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!!!!