Tribal Crossing for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol 9

May 2, 2014 

Q & A with Anita

What inspired Tribal Crossing?

The "blade" shape seen in the traditional  Key West Beauty block that I patterned in one of my paper piecing books. It became a 30 inch quilt which grew to a 38 foot wide image in Times Square Details

I reprised the shape in my signature No-Waste Windmill block  Details

And now it's pretty in pink

What techniques were used?

• It's paper pieced with appliquéd circles. I cinched the circles over 1" mylar circles

How did you make the circles?

• I could have fused them per Quiltmaker's recommendation but wanting handwork during travel, I needle-turned them and then attached them with a machine zig zag stitch

Are the circles necessary?

• They are the icing on the cake don’t you think?

Do you precut patches for paper piecing the background?

• I do

Templates may be made by cutting a couple of Tribal Crossing patterns apart into subunits. Before cutting out the subunits, add a 1/4 inch seam allowance to each subunit. I use paper templates that I generate with Electric Quilt (EQ) software

• There are two sets of shapes that are the reverse of each other. They’re asymmetrical. That's four patches plus the center triangle

• I also used EQ to mock up other colors:

 How many templates are needed to cut the four patches? 

•  Only two. The trick is to always cut two same shape patches simultaneously from a folded piece of fabric. It won't matter if you fold the fabric right side or wrong sides together (Yes, you could use one patch and layer the fabric in fourths)

It won't matter if the template is right side or wrong side up. You'll wind up with two patches that are always the reverse of each other. As long as you can cut through two layers of fabric, you've got it made.

What paper do you print the foundation pattern on?

• I use my very own thin translucent vellum, Simple Foundations, for my original no-pin paper piecing method

How do you get away with no pins? 

1. Get creative and position two copies of the foundation onto a sheet of paper exactly across from each other, 1/2" apart. The words  “Tribal Crossing Section” in the seam allowances will be opposite each other
2. Print this composite  onto a sheet of vellum
3. Carefully fold and crease the vellum in half so that each section is aligned exactly on top of each other. You need vellum to see the alignment Piece the sections Refold the pieced foundation along the original crease
4. Without a pin, sew the same seam that you would have if you had pieced two separate sections Think of Humpty-Dumpty. If you don’t cut a foundation pattern apart, you don’t have to put it back together again



I paper pieced Tribal Crossing blocks aboard the ms. Westerdam last Saturday night
 while between Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. I taught on Road To California's
Panama Canal Quilt cruise

Do you sell the block pattern for Tribal Crossing? 
• I don’t but Quiltmaker does Purchase the issue
Visual Learner? 
• Watch this 2003 video on HGTV.com to see examples of how I paper piece


Where might I take a Workshop from you?
• I’ll be teaching next month  on Quiltmaker’s sold-out Block Party at Sea, a cruise through Alaska with Carolyn Beam, Debbie Caffrey, Diane Harris, Margie Ullery and Editor-in-Chief June Dudley
• I’m always available in my 3 1/2 hour class on Craftsy.com.  It includes “Anita’s Arrowhead” expanded from the pages of Quiltmaker Magazine. It includes a bonus PDF version of my C&T Publishing book Rotary Cutting Revolution with its more than 300 images. You can win it.
• There’s the Houston Quilt Festival in October and I’ll teach next winter on the Quantum in the Caribbean.
Giveaways (3)

Nan_c won the issue of 100 Blocks because her reply happened to post on Friday, May 2, 2014 at 2:11:00 PM EDT and 2-11 happened to be my husband's birthday. The odds of that are 3 out of 4,319, or about 0.07%


The first and last commentors, Anita (!) and CapitolaQuilter each won the Craftsy class.
 


What are you up to quilting-wise? 
• Tell all by commenting, what are you up to quilting-wise, below. *** Answer by Monday May 5th at Noon eastern time for a chance to win a copy of Quiltmaker’s 100 Bocks Vol 9
• Should you miss the Noon vol 9 cut-off you’re still eligible to comment until a week from today because on Friday, May 9th at Noon, I’ll be awarding, courtesy of Craftsy.com,  my Craftsy class to each of  TWO commenters 
• It will be complete with the downloadable course materials and bonus PDF book
Make it Simpler,

Anita
***
1.   Anonymous comments aren't eligible as they don't provide me with a way to contact you L
2.  Your comment must be applied to this particular blog post. Some quilters left comments on a 2013 Quiltmaker 100 blog posting of mine L