The first thing you’ll notice about this book is its size and shape.  Unlike the typical 8-½ x 11″ soft-cover quilting book, this one measures 8-¾” square.  Its 128 pages are packed with beautiful color photography and step-by-step instructions.

After introducing the core tools and basic techniques, the book is divided into six categories of embellishment techniques:

• embellishing with decorative stitching
• embellishing with ribbon and braid
• embellishing with surface decoration
• embellishing with appliqué
• embellishing with treasures
• embellishing with art media

Each category is introduced with a gallery section of whole quilts and detail photos featuring some of the techniques.  Then the techniques section presents a featured block for each technique, what you will need to make the block, explanatory notes about any unique materials or tools, step-by-step instructions and tips – all illustrated with detailed color photographs.  The book also includes templates, a list of resources and a handy index.

The Quilter’s Directory of Embellishments is well organized, thoughtfully presented and very inspiring.  I have experimented with a variety of quilt embellishments over the years and have used some of the techniques included in this book.  But there are some new ideas here, or new variations on an idea, that I would definitely like to try.  Next week, we’ll take a closer look at some of the quilt embellishments that I have used and, who knows, maybe I will try a couple new ones from the book by then!

Equilateral Triangles
An equilateral triangle, or a regular triangle, has three sides of equal length and three equal interior angles of 60°.

When I think of equilateral triangles in quilts, I think of Thousand Pyramids.  As I was doing a little research into this quilt design, I realized that it isn’t limited to equilateral triangles – any isosceles triangle will do.  That is to say, it requires two sides of equal length, not necessarily three.  Nevertheless, let’s take a look at Thousand Pyramids and some of its variations.

In this first example, equilateral triangles are sewn together into rows.  The second and alternating rows are mirror images of the first row.  The upward pointing triangles are one color and the downward pointing triangles another.

Another option is to color opposite triangles in such a way as to form diamonds.  This version is sometimes called Tumblers, although tumblers can also be a different shape altogether.

By off-setting the rows of triangles, Thousand Pyramids becomes Lightning.  In this coloration, with the dark triangles pointing down and the light triangles pointing up, a Dog’s Tooth design is created.

But by coloring the upward-pointing and downward-pointing triangles as a row, you get the Streak of Lightning effect.

Scalene Triangles
A scalene triangle has three unequal sides.  The interior angles may vary, but for quilters one of them is usually 90°.

This block is called Double Z and it has both scalene and isosceles triangles.  The light and dark violet patches are the scalene triangles.

Often, scalene triangle patches are found in blocks where a rectangular patch is divided in half diagonally.  Such is the case in this Nosegay block.

This example is just full of scalene triangles.  The block is called Cool Fan – just what we need in this summer heat!

Acute and Obtuse Triangles
These triangles are identified by their interior angles.  An acute triangle has three interior angles that are less than 90° whereas an obtuse triangle has one interior angle which is greater than 90°.

Many of the scalene triangles in the examples above are also acute triangles.  Patchwork blocks with obtuse triangles tend to also have acute triangles – which makes sense when you think about it.  In The Priscilla block, obtuse triangles fill in the space formed by the acute triangles.

I really like the look of this block set on point.

One of the first quilts that I ever made – the first quilt, I believe, that I finished – was made from a block of squares and half-square triangles.  The quilt, called Cabin Lights, was pictured on the cover of the first issue of Quiltmaker magazine that I ever bought (which must have been sometime in 1994).  The design is created by the position of light and dark color values.  It was presented in the magazine as a scrap quilt but since I didn’t have any scraps yet, I had to buy all the light and dark blue fabrics that I used in the quilt.  I called my quilt “Miles To Go Before I Sleep”, because the wintry trees in the border fabric reminded me of Robert Frost’s poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

There are so many blocks made entirely from half-square triangles, it is hard to decide which ones to feature.  So let’s choose from some of the quilts I have made.  This first block is an old classic called “Corn and Beans”.  Where the four blocks came together in the middle, I replaced some of the smaller triangles with a large one to create space for the appliqué.  A pieced border echoes the shapes formed by the blocks.  The result is a 24-½” square wall quilt called Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Another block made entirely from half-square triangles – with a name near and dear to my heart – is Lady of the Lake.  Again, I modified the block by replacing some of the small triangles so that four blocks together would have open background space.  In this space, I appliquéd cottage-themed sewflakes – papercut appliqué designs.

