Hand-piecing

It's always good to have a portable hand-piecing project on the go for those 'hanging around waiting for children' moments.

I suppose for me, a suitable hand-piecing project would have to be one with inset seams; something that is not so lickety split, nice and quick on the sewing machine.

So I had a little rootle around and found this block on Quiltivate

Next thing I did was enlarge it as much as I could so I could print it off my home computer and make templates.

The block is made up of one repeating triangle x four so all I needed to do was enlarge one quarter of the image.

After a few attempts, I managed to get it to the maximum possible size which makes for a 10" block.

I then traced the four templates (the other two shapes in the triangle are just mirror images) on to template plastic. If you don't trust yourself to accurately trace and cut your own templates, then Jeanette told me about an Etsy shop where they will make made-to-measure templates for you.

Obviously, this makes templates without a seam allowance which I personally find easier to work with.

If you cut templates with a seam allowance and (like me) are then too lazy to pencil mark in the seam allowance, you just eyeball your 1/4" as you sew. I know some people struggle with this.

However, if you cut templates without the seam allowance your seam allowance is already marked for you (the lines you traced around the template) and you then only have to eyeball cutting out a 1/4" round the shapes. My cutting is OK but not perfect but that is fine because if you pin the beginning and end of the line between two pieces, the pencil lines on both match up beautifully and you just sew along it.

I'm making slow progress which is fine because that's the whole point of a portable project; an 'as and when I can' type quilt.

So far I have done:

I've gone for total random, scrappy madness with the exception of the centre four kite shapes where I have fussy cut to get a secondary design.
I've then surrounded that with different fabrics/colours but all roughly the same value. The edges are low volume/light.

For the two shapes that have a mirror image, it is also important to mark L and R on the back of each piece as otherwise you'll come a cropper.

I know that from experience.

All told, each block probably takes about an hour and a half, with intermittent pauses, depending on how gripping the televisual viewing is.

And with four made, if you put them together as another larger block, you can see that a lovely low volume kaleidoscope shape appears.

And then you add some more blocks.

And...

...that...

...gets...

...you...

...to...

...this.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday...even though it's not ;-)

I have no idea how long for and how large I am going with this.

But for the moment I am enjoying the slow road.

(If you are cautious about inset seams there is a very good video here to help you)