HST Value Quilt Block Tutorial

My turn is coming up in the Simply Solids Bee and I have been trying out the Threadbias online Design Tool so I can show people better pictures than photographing my sketchbook (which is really a bit shonky)! Again there has been a bit of learning curve; but probably it's not too hard, and I'm sure has tons of potential as I become a more fluid user of the tool!

I would like the people in my Australasian circle of the bee (Fallow) to help me make a sofa quilt in pinks, reds, oranges and yellows to go with my favourite cushions

 I've had this design saved for ages, which I thought might work well in solids, as well as potentially for a scrap quilt some day. My rather tatty graph paper tells me it originally came from a library book called How to Design and Make Your Own Quilts by Katharine Guerrier 

Just ignore the top row of two blocks that somehow ended up along the top. 

Even though the design tool allows you to choose (some) fabrics that was just too steep a learning curve for me, I decided that since this quilt is really a value quilt, it would be better if I showed it to you in greyscale, so you get the fun of deciding which fabric to put where in your block

As you can see each block is made up of four x nine half square triangle blocks, rotated to form the design.

So if you're making this for me as part of the Fallow group in Simply Solids Bee, I have sent you, or will shortly be sending you, a variety of strips 4" wide. There should be enough to cut at least 20 dark 4" squares, 14 light squares and 8 medium squares. But you only need 6 medium, 12 light and 18 dark, so you have room for mistakes choice. 

I'd be grateful if you could send any unused squares or HST squares or scraps back to me with your finished block, so I can make a few more blocks or use them on the back please.

So first finish the cutting into 4" squares then order your fabrics into light medium and dark values.  If you find this a bit tricky you can either view the fabric through a red filter, or take a photograph in black and white to help you decide on the relative value of each fabric.

Some of them are very close ( I love that kind of interplay)!



A fabric's value is relative to a degree; so in some cases the same fabric could be light, medium or dark depending on the fabrics next to it.

The "relative value" means that the same fabric can act as a dark or a medium or a light value depending on what it is near.

So to make the block, take 12 dark squares and put them together with 12 light squares.

Rule a diagonal line in pencil corner to corner.

Sew a 1/4" seam either side of the line and

Follow the same method combining six medium and six dark squares.

I chain pieced all these (light/dark and medium/dark) together in one long line down each side

Then cut them apart

And cut along the pencil line to form two HSTs. 

Press open carefully without stretching the bias. And trim the dog ears...such a fun part :-{- Not!


Note that I didn't trim the block size at all, only the dog ears. I just used scissors as I pressed them open. But use your rotary cutter, or whatever works for you but don't trim the sides of the HST blocks at all to keep the blocks the same size.

Arrange your squares for each nine patch according to value as above.
Sew together the squares  using a 1/4" seam using your preferred method. (I like pressing the seams alternate ways and nesting them, but do it whichever way you prefer).

Finally, combine the four nine patches to complete the block.

In this trial one I made I've decided there's a bit too much yellow, so I'll probably redo a couple of the squares substituting another light triangle in due course...

Thanks so much lovely Fallow people for making these for me and if you make this following this tutorial for any other reason, do put a link in the comment box, so I can see what you've made.

It's Already August!

So here's a July round up for the Fresh Sewing Day/ Small Blog Meet

L-R Top- Bottom

Some squares in preparation for my month in the Simply Solids Bee next month
Amira's blocks requested -for August, (yes I did them in July- but they were delightfully simple) in Simply Solids Bee
A Gift Block to be explained later
Progress in my Wonky Crosses Quilt
More preparation of Sample Block for my month in Simply Solids (as above!)
Quilting finished on a quilt I'm less than sure about!
Said quilt...
July's Simply Solids Block for Kate
Conquering Curves for do. Good Stitches Cherish bee in July


What did you get up to on the creative front last month?

By Jove I think She's Got It!

The wonders of the information available on the internet never cease to amaze me. Not to mention the fantastic interaction in the blogging community.  The lovely Annabella (who blogs at Life's Rich Pattern all the way from Morocco) left me a comment on my last post which simply said "I hope you don't pin...pinning is bad news for sure...much easier to ease", which sent me searching for answers.

