meet Jan...

I'd like you to meet Jan.

Not Janet, not Janice, not even Janine.

Her full name is Janome Memory Craft 6600P (for "Professional" no less).

picture from janome.com.au

I am spending quite a bit of time becoming further acquainted so I hope that we will be real good friends soon!

Daniel Stephen

Our grandson now has a name. Please welcome little Daniel Stephen, pictured here with one of his three surviving great-grandmothers (WM's mum).

approximately 24 hours old

Thanks for your good wishes and prayers; he is feeding better and his body temperature is more normal. However, he is still spending time in the special care unit so we are not out of the woods yet.

happy silver anniversary Knitters' Guild of NSW

This year is the 25th anniversary of the Knitters' Guild of NSW (Inc). I spent Saturday working on the Guild stand at the Quilt and Craft Fair. I was teaching knitting and, ahem, crochet to one left-handed woman. I taught two absolutely beginners to knit which was quite a thrill. All the participants were making flowers - two rows of crochet from 25 chain stitches or ten rows of knitting, some sewing up and it was all done! Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos of the flowers!

But I did take some photos of parts of the Guild stand - a job well done, everyone.

table laid with four knitted silver place settings

taken across the table

one place setting

knitted candlestick copied from a 19th century brass candlestick

some of the knitting on display (yes, that's my Water, Forest and Fire scarf in there)

the top red jumper is by Val Quarmby, the lower striped jumper by Terry Scott

more of the display: teddies, intarsia, socks, mosaic knitting and a sampler scarf

tunisian crochet, scumbling, lace and another jumper by Terry Scott

it's a(nother) boy

As yet unnamed, Grandbubby the Second made his appearance at 3:45pm yesterday, about twelve days early, weighing at 3.892kg (8lb 9oz) and 51cm (28.5 inches) in length.

about four hours old

His mother had a labour that lasted approximately two hours. Mum is doing well but the Little Guy had to spend the night in the special care nursery, his body temp is too low and he's bringing up mucus (prayers appreciated).

Big Brother was impressed with the Little Someone in the crib but is still way too young (sixteen months) to understand what's going on.

Welcome to this crazy world, Little One.

a busy week and pinwheel blanket progress

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I posted about the Pinwheel Blanket - time flies when one is busy! So what have I been doing?

Monday: sewing class
Tuesday: take DD to obstetrician
Wednesday: at Craft Show test-driving sewing machines
Thursday: roaming around town looking at sewing machines and fabric
Friday: eye test, grocery shopping
Saturday: helping out at the Knitters' Guild stand at the Craft Show - too busy to even think about looking at sewing machines or fabrics!

So here we are: Sunday again and time to update my progress on the blanket. I am making 112 of these in five colours (mauve, lavender, purple, rose and crimson)

 I'm more than halfway with the knitting - I have done 63 of the 112 units needed.

So, all I have to do is knit 49 more units and use no-sew grafting to join 104 of those units to make 26 blocks (like these two which I've already completed)

10" x 10" - they will block square

.... then join the 28 blocks to make a blanket

... and sew in all the ends (I keep forgetting to weave them in as I go)

... and add a border! Thanks to the workshop I attended last weekend, I've got a great idea for this one - can't wait to get to it!

Will I have it finished by the end of July?

an attempt at fabric shopping

While out and about on Thursday, I visited one of the two Big Box Stores.

Exclusively in Australia, Sp*tl*ght have the new range of Denyse Schmidt fabrics - "Picnics and Fairgrounds" - at $16.95 a metre; they had about twenty different fabrics at my local store. The quality was okay but I don't really like the range - not my thing at all. You can see a picture of the fabric line here at Red Pepper Quilts.

I was at the Big Box Store to buy some inexpnsive fabric to make another change mat for GS#1 - he is too big to use the change table and keeps rolling off the mat we have (it's way too small). But I couldn't find any fabrics that really excited me! He is not a baby anymore so "cutsie" just won't cut it and I'm already finding that nice "boy" fabrics are hard to get!

Fortunately, I am back at the Stitches and Craft Fair today so hopefully I'll get a chance to look at fabrics (as well as teach knitting and test drive machines).

two x 1.5 metres of polar fleece (148cm wide)

So, I left the Big Box Store with this polar fleece fabric to make some ponchos for a local group home for disabled adults. They wear the ponchos whilst sitting outside in their wheelchairs waiting to board the bus. At least I can blanket stitch these by hand - if I can find out how big the ponchos are supposed to be!

