Loops and Angles: Opposites Attract

By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador

I’m in the habit of keeping something always going on the HQ Capri, so that when I have a few minutes here or there, I can sit down and quilt! Of course the InSight table can be adjusted for standing, but recently I’ve been sitting.

I was on a roll when I finished the peachy-pink, green and gray baby quilt, so I put another similar baby quilt under the needle next.

This might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but when I made it I was just playing around with half-square triangles and using up stash fabric for the borders. I like the idea that all four sides of a border don’t have to be from the same fabric.

And I’m okay with making a weird quilt. I’d much rather make a weird quilt that’s a little off than make a boring or ho-hum quilt. So this one’s weirdness made it perfect for practice.

I started off with the solid gray areas by quilting connected squares and rectangles with straight(ish) lines. I used a ruler for a few lines but decided I preferred the organic look with less perfection.

I slowed my hands down and focused on making straight lines. And guess what?! Before long, my straight lines got a little straighter. And with that my confidence grew.

One thing I noticed is that the scale of my squares and rectangles changed noticeably between my first gray area and my last. I’ll tuck that away for future quilts:

The scale for any one motif should be consistent from one area to another.

I moved on to the colorful triangles next and decided on a long, lazy curving line with small loops. I’ve learned that you want some contrast between motifs that are near each other, much the same way you want some sort of contrast between neighboring fabrics in patchwork.

I quilted the lazy lines over the colorful triangles and in the green borders. The first red border got two lazy lines. Then a funny thing happened.

When I came to the second red border, I quilted just one lazy line down the center.

My brain did a double take, like it was saying, “Wait. What?” Too late I realized that the red border was supposed to get two lazy lines to match its counterpart. There wasn’t room to add another line without crowding it. So I made peace with it.

Since I reached middle age, maybe about a dozen years ago, I have learned to make peace with so many things. There just isn’t time to fret over stuff that doesn’t truly matter. Onward!

I did one more thing that was new for me. I quilted some bracket shapes in the gray dotty border. Above was my second attempt after the first try had to be removed. I hardly ever rip out quilting but this was truly beyond redemption and there were only a few brackets to rip.

This was my third try and you can see how much better they are after just a bit of practice! The key here was to make the lines with a gentle slope, not a steep incline.

On the back

I am pretty determined to use fabric I already own whenever possible. So I dug through some tubs of yardage to find this crazy fabric for the backing.

I’ve never found a use for it before but it seemed perfect for this quilt. I could be mistaken but I think it was designed by Jay McCarroll, a fashion designer who gained fame after winning the debut season of the competitive reality show Project Runway in 2005.

He designed for FreeSpirit for a while. The nice thing about this as backing is that you can’t see my mess-ups because it’s an active print.

I used Essential from Connecting Threads, a 100% cotton 50-weight 3-ply and I really liked the way it performed. I was given a set of all different colors and I like them a lot. And you can’t beat the price: 1200 yards for $3.49. I use it for piecing too, and my machines love it. (Of course I sew on HQ Stitch!)