I discovered something interesting while I was designing this quilt.  When two sets of half-square triangles came together along the outer edges of the Lady of the Lake blocks, they formed a flying geese unit.  This is how I ultimately constructed the quilt, also adding a border of half-square triangles to complete the flying geese around the outside edges.

The entire quilt measures 64″ square and is called Be Still.

This final example was chosen because it illustrates a less traditional use of half-square triangles.  The blocks were made using Paula Nadelstern’s simple symmetry technique.  Four half-square triangles were cut from the exact same location in symmetrical fabric as well as four mirror-images of those triangles.  When the eight triangles were sewn together, beautiful kaleidoscopic images were formed.  In this case, the triangles are just the tool that was used to create shapes that are anything but geometric.  I’d say, based on our categories of shapes, the kaleidoscopic images are non-objective or maybe even accidental.

Believe it or not, I have more to say about triangles!  This is because half-square triangles, while predominant, are not the only kind of triangles used in quilts.  Next week, we’ll look at equilateral, scalene, acute and obtuse triangles to discover what amazing effects they can produce in quilt design.

Swath Tool
This tool is found on the Appliqué tab in the Block Worktable.  Here’s how it works.  You draw a path…

and then EQ7 fills in the path with either diamonds…

or flying geese!  Pretty cool, right?

I read an article about curved flying geese that stated they were quite easy to construct using paper foundation piecing.  Paper foundations are available from the Print Menu, so I checked to see how EQ7 would handle this curved flying geese unit.  Beautiful!

Serendipity Tools
These tools are found in the Block Menu.  EQ6 included three serendipity tools (which I may have noticed before, but just forgot):  Frame Block, Tilt Block, and Merge Blocks.  EQ7 adds four more and they’re pretty fun.

Click & Flip Blocks
This tool takes the top left corner of a block and flips it around to create new combinations.  Watch what it does with this Maltese Cross block.

Shrink & Flip Blocks
This tool shrinks a block to one quarter and uses that to create new combinations.  Here’s what happens with an Hourglass block.

Kaleidoscope Blocks
This one is very cool.  It uses a triangular portion of a block to create new combinations.  Here’s our Maltese Cross block again, followed by an Orange Peel block.  Amazing!

Fancy Star Blocks
This tool fits a block into a diamond shape, and uses those diamonds to create a star.  You can choose how many points in the star – between 5 and 10.  Here are the same two blocks in an eight-pointed star.

There’s a lot more to see and do in EQ7 – these are just a few highlights.  If you would like to learn how to use this amazing quilt design software, watch for my fall schedule and two EQ7 classes coming soon.

The first thing you’ll probably notice when you open EQ7 is a new worktable.  In EQ6, we had two worktables:  one for working on blocks and one for working on quilts.  In EQ7, there is now a third worktable for working on images.

EQ6 Two Worktables

EQ7 Three Worktables

What can you do on the image worktable?  Tons of stuff!  EQ7 offers the kind of image editing capabilities you find in programs such as Corel Photo-Paint and Adobe Photoshop Elements.  (See my previous articles on Printing Fabric, Part 2 and Part 4.)  You can crop, resize, and rotate.  You can adjust the colors, automatically or using the many color tools.  You can apply a wide variety of special effects. 

You can also create fabulous kaleidoscopes from your images using the circular or square symmetry tools.  This reminds me of the Kaleidoscope Kreator software I mentioned in a previous article.  All your image editing can be done within EQ7 and saved to your Sketchbook, ready to use in a quilt design.  So let’s try it.  Here’s a photo of a morning glory:

Let’s apply a square symmetry…

and change the photo into this:

Next, we’ll set the image in a quilt…

and start adding borders.  Now here’s something really neat:  the Eyedropper tool can find a matching color or a matching fabric from a color in the photo!  Isn’t that cool?

Here are a few quilt designs:

There’s one more amazing thing I have to show you.  It’s a new quilt layout called Photo Patchwork.  Here’s the morning glory photo overlaid with a square patchwork grid.

The grid doesn’t show up very well in the illustration, but watch this.  EQ7 will fill in each square with solid colors…

or with matching fabrics!