While waiting at the counter I saw a request for bags (either tote or drawstring minimum size 40cm x 40cm) and blankies (minimum size 70cm x 70cm) for Angels for the Forgotten.

Now if I just had a sewing machine I could make these things ... I guess I'll have to knit or crochet!

the quest continues

I have sewing machines on my brain at the moment. That's partly because I decide I want to do something then remember that I can't because I have no sewing machine here! :-(

But mostly it's because I have to make a decision on (or before) Sunday. Two of the six companies at the Fair will only give the special price if a deposit is paid during the Show. In some cases the saving is a few hundred dollars so, of course, I want to take advantage of the sale price.

So today I tried to compare the five machines left on my short list - Janome, Pfaff, Elna, Husqvarna and Singer (in the order I tested them not of merit or desirability).

If you read the extremely long post I wrote yesterday (my sincere thanks if you waded through all that), you may recall that they didn't have the machine I had at the top of my list on the Janome stand. Today I found out why - I visited my local Janome dealer; it is a straight stitching machine! According to their blurb it is the "fastest straight stitching machine in the range and can stitch up to 1600 stitches per minute"! But it doesn't do blanket stitch or satin stitch - so it's no good to me as an applique quilter!

So, that one is off my list. I can't imagine they sell many of those machines; no wonder they chose not to bring it to the Show! After all they have to bring dressmaking machines and quilting machines and embroidery machines at different price points and fit it all in a space of about ten square metres!

I went from my local Janome dealer to the quilting shop where I do my classes. They don't sell machines but they used to be Bernina dealers. As I said in my previous post, Bernina is not on the list because they don't do a wide throat model in my price range. I have plans to make a whole cloth quilt one day and I must have the widest throat I can get.

I talked at length to one of the owners of the business. She could add very little to what I had already heard but she did tell me what customers/students say about their machines. She would, understandably, buy another Bernina machine for herself but could see why I didn't want to buy one. She also told me which of the five I was still considering she would buy.

But the most helpful thing I got from her was the phone number of the man who will be servicing both the "sick" Brother I left there on Monday and my new machine.

When WM and I wanted to buy a used car, we went to our mechanic and asked his opinion - after all, he has to get the parts and work on the car so he knows what he is talking about and has no affiliation to any brand. I was already aware that the sewing machine repairman used to be a dealer for Bernina and that was his preferred brand. But I called him and told him my five choices - he told me one not to touch, and two which he finds the easiest to get parts for.

My choice is now limited to two brands, or four machines (two in each brand). All four are very similar - the more expensive in each brand has more features than the less expensive model.

So I have to decide between the less expensive model in the range or the more expensive model - and which of the two brands I prefer.

On Saturday afternoon, when I have finished teaching knitting on the Guild stand, I will test drive all four machines again. I need to make a decision before the Show finishes on Sunday afternoon!

Stay with me, we are approaching the end of my quest!

test driving

eta (27 June): This post has been linked to from Amy's Creative Side in which we were asked to name a goal and say how we went! Mine was "to test drive as many sewing machines as I could" and I achieved that last Wednesday. I would have got mine today if it hadn't been for the birth of Grandbubby The Second (yesterday) and the subsequent babysitting of Grandson #1 for a few days! Some things in life are more important even than sewing machines!! LOL

 warning: a long post about the hunt for a sewing machine

Yesterday, a good friend (D.), who is an experienced quilter, and I arrived at the Craft and Quilt Fair at exactly 10am. The next time I thought about it, it was 2pm. I had spent four hours test-driving, talking and walking! My head was overloaded with information and I needed my lunch.

Aurora 440 QE

When we arrived at the Show, we went first to the Bernina stand. They have a machine specifically designed for quilting but the throat is the standard size and really, I know that if I buy that machine I will regret it.

The one thing that Bernina has over all the other machines is a stitch regulator that regulates "the length of your stitches so you can create consistent, free motion stitching" (from the Bernina advertising brochure). If Bernina had a machine with a wide throat in my price range, there would have been no contest!

From Bernina we went to Janome. Would you believe that they didn't have the machine I wanted to test drive? I wanted to look at the 1600P-QC. The only dedicated quilting machine they had at the show was the Memory Craft 6600. And then they gave me the brochure for the Memory Craft 6500 instead! So I still haven't driven the machine that was at the top of my list!

On to the next company, where my poor friend was devastated to learn that Janome is not made in Japan and  Elna is not made in Sweden - they both come out of the same factory in China! And that Singer, Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff are not really independent brands; they come from the same parent company manufacturing in, you guessed it, China!

