Trajectory: Fabric and Cutting

This is the second post in a series on how to make the Trajectory Quilt. Previous post is here.

Today we'll talk about fabric requirements and get cutting. Of course, the alternate title to this post could be "The One Where Quilt Math Kicks My Butt...Again." More on that in a bit.

Here are the fabrics I chose. All are Kona cottons by Kaufman. 

For your background squares, you'll need a total of 64 - 6.5" squares. If you cut a 6.5" strip x the width of fabric (usually 44"), then you can get 6 squares per strip. You can make your background all one color or use a variety of shades, like I'm doing here with the grays. You'll need 11 - 6.5" strips to get all your background blocks (and have a couple leftovers). So, that's 2 yards of fabric total. Since I used three different shades and I like having extra fabric to incorporate into either the back of my quilt or the binding, I got 1 yard of each of the grays.

Let's move on to the boomerang fabric.

For each of your boomerangs, you will need two 3" x 8" strips. That translates into 102 - 3"x8" pieces. If you cut an 8" strip x the width of the fabric, you'll get 14 - 3"x8" strips. That means you'll need just over 1-3/4 yds. total for your boomerangs. If you're going scrappy, just remember that each boomerang needs TWO 3"x8" pieces, so 51 pairs. Make sense?

*Note: This is where quilt math kicked my butt. I figured everything out at first based on needing ONE strip for each boomerang. Doh! And that is why you see a fourth fabric in the next photo. I used about half a yard  each of four colors.*

Congratulations! You did it - all cut and ready to go. You have everything you need to start piecing your blocks!

Up next: Paper piecing the boomerang blocks.

Trajectory: Getting Started

This is the first post in a series about how to make my Trajectory Quilt. Enjoy!

To work out this quilt, I first drew my plan out on graph paper and did a whole mess of quilt math.

Since it's basically just the one block, I got bored drawing in the design but you get the idea from the top few rows.

This quilt will be made up of 6.5" blocks (6" finished), and will measure 48" x 48" when completed. You can easily add or subtract blocks to adjust the size of your quilt - just remember to adjust your fabric requirements as well!

First things first. We will be paper-piecing the blocks so we need to gather some supplies. If you have never paper pieced before, this is a VERY simple block and I promise that you can do it!

Gather together an old phone book (or newsprint or foundation piecing papers or even copy paper), a template or ruler that is at least 6.5" on one side, and a mat knife or rotary cutter with an old blade. You'll also want a piece or cardboard or cardstock (an empty cereal box works fine) and a pen or pencil.

For a 48"x48" quilt, we will need 51 pieced blocks. Using your template or ruler cut 51 squares (6.5"x6.5") from the phone book pages. Here's a little trick: I use the corner of the pages to be two of the sides of the square so that I only end up needing to cut two sides. You can cut through several pages at one time.

In no time at all you will have a lovely stack of paper squares! Next, grab your cardstock or cardboard. Cut a 6.5" square out of that as well.

Measure in 1.5" at one corner and make a dot. Then draw lines from the dot to the corners (see above). This is your boomerang shape.

Cut out your boomerang and use the remaining piece as a template to draw the boomerang on each of your 51 paper squares. This may seem very tedious but it only took me about ten minutes, so it's really not that bad. If you have another method of marking that works for you - go for it. This is just how I do it.

Congratulations! You now have a stack of 51 squares that you will use to piece your blocks!

Up next: Fabric requirements and cutting instructions.

Trajectory - part two!

Thank you to everyone for your interest in the Trajectory quilt.  It was so much fun that I decided to make another one! Any interest in a tutorial/sew-along?

This time I'll be using a very limited palette of gray and yellow. The grays will be the background fabric and the yellows will be the boomerangs. I'll also be making the blocks slightly larger - 6" finished instead of 4" finished. The entire quilt will be 48"x48".

So far, all I've managed to do is pull the fabrics. But maybe a tutorial/sew-along will inspire some accountability and keep me motivated!

We're back!

What an amazing journey our little family has been on! Sorry to leave this space so quiet but we were very busy on the other side of the country taking part in the 2012 Arthritis Advocacy Summit in Washington D.C. A truly remarkable trip to participate in our country's legislative process. 

If you've been visiting here for awhile then you already know that my son Owen has juvenile arthritis. He was invited to attend this year's Advocacy Summit in D.C. to meet with legislators and tell his story to encourage continued support for research and programs that help the over 50 MILLION Americans who have some form of arthritis.

