Like a great deal of the country, Denver got hit with frigid temperatures. However, not a whole lot of snow. Starting Thursday the 22nd at 5pm. Denver had an 89-hour sub-freezing temperature streak in Denver. According to a news report for Monday the 26th at 12:15am temperature was -6°F (-21°C) and then about 2:00pm Denver had a high of 45°F (7°C), quite the swing in temperature. On Groundhog Day, Denver has tied for second place with the most 60° days in winter (December through February), with a few more in the immediate forecast.
Let's get started with our reports for this month.
Dianne
Dianne tells of some quilts that she has been working on with a twist of original instructions.
Some years ago an interesting quilt piecing technique showed up called Hidden Wells. This involves making several identical strip sets, then cutting them into squares. These squares are placed right sides together with one turned 90 degrees. After stitching around the outside edges, they are cut diagonally in both directions. This creates 4 half square triangles from each pair of squares. They have bias edges, so it is recommended to starch or use something to help stabilize your fabric before starting this project.
It takes four squares, cut into two sets of four hsts to make the Hidden Wells quilt pattern, using two pieces from each pair of squares. Set correctly, this creates two different blocks, and a very cool pattern develops from alternating them. Other people make just one or two blocks from short leftover strips, for a scrappy effect. I made a quilt that way once, keeping a few colors constant. Other quilt patterns have shown up using this technique.
What I’ve been doing now is a bit different, although undoubtedly other people have done this. Instead of using strips, it appeared that fabrics which were sort of striped might be used this way, and no sewing of strip sets would be necessary. They might be called fancy stripes. Below are three examples, with a piece of the original fabric and how it turned out. The brown had a small repeat, so was cut into squares utilizing two repeats. This has been an interesting experiment, and several other fabrics in my stash are awaiting this fate.
...to be continued