The Pfaff machines are the ones I remember the least! I looked at the Expressions 2.0 and the Expressions 4.0 but was only given a quote for the cheaper one. Looking at the pictures and brochure doesn't help. I think it just felt much the same as the Janome I had driven a few minutes earlier.

Elna 7300

On to Janome's sister company - Elna. This time I did get to look at the machine which was number 2 on my list. Unfortunately, the demonstrator actually works for Janome so didn't appear to be super confident on the Elna machine.

I have been using mechanical machines all my sewing life - about 36 years; first a Singer Capri (bought in 1974) and most recently DD's Brother PS-53. I have also used very old Bernina machines. Sewing on these computer driven machines was like moving from an old 1960s car to a new car with power steering and ABS - no comparison! They all sewed beautifully and seemed much of a muchness to me!

Sapphire 875

Brain weary, we pushed on - this time to Husqvarna Viking. We looked at two machines - the Sapphire 875 and the Sapphire 885. D. gasped and her eyes opened wide. Her comment: "This machine was designed by someone who sews!" She was so impressed that I made up my mind right there and then that I would buy one of these two machines (although one was outside my budget).

One of the features of the Husqvarna machine that we both really liked (apart from its uncluttered looks) was that the computer screen showed the stitch I would get in real size! This is the only one of the six brands I tested that did that! The computer screen also "spoke"  in English words - not symbols and numbers! However, I did feel that the Sapphire didn't drive as smoothly as the Janome, Elna or Pfaff. Apparently I felt that because it is actually a little noisier than the other machines.

Finally we went to Singer. Here we had the best demonstration of a machine we had had all day. I had to remind myself several times that I should concentrate on the features of the machine and not the ability of the demonstrator (who owned the same machine we were looking at). The Singer threaded up in much the same way my old Capri did (some things never change) but after that the similarities ended. I was impressed with the Singer machine  - but no more so than many of the others.

After lunch D. and I looked at the quilt exhibition and then wandered back to some of the stands selling quilting and related goodies. D. bought some buttons and joined a "block of the month" club. I talked to my sewing teacher, Elizabeth, from Aussie Patches and she though all the machines I was considering were good choices.

We then went to HobbySew to talk to the machine salesperson there. Because HobbySew sells all of the brands I had tried (except Singer), there is no particular bias towards one company. In the end, I left feeling more confused than ever! If only Bernina made a machine with a wide throat I wouldn't have to make a decision! I'd know what I wanted to buy!

I am going back to the Show on Saturday to work on the Knitters' Guild stand in the morning so I think I'll be revisiting the sewing machines in the afternoon!

Thanks D. for taking the time to come to the Fair with me and to help me ask the "right" questions while we were there!

hobbies are good for your health - but we already knew that

On Sunday, Alison of Little Island Quilting published a post entitled "Just Because". I left a comment about process v. product which led to Alison sending me this link from the Daily Mail.

It seems that researchers have caught up to what we crafters already know - hobbies are good for our health: they calm us, give us joy, encourage us to play and  promote our well-being in ways that "physical and outdoor activities could not"!

Long live creativity!

machine-less

Last week didn't go as I had planned. I wanted to finish all the blocks for my Colonial Houses quilt, ready for quilting.

On Sunday, after we returned from the restaurant where we had eaten lunch to celebrate WM's birthday, he went off to watch a program he taped last week, I went to my studio.

I sorted, I pressed, I cut, I sewed, I pressed and sewed some more. Then the machine began making funny noises. I took off the foot, took out the needle, took off the pressure plate and cleaned the machine. Then I put it back together again.

I started to sew. The light flickered. I stopped. I started again. The light flickered. I stopped again. I started again. The light flickered and went out. The bulb had blown.

I still had the original bulb in my Singer sewing machine when it "gave up the ghost" last year. It was then thirty six years old! They don't make things like they used to! (Yes, I did use the machine - quite a bit in my younger days).

Back to this "new" machine. I figured I could sew without the light - my studio has a great fluorescent light and I could see well enough to do straight seams. But ...

I couldn't get the tension right. On a low tension, the bobbin thread made loops. On a normal (mid) tension, it looked like it had been couched by the top thread. On a higher tension it made wavy lines.

I took out the bobbin and reloaded.  Nothing changed. I re-thread the machine. Still not right!

Yesterday the machine went to have the first service in its six year old life (it has hardly been used until these last few months).  I had to use a borrowed (ancient Bernina) during class yesterday.

