Twizzle Glitz {Quilt}

Meet Twizzle Glitz.

My entry for the Michael Miller Quiltcon Challenge!!

My friend Jen from Quilter in the Closet had entered into one of the challenges the year before and had her quilt shown at Quiltcon 2015 in Austin.  I figured it was a great way to get my feet wet into the quilt show scene.  The free fat quarter fabric bundle arrived from Michael Miller and I instantly envisioned the ombré dots in my Twizzle pattern, but with more negative space.

Here is the part most people don't mention...you still have to buy more fabric unless you are making a mini with the 5 Fat Quarters they send you.

 I ordered my fabric for my backing and binding and started working on my Half Rectangle Triangles

It was relatively simple to construct since I was leaving myself plenty of negative space to do some free motion quilting.  

I was very particular about how I quilted it.  Based on the fact that I started without a plan at all.  I constantly let myself go haywire and organic and then would confine myself to a geometric pattern.  

I originally had chosen black binding and had it prepared, but when I was finished quilting, I realized that I really wanted the white to just keep going.  I had just enough backing fabric to make a white and glitz binding.  I still added black bits where the Twizzle met the binding.

I didn't forsee myself using the fabric again, so I placed the remaining ombré cuts I had and placed them on the back with a coordinating glitz fabric.

I was very nervous when I sent in myQuilt con entry form, along with my other Twizzle Quilt (Modern Traditionalism category).

 I was very shocked and delighted it was chosen for the show, however the Twizzle was not.  I say 50/50 odds are prettty good for my first show!

Unfortunately, there was a massive debacle and I wasn't able to ship it out by the shipping deadline through no fault of anyone but myself.  Which meant it was going to hang as a display only and. Not be judged for the show.  And actually?  I was somewhat relieved by that. It took the pressure off of me so I could enjoy seeing it in the show.

It was pretty surreal to see it hanging at the show.  The one thing I have to say is that sending the quilt in to be judged to make into the show was a vulnerable moment.  Very vulnerable.  But seeing it hanging in the same space with so many other amazing quilts was terrifying.  I felt like it just wasn't good enough.  I felt embarrassed when someone would ask me if I had anything in the show.  

So the thing that I can definitely say is that it was a big step for me as a "artist".   I hope this quilt was just the first hurdle I had to overcome.  To make way for me to be more bold and enter quilts into more shows.

Half Rectangle Triangles {Tutorial}

 Let’s chat about Half Rectangle Triangles or HRT’s.  I promise...a tutorial following.

First off, half rectangle triangles (HRTs) can expand your design world out of the half square triangles (HSTs) corner you may be caged in.  Don't get me wrong, HSTs are fabulous, but this takes you to the next step!
 I designed my Twizzle Pattern with them.

See Michelle's awesome Dancing Horses quilt using HRTs.  She also used the Fat Quarter Shop Jolly Bars like I did with Hello Darling for the same blog hop.  They say great minds think alike!

How can I make these great HRTs, you say?   Let me walk you through a few techniques.

Technique one: Also known as the, What Not to Do Technique. It will be your first instinct after making so many Half Square Triangles (HSTs) in the past.  By placing two rectangles right sides together, drawing a diagonal line and then sewing 1/4” along each side? It is simply NOT going to work.  At all. Unless you had plans for paper airplanes using your coveted fabric?
  

Technique two: The traditional technique. Cut your right angle triangles from your rectangles.  Sew the cut edges, right sides together, while shifting the two pieces 1/4” each end.  It isn’t a bad technique at all. I just find it to be super sensitive to presser feet mangling and definitely require some squaring up/trimming.

Technique three:  The Accuquilt die cut.  Similar to the one above, but you it takes away the 1/4" shifting. You line up the blunt edges and sew your seam.  The Accuquilt tutorial is HERE. 

Technique four:  I think it’s my favorite. It's the one I'm sharing below.  I call it the Magic technique.  I find it to be a unique and fun way to make them.  I feel they need less fussing at the sewing machine and require much less trimming.

Designing a quilt with HRTs: 

The other important part of HRTs is the direction you create them.  I will admit, I made the mistake when designing my most recent quilt by assuming that all HRTs were the same.  At first glance, it appears that you can flip them and get two different angled HRTs.

However, your diagonal line will be in the same orientation on both of your finished Half Rectangle Triangles no matter how you turn it.

 Flip the left one?  You can see they are the same orientation.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  I've seen a lot of tutorials where they use the terminology left-right and right left triangles...but to be honest?  It's confusing to me because I spend more time thinking (upper left? lower right? Wait.  Right...Upper? Lower? Wait a minute. Whaaaaat?)

 I've renamed them A-B and B-C blocks to hopefully clear up the confusion when using this in conjuction with my Twizzle pattern (and maybe more in the future).

