I began Ocean Waves in the fall of 2008. I dyed 27 shades of blue.
I then cut my blues into triangles. This quilt is going to use 1,008 triangles.
And then piecing began. For each square or triangle, I carefully laid out the triangles, making sure color values were distributed evenly across in a random arrangement.
Here you can see my two completed triangle pieces and two square pieces. Stunning, no?
I’m following a schematic from “How to Make an Amish Quilt” by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman. Despite the simplicity of their schematic, sewing this quilt is actually a lot more complex. Practical how to details have been left out of the Assembly Instructions.
I am determined to finish this quilt. The hand quilting on the black will be absolutely out-of-this-world. I’m seeing blue thread on black . . .
But something needs to change. Something about how I was piecing before made it too time consuming. I think I need to find a quicker, logical, chain-piecing style to get these triangles pieced. Here’s a few of my ideas, which I’ll go into in more detail in the next few posts:
1. Identify triangle units, and chain-piece triangles into these units in a factory-line manner.
2. Figure out a way to keep various values from light to dark evenly distributed across the quilt, so your eye keeps moving across the quilt like you do when you gaze out at sea.
3. I need to dye more fabric (!) and cut more triangles (!). I haven’t reached my 1,008 triangle count yet. I have 724 triangles, so 284 more are needed. How many colors will there be in this quilt? More than 27!
Welcome! This is where I share my musings on being a quilter, and the things I make, dye and quilt. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy your visit. Have a creative day!