Hive 6 April Tutorial - Scrappy Triangles

Hi! My name is Angela Nussbaum. A lot of times you'll see me around the internet saying I'm a nut. Well that's because my last name means "nut-tree" in German. I had to search hard for a man who had a last name worthy of me. :D

Where do you live? I live in Palmer Lake, Colorado. Its a fun tiny little town on the side of the mountain on the east slope. I absolutely love my views.

Tell us about your family: I have been married for almost 9 wonderful years. I have three incredible girls. My oldest is 13, my pookie (that's her nickname)is going to be 12 this month and the baby is 8. They are growing up so fast. I'm so lucky I get to homeschool them, so I get to see them more. I also have a min-pin named Lily and 3 kitties; Sophie, BigBoy and Derk. We also have fish to torment the kitties.

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting. I got interested in quilting when I was pregnant with my pookie. I was told to stay home and rest, I decided to quilt. Needless to say after I had my baby I was too busy. I was renewed when I met my husband and got to see the incredible quilts that his Ohio grandmothers made. It wasn't until I met a gal trying to start a modern quilt guild in our area that I really got active, I had found my style! I haven't gotten much done as I have been the VP of our guild for the last few years. This will be my last, so I hope to get my mojo vamped up again.

How do you organize your fabric stash?  I am almost afraid to show y'all this. Its shameful! I do clean it (hubby does try to keep me color coordinated)! I promise... but.. well I just finished a huge project for our guild so I was making a mess. I make more scrappy like quilts so I pull fat quarters and use bits then put them back. Guess its better to be honest. So... Here it is.

Who is/are your favorite fabric designers? I dont really have favorite designers. I just grab and buy. If I had to narrow it down, I do like Valorie Wells, Amy Butler, AnnaMaria Horner, Angela Walters,  Denise Schmidt, Sweetwater, oh oh and cotton steel... so excited to get my hands on their fabrics. I like funky patterns like Amy Butlers and saturated colors like Denise's

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting? Spray Basting!!!! I wish i knew about it. I would have saved my fingers hours of ouchies and my knees such pain! I love the stuff.

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it? I already mentioned spray basting... My next favorite tool is probably my seam ripper. Which I'm always losing or leaving at home. You can always hear me at a quild meeting or retreat "does anyone have a ripper?" lol. I tend to need mine a little too often.

Who is your favorite fictional character and why?Garfield! See why i have a pookie (pookie is his cuddly bear). I love that he knows what Mondays are like and i love his humor! :)



 Now its time for the block. We will be making Scrappy Triangles!

I will be giving some directions below, but this is originally from Film in the Fridge. You can always look at her tutorial too.

 First lets talk fabrics. As you can see this is scrappy so I really would like you to dig into your scraps for strips. I'm looking for each triangle to have a "red, orange, yellow, green, blue".  I also would love it if you mix up the order so they are not in a rainbow. The shades of those colors are up too you. As for the "white" space, I would like to have a very low volume white or any shade of white, ie snow etc. If you have any questions, you can always contact me.

The next thing you need is a triangle. I made one and uploaded it HERE so that all you have to do is print it out. (you'll only need to print one out.)

The Triangle Block will end up being 6 1/2" x 9" so I am asking that you make two as one block.

 Once you have your template cut out you can start sewing strips together. I highly suggest you use your template to make sure you have enough including seam allowances. I didn't have enough when I used this lighter blue, so I simply removed that fabric and added another blue.

**A note. I dont mind wonky! at the end of the tutorial you can see some of my strips are slanted, or skewed. That is okay! I am not looking for perfection. Just have fun!

After all the strips are sewn, iron and press your seams open. I found this to be easier for the next step. Once ready, place your template on your strips and trim, using it as your guide.

This part may seem hard, but trust me its not!

Cut  1 piece your background fabric to 6" x 12".  Align it along one side of your triangles. Make sure that about 1.5" of the background extends above and below your triangle. Then sew and press.

Now you want to take your ruler and align it along the base of your triangle. Make sure that the ruler extends into your background fabric, from the base about 1 1/4". Once you have something like the picture below, you will cut along your ruler.

 

Now you rotate the piece you cut and line it up so that it extends abode the top just a bit. Sew and press it. Trim off excess fabric.

Now its time to trim it down. The first thing I did was trim the background to the base. Then I cut 9" from the base. The tricky part for me was cutting the sides of the triangles down so that the block was 6.5" wide. What I decided to do was to line up my ruler so that the point of the triangle was at 3 3/8" and trim on one side. Then I measured 6.5" to cut the other side. This doesn't have to be perfect. As I have said before, wonky is okay! If you are not comfortable with this step, go ahead and stop here and I'll trim it.

 This is what you should have!

Like last months block, this one has so many possibilities for layout and I havnt decided yet which I like more. So please send me your triangles separate. I had such a blast making these, I made a few so you could see what could be done....

I hope you enjoy making these, I cannot wait to receive yours in the mail! Let me know if you have any questions.