So here I sit - a quilter without a machine. Luckily, due to my unscheduled interruptions and unreached goals last week, I still have some sashing and the backing fabric to cut.

And on Wednesday, my friend and I are off to the Stitches and Craft Fair to test drive machines.

Then on Thursday, she says hopefully, I will drive to the local dealer and purchase the machine of my choice!

I guess I'll just have to knit in the meantime!

disappearing four patch

Since I started quilting, one blog that I find truly inspirational is Kate's Arty Bits. A couple of months ago, Kate won the blocks from Block Lotto. I pondered the block and couldn't work out how it was done so I visited the site to find out the name of the block.

It was a version of the disappearing four patch block.

I decided to use some of my scraps and try one. This would be very good practice for accurate measuring and cutting.

My first attempt didn't go well; I tried to be clever rather than careful - it ended up in my "just large enough to possibly be useful in the future" scrap basket!

My second attempt was much more successful. I cut each piece individually and didn't try to be clever! It doesn't really curl like that - the seams just don't lie quite flat enough!

Cutting blue fabric on a blue mat can sometimes be a bit tricky!

I really like this block - I think it it looks sophisticated.

pinwheel blanket progress

As I said in my post a week ago about this project, I need four of these units

to make one of these

Right now, I have one of these (grafted together by the no-sew method I learnt from Galina Khmeleva in March; but I still had to sew the ends in):

two piles (twenty eight units) of these:



and one lonely one of these:

That makes a total of thirty-three units of the 112 necessary, which means around 79 hours of knitting and a whole lot more sewing to do before the end of July!

Happy Birthday WM

A Senior's Card next year - who'd have thought we were this old? LOL

Love you heaps.

fun mail*

Last month I won a give away on Kate's Arty Bits blog. Kate has been re-organising, using or clearing out her scraps.

On Tuesday, I received a package in the mail. Because we have had rainy weather, it arrived a bit worse for wear - the envelope was started to disintegrate. Can you see what's peeking through?

The contents were all intact.

Two blocks like this:

Six blocks like this:

and a pile of half square triangle units - many with Christmas themed fabric.


Debbie, from Esch House Quilts, asked recently about challenges. As those who read this blog regularly know, I have been playing with half square triangles. I am looking forward to the challenge of what to do with these.

Thanks so much, Kate; one woman's scraps are another woman's source material!

PS I "borrowed" the title of this post from Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts who also recently received "fun mail".

more playing with HST

Last weekend, I had some time sewing time so I decided to use up the rest of those half square triangles (HST) I cut out at the previous week's workshop.

I found seven more ways to put them together. Actually, I found eight ways but one alternative didn't inspire me at all so I chose not to make that one. Here you can see all twelve sample blocks (including the five I showed last time).

This one is apparently called "love letters".

This one looks like a bird or an aeroplane.

This one looks like a headless angel with outspread wings!

sewing machine

The Craft and Quilt Fair begins at the Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour (Sydney) on Wednesday 22nd June.

I'm in the market for a new sewing machine. So far I'm looking at either the Janome 1600P-QC or the Elna 7300 "Quilting Queen".

What sewing machine do you use?
What do you like about it?
What do you not like about it?

Colonial House blocks nearly ready for quilting

All of the blocks for my Colonial House quilt have been appliqued and squared up. One even has the sashing added.

My layout was provisionally decided before all the blocks were appliqued.

I was hoping to get all my sashing and backing squares cut yesterday but I had to look after GS#1 unexpectedly so didn't get much done in the studio! (Yes, DD is fine; thanks for asking - she still has three and a half weeks before her due date.)

Once I get that cutting and stitching done, I'll only have to buy some batting and cut it and I'll be ready to start quilting.

We had no class at Down Patchwork Lane this week because it was a public holiday on Monday. I am looking forward to next week's class.

I'm already thinking about my next project! Did some way say "hooked"?

What do you call a grandmother?

Jennifer, at Ellison Lane Quilts, recently had a post about a quilt she "borrowed" from her grandmother. At the end of that post she posed this question: "what do you call your grandmother?"

With permission from Jennifer to use the idea, I am inspired to write this post.

My grandmothers were both Nanna (although I suspect we spelt one of them Nana).
My mother is also Nanna to her five grandchildren and Grand-Nan to her great-grandchildren (as was her mother).

My father's paternal grandmother, the only great-grandmother still alive when I was born, was called Gan by grandchildren and great-grandchildren alike.

