My Kingdom for a Design Wall

In my life, a Design Wall is not a luxury, it is a necessity! Yes, I’ve been known to write that a design wall can be as simple as pinning a piece of batting to some foam-core and leaning it against the wall. At the same time, I have to admit that I can’t remember when I didn’t have an 8' x 10' design wall covered in black batting.  In fact most of the last 20 years I have had two!  Call me “spoiled!”

Well, in the last few weeks we have moved! I won’t go into the gory details of trying to reduce our stuff, including my big sewing studio, to fit our new space! I’ll just say that in the process of moving, the plans for my new 8' x 10' wall have been stalled!

Last week, I worked on something small and that piece of foam-core was just great. But this week I’m working on a Queen Size Scrappy Hexagon quilt. The moment I started to pick fabrics, I realized my little batting-covered piece of foam-core was not going to be adequate. I was looking for 25 or 30 fabrics that “play well together” and also complement the beautiful multicolor floral border.

Then, with a self-defined “stroke of genius,” I looked at the door to my new office and saw a new design wall. I grabbed one of the pieces of black batting I had rescued from my old studio, folded it in half and threw it over the top of the door.  Then on one side I pinned the batting edges together so it would not slide off the door. Because I’m eliminating the “Y” seams in my quilt by using the From Marti Michell multi-size half-Hexagon, the door was a great size for approving fabrics to actually be included!

However, when I wanted to arrange the cut pieces into vertical rows before sewing, the door seemed very small! Then I realized there is another door across the hall and I have a second black batt!

Things went really well until I wanted one last look before sewing all of the vertical rows together. Then we realized we could pin the strips to the top of the door frame next to the first door and see all of the pieces together.

A Giveaway - Updated

Ann Dunn, your comment was selected!

Please send us your mailing info so we can send you a Scrappy Hexagon pattern!  If you know Ann, please share the news with her.  If we don't have mailing info by September 19, we'll pick another comment to win.
Happy hex'ing!

Quilt Show Atlanta Sept 7-9, 2017

We just got a flyer from Dana and Quilt Connect USA about next week’s quilt show at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, GA. It's a great facility and close to the airport.  I'm looking forward to meeting “local” quilters and 1-to-3-daytrippers!

I'll be doing a few lectures and teaching several classes. This show has everything -- quilts! and about 45 classes being taught by over a dozen teachers. And the vendor area will have about 50 booths! Go, Georgia!

The schedule of dates and times for classes is available here - http://www.quiltconnectusa.com/quilt-connect-usa-2017-atlanta-quilt-show-class-schedule.htm.

Class descriptions and costs are available here -- http://www.quiltconnectusa.com/classes.htm

Maybe I'll see you at the show!

 

Adventures in Hexagons Blog Tour & Giveaway | Welcome to my stop!

If you know anything about me, you know I love making hexagon quilts almost as much as I love Log Cabins! Both quilt families have been perennial favorites of mine, well, for decades! and I've enjoyed watching the humble hexagon’s popularity grow.

So, I was very flattered and happy to say “Yes!” when Emily Breclaw asked if I would be part of a blog tour to celebrate her new book Adventures in Hexagons with C & T Publishing. (You’ll want to visit all the blogs on the tour to get plenty of chances to win a copy of the book!) (Update: the blog tour has been completed.)

I met Emily and her delightful family in Houston when she first started working on this group of quilts -- in fact, she may have been the first person to ask us for a kite template. You may know her through her blog, The Caffeinated Quilter.

Guess what?!

You can make all of the quilts in the book using our templates!

How cool is that?!  To help celebrate the book’s publication, C & T Publishing is giving a copy of Adventures in Hexagons to one lucky commenter on each of the blogs on the tour, including mine!

And WE have a second giveaway here, too!  We will be picking a second winner from comments left here and giving the second winner his or her choice of a hexies tool bundle! Keep reading for some great offers and details on the prize giveaways.

The Adventure Begins

“Adventures in Hexagons” is the perfect title -- the 11 quilts in the book are not like your grandmother’s one-patch hexagon quilts, nor mine! Thoroughly modern, Emily’s quilts really are adventures in using the same shapes in new ways. I chose a few favorites to share with you here, like “Loverly” with its sweet hexagon hearts.

