The latter includes the insulated "car bag," containing water, spray bottle, pills, iced tea and usually a couple of hard-boiled eggs. This is the life-support-system that is necessary for women of a certain age....those of you who have reached that point will know whereof I speak.
Back to the gym this morning for a really tough workout - long overdue. I missed Friday morning because of the car and lost wallet; missed Saturday's aquacise class because of a quilting workshop and was feeling the stiffness this morning.
Now to my real topic of this post. All this weekend, quilter and author Gayle Bong of Wisconsin is teaching three workshops to the DOQ membership. I could only engage in one but I picked, in my opinion, the best one. Bong is the author of "thirtysomething," a book about cutting and piecing thirty-degree angles for patchwork. Why, you might ask. Understand that the triangles most commonly used in piecing are a) half-square triangles. From a square, any size, cut across the opposing corners and you will get two half-square triangle (right angle or 90 degrees to geometry majors). From a square any size, cut across the opposing corners, and cut again across the 'other' two corners and you will get four quarter-square triangles (pyramid shape). Those are basically the ONLY two triangle shapes I have ever worked with as cutting preciesly to 60 degrees or some weird math combination is way beyond me.
Thanks to Gayle, I am triangle-challenged no more. I learned more at yesterday's workshop than I have experienced in most workshops ever taken and I have taken lots. First Gayle defines rectangular sizes, then for First Fabric she cuts across opposing corners to create half-rectangle triangles (one right and one left). For Second Fabric: a larger rectangle, cut same way, ignore the right and left, just keep right sides facing UP.
Now for the hard part. The success of this lesson is based on a hand-out diagram with the first two triangles positioned to either side of the larger, A, B or either side of C. Keeping them in this position, sewing first the A's and then the B's and following the process exactly you will get a three piece patch that when cut to the defined square size (3.5" in this case) results in a PERFECT patch with a 30-degree triangle centered on a 45-degree angle. Sill with me?
A short break for photography.
Here's the proof of what I mastered.
The second phase of the class dealt with 60 degree, or shallow, triangles used mostly for edging blocks (borders). Gayle's line up of 4x4-patch blocks (that's a 16-patch to non-quilters), offered a myriad of ideas about creating square blocks out of 3.5" squares. Not that I am going to begin yet another quilt that I will not live to finish, but the option of being able to make triangle 'wedges' with our sweat, tears and messy mascara is a tremendous feeling of accomplishment.
Last item today. Who watched "Coco" last night on Lifetime television? Did something change in the time-slot? TiVo was set to record the program, I was drowsy and sleepy and missed a good part of it, then realized that TiVo had shut off and the movie had not yet ended. What's the story? I missed the ending completely and Coco Chanel's fashions are something I have long admired. I could tell you more, but not today.
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