Triangle Tricks

/ quiltinggail

Here’s what we were told, “The Triangle Tricks Challenge is designed to take you out of your comfort zone with square or rectangle blocks and have you work with triangles. Have fun!”

I’ve done oodles of triangle quilts, half-square triangles, tri-recs triangles, flying geese is all about triangles … Lots of different quilts … and I have a current leader and ender project that is also all about triangles, but I wanted something a bit different.

I spied Triangle Stars in our guild library … it looked great … it said “Deceptively Easy.” Time to try it out!

I chose to use the precut “Starry Night” that I received last year. Isn’t it a beautiful collection??? And with my favourite blues …

Here’s the first triangle I made …

Lots and lots of triangles … They are paired with Island Batik black solid with either white solid or rice. The black, white and rice are basics and available all the time.

Sew, I put all these triangles together and was thinking, “yeah, I’ve almost got this top done.” THEN, I went to iron it … oh my … I told a friend that it was a mess with multiple Double E sized bra cups all over it. Groan … I tried to press it into submission, but nothing worked … and I forgot to take a picture.

But, lots and lots of unstitching …

Then I realized that the triangles were off! They were SUPPOSED to be 60 degree triangles … so they all got squared (triangled?) up to be 60 degrees. I’m not sure that you can see much difference in the picture, but the one on the right is a 60 degree triangle and I have no idea what the one on the left is …

but there was a LOT of trimming! Depending on the triangle, there was anywhere from 1/2″ to 1/16″. That in my book is way to much variation. I checked my templates … yup – they were correct. I checked my seam allowance … yup – they were all the same 1/4″ … I have NO idea what happened! But I do know that IF I EVER make this quilt again, I will draw out a paper piecing pattern and there will be no templates used!

Here is the finished quilt! I must admit that it went together much easier once I made the triangles all the same size. And there were no Double E bra sized lumps … there was one “A” sized one, but that was easily quilted out!

I used Hobbs Batting BLACK 80/20 batting … it was perfect for this quilt! The stars and the shadow stars were quilted with Aurifil Thread #4644 (Smoke Blue) and the rest of the black was swirled with #2692 (Black). I used a microtex from Schmetz Needles.

Wait, there’s more!

As I was cutting up the left-over fabric to use for my leader and ender project, I thought “why not use it right away?” I do need 2 small table toppers for the newly painted and carpeted guest room – so I should make them now!

I used my 8″ Cube  Accuquilt #4 & #5 dies to cut out triangles with the left-over Starry Night fabrics. Then I cut tons of triangles with #5 die using Chevron – Iceberg … my plan was to make something cool with HST and flying geese. I made lots of HST and flying geese, but my plan did not come to be. That was OK … I decided I’d make one topper with HST turned into pinwheels and another with the flying geese.

To finish these, I used scraps of Hobbs Batting 80/20, a Schmetz Needle microtex and Aurifil Thread #2600 (Dove).

Thank you!

Disclosure: The fabrics, batting, thread and needles were generously supplied by the following companies: Thank you, Island Batik  Aurifil Thread  Hobbs Batting Accuquilt & Schmetz Needles !!

One who sleeps under a quilt is covered by LOVE!

Happy Quilting!    
Gail 

23 thoughts on “Triangle Tricks”

  1. Pingback: Monday Moments … May 30 | Quilting Gail

  2. I love this quilt. It’s so different using the triangles as stars. I, unfortunately, had a little unwanted time with Jackie the Ripper while making mine too! LOL

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Pingback: Monthly | Quilting Gail

  4. Ouch! We’ve all been there, having to unsew a lot to resew/trim blocks to get a better result. Sorry for your troubles but the result is lovely! Your quilting is gorgeous on this. Love that you created two bonus quilts. Those fabrics are so pretty!

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Hi Gail, I’m glad that it all worked out in the end! It’s a lovely quilt. It looks like paper piecing the stars would work very well. I also like your runner. Thanks so much for linking up to Free Motion Mavericks! Take care.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. All three of these triangle projects are really pretty! If it were me, that first one would still be up on the shelf with all that unsewing and trimming to be done! That is no fun. But you didn’t give up and the results are fabulous. Have a great day.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I am sure that I would have gone crazy and probably cut that top into pieces and used them in a scrap quilt later while making something easier. Ha ha. Especially when it is an IB challenge and has a deadline.

    Liked by 1 person

    • You are so right, Anorina, about being glad when the binding was finished! All in all, it was a good learning experience – and I like the finished quilt! 🙂

      Like

  11. Hi Gail! Oh, that triangle quilt turned out fabulous. Deceptively easy, huh?!! The white or rice pairing really makes the stars stand out. You used just the perfect fabrics, I think. And I love your two table toppers. I’m a sucker for pinwheels and you just can’t go wrong with flying geese in those gorgeous blue prints. Nice job! {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.