it is good practice but I usually forget until a corner edge is sucked down into the needle hole of my machine throat plate. Leaders are a good habit with this block assembly though because of the pointy corner lead in. After two or three "down the rabbit hole adventures" at this stage of the block, I was trained.

Pressing direction is a big deal with these blocks. I used a consistent swirl direction for within the triangle subassemblies and a consistent direction for joining those triangle subassemblies to make the whirligig. The center bulk is not so bad since each half-whirligig has been pressed consistently so the seams are in opposite direction in the center. Please notice my white-on-white heart fabric pieces all face the same way. Yay! They may face a different way in another block but the direction will be self-consistent. I've been keeping point-facing hearts (those shown) in a separate pile from opposite flat-side-facing hearts so I do not mix them up within a block.

After seaming the half-hexagons, I used the Quilters Quarter Marker™tool again, this time the 120° corner D to trim the outer corners of the half-whirligigs. This tool has been sitting in my machine cabinet drawer probably for years but I have resurrected it for constant use on this project.

A glimpse of my design wall reveals four complementary pairs of grey hexagons I've completed in the various grey patterns of Moda's line Putting on the Ritz.

I have made an effort to keep myself stocked with a supply of those squatty triangles cut out in multiples of three or six. With cut stock on hand, I can sit down and sew, or press, or trim a bit with random snatches of time throughout the day.

A 2½" strip will make nine squatty triangles but my greys come from a fat quarter bundle. A fat quarter will yield seven 2½" strips but since each strip is only half a width of fabric, it will yield only four squatty triangles. This still gives 28 – a multiple of three with 1 extra – and a whole bunch of half-rectangles that must be good for something.

Linking up with this week's Let's Bee Social #112 ...

Stash Status Quo

It was time to raid my well-stocked flannel drawer. The pastor and wife of my daughter's church are expecting a baby around mid February and I have a lot of novelty prints just itching to be stitched up into burp cloths. I needed some dot or stripe or plaid blender fabric to go with them - or so I thought. At my quasi-local quilt shop I bought 2 yards of blender flannels – 1 yard of stripes (by Blank Quilting) and 1 yard of yellow dots (by Cozy Cotton). But I also also caved and bought ½ yard of the itty-bitty airplanes (by Alpine Fabrics) because they were so irresistibly cute. I looked for a red/white pinstripe to go with the planes but did not find any. Then I spotted those cute turtles (by Timeless Treasures). Just ½ yard of them with ½ yard of that blender stripe would make a complementary pair of burp cloths. Those tiny turtles and minuscule planes blew away my plan to buy only blender flannels to go with my stash novelties!

I got home and checked my flannel drawer to see what would go with the stripe and dot blenders I'd just bought. Nothing. Flannel choices were sparse - a good thing? Maybe yes, maybe no. There was no red/white pin stripe to go with those planes. Had I used it up at Christmas... ? Perhaps the yellow and red stripe at the far right might go with the planes...? Nope. The scale of the stripes was too broad for the plane size. The only options in that drawer to pair up with each other were that owl print with a kelly green polka dot at the left and they would make only one isolated burp cloth. I prefer to make burp cloths in complimentary pairs. The hodgepodge of flannels remaining did not go with each other and, contrary to my memory, was mostly blah blenders and not nifty novelties. Checking previous year end summaries for my blog posts revealed that I'd broken into triple digits on my burp cloth production – 126 combined for 2012 through 2015, 42 last year alone. Considering each burp cloth takes two fat quarters, that is 50+ yards of flannel I'd used. No wonder my flannel stash was not as resplendent as I remembered it to be.

I zotted out to my more local quilt store to get some novelty flannels to go with the dot and stripe blenders I'd just bought. Yes, I realize the irony. I bought a duck print (by Michael Miller) and a fox face print (by Robert Kaufman). Once I was home again I noticed the primary blue propellers on the little planes. I'd originally rejected pairing the stripe I'd just bought with the planes because of the aqua sky, but decided those propellers could be my link with the multicolored skinny stripe. I would topstitch with red thread and get my red fix that way. I also noticed the duck color was close to the yellow dot I'd just bought. The tiny yellow detail in the ferns with the foxes would allow me to put the yellow dots with that flannel, too. Here are my four complementary pairs of burp cloths from left to right; stripes with turtles, ducks with dots, foxes with dots, stripes with airplanes. Dot pairs would be top-stitched in yellow and stripe pairs would be topstitched in red.

I lined up the pairings on my cutting table, one fabric of each burp-cloth-to-be folded double for extra absorbency and aligned in position, ready to be sewn assembly-line fashion. Each burp cloth takes two pieces of flannel 17½" x 21" each, so they are fat quarter and half yard friendly. I posted instructions for these in my post for June 18, 2014.

 Yellow pairs with yellow thread were first. I chain stitched the long sides of four burp cloths.

These burp cloths take more thread than you think. They have two long seams, two short seams, four rows of long seam top-stitching, and two rows of short seam top-stitching. I do not remember what I did last with that yellow thread but I had four bobbins to use up. Using the least filled one first, I managed to empty three partial bobbins to make four burp cloths. The burp cloth seams are a great way to use up partial bobbins. The thread color does not show, and if you run out midway, it is no big deal. It is a straight seam and there is no truly awkward place to stop. Make sure to have enough of one color for the top-stitching, though.

I like the way the yellow dot and fox face pair turned out. The white dots seem to echo the white facial features on the foxes, something I had not anticipated with my initial fabric pairings.

Yellow dots with the ducks make me think of the goose that laid the golden egg, albeit those are pretty big eggs for the size of the bird.

Here are the turtles with the stripes. They are pretty good color matches considering the two flannels are from entirely different manufacturers and I like the playfulness of dots and stripes both.

I like the stripes with the planes after all.

The dashed stripes are like the white loop-de-loop, spiral, wavy, and straight dashed lines of the smoke trails of the planes. It is funny, but I think I like explaining why I combine the fabrics I do as much as I enjoy picking them out. Justifying the reason behind my choice makes me surer of it.

By the way, the expectant parents elected not to learn the baby's gender before birth. All these options will work for a boy or a girl. Baby gift giving used to be like this in "the old days", also known as "when my kids were born". I will pre-wash these burp-cloths and send them off tomorrow or the next day. I opted not to wait to see if I should make pink or blue. Boy or girl, spit-up starts on the day the baby is born!

So have I made any progress on reducing my stash? No, but everything new that I bought I used up right away so my stash status quo is preserved. This baby's mid-month due date turns out to be a good gift window for me. Burp cloths are my go-to project between bigger endeavors and I just finished barstool covers for my son and daughter-in-law. Now I need to stop procrastinating on those master bedroom curtains I keep promising my husband are "next". My most recent post promising to start the curtains was September 2, 2015. Yikes! Burp cloths were my warm-up.

I am linking up to Let's Bee Social #111 to explore what others are up to this week.