double hourglass

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Headed South for the Winter

December 10, 2009 in Finished Objects | 12 comments

No, not me. Sadly.  Staying up in the chilly Northeast.

But this quilt is headed to El Salvador, which sounds absolutely delightful right about now.

Odyssea Double Hourglass

A good friend of mine had me make this one as a gift for a family friend who lives in El Salvador.  I actually had it finished over a week ago, but was waiting for word on the new baby’s arrival so I could put the initials on the back.  I had a bit of fun using the Odyssea line from Moda.

Odyssea Double Hourglass

Thanks to all for suggestions on how to quilt it. I went with Angela’s plan to do diagonal lines.  The blue border was a suggestion from, of all people, my husband. And I love it! It’s Kona Cotton in Cadet, sort of a lighter navy blue.

Odyssea Double Hourglass

The double hourglass blocks, as I mentioned before, are from the tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew.  You must try it if you haven’t.  Not hard, and awesome results!  This one started with 2″ strips.  The whole quilt was about 30×36 before washing.

Odyssea Double Hourglass

As an aside, I am NOT a fan of taking pictures of quilts indoors! Hard to get a good angle, hard to get back far enough with my fixed 50mm lens, hard to get the colors to come out right. Blech! Stupid winter… think I can stowaway with my friend and this quilt?

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Square it up

November 24, 2009 in Piecing, Quilting | 11 comments

I’m working on what may very well be my final finished quilt for the year.  It’s another custom order for a friend of mine to give as a baby gift, and I decided to try out the double-hourglass tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew.  It has been, indeed, quite easy and I strongly recommend giving it a try.

The only thing is that some of the cutting and trimming is a little tedious.  My blocks ended up about 6¼”, so I trimmed them all down to 6″.  I’ve never really done much squaring up like that, mostly because I’m lazy and it’s boring.  But, man, I really think it made all the difference in how the points are lining up (reasonably well) and how the top came together (very nice and flat).  Lesson learned: suck it up, trim blocks, and you’ll thank yourself.

Double hourglass sneak peak

I’ve also been pressing the seams open, which totally goes counter to what I was taught, but I really think is the right choice when there are all of these crazy angles coming together.  On the plus side, even the back looks kind of pretty.

Double hourglass sneak peak

Now, though, I’m stuck.  How on earth to quilt this thing?  It’s small, only about 30×36.  I’m nervous to stipple it, because of the bulky seams at the corners of the blocks, but I’m not sure I want to do straight lines, either.  So, if you had a quilt of double-hourglass blocks, how would you quilt it?

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