Pyramid Play

I mentioned I had a bunch of little triangles just waiting for me to sew them up.  Well, here they are, all sewn up.

Each of the little pyramid sets measures three inches top to bottom.  I was really interested in playing with the technique (rather than thinking much about fabric) so I just grabbed a stack of solids and said, “Amish.” 

Look how lovely the Fons and Porter ruler works at cutting those little triangles!

And trimming the corners.  Ah!

I created a new Quilt Layout Diagram for making the pyramid units.  I only needed to copy the top page.

Here’s what the foundation looked like all sewn up:

I decided to trim the units down to size but to leave the paper on until the entire top was finished.  That was, I think, a really good call.  Everything is on the bias and very stretchy.  Having the paper on these units really kept things under control.

You can see I kept the paper on until I had added the first border.  I really wanted to stabilize everything before I wet the pyramids and pulled the paper off.  Another good call, I think.

But . . . notice how I pressed the seams on the pyramid units open and then sewed them down?  This was not a good idea.  What was I thinking?  As I pulled little tiny pieces of paper out of tucked in corners with a pair of tweezers, I had plenty of time to contemplate my folly.

Here’s how I should have done it: Sew up to the seam intersection with the seam allowance “flap” out of the way (as you sew up to the intersection that means it is folded towards you).  Then, at the intersection, lift the needle and fold the seam allowance flap back away from you.  Put the needle back down at the seam intersection and keep sewing.  That way, you never sew through the seam allowance flap. This will make it a lot easier to remove the paper and you can either press the seams open or to the side depending on preference. 

I really wanted to see how the technique was going to work which is why I just grabbed some solids.  Nothing much to think about with fabric selection.  Now that I know this works – and I really like how leaving the paper on the pieced units stabilized all those bias edges – I can think about other fabric choices.

Just playing for a couple minutes in EQ6, I considered the possibility of a reproduction version:

Or a pink and green version:

Or shades of blue:

I really like the blue one.  I may just have to make that up.

Meanwhile, there’s a sew day with my quilting buddy tomorrow, and I have another idea of playing with Pyramid Triangles before getting back to this version.  Oh, I do love Spring Break!