Trips Around the Block Finished

Although Trips Around the Block has been finished for a while, it's been almost impossible to photograph. It's too large for the design wall or the floor. I finally got this photo of the entire quilt at the guild meeting although it has serious issues. Even holding the quilt overhead, it drapes down the stairs and onto the lower floor for a slightly cockeyed view. Additionally, the top is overexposed by light from the windows while the bottom is in shadow. But this was my first view of the entire quilt full-on and it looks very different than the partial and low angle views I'd had before!

Trips Around the Blocks

It fits our current bed with room to tuck the pillows under the quilt. Hopefully this will keep dust and pollen off the pillows. I started this quilt in August 2013 and finished in June 2014 - much too long. But what did I do when I finished? Yes. I started another. So time is not relevant.

Trips Around the Block

The center is a two-block variation of Trip Around the World: one block is a Mini Trip and the alternate is an X-block.

I invented five rules for this quilt.

1. Use darkish blues and greens for the main Xs. 
2. Use more lights. 
3. Include 60 degree angles on the border.
4. Make the border lighter in value.
5. The Xs are the darkest values in the quilt.

What happened? I was 'Seduced by the Dark Side.' I used four black patches in one block. That was all. Then I thought they looked lonesome. The plan flew out the window. I still like the occasional black near the center of the Trips but don't like it competing with the blues near the Xs. I wish I'd consistently used lights on each side of the X because it has a more delicate feel.

Trips Around the Block - Detail

I downloaded isometric graph paper here that I used to design the border. Such fun! Try it yourself sometime.

Trips Around the Block - detail of corner

Leftover ribbon fabric makes a wide stripe on the back. I quilted on my home Bernina with 50/2 Aurifil in grey, black, white and pink. The center is a simple grid using a walking foot but the border has several different free motion quilting designs. The orange peel in the white background needed registration markings that took quite a while. I think it was worth the effort although there were many heavy sighs during the process.

Trips Around the Block - back view

Here's a list of my multitudinous postings for more information.

Trips Around the Block
More Trips
Progressing
The X-Blocks
Border Ideas
Tutorial
Working on the Border
Finished Border

Let me know if you have another question.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Progress, Graduation and Pilgrim & Roy

Step by step and oh, so slowly work continues on my Trip Around the Block. Here's a closeup of the border.

Background quilting in progress on the border.

Free-motion quilting is a boon for those who hate to mark. It takes so much time and I personally can't see the markings unless they are very dark (and then they are hard to take out.) But I had this "brilliant" idea that marking guidepoints would be quick and easy. Wrong-o. Tracing the entire design might have been easier. Does anyone have advice?

Last week I flew across the country for a graduation. A beautifully sunny day for the ceremony. As always, the candidates and their families are proud, happy, hopeful and relieved. With 60 colleges in Boston alone, clusters of joyful families crowded every street, park and restaurant.

Boston University 2014 graduation

Of course, I had to take in the Pilgrim and Roy exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. Quilts and Color compares the vibrancy of Amish, Mennonite and others from the 1850s to 1920s with Op Artists of the mid 20th century. Of the many outstanding quilts, this strongly graphic design was our favorite. It was especially enjoyable to discuss the patterns, fabric choices and quilting designs with my daughter. Part of another quilt sparked an idea we plan to pursue soon. Isn't that the joy of sharing!

Touching Sunbursts quilt 1854, Pilgrim and Roy collection

Best serendipitous find? Grey's Fabric and Notions. Owner Sarah Grey also carries loads of indie patterns. We chatted with her for half an hour about her classes and patterns.

Grey's Fabrics and Notions

 

We chose these ocean-themed pieces to make pillows. Love the whales!

Hearty Good Wishes by Janet Clare for Moda

Home in time for Memorial Day. God bless the men and women who've given their all for our freedoms.

Fret not; enjoy the day.
Ann

Quilting and Museums

It's been very busy around here the last few weeks. Occasionally there are a few moments to quilt. I'm quilting Trip Around the Block on my Bernina

Machine quilting Trip Around the Block

and hand sewing the binding of Postage Stamp during the news. I feel very efficient!

