Radiant Improv

I hate precision cutting. That means I automatically avoid any pattern that has any 1/8th inch measurements in it, I contort myself into the tiniest paper piecing patterns and I have a large and growing stack of rulers.

This particular quilt was made with the help of a Square in a Square ruler. My quilt guild has a container full of tools that you can check out as part of our guild library. I was intrigued by it, so I checked it out. I love it! It makes HSTs, flying geese (90 degrees and 60 degrees) and square in a square units so easily. I looked online thinking that I was going to find lots of people raving about it, but instead found post after post moaning about waste. I had to laugh at this. After a paper piecing project, my sewing room looks like a fabric confetti tornado blew through. I like elements of perfection (Confession: I do actually check for points….I know, I know. You. Hate. Me.) and I am willing to trade the equivalent of a binding triangle in fabric to get it. Besides, I save those anyway!

I used the ruler for the main block in this quilt. Basically, you choose a square of fabric (mine was 7”) and sew strips to the outside edges until you just cover the corners of the square with a 1/4” seam allowance. I wondered what would happen if I left the fabric I sewed around the center block longer on purpose. When I used the ruler to make the HST, I was cutting off larger triangles with 2 fabrics and a cool mitered edge. I sewed a few of those together and got some really interesting blocks to add to the quilt. Take that ruler haters! No waste! :-)

I also added an improv flying geese unit. That is one of my favorite things to do. If I had to pick one element on all the projects I entered into this challenge that came the very closest to radiant orchid, that strip of Oval Elements from Art Gallery would be what I would pick.

That voile. Oh, that voile. I benched another blanket that I had been using at night for this one. Oh, that voile. {sigh} I put Quilter's Dream Puff batting inside this quilt. Between that and the oh-that-voile, this is the lightest, silkiest blanket I have ever snuggled with.

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