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Friday, June 8, 2012

It Really is a Wonder!!!

I promised to show you pictures today of a UFO from last year that I finally got quilted – thanks once again to my friend Joanne who allowed me to use her wonderful Gammill =^..^=

This is one of my favorite quilts …--- my One Block Wonder!


One of my earliest mentors when I first began quilting, Sue Pulling, taught this as a two-day class when Music City had its retreat in March of last year.  Sue came all the way from Michigan to join the retreat with her old friends and teach the class.  And what a class it was!!!  Sue is really, really good at what she does, and teaching is her specialty.  We had so much fun with this technique!

For those of you who are not familiar with this quilt design, it comes from the this book by Maxine Rosenthal.  

The basic technique is to choose a lively fabric with a fairly large design that contains at least 3 colors, making sure you have enough fabric to cover 6 repeats of the design run.  This was my fabric….

You layer the fabric so that six repeats of the design lay one on top of the other perfectly, cut it in strips, then in 60 degree triangles.  Then you sew the triangles back together to form a hexagon kaleidoscope!  It was a blast seeing each of these lovely hexies come to shape right before my eyes!




It was even more fun doing it as a class because we got to see what the others’ fabrics were producing too.  I wish I had pictures of them to share, but I wasn’t blogging back then and didn’t think to take pics.  One girl did hers in an African animal theme and it produced some amazing hexies!  Others chose orientals which worked out just beautifully!  Joanne (of the-friend-with-the-Gammill fame) chose a really lively and colorful fall fabric that turned out some of the most original and exciting designs of them all!

Because my fabric is so bright and the colors are not your ordinary run-of-the-mill, I had a hard time choosing the inner border.  I had a pink that went okay, and I also had a really nice lettuce green that worked perfectly. 

But both of them disappeared in the corners where they came next to the same colors in the quilt.  And I felt they were kind of blah for such a lively quilt.  Finally, just on a lark I picked this stripe out of my stash just to see how it would look – 

Eureka!!! 

But it needed something to stop the design between the stripe and the fabrics, so I put in a ¼” pink flange on both sides.

I really LOVE that look....

However that love did NOT extend to the quilting!  It was quite frankly a B**** to quilt because of those little flanges!  I wanted to do an allover panto because the quilt itself was so busy the quilting would have disappeared anyway. But in order to do the panto, I had to pin down all the flanges and stop/start at each one, tie threads off, take great care not to sew over onto the flange…. None of this is easy on a longarm!  I am really happy with the result, but I would only ever do it again for a special quilt like this one!

For the binding, I decided I needed to use the stripe again, but not on a bias as I usually do for stripes because that just didn’t work at all.  And once again, it needed that little bit of pink to corral the two different designs between the quilt and the stripe.  I chose to do a small 1/8” flange under the binding which I think works out perfectly!
 

It’s double the work, and a little tricky working the corners out because of all the bulk...

.... but the effect is well worth it, don’t you think?

So that’s my TaDa!!! For the day!!!  

Hope you enjoyed seeing my One Block Wonder come alive!  I’ll be teaching a class on this at The Quilter’s Path in Mt. Juliet this summer, so check at the shop for times if you are local and would like to make this quilt =^..^=

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=

FYI - Check out the cool giveaway going on over HERE at Lily Pad Quilting!

And then go see what others are doing where I'm linking up this post:
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts
June Finishes at Such a Sew & Sew
Tuesday Linky Party at Quilting by the River
Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

46 comments:

  1. I love your quilt!! I'm off to check out the book!

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  2. OOOOOh that flange is very strikingly beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing the technique:)

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  3. What a gorgeous quilt. You picked the perfect fabric for the blocks. Amazing job!

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  4. Enjoyed this post, tremendously! NICE work. And the contrast is absolutely WORTH IT! I have done flanges... sometimes they are a pain, but they add so much. And wouldn't you know... I have a friend's "one block wonder" type quilt that I dug out to quilt for her! Your quilt is GORGEOUS! EnJOY!

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  5. Oh My Goodness! I love this beautiful quilt! Inner border and binding is awesome. Wow.

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  6. This is a beautiful, summery quilt. The extra effort you put into the borders and binding seem to have been well worth it. Those little touches make this quilt sing!

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  7. What a beautiful quilt! Makes me want one!

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  8. Wow that is so beautiful! I want one hahah!

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  9. What a fun quilt!!! Bold and beautiful!!!

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  10. that stripe works so perfectly, I think it was made just for your quilt! such a beautiful quilt :)

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  11. Oh, this is just beautiful. And the flange and stripe just compliment so lovely - even if more work, so worth it.

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  12. The work is so worth it! Knowing what you needed to do to make it look right, you would have been forever dissatisfied if you didn't.

    Really nice!