Ready to hand sew the binding on this Postage Stamp

Most of the time, however, we've been traveling or hosting friends at home. Spring is a glorious time to travel in Texas. The weather is mild and beautiful wildflowers bank all the hillsides. We drove to Dallas for the IPv6 conference and enjoyed early views of bluebonnets, Indian blanket and butterfly weed.

The Menil Museum has two Magritte exhibits, both ending in June, while the Museum of Natural Science is exhibiting an original edition of the Magna Carta, Faberge and a very interesting series of gemstone carvings by Harold van Pelt. They are all wonderful; well worth the time.

Fret not; enjoy the day.
Ann

Finished Border for Trip Around the Block

Alternating with the variable stars, I've been piecing the border for my Trip Around the Block quilt. I think it's worked out very well, too. Lots of starts and stops with hexagonal blocks but it was a good challenge. Since the quilt is so large this is just a portion showing the mitered corner.

Sandwiching will have to wait until the previous one is quilted.  Perhaps next week.

Enjoy the day. Ann

Still Working on the Border

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I'm still working on the star border for my Trip Around the Block. The original post about the borders was in August. (Wow, so long ago.) Here's another "rough draft" layout. My borders are usually darker but this time I'm determined to make a light border... and use hexagons. Just to be different.

This was my last layout before cutting. OK, the stars are cut. But sometimes I've cut material then changed my mind and not had enough fabric for the revised version. So now I try harder to get a sense of the fabric relationships before cutting very much. What do I like here? A narrow striped inner border. The pink in the middle and black and white around it. Some white space between the inner and outer border.

Ombre, white solid, black & white stripe,
pink dot, black & white stripe, white solid.

I downloaded isometric graph paper from my favorite site, printablepaper.net, and started sketching. So many grids (polar, isometric, hexagon, pentagon, and a raft of diagonally printed grids in addition to music, knitting and beading.)

Sketch of border

Eight-pointed stars would be much easier to piece but this is a nice change of pace.

One border sewn

One quarter of the border is now finished. My stars and garters! It's painstaking, time-consuming sewing. I'm finishing loads of scrap blocks as leaders and enders, though. Perhaps by the time the entire border is done there will be enough for another baby quilt.

The inner border is not attached to the quilt yet. In fact, it's not cut. I prefer to finish fussy borders first and then cut the simple, inner border as needed. It lessens the stress; who cares if the inner border is 1/2 or 3/8 or 7/16 inches wide? It just needs to fit.

Fret not; enjoy the day. Ann

Trips Around the Block Tutorial

They are made with the same simple block using similar black & white fabrics. Streak of Lightning is so bright and cheerful but I also like the shadings of grey in the next. It was set with dark grey crosses centered on a multi-colored friendship star then sashed with very light greys.There's finally time to work on this quilt again after a long hiatus for baby gifts and traveling. I'm still working on the border but here's a tutorial for Trips Around the Block, a two-block quilt of X- and O- layouts.

Trip Around the Block without border

My basic plan for this quilt:

1. Make the main diagonal grid medium to dark blues and greens. (1-4 on the value finder.)
2. Group two or more rows of darks or lights together frequently.
3. Use lots of spring and summer colors and white, some black, very little brown. 

Use or change at will; I did.

Fabric Requirements:
My squares finished 1.5". Each 10.5"-block is a seven-patch with 49 squares. I chose an odd number of columns and rows with an X-block in the corners. A 5-by-7-block quilt finishes 52.5" by 73.5" without borders and takes 1715 squares, about 4.875 yards of fabric.

Cutting:
Cut strips 2" wide and subcut into 2" squares.

If you prefer 2" finished squares use five-patch blocks instead. In this case, each 10"-block contains 25 squares. A 5-by-7-block quilt finishes 50" by 70" and takes 875 squares - about 3.875 yards of fabric. Cut strips 2.5" wide and subcut into 2.5" squares. 

Pressing:
Consistent pressing enables seams to butt together perfectly. For O-blocks finger-press odd rows up and even rows down. For X-blocks finger-press the odd rows down and evens rows up. Press the columns of the O's to the right and those of the X's to the left.

Sewing:
After laying out the O- or X-block, sew squares into columns and then sew columns together to complete the block.

The two left columns are sewn.
After all squares are sewn into columns, sew columns together.

