QUILTING 101 STUDENTS

And a few more days later, a few more new quilters!

QUILTING 101 STUDENTS

As usual, we had a great time in Quilting 101!  Four new quilters!

MY PRIZE WINNING QUILT - SUNSET ON THE CORAL SEA

My original idea for this quilt was to make it in all blues, greens and teals.  But when I went to the quilt shop and saw all the beautiful batik fabrics, I decided to use more colors.  I asked the store clerk to cut 1/8 yard of every batik in the store!  I brought them home, folded each piece into a small square and laid them out on the floor.  My husband Bill and I kept rearranging the squares until we were happy with the colors.  I paper-pieced the blocks, and after I assembled them, I decided to add the piano keys border.  I quilted it with an original design on my Gammill Classic long arm quilting machine, which I owned from 2001 to 2004.  This quilt won second place in the 2003 Heritage Quilters Guild Bi-Annual Quilt Show in the "Large Quilts" class.  It now has a place of honor on a prominent wall in my home, illuminated by art lighting.

I call it "Sunset on the Coral Sea."  The coral is in the center, the beach is on the bottom left, the waves are crashing in from the right bottom corner, the waning sunset is on the top right and the night sky is coming in at the top left.

CALCULATING HALF-SQUARE TRIANGLES - HELEN CAIRNS

I can never remember how to do the math...  When you want to make a block out of two half-square triangles (and who doesn't!), how big do you cut out the original squares before you sew them and cut them into triangles?  If you want an 8" finished block, do you add 5/8" to the original blocks?  7/8"? 

I googled it just now, and came across a great website that had the answer, so I am posting it here so I will never forget.  I suggest that you visit Patchwork-and-Quilting.com to find the answer to this and many other questions about quilting.

By the way, the answer to the question about half-square triangles is 1".  Add 1" to the original squares and then cut them down slightly to get the exact size you need.  You can read about it here.

HOLLY'S HEARTS QUILTING PATTERN

This was a big job, and I took the opportunity to take a few shots that show off the long arm quilting pattern, called Holly's Hearts.  I've used this pattern twice now, and it's quite lovely.