Images of the book and the quilts are courtesy of C & T Publishing.
Copyright © 2017 by C & T Publishing.

And I love how “Hello Orion” uses six-pointed stars in a different way. 

I especially like “Twinkling”, made with what we call Kites and Crowns. (We’ve got rotary cutting templates for the matching diamonds and hexagons and 60-degree equilateral triangles, too.)

Emily has covered a lot of territory, too, from ways to make the 11 quilts to sewing Y seams by hand or machine. Y seams aren’t hard -- I not only sew them by machine, I pivot as I go -- and we love seeing them discussed and sometimes even embraced, by modern quilters. There are lots of great quilts and sewing tips in Adventures in Hexagons along with yardage charts, paper patterns and a design primer to start your own adventure. And, of course, we love that you can make everything with our tools!

Our 60-Degree Family Loves These Quilts!

If you already have some From Marti Michell 60-degree tools in your quilting supplies, you can use your Set G, H and Kite and Crown templates to make the quilts in Adventures in Hexagons rather than the paper patterns in the book!  We love it when people who already own our tools can use them in more projects! A cool bonus in the book is the chart on page 102 for figuring yardage -- you can write the appropriate template numbers in the “Notes” column for a handy template reference!

Just as Emily does in Adventures in Hexagons, we measure hexies on a finished side because it is the only measurement 60-degree shapes have in common. You can learn more about our 60-degree family of tools in this 2-page PDF (you can look at in your browser or download to your computer)  or on our website (where all of our 60-degree tools and other products have their own web page). 

The quilts in Emily's book and the template sets you can use to make them are given in the descriptions below.

Giveaway! and Special Offers

Our template winner can choose Bundle #1 or Bundle #2 below!

We’re offering 3 money-saving bundle deals during the blog hop so you can get started on your next favorite hexagon quilt. These From Marti Michell tool bundles will be available only during the blog hop and expire at midnight your time on August 12, 2017.

Bundle #1 The 2-inch Bundle of 2 template sets, Product # 8319

• From Marti Michell Template Set G (based on 1- and 2-inch finished shapes) and the 2-inch Kite and Crown set.

• Use these tools to cut pieces for the Loverly, Stardust and Moonbeams quilts.

• Special bundled price: $31.96

Bundle #2 The 3-inch Bundle of 2 template sets, Product # 8320

• From Marti Michell Template Set H (based on 1-1/2- and 3-inch finished shapes) and the 3-inch Kite and Crown set.

• Use these sets to make Independence Day, Meteor Shower, Confetti in Times Squares, Sparkler, Starburst, Twinkling, Hello Orion, and Superstar.

• Special bundled price: $27.16

Bundle #3, The Big Bundle, Product # 8321 (not eligible for giveaway)

• All 4 tool sets in Bundles 1 and 2
  

• Plus a copy of my book Six is for Hexagons, Volume 6 in the Encyclopedia of Patchwork Blocks series

• Special bundled price: $72.72 (Save $18.18!)

Comment for a Chance to Win!

We will choose 2 comments using a random picker on August 6, 2017. One comment per person, please. C and T will send our first winner a hard copy of Adventures in Hexagons if the winner is a US resident or an electronic copy if the winner lives outside the US. We’ll be sending the second winner their choice of Bundle #1 or #2 above. If the winner has a US address, prize includes free shipping. If the winner lives outside the US, he or she will be issued a PayPal invoice for the actual cost of shipping and pay using PayPal or any major credit card).

• Answer the question "What's your favorite traditional hexagon quilt pattern?’ below, and tell us if you want to win Bundle #1 or #2 if you win.

Bookmark this page and come back here on August 6 to see if your comment was selected!

Update ~ The giveaway is closed now and Lisa Boyer's comment was randomly picked to win the C & T giveaway and a copy of Adventures in Hexagons.  Ramona's comment was our template bundle winner!  Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment :)

Adventures in Hexagons Blog Tour

Visit the blogs and comment on each one for more chances to win a copy of the book and some other surprises. All the blogs will pick a comment and winners will be announced on August 6, so hop to it!

