A Celtic Knots Lesson in Fabric Contrast

Last Sunday, I showed you how I made my first Celtic Knots block.

I loved it!

So I picked out three more fabric sets and made three more blocks.

Then I put all four on the design wall.

That was when I noticed something important: the two blocks on the upper right…

…didn’t have enough contrast.

Some of the fabrics blended together, and the knot design wasn’t as clear as I wanted.

It’s a good reminder that I need to look carefully at the fabrics within each block, not just at how pretty they look together in a stack. The design wall helped me see something I hadn’t noticed while I was sewing.

Will I keep those two blocks or remake them? I’m going to wait until I’ve made the other 23 blocks and can see how everything works together.

If they still stand out for the wrong reasons, they’re history—or perhaps they’ll find a home on the back of the quilt!

Note to self: Make good fabric choices!

……………………………………………………………………………………….

Do you have a stack of scraps that you want to use in a fun design?

Check out this pattern for a quick and easy scrap quilt that will help empty your bins and bring a smile to your face!!

Full-color pattern includes step-by-step instructions for blocks and border.

Click HERE for more information.

Bonus HSTs from My Celtic Knots

In Saturday’s post, I showed you how I sewed a background square diagonally onto the end of a fabric strip for my Celtic Knots quilt. I promised to tell you what happened to the fabric in that corner!

I don’t like cutting off and throwing away a generous piece of fabric. So, after sewing the first diagonal line, I stitched a second line about 1/2-inch away from the first line…

Before cutting anything apart, I used the ironing method I learned years ago. First, I pressed the larger triangle into place and checked that it was straight…

Then I folded it back and pressed the smaller triangle, too…

Now that I KNOW both seams are properly pressed, I cut between the two lines of stitching…

I pressed them back in place and ended up with the strip I needed for the block and an extra half-square triangle (HST)!…

At some point, I’ll pull out my Bloc-Loc ruler and square up all these bonus HSTs. What will I use them for? Who knows! But they’re ready for a future project instead of going into the trash.

My First Celtic Knots Block Is Finished!

After lunch on Saturday, I switched from my Hunter’s Star quilt to Celtic Knots.

I started by cutting 2½-inch and 4½-inch squares from the background fabric.

As I started to select the scraps to use, I realized it would be easier to use the fabrics in groups of four for each block. I chose four strips that looked good together…

…stacked them, and cut a 6½-inch rectangle and two 2½-inch squares from each strip.

I dealt with the leftovers as I went, cutting whatever I could into 2½-inch or 2-inch squares. The smaller pieces went into my crumb drawers.

The first sewing step was to join a 2½-inch fabric square to a background square.

Next, I sewed a background square diagonally onto the end of each 6½-inch rectangle. Instead of marking every sewing line, I used the guide I had marked on my sewing machine…

I started at the top corner…

… checked that the bottom corner stayed on my marked line, and sewed across.

This step also gave me some bonus squares, but I’ll tell you more about those on Tuesday!

Next, I sewed the two small square units to a larger background square…

Then it was time to lay out the pieces…

At last, I could see the Celtic Knot design taking shape!

The final step was to add another “snowball” corner to each of the outer corners of the block.

One block finished!

I’ll leave it there for now. Come back on Thursday for more about the process—and on Tuesday, I’ll show you what happened to those bonus squares.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Subscribe to my mailing list and receive this free pattern for “Dancing Squares”…..

You can sign up HERE……

A Saturday Morning with the Hunter’s Star

It was Saturday morning, before 8:00, and I was already in my studio with an entire day free.

As my mug says, “Life IS GOOD.”

I planned to spend the morning working on my Hunter’s Star quilt. I started by using Bonnie Hunter’s Essential Triangle Tool to cut strips into the triangles that would become half-square triangles (HSTs).

Once I started sewing, I realized I had to pay close attention. If I wasn’t careful, one corner wouldn’t match quite right…

For the few that needed help, I pulled out my Bloc-Loc ruler…

and trimmed off the necessary slivers…

After making several sets of four matching HSTs, I began sewing two from each set together to form diamonds. I started laying them out and realized I needed another look at the pattern…

I printed the design from EQ and colored in the diamonds so I could see how everything fit together…

That helped me spot something I had missed: the diamonds needed to be sewn in different orientations. I started making them in groups of ten so I could keep track of which was which…

I also remembered that I still needed larger squares for the corners.

Eventually, I could lay out the block, minus those corner squares..

And then came my biggest realization of the morning: I wasn’t piecing a whole star at once. The corner portions of the blocks were going to form the star…. DUH!! No wonder I couldn’t visualize how it was going to work.

When I stopped for lunch, I had about 40 diamond sets put together (out of 160), and HSTs from each color combination set aside for the filler portions of the blocks…

I think this quilt will be fun to piece, but I’ll definitely need to keep my wits about me.

It’s the kind of project that rewards slowing down, checking the layout, and enjoying the moment when the pattern finally makes sense.

Have you made patterns like this???

…………………………………………………………….

“Let’s Get Scrappy is about how to decide, not about what to make.”

Let’s Get Scrappy is an on-demand online course that helps quilters overcome decision fatigue and finally make sense of their overflowing scrap bins. With four hours of step-by-step video instruction, you’ll learn simple systems for organizing, piecing, and pressing your scraps—so you can stop overthinking and start sewing beautiful, coordinated quilts with confidence and joy.

Click HERE for more information about Let’s Get Scrappy!!

When Sewing Direction Matters

In my last post, I used Bonnie Hunter’s Essential Triangle Tool to cut half-square triangles from 2½-inch strips. I placed the fabrics right sides together before cutting, then clipped the matched triangles into groups of four.

With all of the cutting finished, I sat down at the sewing machine and started chain piecing.

For the first group, I began sewing at the clipped-off end of each triangle. That left the pointed end as the last part to pass under the needle.

It seemed like the logical way to sew them—but it didn’t work very well.

As the triangles moved under the presser foot, one layer slipped out of position too easily. By the time I reached the pointed end, the edges were no longer aligned.