Value Added, Bargain Basement - part 1

Welcome to part one of the Bargain Basement tutorial for the Value Added quilt along. If you're here specifically for Canberra and the Human Brochure, more posts are coming soon!

When Rachel, Leila, Jolene and I were collectively planning the Value Added quilt along. I struggled to decide what quilt tutorial to present. I've been pretty smitten with Mochiboz's Red Forest quilt for a while and had been looking for an excuse to work from it. It had such a clever and dynamic layout. The Red Forest quilt that inspired me is a one patch quilt layout that I hadn't come across before. Although her piece is primarily hue-based, I thought it would be great to showcase value choices in patchwork.  I adapted it slightly from square blocks to interlocking value crosses to fit the Value Added theme. 

I won't lie, the layout is a little complex to wrap your head around. Once it clicks though, you'll be golden. Given its complexity, I'm going to break this down into a series of posts. First I'll talk about the overall structure of the quilt. Then I'll talk specifically about making and sewing the special 2:1 ratio triangle, including bonus tips for those who own cutting machines. Then I'll talk about selecting fabrics and putting it all together.  

For some of you, it will come together quickly in your head. Others may have questions. Feel free to check in at the Value Added flickr group with those questions. If you are stuck, there is a good chance someone else is struggling with the same question.  

Now let's look at and break down the Bargain Basement quilt. I must have been in one really strange mood when I picked that name!

Straight off the bat, it looks a little complex.  When you look closely, you'll see that it is just one triangle repeated over and over again.  It's been rotated at times, but never flipped. In quilting terms, we call that a One Patch Quilt.

It might be more clear with just the outlines.   Apologies that I didn't tidy the lines on this image, I've been been gallivanting around Canberra. I took my laptop with the aim of getting a little done, but I vacation kept me busy. No worries. In the next post, I'll include proper templates.

Can you see see the single triangle that makes up the quilt?  This triangle has a special properties which make it work well for one patches. It is a right triangle, and the sides have a ratio of height to width of 2:1.

I checked with a math genius friend, the guy who calculates odds for all the game shows and writes the US standardized math tests. He assured me there's no special name for it. He said that I could name it after myself, if I wanted. He called it the Ryan ratio after my maiden name. That seemed a bit ballsy, so I'll refer to it as a 2:1 triangle from here on out.

The 2:1 triangle is a right triangle. If you dial the way back machine to geometry class or grab your kids' textbooks, you'll remember that means one angle is 90 degrees. That's the angle pictured above in the lower right. The 2:1 triangle also has the property that the shortest side is half the size of the its friend along the right angle.   There's no need to worry about the longest side, aka the hypotenuse.  If the short side was 1" wide, then the longer side is 2" tall.  If the short side was 4" wide, then the longest side is 8" tall. As long as you maintain the ratio, you can scale the triangle to any size and this quilt will work.

The 2:1 triangle has a 26.57 degree triangle. The opposite angle is 63.43. You probably haven't encountered these angles on your rulers or cutting mats, but they are going to be important. You might be tempted to use your 30 degree ruler, because "it's close".  Trust me, that will cause you nothing but heartache.  I'll show you in the next valueadded post how to make 26.57 degree templates for this triangle include templates for both traditional piecing and foundation piecing.  The 2:1 triangle can be used a number of ways in patchwork, so I suspect we'll see a lot more of it popping up after this quilt along. 

Now let's look at the quilt again and it's construction. What we are aiming or is a series of interlocking crosses that are tilted 26.57 degrees counter-clockwise (or anti-clockwise for my Australian friends!) Take a quick look at our goal, and then I'll show you how we get there. 

 First, let's rotate the finished quilt 26.57 degrees clockwise. There's that magic 26.57 degree number popping up again. Now you can see that the triangles are oriented so the sides are parallel and perpendicular to the screen. It's the same layout just spun a bit.

Next, I wanted to simplify the quilt. I mentioned the 2:1 triangle has special properties. It's most special feature is that when four of them are placed next to each other, it forms a perfect square.  That 2:1 square can be used  in patchwork in any block or pattern where a normal square occurs.

Interlocking cross quilts have had a surge in popularity this year. Here's one that I made in random greys and reds. Each cross is made up of five square blocks that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. 

The 2:1 squares in the Bargain Basement quilt fit together in much the same way. Because it's been rotated, we'll have some special cases along the edges to worry about later, but Bargain Basement can effectively be constructed in the same way that interlocking cross quilts are. They are made in rows of well-ordered squares.

Each section of Bargain Basement consists of a cross. Each cross has five 2:1 squares.  Each square has four 2:1 triangles.  That's a lot of triangles. That means each cross has twenty total 2:1 triangles which will be organized by value in a special way.

Can you see the crosses now?

I think that's probably enough to start with. Next time, I'll talk about making 2:1 triangle templates. I'll cover a few different methods for both traditional and hand sewing. It's a lot to take in, I know. Does it make sense?  Please don't forget to visit the Value Added group with questions!

I've loved seeing all of your stash exercises pop up in the Value Added group. I'm even more excited your quilts as you work from one of our tutorials or go your own way. Rachel, Leila and Jolene also have value quilt tutorials on the go starting this week. I'm excited to try their quilts too, so be sure to pop around and decide what's right for you!

Happy crafting! We'll get this put together in no time!