July 24 - C&T Publishing www.ctpub.com

July 25 - Generation Q Magazine http://generationqmagazine.com/

July 27 - Marti Michell https://www.frommarti.com/

July 28 - Clothworks Fabrics www.clothworks.com

July 29 - Cathi Godwin, https://quiltobsession.blog/

July 30 - Paper Pieces, www.paperpieces.com

August  1 - Mary Huey, http://maryhueyquilts.blogspot.com/

August 2 - Linda Franz, www.inklingo.com

August 3 - Patty Murphy, https://pattymurphyhandmade.com/

August 4 - Cheryl Sleboda, www.Muppin.com

August 5 - Wendy Sheppard, https://ivoryspring.wordpress.com/

August 6 - Emily Breclaw, www.thecaffeinatedquilter.com

Week 19, Long Time Gone Sew Along | Reveal & Winners Announced

How fun was that?! It was amazing to watch the quilt grow. I want to thank Angie for inviting me to be one of the bloggers for this sew along, and everyone who participated, too!  I will be watching to see all of your finished quilts.

Mine will stay in its partially completed “ready to finish” state until at least March of next year. Because I teach Machine Quilting in Sections (I’m sure I’ve mentioned both my book and my Craftsy class with that title) it is nice to have pieces in progress to show my students. Pictures of quilts in sections are nice, but quilters who take my classes or attend a lecture really love to see the real thing! (Speaking of pictures, click here to see 15 quilts discussed in the book!)

The left half is completely quilted and bound. Section 5 on the right half is layered with extra batting and backing for the borders and partially quilted. Section 6 is completed, but not layered.

The borders are all pieced and the top and bottom borders are actually joined to the the left half of the quilt, rolled up and pinned so they won’t get lost.  The other borders the remaining batting and backing are in a bag with all of the pertinent information for future finishing.

Follow me on Instagram so you won't miss seeing the photos of my quilt after I've put it all together!

Thank You

I have really loved everyone’s nice words about using our tools. I'm sure many of you came to the LTG Sew Along after participating in the 1930s Farmer's Wife Sampler quilt along and brought your templates with you!  Or maybe this quilt was your first experience using templates -- in which case, I'm excited for you!  I hope you will discover how versatile our Perfect Patchwork Templates are and that they will become your go-to cutting tools! Our thanks for inviting us to participate in this fun event goes out to Angie and our companion blogger Nicole. Such fun!

(edited) vector by http://vecto2000.com

I'll be Talking “Quilting in Sections” at Quilt Festival

If you are going to Houston this fall for the International Quilt Festival (I recommend that every quilter should go at least once!), look in the class registration list for my lecture on Machine Quilting in Sections at 2:00 on Friday, November 3. Come and see my ready-to-finish Long Time Gone quilt in person!

I've got another machine quilting in sections event on the calendar next spring but I can’t announce it yet. Suspense!

Update August 2, 2017

Sew Along Winners Announced!

Angie has posted on her blog the names of 7 lucky participants who won a prize in the Long Time Gone Sew Along. Congratulations to our winner of a $100 gift certificate, @patsquilting, and to everyone who finished their quilt top!

All the winners and prizes are listed here --
http://www.gnomeangel.com/winners-long-time-gone-sew-along/

Week 18: Long Time Gone Sew Along | Assembly

Partial Seams

Didn’t you love the way Jen worked magic with the use of partial seams in joining the units in sections 5 and 6? That is, didn’t you love it after you were done, and it worked — especially if this happened to be your first experience with a partial seam. My observation is that nearly everyone’s first experience with a partial seam is confusion and doubt, all the way to a perfect ending! Partial seams just don’t appear often enough to be part of our everyday piecing “vocabulary.”

New Meaning to Partial Seams

I've been finishing quilts on my home sewing machine for a long time! I've found that nearly every quilt that is machine quilted in sections provides an opportunity for new solutions (and have written a book about several ways to do it, depending on how the blocks are set and how the sections are quilted; a little more about that later).