I did press this, but it clearly needs another go, this was my first effort with the pins

In desperation after too many pins, puckers, unsmooth curves and consequent unpicking, I looked for tutorials on how to piece small tight curves and with in milliseconds (seemingly) had located Leanne's fantastic little video. Of course I'd come across Leanne's blog before and have been following for a while, so I wasn't surprised she'd posted this great little no-fuss tute.

Curves on the second attempt are much smoother

My curved piecing improved exponentially as soon as I tried this method. I think some of the difficulty was also caused by the compounding error of me making my own not-quite-up-to-the-mark templates.

Living and learning (yet again)!

The Path to Drunkenness

Now I know why this block is called this (Drunkard's Path for those not in the know)! 

It'll drive me to drink I swear!

I've been procrastinating on this one for July's do. Good Stitches.  Still a few days left in July...Two blocks is enough! One warm and one cool. Good to have the opportunity to try something I'd never do on my own! Never say never!

That said, I did do this quilt incorporating curved piecing, but the bits were a bit lot bigger! Like maybe three times the size

I laid out the Wonky Crosses so far. I think I'll need about 10 more blocks and am pondering what I need more of? Have some ideas, but canvassing opinions?

And I'm enjoying doing some forward planning

Now I'm off to make Osso Buco or we'll be having dinner at midnight!

Has anything been driving you to drink?

~Camilla

Linking up for the first time with Needle and Thread Thursday 

Slow Slow Quick Quick Slow

Things have been kinda slow over here. 

My work's been a bit slow, which has been good coz it's the school holidays.

And it's been good to be about with the kids, including the oldest home from NZ for Uni holidays, hanging out with his brother in the kitchen in these photos, evidence for the fact that he even cooked us a few meals while he was home :-)

We're sorting out towards a move back to NZ at the end of the year. 

That's a slow process. 

I'm in the midst of instituting a new and efficient filing system (hmm I fear in my secret self that however good the system is, it's the filer here who's not so efficient) and going through every cupboard and drawer. Sorting out's been slow, I'm not good at making long term decisions about what to chuck out. I've been burnt in the past by chucking out things I shouldn't have and consequently now probably keep too much. That, and I'm super indecisive and can't bear to waste something that might come in useful later. It probably won't, but as soon as I chuck it out I'll think, now where's that little box that'd  be perfect for this....!

We also have to prepare the house for sale, which means means tons of little jobs, yet keeping the big picture in view, so not being too detailed about it.

Even tho' things have been slow, time's going fast somehow and I don't want to live towards next year while I'm preparing. We're here now and I want to savour it. So in a way I want to slow down.

I've been slow sewing and blogging too.

I'm still playing with the Oakshotts and ideas are synthesising for a quilt with them. I have some sketches, but really I just have to take the plunge with my idea. I'll show you bits soon.

Altogether I'm slightly stuck in my creative decisions...

This quilt which has been stalled for ages at the quilting stage is finished except for the binding, but now I've decided (almost) to remake it!

I think I've been stuck with the quilting, not so much because I got bored with doing it, as because I'm disappointed with the quilt as a whole.

I love that feature 60s floral so much that I didn't want to cut it up too much. Liz made a stunning quilt with big pieces of Japanese fabric which inspired me- here's just a section of it

But even though  I love I'm happy with the back of my new one and even the quilting in the end...

It just doesn't do it for me. Last weekend I finished the quilting and then straightaway I SOOO nearly cut it up to make this inspiration of Ashley's.  

From Ashley at Film in the Fridge

Which I'm sure is a much better use of the lovely big scale. I'd convinced myself to cut up the finished quilt to make it quilt as you go and just add a new backing over the top of the old one and stitch in the ditch around the hexagons. But...then I waste the strip of floral on the back. I suspect the solution is to unpick the quilting and re-make it properly. Not sure I've got the energy for that yet, having just finished all that quilting after so much procrastinating; so maybe I should just bind it and use it and re-do it down the track?!

Do you ever have dilemmas like this or is it just me? 

I have made the July block for the Simply Solids Bee

And I've started on the July do.Good Stitches Drunkards Path blocks

Just as well there's a Slow Blogger linky to join!

