This quilt is only 36.5" x 40.75" and I cannot imagine ever making a bed quilt with 2 inch 1/2 square triangles! I'd be in a white jacket without sleeves long before it was done! Even though making them with "Thangles" was easy, I'd rather applique a zillion pieces than sew these little squares together.
Strangely enough, doing the intricate quilting was fun! I was terrified to start, had no idea what it needed, but made it up as I went along. This was on my Handiquilter Avante. It took about 5-6 hours to do the quilting... but not all at once. Lots of thinking in between. Since this was my first attempt to use rulers with micro-quilting, I should get faster with more practice?? I hope so!
I didn't have a ruler for the trio shapes along the bottom in the photo, so my hubby cut one from a piece of plexiglass. It was not easy, so he won't be going into the ruler business any time soon! But he is asking me what shape to make next!
Elaine over at Elaine Adair Pieces asked me about the kaleidoscope ruler in my comment on her blog. The one that I have is designed by Marti Mitchell and will do up to 16" blocks using the marked lines, but you could fudge and easily do 18" blocks. It will also do little ones as small as 6 inches. The ruler looks like this:
Elaine also asked about the quilt that I made with it, which I may never have posted, so here it is. I'd have liked a scrappier version like Elaine's, but this was a class sample so I just bought a bunch of fabric for it. The colors in the photo are not accurate. It is more of a soft purple (think lilac) with soft yellows and pinks.
These are easy, fun, and an excellent stash-buster, much better if not so matchy-matchy, in my opinion.