For my Long Time Gone quilt, I decided to completely quilt the left half first and then put it and the right half on the design wall. Then I pieced all of the borders into long strips and put them on the design wall around those sections. When they passed inspection, I actually started adding them to the left half of the quilt using the "stitch and flip" method. You saw the photo with the first side border in a previous post, but here it is again:

Then I started the partial seams, adding just the top and bottom first borders to the left side. The remaining 36 or so inches of top and bottom borders were actually hanging off the left half of the quilt until I rolled them up and secured them to the edge.

And so it went, one partial seam after another, for the second and third top and bottom borders. Here you can see the result of the borders on the left half, but I edited out the excess border. It looks pretty great, doesn't it?!  (Click on images to see larger versions.)

As for the right half of the quilt, after it is quilted, joined to the left side and finished on the back, and with the extra batting and backing sections extended, I will add the first side border using the "stitch and flip" method described in my Week 16 blog post.

... Then the partial seams that are the first stitch-and-flip borders both on the top and the bottom of the quilt will be competed. The first border will be completely done.

... Then I will stitch-and-flip the second side border in place and repeat finishing the partial seams of the top and bottom second borders.

... And, finally, the third border will be added and my quilt will be ready to bind. Well, I couldn't wait, so the left half of my quilt is also bound! (When you are looking at this photo, remember that the partial seams on the top and bottom borders will not be completed on the right side of the quilt until after the 2 sections of the quilt are joined.)

We cut 10- or 12-inch strips of some of the neutral fabrics used in the quilt and joined them with diagonal seams to make the binding. Making binding this way is so easy if you have one of our corner trimmers. It’s the perfect width and perfect angle.

Here’s a close-up that shows an angled joining seam:

And, because the quilt was made in sections, the binding can be easily joined after the two halves of the quilt are joined and completed. Just like quilting in sections is lighter and easier to handle, it was nice to add the binding to just half a quilt -- something I had never done before, but it was perfect for this quilt!

Some Designs Require a Partial Seam

I'm using partial seams to finish my Long Time Gone quilt because the method is a great solution for adding borders to the quilted sections. But partial seams are also used to make some quilt blocks, like Friendship Star. You could make this block entirely out of squares and HSTs, but fewer seams are more attractive and so much easier to quilt, it's worth a cutting trick (easy with our templates) and a few partial seams. I’ve covered template cutting tricks and loads more in my book More Bang for the Buck.

One of my most popular classes, The Interlocking Hexagon, features a block with a partial seam. The class pattern is “Ode to Asia” and the tool is the 4-1/2 inch hexagon, the outside edge of our large Multi Size Hexagon Ruler. Those of us who have just spent 16 weeks with 1-inch finished squares would not know how to handle a piece in a quilt that is almost as big as a standard sheet of paper! Everything looks so big now, doesn’t it?

 

Other LTG Assembly Options

Visit these Long Time Gone Sew Along blogs, too, for tutorials, contests and other info:

http://www.snipssnippets.ca

http://gnomeangel.com

Use the hash tag #LongTimeGoneSAL to share photos on Instagram.

Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell. Copyright 2016 by Jen Kingwell Designs. Available on the From Marti Michell website, www.frommarti.com

Week 17: Long Time Gone Sew Along | Checkerboards

Now that we have had a week for everyone to catch up it is time for the final push!

The checkerboards along with the sashing strips provide both fabulous fill-in and, at the same time, separation of the units we have made. I, for one, am really happy Jen figured this all out for the rest of us! Applause please!

About the Sashing Strips

Loyal Grainline Geeks would be disappointed if I didn’t mention that you can reduce stretching and rippling of your sashing strips if you cut them on the lengthwise grain (parallel to the selvages) instead of crosswise.  :)

On to the Checkerboards

You may recall that I shared tips and my techniques for making scrappy checkerboards back in week 6. The # 1 tip then is still the #1 tip. 

Remember that the gray squares in the diagrams are gray or whatever you chose for sashing. The white squares are prints and for most of us the prints will be darker than the gray, not lighter.  

So, keep that reversal in mind!

