And BOOM... done

And just like that I'm done!

Over here 🠜🠜🠜 we have  blocks K, O and J

On one O block you can see I used some scraps to make a strip - not sure I like it right now but I will lay it out and see how it looks 

Over here 🠞🠞 we have blocks E, H G and N

and lastly blocks A, B, C and D!

Next is working out the layout for them all, I'm going to fire up trusty Microsoft Word and get it looking pretty 

Busy Bee...

More blocks for The Split Herringbone Quilt

Here 🠝🠝🠝 we have long blocks W, V, Z and Y

These are blocks L, I, N and R

In these two pictures are the hardest blocks so far and you'd never guess which ones!

Nope not the ones that are split in half... it was the simplest looking blocks out of the whole thing - the ones that are just blocks of fabric with black corners (also known as V and I).

I couldn't get the bloody fabric to sit straight! the long ones where the worst, every time I sewed the opposite corner the fabric would shift and there would be puckers in the whole thing - lots of unpicking went on for those blocks.

I tried basting down the sides of the fabric to stop it shifting... but it shifted! If I knew it was going to be that hard I wouldn't have used foundation paper and instead just do it the normal way

 

Split Herringbone Blocks

 I have been hard at work this last week and have manged to complete some some of my blocks

Blocks F, S, P and M

Foundation piecing is super quick once you get into a rhythm - I had two mishaps where I sliced off the wrong part but I learnt from it (ok so it took me doing it twice but I got there in the end) and I was super careful after that!

There is a butt tone of waste that goes with this method.

This is just from trimming to the right size! 

Not sure I'd be ok with all this waste regularly, it made my heart hurt putting those scraps in the bin!

I had already sorted the small bits that could possibly be used for something else - and when I say possibly I mean probably not (some aren't even 1'' big)

I did use some of them in two blocks - one is in the block picture above.

 

Split Herringbone update

 Look what arrived!

I finally got to see if my math was right! (spoiler: it wasn't!)

I looked through my stash, pulled out all my solid colours, went through to find the ones I thought went well together and came up with the bundle above. I steered clear of any darker tones as the 'backing' fabric is black and I want the 'stripes' to stand out.

Speaking on the background colour I went for Moda Black. I would preferred Kona Charcoal but that cost £11 per meter and the Moda Black was £8, there is no way my sister would have noticed the slightly lighter shade of black so my frugal self won and I went with the cheaper option.

I set about cutting my fabric to the plan I made but alas it all went wrong! The fabric measured 41'' across and not 44'' so my math went out the window! 
I cut the long Z, X and W strips first because they are longer than a metres worth of fabric so that made most sense, then I sort of winged it. The ▮ (5x8.5) blocks went next, then the 🞴 (5x5) blocks and then everything else. It ended up being just under 4 metres (lucky I had the little extra on hand)  so I wasn't off by much!

I cut my colour strips next and they look so pretty all mixed up, I really like the colour explosion! 

Next up is the assembly part, fingers crossed that goes well!

Designing The Split Herringbone Quilt: Part 4 Fabric Math

 After deciding how many of each block I wanted next came time to work out how much background fabric I would need.

On the blocks I'd already drawn I used symbols to represent the different widths.

For example on the A block to the left you might just be able to see an asterisk, triangle and diamond. 

The asterisk represented the background triangles, the diamond's are the colour strips that measure 3/4'' wide and the triangles are the background strips that measure 3/8.

On the bottom of the picture I have written it out so I know in each A block I need:

▲= 3 
♦️ = 4 
🞹 =2

I have 7 A blocks so therefore I need:
▲ = 21
♦️ = 28
🞹 = 14

I did that for each block and separated the symbols for the background and coloured fabrics.

Background:

▲ = 174
D = 2
+   = 3
@  = 16
─ = 4

For the end triangles I am going to use a square/rectangle and cut them in half 

🞹 = 147 (or 74 squares)
▮ = 138 (or 69 rectangles)

Coloured Fabric:
⏺ = 50
♦️ = 153
⦚ = 12
>  = 4
# = 13

Swirl  = 41

Now knowing the amount, widths and lengths I once again opened trusty Microsoft Word

I have no idea if this makes sense to anyone else but I will try to explain.

The first measurements I factored in where the longest ones, I labelled these W, X and Y, they measure 72'' in length (the finished quilt being 70'' by 70''), which is obviously longer than 1 metre of fabric so I drew 2 metres (illustrated above by the blue square outlines)

I needed 2 W lengths which means I needed 5'' by 72'', I needed 8 X lengths which made it 8'' by 72'', 7 lengths of Y which made it 10.5'' by 72''

Which added together made in 23.5'' by 72'' (and I just noticed I made a mistake and fixed it, thank god I left a little extra just in case)

I had 20'' left which I used for my ▮ rectangle block - they are 5x8.5 so I fit 4 across and 8 down - measuring 20 by 68 (that gave me 32)

I carried on like that until I had all the right number of bit and I worked it out to be 3.5 meters (with not a lot spare) but considering I just found a mistake I'm going back to double check everything!
(I will be totally honest if I was wrong and make an edit at the bottom.)

