Long Long Ago In A Studio In The Tree Tops Before Stack n Whack and One Block Wonder!

I take credit for originating the technique of making quilts cut from 6 layers of fabrics with an equilateral triangle.
I shared and showed the resulting designed quilts at various places and within a short time Viola….someone wrote a book using a variation of my discovery.
I taught this in my Graduate School for Quilters - Design class.
Each student was given 6 of those cutsey panel prints that were designed to make a stuffed item.
It was amazing the designs they came up with using even the ugliest panels.

I really felt sorry for Myrt Jones when she was the one who received this panel print of Huckle Berry Pie or something like that.
She emailed me and told me it really was attractive. I didn’t believe her.
When you saw this in real life it was amazing. Yes, she did make a great design with an  “ugly” panel.
I wish you were able to see the actual quilt as I’m sure you’d be impressed.

The panel Adeline Carney used to create this design was some type of animal. It’s not really evident what it was in the finished work.
Her shape and border design are also very creative.

This design also can be hung in another orientation making it asymmetrical.
Of course students were allowed to use some additional fabrics to make the design work. I was so impressed with what they did. I wish I had pictures of the other quilts from the class as they were equally exciting.
 My feeling is you learn so much with a DESIGN exercise. This was a good way to make them concentrate on adesign that had balance and  harmony,  and use color and value to make it work. It was not dependent on a fabric that was attractive to begin with.

This is one I did with a very cutsey calico chicken print. The exercise was all about creating an interesting design. It you can ignore the cutsey of this you can appreciate the composition and design.

This is another one I did. The fabric had a larger more interesting design. It was in some ways a bigger challenge and in others easier.
I also used more of the panel print for the border. This one is hand quilted emphasizing the shapes and design.

I had another print that I added to the back of the quilt for the hanging sleeve which shows parts of the original panel.
Now well over 20 years later something I originated is being popularized in a new format.
There’s nothing unique about equilateral triangles and they have been used in quilts since the early era of quilting.
The thing that is unique to this type of design was made possible by rotary cutters and equilateral triangle rulers.
Another thing that makes this work so well is an equilateral triangle is a shape that can be tessellated
Of course there are other shapes that can also be cut from layered identical prints but the triangle is the one that so many people are using today.
Today's date is a palindrome! 4/15/14!!!!

Sue's Potato Chip Quilt Top is Finished

Sue didn't let any grass grow under her feet.
Her quilt top is finished.


It looks great. It's hard to believe she has never made a quilt before.
It finished at about 54 by 64 inches.

She did a fantastic job of keeping the strips in line as she sewed and there was almost nothing to trim off the edges to be sure the top was squared off.

She will finish it when she leaves here and gets home.

You can appreciate Sue's quilt more as you put the puzzle together.

Another Potato Chip Quilt!

I just recieved this photo from Dolores Sedore of the quilt she just completed.

Her fabric choices have made a quilt anyone would love to own.

This is what she said:
A little while ago I started cutting the strips for your Potato Chip quilt and then I left it. During the last few days I have gone back to it and am enclosing a couple of photos of it all put together. Unfortunately, the top strip is not showing since it is tucked over my flannel board which is too small for the quilt. It ended up to be 57" X 64". I cut an extra strip without even knowing that I did and decided to just keep it in. Not all of the fabrics were 42" or 44" wide.

I don't know how I will end up quilting it but at least the top is done and out of my head. it was an interesting exercise and I may do another one in different colours.

I'd love to see YOUR quilt too and will be happy to share it on my blog.

I Guess I Still Am Teaching Quilting!

I just got an email from a former student in Wisconsin along with a photo of the quilt she made with my Potato Chip Quilt tutorial.



This is the quilt Mary Koster made from the tutorial.
It is really lovely and I am sure the recipient will be thrilled with it.

This is what she had to say:
Here’s my go at making one of these. My daughter needed a “quick Quilt” for a gift and picked out the colors….I used a BALI POP pack “green tea” ... this worked out great as there are 40 strips in a pack and I only need 38! I would have used something bolder as the little inset pieces but she wanted it all to “blend” . And I added a 3.5 inch border of the same fabric to make it just a “tad bit” bigger. It was fun to watch the top change colors as you cut and sewed and cut sewed the strips. I will most definitely make this again…a great way to use up fabric orphans!!! Are you amazed who views your web site!!! Thanks for this great idea! Now to find the time to quilt it! Mary ( the colors are truly lovely…these photos do not do justice….but it’s a gray gloomy day in Wisconsin…so this is as good as it gets!! )

I did a little editing to make the photo a little brighter. The colors are as close as I could get to the Bali Pop I viewed on line. Since everyone's monitor sees color a little differently I hope this does the quilt justice.

I'm so glad when I see/saw the work my students do.

My Slashed Coat Pattern - Student Work

I posted today on Quilt Art about a coat I had made from my Slashed Coat/Jacket pattern. The subtitle of mine is "My If I Wanted To Catch A Man In An Airport Coat".

I didn't want to and I don't want to. But everytime I wore it men would stop me and ask about it.

The first time it happened I was on the people mover at the Atlanta airport. A man struck up a conversation with me, which surprised me since I was past the age where men hit on you! He was very interested in the coat and very complementary about it.