My husband's grandmothers were Nanna and Grandma.

My parents-in-law were officially Grandma and Grandpa, but are known as Gran(ny) and Pa by their seventeen grandchildren, their spouses and, currently, nine great-grandchildren.

SIL's grandmothers were Nanna and Grandmother.

SIL's parents are known to their grandchildren as Oma and Opa because of his German background (he was born in Australia and is third generation Australian).

My mother's best friend is known as Boo (her name is Beulah).

WM and I are Grandad and Grandmum. I chose that because I didn't want to be Nanna, Granny or Grandma and Mum goes with Dad so why shouldn't the spouse of Grandad be Grandmum? Twelve months after I chose what I thought was an 'original', I was reading a book about my great-great-grandmother who was transported to Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) as a thirteen year old for breaking, entering and stealing. In the first chapter of the book, Agnes is called Grandmum.

I don't believe in coincidences but I find that quite amazing!

So, as Jennifer asked on her blog, "what do you call your grandmother?"

seeding the fabric stash

I couldn't go to my last workshop at Aussie Patches without buying anything, could I?

First, I needed two more metres of this fabric for the backing of my Colonial Houses quilt. This fabric is flannel and was chosen because the green matches the darker green of my seven original blocks while the check (plaid) reflects the checks of the houses.

And then, Elizabeth, the teacher, and I had noticed that I seemed to be having trouble with accurate cutting so I had to buy a fat quarter to practice cutting strips; which I had no trouble cutting, by the way! I loved this green batik and it is so soft!

Well, if one fat quarter costs $3.50 and ten cost $25, which would you buy?


 

?

I bought ten of course! The green one above,

this one because purple is my favourite colour (it's a bad photo - imagine the green in purple!):



and these eight in blue-greens - a sophisticated palette, don't you think?)

I don't know what I'm going to do with them so I have started a fabric stash! LOL

magnification

Last week, I visited my current favourite fabric and quilting store - HobbySew in Kings Park. I wanted to test drive a sewing machine but they didn't have a demonstration model of the one I wanted. That's okay - there's a craft fair coming up and I'm sure all the major sewing machine manufacturers will be there!

I also thought I wanted a magnifying glass that one wears around one's neck and which rests on one's chest. Something like this:

image copied from angelstitches.com

HobbySew didn't have any of those either.

Okay, I wanted some thread and a marker of some description. The sales assistant was very helpful as far as markers went and left me to my own devices to choose threads in the colours I wanted. Out of the corner of my eye I saw lights and, yes, magnifying glasses. You know, the kind that stand on the floor and the kind that sit on your desk!

That's what I really needed - not one to hang on my neck and stick into my chest! So, I talked to the sales assistant and decided I would buy the one with the best magnification. No light - just great magnification. She told me the price had been reduced because the boxes were damaged. I was fine with the reduced price and we were in business. then the till showed toe real price of the magnifier I had chosen - more than twice the price I paid! I bought an Ott-Lite TrueColor Freestanding Magnifier with up to five times magnification.

picture from http://www.ottlite.co.uk/

It works so well it makes my head spin! I knew there was a reason why I didn't want one hanging around my neck! LOL

Now all I have to do is use my recently revived sewing skills to make a cover to protect it from dust and damage!



knitted half square triangles

Having realised I did not have enough scrap yarn (nor the inclination) to complete the garter striped blanket in this post, I began a new blanket project. (I said I would make four and four it will be).

I am knitting it in Moda Vera Marvel, which has to be the softest 100% acrylic I have ever used. It also has a very soft drape, so I had to go down a size from the needles I would normally use to knit a blanket.

Inspired by my new found interest in quilting, I have been knitting half square triangles.

Four identical squares could be any one of these:



mosaic made at BigHugeLabs; thanks to Jennifer at That Girl...That Quilt for the tutorial.

 In fact, there are many possibilities for using these versatile little squares.

But I am making these:

Each little piece takes about an hour to knit and I need 112 pieces. Can I get it finished by July?

thread and bobbin storage

On Monday night, WM and I were discussing options for storing threads and bobbins. I have seen containers for storing threads and containers for storing bobbins but I, being different, wanted to store the threads with their matching bobbins.

We discussed a peg board on the wall (dust magnet) and trays inside drawers (too hard to see the colours from on top). WM had a brilliant idea - he looked on the Internet! That may not sound like much to you but it is not a normal idea for WM.