Resurrecting Inspiration

I have been playing with these recently.

I only dared to cut an inch or an inch and a half off each...

Not entirely to good effect! 

Gum trees and bark have long inspired me and I had an idea which I fear is doomed (aren't I brave showing you my failures)!

I've worked out what's wrong I think- colours too close and scale of strips is wrong, but I am confident something new will emerge.- so thinking again...

And trying to tell myself that this is how I learn to be creative...

Trouble is... I don't think I'll be able to find it without cutting into that lovely stack a bit more daringly...!

Linking up with Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet at Lily's Quilts

Let's Get Acquainted

Welcome to my stop on the Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop! Hopefully you're enjoying becoming acquainted with some other new bloggers, as I am! You can find the whole list here, or by clicking on the button in my sidebar to the right.

I struggle now to remember how it was exactly that I started quilting. I've sewed since high school, making some of my own clothes, not very well, though there was always the odd project that was good enough to inspire me to make something else; and there have been years when I haven't done anything, but when I had little kids (they're teenagers now) I enjoyed sewing a few clothes for them.

A recent finish- a Baby Cross Quilt

My mum isn't a huge sewer- really sewist is a much better word isn't it! But she has definitely sparked my interest in sewing, shown me how to follow a pattern and given me those little skills and pieces of knowledge one tends to take for granted. She has made me some lovely things over the years.  One of the most ambitious must have been my school graduation dress, an 80's confection in soft silk with ruffles and a boned bodice! And Mum and Dad gave me the sewing machine I still sew on for my 21st. Read all about that here. There's also a link to a post about the perspex extension table Dad made for my machine.

I think the quilting passion started when, for some reason out of the blue, I decided to make a quilt for my Grandmother's 90th, either that or it was when my son needed a new duvet cover and I spotted a log cabin design I liked and it turned into a quilt instead. No photos of that one, my son has it away at Uni. Actually I think he's close in the line up for a new quilt, since both of our styles have changed since then. But there's something special about those early projects, even though I don't love either of them now. In the mosaic below there's a gratuitous shot of that first quilt for my Granny...

Another significant early project, in terms of inspiration, were these very simple cushions, I saw this fabulous Marimekko fabric and just bought a little of each. They were hard to cut into I remember, but an example of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts I think! Besides, I could never have chosen just one or two! We've had these on our sofa for over ten years now I'd guess, but I still love them.

I have an American friend in NZ where we lived then and I think she has more sense of the quilting heritage, which in turn influenced me and we used to get together to sew from time to time, which was great. We also went to a weekend workshop, with different speakers and classes. That was really inspiring and although we were feeling our way into something that seemed like there more older women doing it, there was an undercurrent of freshness and some new fabrics that were the beginnings of the Modern Quilting movement. It felt like the edge of something new.

L-R Top to Bottom: HST Quilt, Improv in Pyjamas ; Gum Tree Quilt, My First Ever Quilt -for my Granny, Close up of Gum Tree Quilt, StripQuilt for my Sister, Baby Crosses, Mum's Quilt and Sophie's Vintage whole cloth Quilt

But quilting has really grown for me as a hobby in the last few years and especially since I started my blog last year. Since I've been in Australia I've loved the chance to sew regularly with my friend Liz. We were chatting at an MTB event both our sons were involved in and both said we wanted to make time to do more creative things in our life, so agreed to meet on Fridays whenever possible to carve out time for that. It's been gold. Once the machine's out at the end of our dining table;  and the cutting board and piles of fabric are erupting further along, they tend to sit there and it's easier to do a little. We do have a long table fortunately, so it can get shoved to the end half and there's still room for the family to eat! I love to sew while people are around and about, but I think the ideal solution is a room close to the action, where the door can also be shut!

L-R Camera Case, Liberty Zip Pouch, Table Mats, Table Runner, Zip Pouch, Computer Sleeve

Blogging for me is the other part of carving out a creative space; really a kind of accountability to myself for making something and a way of contributing to this amazing online world where I gain so much inspiration. If you like you can read more about my reasons for blogging and how it got its name here.

I'm off to read some of the other posts now and discover something about others' inspiration!

Camilla