Thursday, August 19, 2010

My creative space...taking shape.

It feels like I've been doing a refresher in primary school geometry in my creative space recently. 

This week I've completed the piecing of these half-square-triangles for a small lap quilt on its way to a sick friend. 
So far, my short patchwork career has consisted of the scrappy, the imprecise and the mismatched. I like it like that. Nonetheless I'm really digging this classical approach to piecing, using a charm pack of French General Rural Jardin fabric and some hankie linen. Matching fabrics - gasp! I even toyed with a symmetrical design, but that was all a bit staid so I've come up with this asymmetrical suggestion-of-concentric-square thing.

Alongside the triangles-in-squares, my circles-in-hexagons are coming along:

I'm half-way through the hand quilting of my ugly hexagons and enjoying the process a whole lot more since I switched my thread from sashiko thread to Perle 8 cotton, which is gliding through the layers far more easily. Thanks go especially to Mary for the helpful suggestions on how to mark the design and reduce thread friction.

Tune in next week for rhomboids, isosceles triangles and dodecahedrons.

What's shaping up in your creative space?

34 comments:

  1. Loving all of the shapes and the colours - looking forward to next week ;o)

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  2. BEAUTIFUL!! And your quilts are pretty spunky too.

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  3. Scrappy, imprecise and mismatched quilts are totally my style too (more because that's what I enjoy, for as soon as I try to get clever my brain malfunctions, and that is not so enjoyable.)

    Loving the pattern you've come up with (and very beautifully cut and pieced too), I esp the assymetrical nature of it. I am sure your friend will really love it. I hope + pray she makes a full recovery soon.

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  4. I love it Gina! I am eating my disnumeric words. I will definitely give it a shot, and I guess I can just buy some very large rulers and get the husband to calculate for me!

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  5. Dodecahedron? Something tells me I should know what that is. Are you crafting disease softies again?

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  6. I am going to make a hexagon quilt one day. I love them and yours looks great with that quilting.

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  7. Looks fab! I'll have to tune in next week for the "whodewhatters".

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  8. Looks good, Gina. And what a lovely gift for your friend!

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  9. oh wow those angles and shapes look great with the colours you've chosen! well done and can't wait to see the progress - have a lovely rest of the week!

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  10. Oops, I just lost a few minutes there staring into the depths of that gorgeous quilt. It really is quite wonderful.

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  11. I'm in constant awe of people who can quilt, well done you! xx

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  12. mhm! them circles on hexagons!
    looking forward to those complicated next themes... i think.

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  13. That is fantastic the way you have played with the asymmetrical design of your quilt...I love the difference!

    I will have to remember that about the Pearle 8, I have been told before but I haven't started my sashiko stitching yet and I had forgotten :-)

    Why did I read that as Haemorrhoid?? Clearly not related at all :-)

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  14. what an effecient creative space you've had this week! sewn together a WHOLE quilt top of teeny tiny triangles and done more circles on your hexagon quilt. i always feel inspired by looking at how much people have done on their creative spaces but then all of a sudden it's wednesday again and i haven't done hardly a thing!

    ps. i will be uhhh... ... ... hmmm ... washing my hair for the class on rhomboids, isosceles triangles and dodecahedrons so sorry i won't be able to make it...

    (i totally copied and pasted those words - eeeeek hard maths concepts give me the shudders)

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  15. Wow, your hexagons are looking great! I like the circular quilting throughout, very clever.

    The muff. Oh, what to say? Without trying to put my foot in it, I think I'll just stick with letting you know that I do admire it! Great work. ;-)

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  16. Beautiful! You're doing a great job!

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  17. It looks superb... Really!! I am super impressed at you mathematical understanding of shapes and how they work together...

    Nothing nuch in my creative space.. Just some more Gina Purses... Hehe YAY!

    Xo Steph

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  18. one word - WOW! That is amazing. And to be perfectly blunt, looks really hard! I can barely cut a straight line.

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  19. Great work! I even love your "ugly hexagon" quilt.

    In my creative space I am working on a apple core quilt. It is my first time working with curved seams and pieceing by hand, but I am enjoying the process.

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  20. Sigh. I love it. The fabric, the asymmetry, the SPEED AT WHICH IT"S COMING TOGETHER! Far out, woman, you're rather productive when you set your mind to something!

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  21. Wowee Gina they are both coming together beautifully! And even though the top one is "matchy" as you say it doesn't look it at all due to your clever piecing. Nice one ;)

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  22. they are brilliant. wonky quilts are so my style. i have never once got an angle right but that is part of quilting i think

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  23. Love it, Gina! That is one of my favorite color combinations. I wouldn't have noticed that it was asymmetrical if you hadn't pointed it out; I guess my mind likes things to be symmetrical. I thought you only pictured part of it. What a great idea, and very easy to do with any quilt pattern. Just another way to 'see' it!

    I think you need to change the name of the 'ugly hexagon quilt' to the 'I-never-thought-it-would-look-so-good hexagon quilt'! Great job! Thanks for the tip of using pearl cotton for the quilting; that would really move nicely through a quilt!

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  24. I am really liking the look of the hexagon quilt. I can't believe you have time to hand sew those circles and pull together a very neat and symetrical lap quilt project. What a busy bee you are!

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  25. Oh niiiice! I loke the offset design, very rakish! And the circle quilting of the hexies is inspired. Like your work!

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  26. Oh I am really really really hanging out for next weeks creative space. How exciting!!! Isosceles triangles are my favourite shape of all time. For a while there I favoured the equilateral triangle... but it was just a bit too ... well ... equilateral! The right angle triangle is always fun too with a bit of pythagoras theorem ... but it is the isosceles triangle that won my heart. By far the greatest triangle of all and the best of all shapes too!

    BTW - your lap quilt is a charm ;)

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  27. Oh super lovely, great colour & styling going on here, love Posie

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  28. Looks great - I am sure you will bring a smile to your sick friend's face.

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  29. What a beautiful quilt! I think it's perfect for an unwell friend. You're lovely for making it.

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  30. Fantastic piecing! Maybe this winter I will try to get back to my quilting ways, thanks for the inspiration.
    And your hand quilting stitches look wonderful!

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“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
~Albert Einstein