How cool is that?!  There are still more great new features in EQ7 I’d like to tell you about, but I guess they’ll have to wait until next week.  If you haven’t ordered EQ7 or your EQ7 upgrade yet, what are you waiting for?

The first place I went looking was Quilting Arts Magazine.  Their website features a Photo Gallery where readers can submit their quilt and fiber art.  This is where the first three examples were located.

“Green in the Middle” by Meta Heemskerk

The fuzzy centers are made from thread and embroidery floss stitched on water-soluble stabilizer.  They are set onto squares of painted Lutradur (a 100% polyester spun bond non-woven translucent web) and mounted on a painted canvas.

“Gandhi Fabric Mosiac Strip Quilt” by Diana’s Art Quilts

Isn’t this amazing?  Especially when you consider that this representation of Mahatma Gandhi is made entirely from ¼-inch rectangles!  Diana states that she made this 18″ x 20″ block as a donation to a theme quilt on racism.

“Sunset” by Sue Bleiweiss

This rectangle in a square was made from hand-dyed silk, rolled and made into cord, and glass beads.

“Rectangle Reunion” by Moran Art and Quilts

This rectangular study is for sale!  Check it out on Etsy…

“3D Squares” by Moran Art and Quilts

Also for sale on Etsy, this quilt truly does give the illusion of three-dimensional floating squares.

“Geometrus 2 (Noonday Walk)” by Kay Haerland

I love this quilt!  Kay says she wanted to see if she could create a landscape using geometric shapes, in this case, rectangles.  Definitely!  This quilt was exhibited at the 2005 Pacific International Quilt Festival XIV and won fourth place for Open Art Quilts at the 2005 Sydney Quilt Show.

“Square Dance Quilt” by Marcia Dean

Even though this quilt is contructed with traditional patchwork, it has a very art quilt feel to it.  It is available for sale at the Cambridge Artists Cooperative.

“Kid’s Garden Trellis” by Ann Anderson

What a fun and vibrant use of rectangles!  This quilt is for sale from Ann Anderson Designs.

“Springtime Forever” by Isabelle Wiessler

Isn’t this a beautiful use of squares?  This quilt understandably earned the Judge’s Choice award in the 2006 Husqvarna Viking Quilt Competition “Imagine That!”

Squares
The humble square is such an important shape in quilts – after all, most quilt blocks are square!  One of the first quilts I ever made was a baby quilt for my neice.  Simple Four Patch blocks alternate with plain squares for a quick and easy, yet pleasing, quilt design.

Another popular quilt design based on a square is the Irish Chain and all its many variations.  This version is a Triple Irish Chain.

I made this Irish Chain quilt using fabric prints that blend gradually from one to the next to create a colorwash effect.  What a difference!  It becomes more difficult to discern the shape of each square patch when the edges are less defined.

When a square is set on point, it looks more like a diamond.  The Arbor Window quilt block features squares set on point.  Technically, this block requires triangles to finish the edges, but they are barely visible in the quilt design.

Rectangles
The first block made of rectangles that comes to mind is Rail Fence.  I’ve made a couple Rail Fence quilts because they are so quick and easy – with no matching required!  Unfortunately, these quilts were made before the era of digital photography so I don’t have any pictures readily available.  Here’s an EQ6 Rail Fence design:

Another popular rectangular quilt design is the Log Cabin.  Traditionally, this block has a square in the center, but here’s a version with a rectangle in the middle.

I searched a little further and came across a very interesting block, also made entirely from rectangles, called Rainbow Steps.  There are so many effects that can be created from this block, and here are three examples done in EQ6.

 Next week:  triangles.

A shape is a two-dimensional form defined by boundaries that separate it from its surroundings.  The edges can be perceived by a line, or by color, value or other changes between the shapes.  A shape is a distinct visual unit.  In the following three examples, you can clearly see the shape of a circle with or without a line to define the edges.

Shapes can be categorized into groups.  Interestingly, my resource books defined these categories differently, with no two texts producing the exact same list.  There are similarities and overlaps, but also some differences, so let’s take a look at them all.  (The numbers correspond to the books listed in the bibliography; the color coding highlights the similarities and differences.)

Geometric shapes are the essential elements in patchwork blocks.  Included in this category are squares, rectangles, triangles, hexagons, octagons, trapezoids, diamonds and circles.  Design Concepts and Applications subdivided this category further, classifying basic geometric shapes that are not used in combination with one another as simple geometric.  Complex rectilinear shapes combine simple geometric shapes that result in straight line and surface configurations; complex curvilinear shapes incorporate curved as well as straight lines.

