Adventures in Quilt Making, Part 2 - Triangles

Last week, I learned how to make triangles, the right way. Which also happens to be the way I made them a few weeks ago!

So part 2 of the quilt I am making went like this.
I have 3/8 yard of two fabrics. From each I cut two strips. The first was 5 1/2 inches, and the second 5 3/4. I put the 5 3/4 strip aside.
Then I cut the 5 1/2 strips from both fabrics into 5 1/2 inch squares.

I drew a diagonal line down the center of the flower fabric. I placed right sides together and sewed down both sides of the line. Then lined up my ruler on the sewn line and cut. Because I made 1/4 inch seams, lining the ruler up on the sewn line put the edge on the line I drew.


Because there is a cut on the diagonal (bias) you have to careful about how you press it. If you press it like it is normal fabric, it will distort the fabric. So I pressed up then over towards the darker fabric.

Do you see the ears? There is one at the bottom of this picture. Those have to go. But I also had to make sure that my 9 patch and triangles were the same size.  If they aren't exact my whole quilt will be off.



In fact, we made our triangles over sized on purpose. It is easier to trim triangles than 9 patch (because you have to trim a little off each side to keep them even).

So I measured my 9 patch, then trimmed the triangles to match. When lining up the triangles, use the diagonal line as your straight edge. Then trim the edges. If you line up the edges instead of the diagonal, they won't be true triangles anymore.



Now it is time for some quilt assembly! This is the part I was really looking forward to! Now you can see what the final product will look like!!!! Oh this is soooo exciting!

Quilts are made of odd numbered rows. This way they are symmetrical. My homework this week was to assemble the odd-numbered rows.



I wanted to chain piece them again, but this proved a little more difficult than I thought. I completely botched my first attempt and had no idea what I had sewn together. Thankfully, they were all pairs and I found each a home. The second, third, and fourth rows went together without much incident.


So important things? From the 9 Patch, make sure your spines are vertical. When you sew them together you can control seam buildup and manipulate them if they are not already sewn down.
Also, press towards the 9 Patch. Pick a direction and go with it. Always. For the rest of the quilt. Be consistent.

So we have two options right now. With all the odd-numbered rows created, we can decide which fabric will be the center, light or dark gray.  Isn't it amazing how much different they look? The only difference is where I placed each row. So what do you think? Light center? or dark center?