Saturday, March 14, 2015

Pi Day 3.14.15 @ 9.26.53

It's Pi(e) Day. Another crazy reason to celebrate.

Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It's an irrational number (which just means it can't be written as a fraction because the digits don't end or repeat) whose first few digits are 3.141592653... March 14 is extra special this year because we can correlate those digits to a specific time down to seconds. Nerds are thrilled.

It seems like a good day to celebrate circles in quilting. My favorite circles are my quilt guilds: currently SCVQA and QGGH. I've joined a guild everywhere I lived. They are always a source of friendship, inspiration and education. I hope you have a group of friends as inclusive and supportive.

On to circular quilts.

Although New York Beauty isn't finished, there is some progress. Only sixteen more. Even though these blocks are a decade old, I still like the colors and the pattern. {Why, oh why, didn't I finish it with the millenium?}

Red, pink, green and blue quilt blocks with quarter circles and five teeth.
New York Beauty in progress

All my quilts in the show this weekend have circles or curves. There have been many photos, but here's a new one. I used this fabric (a decade ago) to applique on t-shirt quilts for my daughter and her friends who all had dogs. This is the last of it. Does that make Propellers and Planes a scrap quilt?

Four brown and cream dog faces form the blades of this propeller shape. The outer band is a green plaid.
Steam Punk quilt block
from Propellers and Planes
with dog face conversation prints

Windmills is my current project. The block has slight curves. I'm echo quilting a quarter circle over the top.

Multicolored fabrics are improvisationally cut to form windmill blocks.
Quarter circle curves echo quilted across Windmills

The quilting shows up better from the back.

Windmills back with leftover blocks. 

I drew one line on the quilt using my cutting ruler. I placed it in one corner, rotated the ruler and marked with chalk at intervals. Then I connected those dots. That was my first quilting line. Subsequent lines are a walking foot away. This seemed like a better idea than starting in the corner.

Mark the first arc 24" away from the corner. Use the walking foot to echo that curve.
Example of marking the first line of quilting on Windmills

And we're having lemon meringue pie for dinner. Yum.

Enjoy the (pi) day, Ann

15 comments:

Cathy said...

What a lot of stuff to knock your socks off (if I wore them). WOW. Thanks for telling how you marked for stitching. I would never think of that. I've always wanted to try a NYB. Maybe someday. I'll have to come back from time to time to look and stay inspired. PI day...I thought I was kind of nerdy but not enough to celebrate, I guess. Oh, and I've never joined a guild. I'm waaaaaaaay to shy and I'm not a joiner. And all the ladies meet when I'm at work. And they all look like quilt police and old biddies. (Wait a minute....I might be an old biddy).

Anonymous said...

... Hi Anne ... WOW!! all that Pi info and by the way hope you had a Great Pi day .... even El Ranchero took an interest ! Ha! ... and I for one can hardly wait to see how you finish 'New York Beauty' ... it is such a 'Beauty' I just love the design and the colours that you have used so far .... and by the way was there any of that Lemon Meringue left??? I hope not!!! .... xxxx

Ann said...

Thanks, Cathy. I'm so glad you like them since your work is so exciting. Can't wait to see what you do with NYB.
I finally figured out the curve stitch marking. Starting at the smallest circle is too hard to keep the circular shape correct. Starting at the largest circle is too hard to mark.

Ann said...

So glad to know El Ranchero read this (or let you regale him with excerpts.) Most of the pie is left; more tomorrow.

audrey said...

Your New York Beauty is beautiful no matter how old the blocks are! It's one of those patterns that is on my quilty bucket list. Very interesting to hear how you started the marking for your curved stitching. I will definitely have to remember that in the future. My daughter was bemoaning our lack of pie tonight, but neither one of us was motivated enough to make one.:)

Mystic Quilter said...

I think everything in your post today is YUM! Love the quarter circle quilting. Hope you enjoyed the lemon meringue pie!

Kaja said...

I love the saturated colours of the New York Beauty quilt; it is gorgeous and makes me want to try the block at some point. Can't imagine why it didn't get finished before though! Your way of marking curves is clever - I shall try it (I marked spirals for handquilting, but this would have been a better approach) and they look very effective. And I must officially be a nerd now (if I wasn't before), as we had pie yesterday too.

Ann said...

Thanks, Kaja and welcome to nerd-dom. I'm curious how you marked spirals? I use circles to mark spiral placement and then "wing it" with the machine. How do you do it? Always looking for new methods.
I love your definition of a nerd: someone who eats pie! I suspect we'll all remember to make pie next year on March 14.

Lara B. said...

That is wonderful, the way you decided to quit your windmills Ann! It goes with the flow of the design very nicely!
I always seem to like the more exuberant New York Beauties best and yours definitely fits in my "Love it!" category!

Quilting Stories said...

Your New-York Beauty is going to be THE beauty!!! Of all those I have seen recently, yours is my favorite one! What a challenge to make such a wonderful quilt out of unlikely fabrics... big success! Your windmill quilt is as well stunning, great quilting! Lemon meringue pie.... miammm!!

Debra said...

Pie for dinner... a gal after my own heart! LOL Love your New York Beauty... it's on my bucket list. Found you through Quilty Folk and have become a follower.. how could I not! LOL

Ann said...

Thanks, Christine. I think tucked the NYB away during a move. It sure is fun to get back to it - and still like it. The windmill quilt surprised me: the fabrics just seemed to go together but they were mostly large scale in various styles. It went together very quickly, too. Altogether lots of fun.

Ann said...

How very kind of you, Debra. I hope to see your NYB some day! It is a wonderful pattern.
Pie is always great. I love making my own crust although we don't have it much anymore.

Stephie said...

Both totally fabulous as ever Ann! I love the red thread for your windmill quilt, inspired. How big will this quilt be, will it fit a bed? I can't believe how quickly you've made it - I'm more on a par with your NYB timescale with the quilts I make! It's looking wonderful and I'm really glad you're continuing with it, can't wait to see it grow :)

Ann said...

Thanks, Stephie. I used that orange/red thread because it was in my box. I usually know about how old each piece of fabric is but have no idea how old my threads are. It's all good but I'm trying to make sure to use it. My husband encouraged me to go ahead (orange is his favorite color.)