Angular

I have been wanting to make a triangle quilt. Actually, I have been coveting the one on the wall on Fons and Porter Love of Quilting show but could not find the pattern for that quilt on their website. But the Internet is full of resources and resourceful people. I am starting to believe that really, there is nothing new, now we just have access to it all.

I found a website with what I wanted a couple of days ago, but now I can't find it. I even left a comment. Sheesh. So I can't give credit, but, like I said, there is nothing new, so I am sure there are many others giving instructions too.

This isn't meant to be, so it's not much of a tutorial, but I will show and tell what I did. 

First I had to look for my triangle ruler. I have a "Quilt in a Day" triangle that is 5 inches from the longest angle to the side opposite.

The other tools I needed were my sewing machine, cutting mat, straight ruler, rotary cutter, scissors, and *sigh* my seam ripper. 

I pulled out a variety of scraps. I'm not too much for a mish-mash of colors, so I went for monochrome and blue which seems to be my go-to. I found 7 blues and two beige. I cut 5" strips and started cutting triangles (sorry, I didn't take a pic of this part). 

Lay the triangle on the strip where the longest angle (which has no tip on the ruler) touches the top and the opposite edge touches the bottom. Cut off the end (scrap bag) and cut the other end. *Pull away your triangles and flip the ruler. Set it against the cut edge and cut.

Okay, so now with all those triangles, I cut off the points. I used my triangle ruler and just turned it to use as a guide and lopped off the points. 

I cut out 150 triangles and then laid them all out.

So, this is where I messed up. I laid out all the triangles and played with the layout and colors and decided that I would just throw caution to the wind and toss them all in a bowl and randomly pull them out and stitch. I did that and matched to edges and sewed...74 sets of them, I sewed. I cut them apart and that's when I realized I sewed them all wrong!

The correct way is to flip one triangle onto the one next to it. ONLY ONE SIDE will line up!!! There are bunny ears on the other side. 

So I un-sewed all those little seams and re-sewed them...

I figured I would have completed the quilt in the time it took me to take all those triangles apart... Live and learn...

Then they all looked like this...

For my lap quilt I ended up with 8 rows of 15 triangles. 

Yeah, I know...I had to un-sew the last one on each row. I didn't really think all this through...remember when I tossed them all in the bowl?

Here's the finished triangles. 

But I'm not finished yet! I need to square up and add borders, batting, backing and quilt it.

Right now it measures about 

31" x 36" minus the points I will cut in half on the sides when I square up.

I will probably add 4" of border before I finish. The finished quilt top should measure approximately 35" x 40".

"The Beauty Book" by Nancy Rue

I read The Beauty Book because I thought this would be a perfect book for my 8 year old daughter. I was right. The book exceeded my expectations. An easy read, that isn't preachy at all. It's more of a workbook, using fun quizzes and fill-ins, the book is very interactive. And, the best part, is that in it's entirety, The Beauty Book points straight to God. Quoting scripture and answering questions about the norms in beauty in society. It also addresses what God thinks of her and the decisions she makes.

There are question and answer sections in each chapter. Girls have asked beauty questions and Nancy Rue answers them in a very straightforward way. I was tickled to see the author acknowledge the authority, knowledge and wisdom of the parents. Not giving the reader an out. Nancy Rue even addresses whining and the "gimmes," and that part of being beautiful is acting beautiful.

The Beauty Book stays in it's lane and avoids the most personal topics making this book perfect for the preteen. The last chapter of the book skims over puberty and introduces the next book in this series.

Beautiful illustrations add to the delight of The Beauty Book-- something that my preteen certainly enjoys.

I give The Beauty Book Five Stars...

I received a copy of The Beauty Book by Nancy Rue from Thomas Nelson Publishers for free as a member of Booksneeze. In return I am asked to give an honest review of the book. You can join Booksneeze by just following the link and signing up.

My Kid's Blue Jeans Scrappy Quilt

I made a quilt over the last two days. It's a lap size made from scraps of my kids old blue jeans. The instructions are at equilters.com. So I took that idea and chose not to put the contrasting colors in the center of the squares. So...This is what I learned and my gentle critique of the equilters pattern.

• I used the lid from a container I had. It's about 5 inches or so across. I cut out 103 circles. I had three extra and ended up with a lap quilt 36" square.  
• Making the square inside each circle proved to be the most difficult part of the whole project. I never did get that quite right and as I sewed the flaps down I found that I had a hard time matching up the lines and then I ended up with little gaps where four patches met on parts of the quilt. 
• Seams, though are really cool design elements, are problematic. If I do this again, I will avoid the seams.
• Stretchy jeans are bad. Use jeans without stretch. 
• EASY!!! Once I had all the circles cut and started sewing them all together the work progressed really fast.
• The effect of this quilt is really, really nice. 

I'm updating because I washed it today and took it outside to show the colors better. I LOVE IT!