Strip Pieced Triangles Quilt

Colors radiating out from the center

The fabrics in this baby quilt are a mixture from my sisters' collections and my collection. Current and decades old fabrics were strip pieced into blocks and then cut into half-square triangles. I love the quirky mix of fabric patterns and colors. Random piecing is not something I give myself over to very easily, but I tried to let only the size of the fabric scrap dictate placement for each block.

Piecing on my Bernina 1230

So many fun fabrics

Cutting into squares and then again into triangles

Some blocks before being cut into triangles

One of two piles of scraps from which I was pulling pieces

I started with two large bags of scraps spread out on the floor and table near my sewing machine. At then end, I had a third pile. This one consisted of 'too small to use again' scraps. It was very difficult for me to relegate any scraps to this pile, but some pieces really were beyond rescuing.

Itty bitty pieces

Once all the half square triangle blocks were made, I played around with the layout. Chevrons, stars, diamonds, boxes, etc. were tried.

Chevrons, moving on

Another option, keep playing

The final layout is my favorite. It has a square in the center and then triangles expanding out in each direction.

Finished top

To baste the quilt, I laid out all the layers on the front porch. The backing is a chevron patterned flannel I had used in an earlier baby quilt. Stewie appreciated the extra quilt batting and settled in to supervise the basting progress.

At least he wasn't on the quilt

 For the quilting, I set up my Bernina 830 on the dining room table.  I used the walking foot and had plenty of table space on which to maneuver the quilt. My first attempt at zig-zagging in the middle square did not look good and I ended up picking all of those stitches out.

Messy middle got taken out

The quilting is concentric squares moving out from the middle. They are not evenly spaced and I really like the non-uniformity.

The binding was pieced from a combination of four different fabrics used elsewhere in the quilt.

You name a color, this quilt has it

Quilted squares of varying sizes

Chevrons camouflage some of the quilting on back

Quilt is ready for baby Piper who will join the Lewis family this August