It happened repeatedly - always younger men - and that is how it got this name! One of the men was the late Todd Beamer who uttered the unforgettable words "Let's Roll" on 9/11. I didn't get his name, but there was something about him I remembered when I heard the story and saw his photo on 9//11.

Several people asked where they could see a picture of it. Unfortunately I don't have a picture on the computer of it and it is not here with me. In place of showing it to you I am showing you a photo of one a student made. I helped her choose the fabrics. She did a fantastic job and it looks wonderful and elegant on her.


Mine is a lot funkier than hers. It is an olive cotton with red, black and camel peaking out in a variety of shapes from the underlayers of the slashing. I will try to find someone to model it and take a photo in a few months.


Until then, if you want to find a man in an airport, you are on your own!


I do have several copies of the pattern with me here. If anyone is interested in it they are $14.00 postage paid anywhere in the United States. Just email me at kay*at*kaysorensen.com if you are interested in it. First come, first served.


In response to many questions I am adding this to my post.

1. This coat does use a faux chenile technique.

2. The fabrics are NOT the cottons or rayons normally used for this technique.

3. The students coat I have pictured used a rough silk (linen like) for the outer layer. The inner layer is a wonderful coordinated multicolor Hoffman batik.

4. One layer is wool.

5. I am not sure what the 4th layer is.

The "Airport" coat uses very different fabrics than this one and has a totally different look.

Graduate School for Quilters - Design

I would like to share some student work with you tonight.
When I teach design I always give design problems with strict parameters so the students can learn a specific design lesson.
This lesson used the Golden Rectangle as the overall size and shape.
For the base there also were guidelines about the fabric choice and the division of the space into the pieced rectangles.

Each student made 2 pieces and one was to read portrait and the other was to read landscape. I am not sure I have these oriented correctly.
The next step was to select a second group of fabrics, back them with a fusible and cut shapes to fill the empty spaces.
The final step was to edge the shapes, either with stitching, paint or anything else they could come up with.


Even though each student started with the same guidelines their own personal signature is evident in their work. A good lesson should not stifle creativity while still teaching a specific lesson.

I am always amazed at how every one can interpret the lesson differently and come up with such different shapes. None of them are the shapes I would create and that is what makes each of us unique.
These two quilts can be hung together for a greater impact that hanging just an individual quilt. This also gives people a chance to look closer at them and observe the similarities and differences.

More log cabin variations by my students

I have taught the log cabin block many times.
Often I am too busy to take photos. I did take photos of a group of them from one of my classes.

This a very traditional arrangement of blocks for the log cabin design.
I did not give the students any direction as to arranging their blocks, I just told them to play with them.

This also is a very traditional arrangement of Log Cabin blocks. These blocks were pieced the traditional way, not paper pieced. All the strips are the same width, unlike the quilt I showed you yesterday. I know this particular quilt was finished and it is hanging in a vacation home in Northern Wisconsin.

This student was adventurous in both her color choices and her arrangement. These are all generous size quilts.
I personally love the Log Cabin design. I have 2 sets of log cabin blocks made and am waiting for an opportunity to sew them together.
Enjoy tonight's quilt puzzle.

Still more triangle quilts - Graduate School For Quilters: Design

This is the quilt done by the student who called to tell me she was able to make her panel work. The panel was one of the Strawberry Shortcake characters. She certainly made lemonade out of a lemon!

This also made an attreactive design. It was a kangaroo mother and baby panel. It's hard to tell what these designs started with unless you have seen the panels. The goal of the exercise was to produce an effective design with something you would never choose to work with.
There were many exercises in this class, each teaching something about using different design challenges to create a quilt.

When I came across this photo I thought it looked like the above quilt but it wasn't the same.
Because of the shape of the quilt it gives a totally different shape when it was turned slightly.

If you haven't guessed what the panels for the quilts on my last post were the top one was a Christmas rocking horse and the second one was a hen and her chicks.


This shows the back of the rocking horse quilt. I used a full panel to show what it was cut from for the envelope pocket on the back of the quilt.

8 Point Star - student work

When I teach I tell students I will put their work on my blog if they send a photo.
I think you will find these examples very interesting.

When I teach a class I give recommendations (guidelines) on how to choose colors and fabrics. All my classes emphasize the use of color as that is one of the things I do and teach best.

Sometimes students have their own ideas and don't want to follow these guidelines. It is their choice whether or not to do what I suggest.

I also tell them to "Prove me wrong". Tonight I am putting examples of one students choices for you to see. She took the "Prove me wrong" challenge!

For this quilt I suggest solids for the strata in the star points.


Here is one of the quilts I did with solids (You've seen this on my blog before.)

Barb Valone completed two tops from this class.


In the first one she used solids (or possibly some solid prints - it's hard to tell from the photo) for the points.


In the second one she used prints for the strata.

Another difference between her two pieces is the contrast. Her first quilt has values similar to the background in the strata.
Her second quilt uses greater contrast in value between the strata and the background.
Each quilt uses the same background.

There isn't a right or a wrong, there are just different ways to approach something.

I hope you enjoyed seeing Barb's work and seeing different interpretations of the same design.