Patchwork triangles are too hard for me….or so I thought!

This article is written by Anna Heather, quilter and maker at The Sewing Studio. 

I don’t mind admitting that I steer away from sewing patchwork triangles which is a shame as I like the look and complexity they bring to quilts. This fear of anything pointed stems from some Christmas star place mats I attempted to make a few years ago, I got so frustrated with nothing matching up, fabric stretching and unpicking more than I was sewing, I gave up. Needless to say, these are firmly in the never-to-be-finished ‘WIP’ pile along with an oversized quilt, quilted jacket, hexagon quilt (second attempt at pointy things) and a peacock wall hanging, to name a few!

I was cutting some Moda Chelsea Garden fabric for a order a couple of weeks ago and as ever I ooohed and aaaahed and stroked, thinking about what I could make. One of the fabrics in particular made me think of my Great Aunt, a keen gardener and lover of flowers. I already had plans to make her a quilt, now I have the perfect fabric, but what pattern to use with it?

As luck would have it, we had a visit from Pam Lintott of Pam and Nicky Quilts a few days later and I fell in love with their Spring Fever quilt, I could see exactly how the Moda Chelsea Garden range would suit the pattern. My Aunt’s living room is blue so the colour scheme would work perfectly but as you can see - the design is full of those pointy triangles!

Nevertheless, full of excitement and a large dose of trepidation I purchased the pattern and started to read through it, “OK Anna, sort of makes sense, you can do this” I chose my fabrics and set to work.

I read through the instructions again. They were very clear and easy to follow with techniques for dealing with fabric cut on the bias which turned out to be a game changer. The time had come to put on my big girl pants and start cutting.

It took me a whole morning to cut all the pieces. The cuts are simple straight lines but I was taking my time to be as accurate as I could. A quick sandwich and packet of crisps later, I started piecing.

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One of the great things I learnt from the techniques is the power of pinning. I confess I am a bit of a lazy sewer and don’t tend to pin when sewing small pieces, however this was a game changer for accurate seams, I never appreciated how much the fabric pieces move when sewing, now I pin, pin and pin some more.

Now, when it comes to pressing, I never used to set a seam, until Katrina told me the of the error of my ways in that you should always set a seam to sink thread into the fabric and remove any small puckers. Take it from me, it truly does make a difference to the end result.

Another great technique that Pam and Nicky share in this pattern is to set the seam pressing in a up and down motion along the seam of the triangles, to avoid distortion. Who knew? Probably a lot of you but not something I knew. Again this made such a difference to the finished size of the pieces and I now realise where I was going wrong. That said, I have no intention of picking up the Christmas placements any time soon.

Before I knew it, two blocks were finished and looking pretty good, even if I do say so myself. Full of confidence, going full steam ahead, I then sewed the next 16 pieces on the wrong edge. A few choice words at my stitch unpick later and I was back where I started. To avoid this happening again, instead of making two blocks at a time, I decided to piece all of the sections first so that the correct edge to be sewn was firmly in my mind. Like a production line I set to it pinning and chain piecing each section.

That’s as far as I have got as the sun came out in Cornwall giving me an opportunity to get on with some jobs in the garden. The quilt will be a Christmas present so I have time. Thanks to this pattern though, I no longer have a fear of triangles and am looking forward to finishing this quilt, if for no other reason than to stop the cats ‘helping’ me and getting fur all over the fabric – got to love them!