Random triangle quilt

My husband tells me that I’ve got a gift of finding a fabric shop wherever we go. We went skiing a few weeks ago and I managed to find a little fabric section at the cellar of a sports shop. They had a nice selection of Joann’s quilting cottons from America and I couldn’t resist them. I selected a bunch of black and white, gray and mustard yellow fabrics to suit our living room colours, since our living room needed a new throw to replace the old ratty blanket that resides there.

I decided to make a simple triangle quilt. The only quilt I have ever made was for a baby so the challenge for this project was to create a really big one. Besides, I did not want to complicate the project with a complicated pattern.

First I cut a huge number of squares using my rotary cutter and cutting mat. From the picture you can estimate that the squares were approximately 5,5 inches wide:

After pondering for a while I thought that it would be easiest to sew four squares together and slice the resulting bigger squares into triangles. I thought that if my squares were completely randomised I would be able to arrange the resulting triangles also in a random manner. It turned out that I was correct. With the different patterns to choose from I was able to arrange the squares so that no yellows or light greys were touching each other at the sides.

After slicing the 2 by 2 squares I was left with piles of double-triangles like these:

I arranged those in a pleasing way using all the floor space I had in my living room. Then I piled the triangles so that I was able to remember the sewing order and started piecing. There were a lot of seam allowances to iron flat! The windmill shape where 8 triangle corners touch became quite thick with all the seam allowances but I was able to use the end of my tailor’s clapper to pound the bulk nice and flat.

For the backing I got mustard yellow cotton from the local fabric shop. I sandwiched wadding between the backing and my patchwork and quilted along the horizontal and vertical lines.

I bound the quilt with the same yellow cotton. This time I knew to leave the wadding a bit wider so that it filled the binding. I did struggle with the mitered corners, though. I was too lazy to calculate the width of the binding accurately and I only realised how crucial the accurate measurements were when I tried to fold the corners nicely after sewing the binding on. Oh well.. I was able to force the corners into position somehow and I hand stitched them to keep all the bulk inside. Finally I think no-one will notice, but the next time I will spend a few minutes calculating the accurate widths! Sewing the final edge of the binding was quite painless, though, after I pinned it carefully.

I am very happy how this triangle quilt turned out. I love the colours and the random triangles give it a nice modern feeling. Compared to the old ratty wool blanked this quilt also has an advantage in that it can be washed in a washing machine when it gets dirty.

What do I think about quilting now after doing two quilts? Have I turned into an obsessive quilter? The answer is no. I think these two quilts are enough for now! Quilting takes a bit too much space that I simply don’t have. I had to arrange and re-arrange my blocks all the time when my family trampled all over them and messed my careful arrangement. I couldn’t even blame them since my quilt project covered the whole living room floor so that in order to access the couch you had to walk over my project! Also the only place where I could quilt the quilt was on the dining table since my usual sewing table was too small to accommodate the huge project and I hate to move my sewing machine.

This is all for now. Thank you for reading and see you soon! Happy sewing!

Katja