I am such a proud mama! Plus, he's so cute in his shirt and tie!

Of course, we DID fly all the way across the country (no small achievement for me, since I am completely phobic about flying, and it was the first plane trip for both kids), so we decided to add a few extra days to the trip to see some of the sights.

Arlington National Cemetery is a sight to behold. Such a tangible reminder of the great sacrifices made to ensure freedom in this country.

Beautiful architecture abounds in the D.C. area. It's not difficult to find inspiration and beauty everywhere you turn.

We all enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather -  a far cry from our fairly dreary northwest Spring.

And we had a lot of fun meeting our Senators to remind them to make arthritis a national priority.

We made lots of new friends along the way.

We also met with some of our Representatives.

We went to lots of museums.

We got to see the pandas at the National Zoo - a real highlight for the kids.

And while Owen said he wants to work in a space lab when he grows up, Bailey said that she wants to live here at the White House. 

We spent a lot of time on the Metro trains, enjoying the tunnels and the scenery speeding by.

All in all an amazing trip for our entire family. I must admit that in this election year, when I'm already tired of the rhetoric and annoying television ads and debates, it was magical to see our government and monuments through the wide eyes of my children. And needing to distill some of history's lessons into terms that they could understand, I found myself feeling very privileged to be an American. 

 I'll be back to normal crafting posts soon (after I tackle the mountain of laundry that erupted while we were gone). Meanwhile, if you have any questions about juvenile arthritis or what we were specifically advocating for while we were in Washington, please do ask.

Amazing Aurifil

Have you heard about the Aurifil Make a Designer Collection Competition? I've been watching the mosaics popping up all over blogland and figured I'd get in on the action. Here's my Vintage Vibe collection:

I chose these threads to coordinate with my Trajectory quilt because I absolutely love the colors and still haven't tired of them.

So, if you're feeling creative and want to play with all the lovely colors that Aurifil has to offer then go make up a mosaic of your twelve favorites and you just might win them! If you've already used this brand of thread you know how lovely it is. If not, I highly recommend it. I started using it about a year ago and I LOVE it for piecing and quilting. It makes really lovely stitches and doesn't shed nearly as much lint (especially in my bobbin case) as some other threads I've used.

Looking forward to sharing the "companion" quilt I'm working on for my son. We just set up his bunk beds. Two beds means Mommy has to make a new quilt!

Garden Party - free PDF pattern

Jennifer over on Sewhooked is hosting a paper-pieced pattern a day all month long to celebrate her birthday. How awesome is that? She has the birthday and we get the presents! I am honored to be included in the group of talented sewists who are creating patterns and today is my day to share a pattern with you.

This block was designed for maximum versatility. There are three distinct sections to the block: tall birdhouse on the left, small birdhouse and butterfly on the right. Each section is pieced separately and then joined together. In addition, each half is the same width so you can join the blocks vertically if you like to make one long block or a small wall hanging.

The birdhouses are probably the easiest parts to piece. Just one of these would make a cute snack mat - or you could add extra background material to make a set of placemats!

You could even make several birdhouses of varying heights to make a perfect Spring table runner.

The butterfly is the most complex portion of the block, but I would encourage you to give it a try even if you're relatively new to paper-piecing. And if you'd rather skip it, you can always replace the butterfly portion with additional background fabric.

I hope you enjoy this pattern as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Garden Party PDF

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the many other blocks featured this month.

***And thank you to those of you who alerted me to a problem accessing the PDF. It seems to be fixed from my end of things with the file being made public so that anyone with the link can access it. If you are still having any trouble, let me know. Thank you for your patience! If you haven't already figured it out - this is my first time trying to post a PDF link on my blog!***

Michael Miller challenge block

A couple of months ago, the Portland Modern Quilt Guild was lucky enough to have Kathy Miller of Michael Miller fabrics come to speak at our meeting. Not only did she give everyone a color card for the new Cotton Couture solids but she also hinted at an upcoming challenge.

Then last month, every member received 8 fat eighths to design a 15.5" x 18.5" block. Kathy will choose something like 16 of them to be made into a quilt for the Michael Miller booth at Quilt Market.

Here's what I came up with:

Not to sound all commercially and everything, but these are really lovely solids to work with. The are so soft and have a very nice drape. I could see them being used for apparel as well as quilting.

I've seen a few other blocks from this challenge popping up and they're really fun. Can't wait to see which ones will be chosen!