Glitter, glitter, everywhere...

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself this week.  I made a thing.
Actually, I made two things.
When I started Jen Kingwell's Glitter, I traced out the template shapes in the book (Quilt Lovely.  Terrific book!), added seam allowances, and cut templates from gridded quilter's template plastic.

They're useful, but flimsy.  I can't use them directly for rotary cutting - I have to either trace around them, then cut using a ruler, or line up the ruler on top of them and try to cut without anything slithering around.
I had wished many times for cutting templates, but thought I'd have to either do without or pay through the nose for someone to custom make me some.
After all, those templates are all laser-cut, right?  And I don't have a laser.
But then.
Then.
I was reading a blog post somewhere (and I foolishly didn't bookmark it and now can't remember where) where the quilter referred to cutting her own templates out of a clear plastic sheet using a utility knife.
Lightbulbs went on in my head.  There were trumpets and bells and the smell of fresh-baked cookies.
Cut my own templates???  Seriously???
I started shopping around for plastic, but could only find large sheets - much larger than I could ever use, whether or not this even worked.
Then a smaller lightbulb went on.  "Picture frames," I muttered to myself.  "Cheap picture frames."
And I found this one

for a grand total of about a buck and a half.
I cut off a hunk with my handy utility knife, traced around my flimsy templates, and used my quilting ruler to cut straight lines.
Score, snap, and woohoo!  I made templates!  My very own custom templates!

I drilled holes with the point of the knife blade so I can mark the seam allowance intersections.

Then I labelled them, and colored along the edges of each template, so they wouldn't become invisible when I set them down on my cutting table.  (Ask me how I know that's a good idea...)

You probably guessed that I had to test them right out.
I've discovered that the background pieces of the block can be cut almost perfectly out of rectangles measuring 3.5"x4.25".  By cutting those rectangles in pairs, either wrong sides facing or right sides facing, I can cut the reversed pieces at the same time as the regular ones.
The easiest way I've found is to first place the template in the corner, matching those right angles, then line up a ruler along this edge:

Cut along the line

and then stack the pieces, matching that angled edge.  There's a tiny bit of extra along the bottom, because the 3.5" measurement is just a wee bit more than necessary.

Drop the template on top of the stack, and slice away all the extra bits.

 And you get this!

Tada!
And since those pieces were so nicely laid out, I had to  do this.

And before I knew it, I had this.

I've found that all the pieces for these blocks can be cut from 3.5" strips and charm squares.  The background corners I just showed are 3.5x4.25 rectangles, and the four squares are just a 3.5" square cut in quarters.
The main fabric in each block fits beautifully into a charm square. 

And now I've got a perfect use for those charm squares I end up with.  (I don't know how it happens.  Stacks of them just turn up out of nowhere.  I'm starting to suspect the monkeys...)



Since my Glitter is a scrappy quilt, I'm linking to Scraptastic Tuesday.  Come see all the scrappy fun!

At least I remembered my camera today

I got a bit of sewing done yesterday, then kicked myself because I'd forgotten to bring along my camera.  Not that I could have shared the pictures, mind you, since most of what I worked on was super-secret.  But at least if I'd taken some photos, I could have posted them after the holidays...
So today, since I remembered the camera, and since I got done all the non-Allietare stuff that was on the to-do list (well, on today's list.  I'm not done done, if you know what I mean.  But manageable chunks should be my middle name at this point), I picked back up where I left off on clue 3.

I had cut and sewed and cut and made stacks and stacks of twosies.

And I started pairing them up and I sewed and I sewed and I sewed and I sewed until I had what looked like a gajillion 4-patches.
Yeehaw!  I even  worried a little that I had overshot the target of 120.  Oh, well - there's always a use for 4-patches, right?
So I pressed and I pressed and I pressed and I pressed.  And I counted.
I had 68 of the damn things.
That couldn't be right.  I counted them again.
Yep, 68.
Crap.
So this time I tried a different approach.
Take some of those multitudinous 2" strips you now have on hand.  Stack them up and cut 4" lengths of both golds and neutrals.  Lots of them.

 Pair a gold with a neutral and sew them together along one long edge.

Lots of them.

Press them open, pushing the seams toward the gold.

Lots of them.

Then start sewing the pairs together into elongated 4-patches.
And this is important.  Do not press the seams at this stage.  I repeat, resist the urge to press.

Keep sewing pairs together, then sew pairs to pairs, end to end, over and over and over.  Resist the urge to press.  Do not press.  (Seriously.  Don't do it.)
At some point, you can join everything together and start adding to each end, using the long chain as its own leader/ender.
When you run out of things to attach to this mega-strip, you have two choices.  If you're lucky, the ends will fit together with golds and lights in the right places so you can sew them together into one long hoop.  (And you don't even have to worry about twisting it!  Twists won't matter.)  If you're not so lucky, just piece a couple of twosies from neutral and gold squares and sew one to each end of your chain.  (Or you could cut 2" off one end, rotate it 180 degrees, and sew it to the other end.  Which will make more sense the second time you do this method...)
Do not press.

Seriously.  Do not press.
If you were lucky and now have a big giant loop, grab any seam you want and flatten that end on your cutting mat.

Line up the 2" mark on your ruler with edge of the strip.

And cut.

 Open it up and see what you've got!

A perfect 4-patch.
Peel back the top part of that long strip and expose the bottom part.  The left edge will have folded over and will now look like this.  And for those of you who weren't lucky in joining the ends of the strip - this is what your starting point looks like, with that twosie joined to the end of your strip.)