Substituting strip techniques for making checkerboards instead of cutting individual squares is obvious. However strip techniques usually equate with a limited number of fabrics in the checkerboard.  Scrappy strip techniques require a little modification. Mainly shorter strip sets and more of them! So excuse me, but I’m going to repeat how I made my scrappy checkerboard units:

All but one of the Checkerboards are 2, 3 or 4 pieces wide, and most are 3.  So I start by joining short strips of contrasting fabrics to long strips of my neutral. Typically, I want around 5-inch contrasting strips. I can get three Checkerboard units from each, but I had a bunch of end cuts from my Churn Dash blocks in the piece photographed so I worked with them.

Press toward the darker fabrics. No matter how you arrange them later, that is the best direction. Now you have many options. You can, from left to right in the photo below:

1. Cut them into 1-1/2 inch segments and join for Checkerboard strips that are 2 squares wide. (Eventually you need around 150 pairs.) I like doing several smaller groups instead of all at once, so I get more variety as I add fabrics.

2. Or I add contrasting strips. Press toward the dark and cut into 1-1/2 inch segments 3 squares wide with contrast on the outside.

3. Or I join the segments to another neutral strip and cut into segments that are 1-1/2 inches by 3 squares with the light squares on the outside. Shown at the top of #2 and #3 is a Checkerboard made with units from both strip sets. The seams oppose each other for "automatic pinning" because the seams were already pressed toward the darker fabrics.

4. Or I join 2-square segments end to end to make rows for Checkerboards that are 4 squares wide. Why not practice on the Checkerboard for Section 2 on page 27? If you're loving it, go ahead and make the Checkerboards on page 28 for Section 3. Those will be the next 2 sections you can easily finish.

More About the Checkerboards

Visit these other Long Time Gone Sew Along blogs, too, for tutorials, contests and other info:

http://www.snipssnippets.ca

http://gnomeangel.com

Use the hash tag #LongTimeGoneSAL to share photos on Instagram.

Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell. Copyright 2016 by Jen Kingwell Designs. Available on the From Marti Michell website, www.frommarti.com
 

Week 16: Long Time Gone Sew Along | "Amnesty" Week

We're on hiatus for a week! Use this time to catch up or take a break. I'm working on quilting in sections this week.

In the last 4 months, you’ve seen my sections 1 and 4 completed and layered for quilting. I’m not sure I posted it when I combined sections 2 and 3 and layered them for quilting. Now all three of those sections are quilted and I’m taking advantage of the hiatus week to join them.

You may remember that I checked to make sure the measurements for the sections to be joined were accurate and matched before layering. Then if you do the same general density of quilting, they will still match when joined.

My quilting is quite simple. I love the patchwork. In my mind there is no need to overpower it with too much quilting. So, there is some in-the-ditch quilting, a little outline quilting, a string of free-motion stars in the sashing strips, etc.

When I layered, I did allow a little extra batting and backing on the edges to be joined so I would have something to hold on to when I was quilting near the edges. Here you can see the edges of sections 1 and 2 and 3 ready to be trimmed… (click images for larger views)

and trimmed!

On this quilt I am using the single finishing strip method for joining the sections. It is also sometimes called an 8-layer seam method. It can be used with sections that are quilted all the way to the edge. It does not show on the front of the quilt, but will show on the back and does require being sewn to the backing by hand OR with a blind-hem stitch by machine.

In my book, “Machine Quilting in Sections,” and even in my Craftsy class of the same name that was filmed in January this year, I say cut a finishing strip 1-1/2 inches wide and as long as the seam if you are finishing by hand and 2 inches wide if you are finishing by machine. (Click the purple links to learn more about the book and the class.)

I was planning to hand stitch because there are only 4 seams to do and because any time I would save doing it by machine would be spent setting up my machine and testing, etc. So anyway, I cut 1-1/2 inch strips for the first joining, but changed to 2-inch strips when I added Section 4. Why? Perhaps because a few weeks ago I sprained my left thumb very badly and it hasn’t, and may never, recover completely. Anyway, I liked the 2-inch strip better.

Short Version of Single Finishing Strip

1. Cut 2-inch wide strip on straight grain and as long as the sections to be joined.

2. Press in half lengthwise. Better yet, press just off-center. The result of that is one less layer of fabric at the actual edge of the seam.

3. Put right sides together of sections to be joined. Match any seams and pin. You have 6 layers of stuff…quilt backing, batting and front…twice! Some people like to stitch now, and then again with the finishing strip.