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  13. That is just beautiful. I love the colors you chose for your fabric. It is one of the prettiest ones I've seen, and I've seen a lot of them. Most are kind of mushy and blend too much for my taste and were not especially inviting, but I love your choice. There is a distinct color pockets that move your eyes around the whole quilt. The tiny little flange before the binding is perfect. You will probably have a full house when you teach this at your LQS.

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  14. That is one seriously gorgeous quilt. I can't believe how pretty that is. The border really sets it off and frames the center so well and beautifully. Love the flange on the binding.

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  15. Oh, that is one amazing quilt!!! And I can't believe you're going to teach the class at my LQS!! Woohoo!! Please tell me when...

    Whoop whoop!!

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  16. What a beautiful quilt! I have seen this design before but it always seemed too busy. Yours is perfect. Great info on the amount of colors to choose in a print and I just love your flanged binding!!

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  17. Wow! it is beautiful. I love the way you added all the extra details. Thanks for showing how you did that binding.

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  18. So pretty! I have this book but being a new quilter have been a bit afraid to try it. Maybe now that I have seen yours (LOVE the colors), I will put it on my list of things to do. Hugs!

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  19. Great detail, great quilt! Thanks for sharing how you did it.

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  20. One of the prettiest OBWs I've seen. Great job!

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  21. Love your quilt! Some day I will try one. I haven't yet found the fabric I want to use.

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  22. This a wonderful quilt! Thank you for explaining how you made it. I could never work out how these were done or why they are called one block before :)

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  23. Wonderful quilt, Teresa! That stripe complements it beautifully and the flange gives the perfect pop. Congrats and thanks for linking up to TGIFF!

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  24. Wow! This is a beautiful quilt, and a really interesting technique! I wish I was local so I could come to your class! I love the striped border and the little flange is such a good idea. Love it! Thanks for linking up to TGIFF on my blog this week!

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  25. That is gorgeous. The flanges are great but you are right about quilting with them. I have done a couple of quilts with them (for other people). My sister comes and stands on the other side of the machine helping me stay out of the flange.

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  26. It looks great. :) That technique does my head in tho - you're very clever!

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  27. That quilt is just amazing. Thank you for linking up to LAFF.

    http://richardquilts.blogspot.com

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  28. Wow! That really is amazing! Beautiful quilting and I love the fabrics, colors and especially your stripe-with-the-flange border. Super amazing! I'm going to try that. Congrats on such a fun finish! Thank you for linking up!

    xo -E

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  29. Where can I find good instructions for doing the flanges?

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  30. I must say that I loved the the entire quilt, but the double binding technique it's awesome. Great job, congratulations!

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  31. it is the end of 2013. will you be teaching this, thiscoming yesr of 2014. it is a beautiful quilt

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  32. it is the end of 2013. will you be teaching this, thiscoming yesr of 2014. it is a beautiful quilt

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  33. I *love* this, Teresa. What a great idea to put a flange on both sides of the border. Beautiful quilt.

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  34. ".... but the effect is well worth it, don’t you think?"

    Yes, I most certainly do. I am glad whomever pinned this to Pinterest so I could come and see for myself.

    Cheers,

    Lyric

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  35. Wow that is amazing how your striped fabric and solid pink look in your quilt, I love it and I may have to try this sometime. I love doing the binding so something new would be fun to try! Thank for the inspiration!

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  36. This is just stunning! Happened upon it through pinterest. I have never seen the OBW, very intrigued. Thanks for sharing your beautiful quilt!

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  37. Absolutely gorgeous ... it really is a work of art and I love the flange!
    Jane @ Handiworking.com

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  38. What a wonderful quilt! All the details, the binding, your fabric choices! I have that book but have never used it. You have just inspired me!

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  39. This quilt is so , so wonderful.

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  40. love that flange, I actually tried it on a baby quilt and attached it to the back and on the front I stitched it down in the ditch of the flange, it looks great, so pleased with it! Thank you for the demo though, it was good to see that you can do it on a larger quilt as well! It looks fantastic!

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  41. I have never seen a flange on a quilt anywhere and it is so impressive! I'm making a QUICK baby quilt and the binding will help with the overall look not giving away that it was made QUICKLY! And I can't wait to try the hexies trick!

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  42. Here is a slightly easier way to do the flange on the binding...
    http://www.52quilts.com/2012/05/tuesday-tutorial-susies-magic-binding.html?m=1

    And, I was wondering if it would be simpler to sew a double-flange "border" directly to the top after it's been quilted. Since you're not quilting it, I think it would still add the same "pop" without having to dodge it the whole time. It would just need to be well-pinned.

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    Replies
    1. By the way, your quilt is lovely!! I'm working on a one block wonder now.

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    2. By the way, your quilt is lovely!! I'm working on a one block wonder now.

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