Having fun

At last, it is going together. I did go fabric shopping way back when and brought home pinks and purples and reds. Sometimes it’s fun just to look at new fabric and fondle it for a while. Last week, I finally plunged in and started cutting it up.

Some of the templates I made were not quite right and I had to re-do them. The angles on the basic heart parallelograms are a whacky 51.36 degrees – not standard 45s or 60s. Then, I didn’t like the look of the lines and labels. I asked friends on my quilt designers list for help. They were generous with offers to redraw them for me. One designer on the list reminded me about upping the dpi (dots per inch) with raster graphics and then reducing them for the final templates. Of course she was right. I’d forgotten all about that simple technique.

I like to take process photos to include in my patterns if necessary. Sometimes a drawing will be best for explaining a detail and other times a photo is better. I take the photos as I go along so I can decide later.

My patterns are usually at least eight or nine pages with some color inside. The other day I saw a pattern online and sent away for it. When it arrived it was one folded black & white page in a color cover! I could not believe it. It merely had rotary cutting dimensions and a line drawing of the finished quilt.

So far I have completed 12 rows and only have seven more to go for the table topper before I quilt it (by hand). Next, I’ll make larger templates for a bed-size quilt and have it tested by a quilter. There is a long way to go. It is fun to be creating something again.

I’m trying to come up with a pattern title. So far I’ve thought of “Dear to my Heart,” and “Dear Hearts.” There is a back story for those. Click here.