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  Half Rectangle Triangles or HRTs Tutorial 

This particular tutorial will result in 4.5 x 9.75″ final block size for the purpose of my Twizzle Quilt using Fat Quarter Shop Jolly Bars.  You can easily learn this technique using ANY SIZE rectangle as long as you use the same size rectangles. There does not seem to be an exact formula for finished sizes, but I have found that it should be 1/4″ to 1/2″ smaller in either direction. When changing the dimension drastically, I encourage you to make a sample block to test it out.

Supplies
2 – 5 x 10” pieces of fabric


Fabric Marking 

Pen/Pencil


Rotary Cutter & Mat


Ruler

A/B HRT Blocks: 

1.  Layout the two rectangles, placing the rectangle print unit
right side up on the left side and the background unit wrong side up on the right side. 

2.  Using the half inch intersection on your ruler draw dots at corners (see step 3 for specific locations)

3. You will place them on the BOTTOM LEFT corners and UPPER RIGHT corners of the face up fabric. Draw dots on the UPPER LEFT corners and BOTTOM RIGHT corners on the back of the face down background fabric. 

4.  Draw line through the dots on each of the pieces of fabric.

 (I used a black sharpie for the purpose of the tutorial.  Even though it would be cut out, I do not recommend it. I would use a quilt marking pencil or a soluble marker)

5.  Lift the face down piece and rotate it to the right, slightly.  Place it on top of the face up piece and match the dots and diagonal lines.

5.  Using the diagonal line as a guide sew a seam 1/4″ on either side of the line. (Red thread is just for the sake of the tutorial.  Use a matching thread)
6. Cut on diagonal line.

7. Open blocks, press, and trim.

You will have two HRTs.  Finished HRT size: 4 1/2” x 9 3/4

C/D HRT Blocks: (opposite of the A/B Blocks)

1. Layout the two rectangles, placing the rectangle print unit right side up on the left side and the background unit wrong side up on the right side.

2. Using the half inch intersection on your ruler draw dots on the UPPER LEFT corners and BOTTOM RIGHT corners of the face down fabric. Draw dots on the BOTTOM LEFT corners and UPPER RIGHT corners of the face up background fabric.


3. Draw line through the dots on each of the pieces of fabric.

4.  Lift the face down piece and rotating to the left slighting, placing it on top of the face up piece and match the dots and diagonal lines.

Complete steps 5-7 from the A/B HRT blocks to yield C-D HRT blocks.

 Just so you can see the comparison, once more.   Not all half rectangle triangles are alike.

AB Blocks                        vs.                   CD blocks

As always, I strive to make sure my tutorials are thorough and helpful.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me and ask questions.  I had a lot of fun designing my Twizzle Pattern using the HRTs and have a few more patterns in the works where I plan on using them.  By changing the dimensions, like all quilt blocks, the possibilities are endless.

Disclaimer: Only old quilting scraps were used for this tutorial.  They were somewhat harmed by the rotary cutter, but appreciated being pieced together.

Twizzle {Quilt Pattern}

 A few months ago, I was contacted by the Fat Quarter Shop to see if I was interested in joining a blog hop at Jolly Jabber that included designing a pattern using Jolly Bars.  Jolly Bars are a Fat Quarter Shop exclusive precut, collections of 42- 5" x 10" cuts of fabric.

 I jumped at the chance to get my hands on Hello Darling by Bonnie & Camille by Moda Fabrics.  I have never had a giant need to get my hands on her lines.....until this one.  It has the perfect amount of my favorite colors. 

I had fun playing around with designs and settled on using Half Rectangle Triangles.   They can be tricky to design with and sometimes to sew with, but I've included an unique way to create them.  I love the movement of the colors.

 I really enjoyed quilting this one.  I love the flowers in the Hello Darling prints so much that I wanted the free motion quilting to capture the feeling of a bed of sweet flowers. 

As of late, simple backings have been very appealing to me. 

 The binding was a really tough debate for me, but each colorway seems to have a red pop throughout and the sweet small floral binding seemed to frame the entire quilt.

I have the Twizzle quilt pattern available at my Craftsy shop to make downloading it as simple and easy as possible. As always, I strive to make sure my tutorials and patterns are thorough and helpful.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me and ask questions.

********PATTERN CORRECTION********  

Each of my patterns is read, edited, reread, edited again, and reread and edited again.  Unfortunately, errors happen.  When called to my attention, I will immediately fix the error in any future files/printings and post the corrections.

For the Twizzle pattern: (Craftsy file updated 9/19/15)

Page 1> Cutting Instructions >Background fabric> Cut 6 2.5" x WOF strips, sew them end to end, then subcut them into 3" x 56" and 3" x 54" pieces.

Correction:  Cut 6 2.5" x WOF strips, sew them end to end, then subcut them into 2.5" x 56" and 2.5" x 54" pieces.

If you find any errors, please contact me.  

Thank you!