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How Do You Make A Snowball? - 3 |
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Just A Minute Now!
It was Fall of 2009. Ruth was getting hooked on paper piecing. Meanwhile, we had long discussions on terminating our Block Of the Month [BOM] Clubs because people just came in and got their new blocks and left! They didn't look at the new fabric, books, or tools or even the new displays.
They just "Vamos'ed" as if there were a bad odor in the shop. Some brought their husbands to sit in the car so they could leave immediately! Some had doctor's appointments! In any event, they didn't stay!
At the same time we had just made a move to include additional colors, such as Shadow Play by Maywood Studio to join the old staple of Moda Marbles in what we had at that time, our 100 feet of color walls. [Note: We no longer carry 45" fabric.]
As I said, Ruth had been working with Paper Piecing projects, which are very exact. Ruth, then, envisioned a quilt that could be made of fabrics such as Shadow Play or Marbles, designed, made and assembled her quilt. She named it the Quilt Of Many Colors [RGR112] for a Block Of The Month Club [BOM].
In this quilt, each block is comprised of a dark and a light color. This makes it excellent for school-themed quilts. Each of the twelve blocks consists of a frame and a center mini-block. All of the frames are exactly the same, except the colors change. All of the central mini-blocks are of a different design, but all are the same size. Each of the frames has twenty corner triangles, making the entire quilt having two hundred forty corner triangles just for the frames. Then look at the mini-blocks - there are even more corner triangles - Oh, my!
Ruth had tasked me with writing a newsletter on it. So, after a little arguing about even having BOMs or not, I complied.
Woops!
Just after I pressed "Send" on the newsletter, she came hurrying in saying "Stop the press! Nobody can make it!" "I've always been known for easy to follow instructions that make the complex easy and quilters. Making this with the only technique out there, the 'Sew & Flip' will have quilts that have rounded edges like old fashioned TVs.!" "My customers will hate me!"
I told her "Too late!. It was already sent!" So, what did Ruth do? I would have been bummed out and sulked for a week. Not Ruth. She sat down and came up with the precursor to the Perfect Corner Ruler[TM]. She reverse engineered paper piecing and "Flip & Sew" and applied it to a template. She came up with the Perfect Corner Method(TM). However, a paper template is not long lasting nor can you see the fabric underneath.
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I went across the street to the Family True Value Hardware store and had them cut the first squares out of plexiglass. We printed the markings we needed on see-through labels. We applied the labels to the plexiglass blocks.
Wallah! our first BOM of thirty quilters was a success! All the quilts came out square!
That third iteration was the Perfect Corner Ruler(TM) as we know it today: acrylic, accurate measuring scale, a corner square conversion column, scalable, and successful.
Side Effects
Originally, Ruth did not want a corner square conversion column. However, in one instance I added 3 1/2" and 3/4" and got a total of 3 1/4" because I forgot to carry the 1 to get the proper answer of 4 1/4". So, we quickly saw that if a Math Major from the University of Oregon "can't do math", then why should we expect a quilter not to make the same mistake.
The colored corner square conversion column was "in"!
A second side effect was when Sandi Brothers, owner of The Quilt Of Many Colors Quilt Shop, opened the email announcing the Quilt Of Many Colors quilt, she was astounded to see her name-sake shop in a quilt! So she ordered some patterns. We struck up a wonderful friendship.
Q & A
A: It still gives the most accurate results to quilters of all levels of experience.
Q: Does it always save fabric?
A: If the corner square is 1/4" or smaller, it may not save fabric, but it is the best way to the an accurate corner triangle at that size. All sizes of corner squares greater than 1/4" will save fabric.
Q: It appears that you are no longer making patterns under the pseudonym of "Raggedy Ruth Designs". Where can we find patterns that use your Perfect Corner Method/Ruler?
A: Any pattern with a right corner triangle will work. The key is if the pattern uses "corner squares". Such patterns are normally called "Flying Geese", "Square-In-A-Square", "Snowball", "Star Points", "Pointed Rectangle", and "Corner Triangles" where the two legs are the same size. For example, many patterns from Quilt In A Day have corner triangles.
Q: How does it work?
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Al Fin
I trust that this was of assistance or interest. If you have any questions that need to be answered, on this or other longarming or quilting topics, then please write to me at RickG@ForeverInStitches.com or call 219.255.8085.
Thank you for your time and interest.
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May The Lord Richly Bless You!
Rick & Ruth Grihalva
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At Forever In Stitches our goal is to further the art of quilting and longarming.
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