I used the same method for the coloured fabric, this time using fat quarters instead of  meters of fabric.

As I have said before I want this quilt to look scrappy/colourful so instead of using a whole fat quarter I am only going to cut maybe 3 strips from each colour - I'll need about 26  different fat quarters colours.

Especially when it comes to the largest sizes e.g. I don't want 2 > the same colour or even a > and # from the same fabric.

Edit: 
Well I looked at it again and I did make a mistake
I think I gave myself to many rectangles and as that is the biggest size I only need 3 meters of fabric... Not sure I trust myself anymore!! Hopefully when I look at it again it will still add up the same!

Designing The Split Herringbone Quilt: Part 3 Placement

After drawing out my blocks onto paper I scanned them onto my computer so I would have a copy, then I had a brainwave about using Microsoft Word to arrange (and rearrange) my blocks so I could get it just right. Once again I am sure there is a better program out there that could do this, however Word is what I have so that's what I used.

The pencil marks didn't show up to well on screen so I used draw feature and coloured in some of the sections, gave them each a letter to identify them  and made them all roughly the same size -  this is what I ended up with 🠞🠞🠞🠞🠞

Next I made the page as large as I could, put the grid setting on and set about placing the blocks in a random (but eye pleasing) manner.

This would help me work out how many of each block I would need and hopefully a guess about the amount of fabric I would need

The rows with the triangles to the left I numbered 1 and the rows with the triangles to the right where 2 (eg the first row starts with Y1, the second A2). The idea being that when it came time to draw the blocks it would help me keep track of which direction the block should face

I made a list of how many blocks of each type there where that looked something like this...

It showed me if I had to many of one particular block and not enough of another - at one point I had 7 H2's and 0 K 1's

This is the final layout I came up with

When drawing out the blocks onto the greaseproof paper I was just very careful about which direction I drew it in. On paper blocks in the first row look like they belong in the second row and vice-versa - that took some getting use to (also lots of swearing)

Next comes Part 4 Fabric Math - working out how much fabric I needed.... 

Designing The Split Herringbone Quilt: Part 2 Foundation Piecing

 After discovering that Alison Glasses Feathers Pattern was foundation pieced I thought I would give it a go to see if it yielded better results than my previous method, if it was something that I enjoyed and would like to do - because lets face it, what's the point in doing it if I find it awful?!

I googled how to foundation piece, found some decent videos on youtube and then gave it a try.

I know there is special paper for foundation piecing but I wasn't going to buy anything that I wasn't 100% sure I was going to use so instead I found some grease proof paper in my cupboard 

I drew this simple block design (I've made the lines darker so its easier to see, the pencil marks weren't visible) and grabbed some scraps from my stash.

With foundation piecing you have to sew on side that the lines that are drawn on - the top side of the paper if you will.

I didn't get any pictures of the steps because as I said there are many tutorials out there that will explain in better than I can.

After sewing all the bits of fabric down this is what I was left with. 

It's an easy process to sew, due to the fact that you sew on the 'top' and place the fabric on the 'bottom' I had a few issues making sure that the fabric was placed properly to make sure that there where no gaps other than that there where no problems. Except...

Can you spot the difference?...  it's flipped!

The triangle that was on the top right is now on the top left.

So when it comes time to draw all the blocks I need to make sure I take the flip into consideration, it'd be a total pain to expect it to come out looking like the top picture and instead get the bottom - there would definitely be swearing. 

Now that I know I can foundation piece and that I don't hate it I decided to go ahead with this method when making my Split Herringbone Quilt (although I have yet to try the block with the strip down one side).

I set out to draw on paper the blocks I would need to make the quilt top; once I started drawing I ended up with 23 different block designs, 4 of them where double the length of the 'normal' blocks. To be honest there could have been more due to the various ways each strip of fabric could be arranged, I had some that started right at the top corner and went down to the opposite bottom corner, I had come that started a little bit further down than the corner, some that ended before the bottom corner, some strip widths where 2'' some where 1 1/4'' - you get the point.

I thought I would go with actual foundation paper just to make my life a little bit easier (you can print on foundation paper) and found some online that would suit my budget, but then I had the realisation that I had no way of transferring the block drawings from paper onto my computer and keep the accuracy. Scanning them would result in stretching, trying to recreate them on my computer would not be true to size either and I have no other ideas how it would work so I stuck with greaseproof paper and a pencil... that was rather long winded but I have to do something until my fabric arrives!

The next post will tell you how I knew how many of each block to draw... Designing The Split Herringbone Quilt: Part 3 Placement