I have finally finished cutting all of my triangles for one of my "stash busting" quilts. As I was getting ready to lay it out on my design wall, I thought I would take a few photos to share one of the tricks I use to help balance out color/fabrics in my quilt layouts.
These 8" triangles were cut using my AccuQuilt die cutter from a bunch of stash gifted to me. They were leftovers and no longer wanted. The fabrics all coordinate nicely so I have always kept them together. Once I cut up all the larger chunks of fabric, I was left with a pile of triangles that needed balancing throughout the quilt.
First, I sorted each fabric into its own pile. Some of the fabrics I only have a few pieces, while others the stack is quite large. The next step is to determine how I want to "section" my quilt layout. This really depends on the block or the quilt design. A triangle quilt is done in rows so I decided I would break it up into 3 sections. I planned a 10 row quilt so each section would be just over 3 rows.
So I grabbed each stack of alike fabric, and like dealing cards, I created three identical piles of triangles. For fabrics where there were fewer triangles, maybe each stack were only "dealt" a piece or two. While the large stacks left each pile with a number of the same fabrics. Any triangle that could not be evenly dealt, I placed aside. You can see them below my three stacks. At the end of the sorting, I will sort these onto the stacks by similar color, this will help to keep your layout looking even.
Now all I have to do is take one of the stacks of triangles and layout my first three rows. I then can grab the second stack to lay out the next section. The final stack will finish out the layout. Using this method will help ensure that your colors and your fabrics are balanced throughout the layout and you don't end up with a fabric or color only in one section of your quilt.
I think using this little trick lessens the time you spend moving blocks around and has you sewing rows quickly! Hope you give it a try!!
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11 comments:
I need to start going through some of my shapes and cut scraps ready for one shape quilts just to use things up and they can go quickly
that is going to be a beautiful quilt! Thank you for sharing your inspiration on how to handle the colors.
Thanks for the tip, Cynthia!
What an interesting idea!! I don't make very many one-unit quilts, but will DEFINITELY have to remember this tip for when I do. Thanks for sharing!!
Nice tip. We used a similar method for sorting blocks when we had block exchanges. I hadn't considered using it to randomize fabric placement. Thanks.
That's a good method! I'll have to do that on the next quilt where I need to disperse the colors evenly!
Brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing this suggestion. What a time-saver!
That is a great tip. I've tried something imilar before when making a scrap quilt, but I wasn't able to stay organized and wound up jumbling them all together as I was sewing. I do think it probably helped in some way, in keeping the fabrics dispersed throughout the quilt, though probably not as much as if I had made an effort to keep the parts separate.
I have never read a tip like this but have always worked in a similar way. It is just how my mind works :) It somethimes also works with blocks. I partially just used it to organize the trees in my Chrismas quilt. Enjoy sewing your quilt. It will look beautiful. Merry Christmas!
Great tip! I will definitely file this one away to use.
Thanks for the tip. I frequently do the same thing and love how you described it.
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