Friday 30 November 2007

Rescued quilt

I bought a half finished (actually more like a quarter finished) quilt on TradeMe a few days ago. I've never made a quilt before and thought that buying one that someone had already started might make the process a bit easier first time around. Also, I like the idea of finishing a project that would otherwise sit in someones cupboard.

The quilt is a triangle design and came with hundreds of triangles already cut out of yummy vintage cottons.


Someone has already started to assemble the triangles into circles and has sewed a few of them together. But it is obvious something is not quite right. The circles do not sit flat when sewn together.


After playing around with the triangles for a while and trying to figure out the problem (geometry is a handy skill!), I think I've worked it out. The triangles are not equilateral - they have two long sides and one slightly shorter side. Therefore the circles should not be constructed like this (out of 7 triangles joined by their longer sides)....


..instead they should be constructed like this. With six triangles making up a circle. I think this way I will be able to join the circles together and still keep the quilt flat.



I think I'll sort the triangles into colours and then construct the circles out of six triangles from the same colour. I am still undecided whether I will unpick the work that has already been done, but I think I'll have to if I want to use those triangles. I'm not sure how big it will be once finished, but I'm hoping it will be big enough to snuggle under on the couch.

I'll post some more pictures once I've made some progress but this weekend Christmas crafting will take priority (I'm really behind on getting my homemade gifts finished).

1 comment:

Not Lucy said...

You are probably right about the 6 triangles instead of 7 but you can always use a quilting ruler to check the angles. To make an equilateral hexagon you would need to have equilateral triangles I believe. But you could also put them together in rows matching up the longer sides and then put the rows together. It will be great once it is together. Hope you post a picture.