Line your ruler up again with that left edge, just like you did last time.  Cut.

And another one.  Notice how the twosie part closes itself  up?  That's why you didn't press - so that would happen.  It's a whole lot easier to cut the 4-patches if they're lining up to do half the work for you.
Keep cutting until you run out of things to cut.  Open and admire all your lovely little 4-patches.

And now you may press.  You're welcome.  (I know some of you were starting to twitch.  I was too at this point.)

So I counted up these 4-patches when I was done pressing.  Fifty of them.  Whew!  With the 68 from the last group, that gave me 118 out of 120.  For the last two, I can just cut squares.  Which I'll have to put off until next time, because it was time to go home and start supper.
So, clue 3 is (practically) a wrap.  Clue 2 is done.  Clue 1 stands at 257 out of 296 HSTs.

I think I've got a handle on Allietare so far.  And the secret sewing is progressing.  And there has even been continuing progress on the Twinkly project.

Now if I can just keep a close eye on those blood-thirsty scissors, I'll be fine...

On the Trail of the Snail

All righty then.  I took a boatload of new photos today, as I made another Snail's Trail block, just to make sure I'd caught all the action.
Here we go, in a nice high-contrast red and white.  (My small quilt group is doing red and white quilts as the Nov/Dec challenge, so if I decide to participate in it (you know, in my spare time), this puts me one block ahead.  Yay!)

So, in my long ago and far away posts where I was first contemplating Snail's Trails, I decided that I didn't want to fart around with templates and weird measurements to make the blocks.  There had to be a way to make them easily with the size strips that I keep on hand.
So I gave it a think and came up with the following.  You'll need an Easy Angle ruler, or the equivalent, by the way.

Start with a 1.5" and a 2.5" strip of your background fabric, and the same of the main color.

Step 1:  I like to stack the fabrics to make the cutting go quicker, as you'll need the same size pieces of each.
Start with the 1.5" strips.  Cut a piece 3" long, then reach for your Easy Angle ruler and cut two triangles.
.

Step 2:  Amuse yourself by arranging the pieces to look like a happy face.

Step 3: Now grab the 2.5" strip.  First cut a 2.5" square and cut it diagonally corner to corner.

Then grab that Easy Angle again, and cut two triangles.

Step 4:  Sew together the 1.5"x3" strips along one long edge and press open.  I always press the seam allowance toward the dark fabric, but you can press it whichever way you like.  There are no quilt police.

Cut the unit in half - each piece will be 1.5" wide.

Make a 4patch by rotating one of the pieces, matching the seams, and stitching along one long edge.

Step 5:  Now it's time to trim the square.  The target size is 2" unfinished, so line up the 1" lines along the seam lines

and trim.  You can do two sides at once!  Yay, efficiency!

Then rotate the square, line up the ruler again, and trim the other two sides.

And the finished product, which measures 2" square.

Now the astute among you will realize at this point that we could have just started with pieces that measured 1.25" wide, and wouldn't have had to trim two of the edges.  And you're absolutely right.  I'm not normally a fan of oversize-and-trim, but in this case I'd rather have a little wiggle room.  Plus, when I tried it, I found that it bothered me that the measurements didn't look 'square' to me as I was sewing the 4patch together.  It was just weird enough that it threw off my eye, so I went back to 1.5".  Your mileage may vary.

Step 6:  It's time for the triangles we cut from the 1.5" strip.
Now this is important.  In order for all the trails of all the snails to wind in the same direction (which you want,  trust me), always always always make sure that the color you're applying matches the color in the upper left corner as this photo shows.

(Note:  If you want your snails to trail in the opposite direction that mine do, just make your rule the opposite of mine - always always always make sure that the color you're applying matches the color in the upper right corner.  It isn't important which way you choose to go, but it's very very important that once you pick a direction, you stick with it.  Forever.  Or at least until you finish this quilt.)

So, okay then.  Check to see if you've got the correct side, and position the triangle.  One handy thing is that the point of the triangle will line up with the center seam of the 4patch, which makes it easier to line up. Stitch the triangle on, open out, then sew the other dark triangle to the opposite side. 

Press that side open as well, then sew one of the background triangles on

and then the other.

Now I take the unit over to the ironing board and press it flat. 
Square it up to 2.5".  Notice that the 1.25" line on the ruler passes right through the centerpoint of the 4patch.

Woohoo!  Round one is done!

Onward!

Step 7:  Grab the triangles that came from the 2.5" square we cut in half.  This one is a little trickier to line up by eye, so I fold it in half and pinch it at the center to mark it.  Don't sweat too much over it as the triangle is a wee bit bigger than it has to be, so it'll probably be fine.  (Probably.)

Sew a dark triangle to two opposite sides

and then repeat with the background triangles.

And tada!  Round 2 is done.  This time, square it up to a scant 3.5". 

Step 8:  Now grab that last set of triangles - the ones we cut with the Easy Angle.
You know the drill by now.

Anyone see what I'm doing wrong in that last picture?

Remember that warning I gave you back in step 6?

Yep.

Oops.
So, step 8a:  Employ the seam ripper, then do it right.

Sew on your background triangles and voila!  Go, snail, go!

And full disclosure - I actually was making two blocks throughout this tutorial.  I figured it doubled the odds that I'd remember to photograph each step.  And I think it worked!

Now, I usually stop here with my snails, but you can add another round if you like.  If you cut a 3.5" square in half,

you can run another lap. 

If you want to go any bigger than that, you're on your own.
Though now that I think about it, a quilt called 'The Attack of the Giant Snails' might be fun...