Anyway, he found a "bobbin box" from a company called CraftLocker. But what he found was not a "bobbin box" it was a plastic case designed to hold thread and one or two bobbins - together.

The one WM found was an ebay type auction - no longer available; but, using the information given, I found a company in Australia called Craftainers who sell all kinds of amazing storage and gadgets for crafters.

picture copied from Craftainers

I ordered one bobbin box and one set of extra pins. I paid standard Australian postage (not express or parcel post. I ordered late on Monday evening. The box was here on Wednesday afternoon - nicely packed, goods in order. Now that is not good service - that is great service!

I couldn't wait to open it and put my meagre thread supplies inside! There'll be more threads and more "Thread and Bobbin Boxes" in my future I am sure!

Thank you Craftainers; I will be back to shop with you again!

What was I thinking?

Every year I donate* four 'blankets' to the Wrap With Love challenge at TAFE*. I thought I had completed all four blankets (70 inches x 40 inches) for this year but realised last week that I had, in fact, only started the fourth and not completed it. Nowhere near completed it, in fact; I have knitted 130 of the 700 rows necessary!

I also realised that I would have to sew in the 1400+ ends that will come from knitting this blanket. Whatever possessed me to think this was a good use of small scraps of yarn?

You see, every one of those 700 rows is knitted in a different coloured yarn. Every row has a beginning and an end = 1400 ends! But some rows are knitted from shorter pieces of yarn so they have ends in the middle of the rows too! Am I insane?



I have knitted 130 rows, meaning that the piece I have produced so far is 40 inches wide and about 13 inches high and has more than 260 ends to be sewn in (a daunting task when one sees it in reality)!

Not having enough scrap yarn at the moment to complete it, gave me a good reason to abandon the project and think on it some more. I know I've said in the past that sewing in ends is therapeutic for me, but is this really how I want to spend the minutes of my life? I could almost knit another blanket in the time it will take me to sew in all those ends!

Because it started life as a blanket, this project is knitted in 8ply (DK) on 4.5mm (US 7 ) needles to give a drape-y fabric. I still want to use up that scrap acrylic yarn so I am considering frogging it, tying the ends together to make a huge scrap ball, knitting it on much smaller needles to make a denser fabric and turning it into a bag! I may even leave the ends hanging out as a design feature or I might embroider them on the outside as colonial knots! I can't put knots on the blanket (even if they are pretty) because they would pull through the looser fabric and Wrap With Love states "no knots please".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**TAFE = College of Technical and Further Education; a tertiary instiution which once existed for the purpose training in trades. TAFE is my employer; I teach English to recently arrived adult migrants and refugees.

*This is not meant to be a boast; it is just a statement of fact that this is what I do with my knitting.

half square triangles Part 2

Yesterday I shared the five ways that I learnt for making half square triangles. Today I would like to take you one step further - blocks made from half square triangles.

Two half square triangles make a square that looks like this:

According to Judy Hooworth and Margaret Rolfe in their book "Spectacular Scraps", there are 256 ways to put four half square triangle units together to make a four patch block. Now some of these are obviously variations of others (mirror images, turned 90 degrees, etc) but there is enough variety there for one to make nothing else but quilts with half square triangles for the rest of one's life! And imagine the possibilities if one combines different four patch blocks!

So, here are the five I tried out on the weekend. Turn some of them 90 degrees clockwise three times and you'll have even more blocks!  (All you have to do to see them is lean right, lean left and stand on your head!!) Bring a mirror up to your monitor and you'll get even more variety!

Each of these has been trimmed to 5 1/2 inches and they are all made from the triangles cut from the fourth method talked about yesterday. I know they all have traditional names so if you know what they are, could you please tell me?

I know this one as "pinwheel"
(this can be mirror imaged and have the blades spinning in the opposite direction)

Does this one have "basket" in the title?
turn this one ninety degrees three times - four different blocks!

turn this one ninety degrees - different block

turn this one ninety degrees - different block



I believe this is called "Flying Geese".
this one can be turned 90 degrees three times to make four different blocks

 If you've now finished your contortions, you will observe that was fourteen variations! LOL

Of course, it might be better not to use a directional fabric (like these birds) to make half square triangles - unless, of course, you don't mind the birds standing on their heads or laying on their backs or beaks! But the teacher asked for a sixteen inch square and this is all the fabric I had in that size and I could only manage 15 inches. (I have corrected that and now have the beginnings of a stash - but that's another post!)

And, because it was fun, here is a quarter square triangle block made from my half square triangles - a bit skewed but a perfect point!