4. Align edge of folded finishing strip with edges of the quilt sections on either section. It doesn’t matter which section except, it will end up on the opposite back section.

5. Join all 8 layers with a regular 1/4-inch seam. This is what it looks like from the back. Please don’t be surprised that there is a bump! If it bothers you, there are lots of options for reducing the thickness. They all involve more pre-prep. There are lots more details in the book or class.

6. Press all of the layers and the finishing strip to one side so that the finishing strip covers all of the raw edges. Use steam! Check from the front.

At this point, I actually cut a narrow strip of Shades SoftFuse (link), a very lightweight paper-backed fusible web, and press it in place on the wrong side of the folded finishing strip. Let it cool and remove the paper. Then, I do the final press. All of the layers go to one side, the finishing strip covers all of the raw edges, the fusible hold the strip in place for the hand stitching. I don’t need to pin.

7. Stitch folded edge of finishing strip to backing of quilt. See the finishing strip?! I like to use different fabrics for every section so that when I teach, people can see where the quilt was divided into sections.

The big pay off! Here I am adding the first border “stitch and flip” to the long side of sections 1,2,3,4!!

There are many other methods. I hope you will give Quilting in Sections a try!

For a short introduction to sewing the finishing strip with the blind hem stitch, go to http://www.frommarti.com/vid_MQIS_blind_hem.shtml

Visit these other blogs in the Long Time Gone Sew Along, too, to see what else is happening this week!

http://www.snipssnippets.ca

http://gnomeangel.com

Use the hash tag #LongTimeGoneSAL to share photos of your blocks on Instagram.

Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell. Copyright 2016 by Jen Kingwell Designs. Available on From Marti Michell website, www.frommarti.com

Week 15: Long Time Gone Sew Along | Pineapple Blocks

One of the best reasons to make this quilt is that it is such a good excuse to make 16 cute 5-inch pineapple blocks with half-inch finished strips! I have absolutely loved making them with the From Marti Michell 1/2-inch Pineapple template set! Every time I use one of our Pineapple template sets, I’m sorry that it took me so long to design a tool that would make it so easy to make such a fabulous block so accurately! We actually make 3 sets based on the 3 different finished strip widths — half-inch, 1-inch and 1-1/4 inch. Each set will make multiple sizes of blocks depending on how many rounds you add. (Click on images for larger views. The bold words in purple are links to other web pages.)

Anyway, all of the instructions are in the booklet that comes with the template set. If you have been following my Long Time Gone blog posts, you know I started my Pineapple blocks as soon as we did the square in a square week. I decided to make all of the centers from the same fabrics.

I cut 1-inch strips on lengthwise grain from all the fabrics I had used and added to the Pineapple strip pot as I went along to keep the fabrics mixed nicely. When I cut, I stacked light and dark strips separately in stacks of four. Then when I cut to length, I had a complete half round of strips for one block. I also worked four blocks at a time.  I loved watching them grow!

I might mention one tip specifically — I love to:

    (a) join the corner triangle with the last strip of the block

    (b) press them open and

    (c) then add the pair to the rest of the block.

Then, when it comes to joining the blocks together, I joined the second row to the first row, then the 3rd row to the pair and “chain-linked” – see my Flying Geese blog, week 11.

It was so neat when the last 9 all came together! I like the secondary pattern where the corners meet, too.

More About the Pineapple Blocks for Long Time Gone

Visit these other Long Time Gone Sew Along blogs, too, for tutorials, contests and other info:

http://www.snipssnippets.ca

http://gnomeangel.com

Use the hash tag #LongTimeGoneSAL to share photos of your blocks on Instagram.

Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell. Copyright 2016 by Jen Kingwell Designs. Available on From Marti Michell website, www.frommarti.com

Week 14: Long Time Gone Sew Along | 60-Degree Triangles

Using Multiple Size Peaky and Spike Product #8289

The memory of my high school geometry teacher forces me to mention that these triangles are actually 53-1/2 degrees, not 60 degrees. However, "53-1/2 degree triangles" doesn't roll off the tongue does it? That may be why the late Doreen Speckmann started calling these two triangles Peaky and Spike -- more about that later.

