Scrappy Thousand Pyramids, Something Like This? I made a bunch more of my scrappy, strippy equilateral triangles a couple weeks ago, but then I stopped to come up with a plan for them. I'm thinking of a throw size quilt, around 52" x 66", similar to my EQ8 design software rendering shown above. My triangles finish 7 1/2" tall x 8 3/8" wide, so I'll need 50 full pieced triangles, 8 half pieced triangles, and then 50 whole + 8 half alternate triangles in a mix of solids and prints -- not necessarily the prints pictured, mind you, but whatever odds and ends are gleaned from my scrap hoard. The mottled solids that I used in my EQ8 design are mostly the Moda Grunge Basics, which I absolutely love. They remind me of artists' pastels. So much more depth than plain solids, and the variations of shade and intensity within each piece of fabric will enable these better-than-solids to tie all of the colors of my crazy scrap prints together nicely. Moda Grunge Basics Bundle, Available on Etsy (affiliate link) As usual, there are affiliate links in this blog post but the links are here mostly to remind myself of where I found all the cool goodies -- the Etsy seller I'm linking to does custom 5-piece bundles of Moda Grunge Basics, either quarter yards or half yard cuts, and you get to pick which 5 colors go in your bundle. According to the automatic EQ8 yardage calculator, I don't need more than a quarter yard of any one of my solid fabrics for this quilt design, so that's probably the route I'll go. However, I should probably make all of my pieced triangles first before finalizing the coordinating fabrics. In real life, I have a lot more variety in the fabric strips going into these pieced triangles than what I bothered to show in my design rendering. Two In the Morning Is a Good Time For Triangles I'm using my 8" 60 Degree Triangle ruler from Nifty Notions and using the lines printed on my ruler to help keep my seams straight and horizontal with each cut, but any 60 Degree triangle ruler will work for this. I strip piece rough oversized triangle shapes just a bit bigger than my ruler and then trim away the excess. This allows me use up all different scrap sizes and it yields triangles that are completely unique. If you don't mind having multiple identical triangles in your quilt and you're working from a jelly roll or have mostly long strap strips, you could also strip piece long strips and then subcut multiple triangles from each strip set. Behold my cluttered, dysfunctional design wall: Gridlock On My Design Wall! This picture of my design wall was taken at 2 AM, when I should have been sleeping, but I was having too much fun sewing strips together and chopping them up into equilateral triangles. Once I've made all of my triangles I will want to finalize the layout on the design wall, but at the moment the wall is full of: My Jingle BOM quilt, which needs the center medallion trimmed and the borders tweaked and finished so it can be assembled into a quilt top, ready for quilting. My FrankenWhiggish Rose Applique project in the lower right corner, which needs LOTS more applique shapes to be prepped, basted and hand stitched before all nine blocks are done. The Abandoned Skirt Project near the upper right corner, which needs a tricky zipper installation worked out because I decided I need a lining too late in the construction process, and which also needs me to lose another 10 pounds before I'm the size I was when I started making the skirt... That Schumacher drapery fabric memo in the upper right corner is there for no reason at all. I forgot to take it down when I was finished with it. And yet, instead of finishing what needs to be finished with Jingle so I can take it off the wall, I decided to make triangles all night long. Despite having no room to lay them out. ...Meanwhile, I've been carefully removing the foundation papers from my pineapple log cabin blocks, and contemplating the next steps for that project as well. Final Layout for My 36 Pineapple Log Cabin Blocks I am having zero trouble removing the foundation paper, by the way. The secret-for-success is piecing with a very SHORT stitch length (1.5 on my Bernina) and using a LARGE needle (I use a Schmetz size 90/14 Quilting needle for foundation paper piecing). This creates larger needle holes in the paper, spaced closer together, and that makes for excellent perforation. I fold the paper back and forth along the stitching line several times during construction of the block, and once the piecing is done, the paper tears away easier than ripping a check out of your checkbook! Peek-A-Boo! Back Side of Pineapple Block, Freed From Foundation Paper I like to make sure I got every little speck of paper off, too, with no tell-tale remnants to inform the snoopy quilt historians of the future that I "cheated" by using foundation paper piecing. That's my own business -- let them think I have magical skills of precision piecing and measuring!! (As if the Internet, full of blog posts spilling my secrets, wouldn't give me away...) I'll be checking again for stray bits of paper as I join the blocks together at the sewing machine, where I have much better visibility thanks to my trusty Stella Lighting Task Lamp. Soft, Smooshy Quilt Blocks With Paper Removed! I'm about two thirds of the way through removing the papers from my 36 quilt blocks. OFF With Those Foundation Papers!! But despite the paper tearing cleanly and removing easily, it is still time consuming since there are 97 bits of paper to remove from every single block. I'm working on it a little bit at a time, mostly while watching television at night. And I'm using this time to mull over some of the quilting hurdles that lie ahead. Such as the fact that no batting manufacturer on Planet Earth makes batting wide enough for me to use a single, continuous piece of batting for this oversized King quilt. The finished top will measure 120" x 120" once the borders have been added, and King batting is sold either 120" x 120" or 120" x 122". I need at least 4" excess batting on all four sides of the quilt top, and I prefer to have even more excess batting on the sides of my quilt for checking tension throughout the quilting process. So it looks like I'm going to have to piece my batting, and I do NOT want the join to be even a smidge noticeable in the finished quilt. No little ditch, no permanent fold line or ridge; I want that join to be INVISIBLE. And so I am asking you the questions that I asked in several quilting-related Facebook groups yesterday: Have you ever pieced batting for a special quilt before? Could you tell where the join was in the finished quilt? Did the batting seam wear differently and become more noticeable over time? What kind of batting did you use? (I'm leaning towards either Quilter's Dream Wool or Dream Orient batting for this quilt) How did you join your batting pieces? Whip stitched by hand, machine serpentine or zigzag stitch, fusible batting tape (don't think wool batting can take the heat, though), serger flatlock stitch, or some other method? Does it matter whether the batting seam is parallel to or perpendicular to the rollers when I load it on the frame? I'm thinking vertical/perpendicular to the rollers. Anything else I need to know before I attempt this? PSST!! I'd Love to Quilt for YOU! By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you! My turnaround for edge-to-edge quilting is currently running about 2 weeks, and you can click here to find out how to book your quilt with me. Well, once again my "quick little blog update" has eaten up an outrageous amount of my time. I've got other fish to fry, so I'll sign off for now. I'm linking up with: · Let’s Bee Social at www.sewfreshquilts.blogspot.ca/ · Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/ · Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com · Finished Or Not Friday at http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/ Esther's WIPs On Wednesday at http://estheraliu.blogspot.com