Natural shapes are derived from anything in the natural environment, including the human form.  A shape that is categorized as realistic could also be natural; however, natural wouldn’t likely include anything man-made whereas realistic could.

Organic shapes are described by free-flowing curves – loose, non-specific, non-rigid shapes.  Organic shapes can also be found in nature, so perhaps they could be considered as part of the natural category of shapes.

An abstract shape is an altered natural shape.  It can be stylized, simplified or otherwise transformed from a real object.  This definition for abstract surprised me, as I would have considered it to be more like the description for this next category.

Non-objective shapes do not originate in any recognizable shape or object.  They are similar to abstract shapes but they do not represent any idea or object.  This categorization was completely new to me, but it was a common grouping in three out of four of my resource books.

At first glance, I thought that perhaps accidental shapes would be non-objective as well.  These shapes are created in an unintentional, unplanned manner – like throwing paint on a wall.  They are defined more by the process that was used to create them; the result might then be described as organic or non-objective.

Next week, we’ll start looking at examples of how the element of shape is used in quilt design.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary includes the following definitions for art: 

• skill acquired by experience, study or observation
• an occupation requiring knowledge or skill
• the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects, also: works so produced

These definitions would certainly seem to include quilting as an art form, but the meaning of the word art gets confusing in the quilt world.  We generally agree that quilts are works of art, and yet we have a separate classification of “art quilt”.  What does this mean?  Are all quilts art or only some of them?  Lorre M. Weidlich, in his article “Quilts and Art: Value Systems in Conflict” (The Quilt Journal, Volume 4, Number 1, 1995), suggests that art quilts are intended to meet the standards of the art world.  It’s an interesting subject and a fascinating article, but that’s not what this series is about.

Whether we make “art quilts” or not, there is a lot we can learn from the study of art and design.  I consider myself a traditional quilter, albeit a contemporary and sometimes innovative one.  Nevertheless, I still work with line and shape and texture; I also must strive to achieve harmony, unity and balance in my designs.

My references for this series include six books with an interesting variety in focus and approach.  Future articles will footnote back to this list:

1.  art + quilt: Design Principles and Creativity Exercises, by Lyric Kinard (Interweave Press, 2009)

2.  Design Concepts and Applications, by Frank Cheatham, Jane Cheatham, and Sheryl Haler (Prentice-Hall, 1983)

3.  Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter, by Katie Pasquini Masopust (C&T Publishing, 2008)

4.  Design Through Discovery: An Introduction to Art and Design, by Marjorie E. Bevlin (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1989)

5.  The Quilter’s Book of Design, by Ann Johnston (Ann Johnston Publisher, 2008)

6.  The Visual Dance: Creating Spectacular Quilts, by Joen Wolfrom (C&T Publishing, 1995)

I designed the center panel as I have designed much of my recent work.  I drew one-quarter of the design to scale, then flipped it and rotated it to complete the entire design.  But I worked in sections, just as I have been describing them to you.  (To see the previous 6 sections, visit the category Current Quilt Project.)  I traced a section at a time onto the background fabric; fabric selections were made for each section once the previous section was appliquéd.  So, while I had a pretty good idea of what it was going to look like, I hadn’t seen the entire center panel until sections 7 and 8 were stitched. 

Section 7 Left Side

Section 7 Right Side

Sections 7 and 8 are quite similar.  One runs horizontally across the top and bottom edge of the center panel; the other runs vertically down each side.  Once again, each section has a left and right side, meeting in the center and joining up with sections 2 and 3.  Section 8 also joins with section 6.

Section 8 Left Side

Section 8 Right Side

There are quite a number of patches in these last two sections:  26 in section 7 and 28 in section 8.  With these sections repeating four times, a total of 216 patches were added to the appliqué.  This brings the final tally to 182 individual patches and 665 total patches in the entire center panel.  It’s a good thing I didn’t count them before I started!

So, what comes next?  Borders.  The first border will be a frame for the center panel.  I’ve done a small mock-up but I haven’t tried it on full size.  This is because I am waiting until the appliqué on the second border is completed and I can view everything together.  Stay tuned!