Deja Vu

You may remember for Week 10 I made one row of Spike triangles (Jen's 60-degree triangles) to complete Section 1. I'm reposting that info here, so you don't have to go back for it.
 
The contrasting Spike triangles can be cut from the same 2-1/2 inch strips you just used for the HSTs. Don't forget to reposition the multi-size tool and trim off the corners for easy piecing. Instead of cutting 6 pairs of Peaky triangles, I chose to cut 7 neutral Spike triangles to alternate. It saves a lot of seams and I like the clean look better. Trim the neutral triangles to size on each end of the row.

Sew the traditional Peaky and Spike units as shown below. Press away from Spike, the large triangle.

On page 11 of the Peaky and Spike instruction booklet, we tell you how to join two Peaky triangles to make a rectangle, but until now we didn’t share joining 2 Spike triangles. We are sharing our future page 11 with you right now!

Excerpt, page 11:

The corners are engineered to fit perfectly when Peaky and Spike are sewn in the most common arrangement, as on page 2. The pieces fit together in other positions, shown below. but the corners do not align ideally. It just takes a little practice to create these units. For example, to make a rectangle out of two #97 triangles, cut both triangles in the same orientation and pay careful attention to matchpoints when sewing.

You can also sew Spike triangles together to make a wonderful Sawtooth border. End each strip with a Peaky triangle and use kite units for corner blocks.

 

Using Both Peaky and Spike

I didn't talk about using both templates in that article—that's fully described in your Peaky And Spike template booklet on pages 4 through 6. The instructions for cutting smaller sizes are illustrated for 1-inch triangles. This is what your Spike will look like for cutting 2-inch blocks (template booklet, page 4):

And here is what your Peaky will look like:

My Version of the Set of 24 Peaky and Spike Triangles

I chose to do the top and bottom rows entirely with the big Spike triangles, as I did for the row shown above in Section 1. They frame the center two rows.

Looking Ahead

Since I've been working ahead on my checkboard pieces -- I hope you saw my checkerboard shortcuts at the end of my Week 8, Courthouse Steps article -- I can now join all of Section 6.

A Little Quilt History: Why do we call these triangles Peaky and Spike?

Sometime in the 1980s, the late Doreen Speckmann affectionately named this pair of triangles, her favorite patchwork shapes, “Peaky and Spike” and introduced them to quilters around the world. In her honor, we continue the tradition of calling them by their famous nicknames. You will probably be surprised to know the big triangle is Spike and the little guy is Peaky. Her books that explain why are now out of print, but look for them in your guild library or shop for them on eBay®. Both books are loaded with designs featuring Peaky and Spike. 

Deja Vu Two

If you are making your blocks like I am, there will be some slight differences from what Jen did to make her quilt. It's okay, you're still eligible for prizes in the contest at the end of the Sew Along. Here's a quick copy/pasted explanation about that from Gnome Angel's post on her blog on May 24:

To be eligible for prizes you must follow the pattern. The only exception to this is if you follow Marti Michell’s tutorials because Marti is slightly modifying the pattern to work with her templates. We will be checking to make sure the winners have followed the pattern and/or Marti’s version. While we support and encourage people to express their individuality when it comes to making quilts, for the purpose of this event we need parameters to help us be able to give everyone an even playing field and the best way for us to do this is to have people stick to the pattern.

Also, we’re happy for you to jump ahead. This doesn’t disqualify you from prizes. The only requirements for being eligible for prizes is that you:

1. Post a photo of each of the blocks in their relevant weeks in your timezone. You can find the block timetable by clicking here.
2. Complete the quilt top and post it to Instagram within 12 July and Midnight 21 July 2017 in your timezone.
3. All photos will need to have all the relevant hashtags on them.
4. You will need to be following all the relevant Instagram accounts at the time of drawing.

More About "60-Degree Triangles" for Long Time Gone

Visit these other Long Time Gone Sew Along blogs, too, for tutorials, contests and other info:

http://www.snipssnippets.ca

http://gnomeangel.com

Use the hash tag #LongTimeGoneSAL to share photos on Instagram.

Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell. Copyright 2016 by Jen Kingwell Designs. Available on From Marti Michell website, www.frommarti.com