Make seventeen O-blocks first. Any combination works. Vary the darkest round of each block. You can use different fabrics in the same round. Here are some examples I posted previously or go to this post for more examples. 

The middle block has four dark corners.
The darkest fabrics of the right-hand block
are round 6 (counting from the center.)

When completed, lay out an alternate set.

O-blocks laid out in an alternate set.
The second block in row three has different fabrics in round six.

Now it's time to make eighteen X-blocks. Start with the main X of 13 squares to divide your block into four quadrants. Think of opposite v's as a round and again make them any way you like. The fabrics in a "round" can be the same or different.

Starting the X-blocks.
The blue round in the bottom O-block is made of two fabrics.

Originally it seemed important to have a darker and lighter side of the X. However, the X itself is very strong and the O's establish the diamond shape. So whatever you put in the V area should work.

I had more trouble sewing the X-blocks correctly; I kept trying to sew them into O's. It helped to keep them laid out as I sewed. This post has more examples of X-blocks.

X-blocks laid out but unsewn.
They look much larger than the O-blocks
because the squares are not sewn.

I'd love to see what you create!

Enjoy the day. Ann

Comparing Trips

While I continue to play with the border I thought it would be fun to look at different trips. They've been posted before, but I like grouping smaller photos for easy comparison. Block choice really affects the quilt, as does fabric. Google search to find more examples.

Trip Around the World

Mini Trips Around the World (layout)

Trip Around the Block (layout)

Scrappy Trips

Original Trip Around the World creates one large diamond. (If you don't want the diamond effect, Postage Stamps looks like one quadrant of the original trip.) Mini Trips Around the World are made with multiple smaller Trips... more trips but fewer rounds in each trip.

Scrappy Trip block is composed of squares laid on one diagonal like a mini postage stamp. Rotating the blocks creates diamond shapes and strong sides that disappear at block boundaries. But blocks don't have to be rotated. Look at Sujata Shah's gorgeous quilts for alternative settings. Asymmetrical blocks like Scrappy Trip have more setting variations than ones like the other trips. Bonnie Hunter has examples and instructions for these quilts on her site: Quiltsville Trip and Quiltsville Scrappy Trip. (Note: I didn't use her method for my first Trip; the rounds don't repeat regularly.)

Trip Around the Block uses two blocks to establish strong center diamonds and grids. Value variations occur at block boundaries again but are subtly different than Scrappy Trip.

Isn't it amazing the different quilts you can make with only squares?

Fret not; enjoy the day. Ann

Trip Around the Block Border Ideas

The blocks are together. To make the quilt large enough I need to make another set of blocks around all sides or add a border. Here are some borders I've been considering.

A scrap of this border made a star center in the middle of one of the O-blocks and reminded me to look for this fabric in my stash. It influenced the direction of my fabric choices but the border is a bit narrow for such a large quilt. And there is not enough to complete the border. So I either need to find some fabrics to enlarge (and lengthen) it or save it for a lap quilt.

Sawtooth border fabric

I bought this Henry Glass fabric recently because it looked like a perfect binding or narrow border. The colors actually blend with the sawtooth border fabric.

Repeat stripe border fabric

This is a border I drafted using six-pointed stars. It's not pieced yet so the stars are still too large. If I use it the stars will be multicolored. The innermost fabric is an old Nancy Crow ombre stripe followed by a sweet pink random dot print. I love the black & white stripe but are there too many dots?

Pieced star border

On graph paper the space between the stars is the same length as the star width. But what if the stars lined up with the X-block centers?

Pieced star border aligned with X-blocks

Fret not; enjoy the day. Ann

Trip Around the Block: The X-Blocks

Here are the latest X-blocks for Trip Around the Block. A few more and it will be ready to put together.

X-blocks for Trip Around the Block

Fret not; enjoy the day, Ann

Progressing Around the Block

I finished all the O-blocks for Trip Around the Block. Here are the latest ones, laid out like Mini Trips Around the World.

These blocks are set like a Mini Trip Around the World, but they are just half the blocks I'll use.

Fret not; enjoy the day. Ann

More Trips Around the Block

Here are the blocks I finished yesterday. Just a few more to make.

O blocks for Trips Around the Block

Ann