Well we are moving along at lightening speed! The Good Fortune Mystery by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville is one of the best quilt along's of the year. I like it because it moves fast. No messing around for a year like most BOM's, mystery or quilt along's. So this week I may get a tad behind due to the holiday festivities. No worries there's plenty of time next week to catch up. I'll be making most of my units using a technique not mentioned by Bonnie. This weeks clue/unit has several different names. Bonnie calls it Triangles in a square, which I've never heard it called. Then there's the more common names
Split Quarter Square
Shaded Quarter Square
Shaded Double Triangles
Shaded Half Square Triangles
and
Three patch Triangles
Whatever you call them they are a fun little units to make. As long as you( I ) remember to reset your sewing machine to the proper seam allowance. I'm so glad I made a test block before cutting and sewing all of them. This first little batch had to be trimmed down. UGGG...Luckily I still have my homemade square up ruler from the En Provence Quiltville mystery. It had all the right markings.
If you are interested in making your own plexi/acrylic rulers you can read more about making them here and here..
The method I used also can be made using the no marking method I've been talking about lately. The reason why I've been talking about it so much is because I'm making two Bonnie Mystery quilts at once. Lots of flying geese, half square triangles and triangles and TRIANGLES! Bonnie has a preferred technique of making units from strips. Since my scraps are not always cut into strips I can use different techniques to get to the same result, and I don't need to cut so many pieces. My 4 units started out as 4 squares. And then the magic happened! You want some magic too, don't you? Okay, I did a little leg work for you because I love ya'll so much. Here's the best tutorial I could find for making the Split Quarter Square Triangles and you will need to do some math. But ya'll are smart, you have calculators that can add! Ain't no shame, there's a calculator on my desk all the time. It's part of the golden rule of quilting "measure twice, cut once". In order to measure I need the right size, so math it is!
I found this quicky technique in the book Quick Quilt Tricks by Billie Lauder. I've had these books for years and they come in handy when designing quilts. For those of you who would like Billie books of your own, they are hard to find but I found a couple of the books I have at Soft Expressions. Billie also has a few Youtube videos that are worth watching. But she has been MIA for a long time. That happens with actors, rock stars and yes quilters. They run their course in about 10 yrs and then they'll pop up when you least expect it for one last YeeHaw!
The shaded double triangles are right there on the front cover. Inside the book is the quilty math for making several different units along with cutting charts for several different sizes of each unit.
Billie and many other quilters of that era rarely get the credit they deserve for doing the math and finding new and creative ways to make our hobby a little less painful. In the 1990's quilting was on it's way back after a long lull. Women like Billie Lauder, Eleanor Burns, Pam Bono, and lets not forget Georgia Bonesteel were are just a few of the pioneers in the modern quilting movement you see today. And I would almost bet money(if I wasn't so broke from Christmas) that most of you have a book or two from one of these amazing quilters hiding in your quilt library.
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That's the method I used for this clue, too.
ReplyDeleteI remember Billie Lauder from a few episodes of Simply Quilts in the late 90s. She was a delight, and always explained things very well.
Billie Lauder,sadly, has passed away in 2017(?)
ReplyDeleteI too had seen Billie Lauder back when she was on Simply Quilts which is the show that started me quilting. One of the first "test" blocks I pieced was Flying Geese units after seeing Billie demo what was then the latest in shortcut techniques. I also used her Nine Patch block shortcut for one of my earlier quilts. So sorry to hear she passed. Good for you for being so up to date on "Good Fortune"!
ReplyDeleteI used Bonnie's method this time. I have all of those little Billie Lauder booklets but haven't looked at them in a long time. I will get them out today. Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteAs regards "doing the math" I get irritated when it is assumed because we are women we can't do math. Good heavens, it's just simple arithmetic in most cases. I tutor first and second graders and always tell the little girls that, of course, they can learn math. Everyone does just like with reading. It is often a matter of confidence. If you think you can, you can.
And your blocks look great,