Fibonacci block {do. Good Stitches, July}

This nicely complex block is a WHOLE lot easier to make than it looks.

(Edited to add: See the finished quilt here!)

It's July, and I'm so excited that it's my turn to host again in the Nurture Circle of do. Good Stitches!  This month we are all going to be making blocks based on the Fibonacci sequence.  The Fibonacci sequence is a mathematical concept that was discovered around 200 BC.  In fact, it's been around even longer than Fibonacci, who it's named after, but he introduced it to the western world, so he got the credit.

The sequence is a series of numbers where each number is the sum of the two previous numbers.  Traditionally the sequence starts with 1, but the numbers themselves aren't actually what is important, but the ratios between them.  The cool thing about this is that this sequence of numbers, these ratios, show up all over the place. 

The Golden Spiral for instance is made from boxes whose sides lengthen following the sequence.  This spiral shows up a lot in nature.

But it's not just nature, it's architecture, art, even web design.  The golden spiral is very pleasing to our eye.

Many trees have branches in combinations of the Fibonacci numbers and even in the bumps in their bark. Sunflowers and some other flowers have petals according to these numbers. It is nature's numbering system, for reasons that we don't entirely understand, but it is without a doubt both aesthetically appealing and efficient.  

I have been fascinated by the Fibonacci Sequence even since I learned about it in high school.  You can see in the image above how the sequence is used in this month's block.  With nature itself on our side we can't help but make a beautiful quilt, so let's get started!  This technique makes 2 blocks at a time, which is all I am asking you for, but in order for the design to look right I really will need a 6x6 layout (36 blocks). I am planning to make the extras myself, but if anyone wants to send extra I would appreciate it!

For this quilt I am thinking of colors similar to this quilt we did before. You will each need to choose 2 complimentary solids with a decent amount of contrast between them. (No pinks or purples please, let's keep it boy friendly.) Cut a 14" square from each solid.

Slice each of the squares into strips, (2) 1" wide, (1) each of 1.5", 2", 3", & 4.5". (There will be a narrow strip leftover which you can toss into the trash or your scraps.)

Swap every other strip between the sets to make 2 complimentary, inverted strip sets. Be careful to keep the strips in the right order.

Sew the two strips sets together into 2 new blocks and press toward the darker fabric. It's easiest to press as you go along, after adding each strip. (Normally I am not a stickler about pressing but in this case it is important. If one of the fabrics isn't obviously darker, just pick one to press toward, but keep it the same for both blocks.)  You might check your measurement here. At this point the blocks should measure 10.5" in their shorter dimension.

Square up one end of the strip sets.

Then slice off strips going crossways in the same measurements as before: (2) 1" wide, (1) each of 1.5", 2", 3", & 4.5".  Again there will be a bit leftover, but probably not much.

Again, swap every other strip between the two sets to create 2 complimentary blocks.

See how the seams nest? (Yes, sorry, the fabrics changed colors.)

 Sew these together carefully.  The pressed seams should nest, allowing you to get really crisp intersections without pinning (but absolutely do pin if you need to!)  Be careful that the ends line up; this time we don't have any to spare.

You can press these seams all the same direction, to whichever side you want.  Please do run a line of stay stitching around the block about 1/8" from the edge to protect seams from splitting in shipping or assembly.  You blocks should measure 10.5" square, but trust me I know how hard it is to stay precise with this many seams. As long as you are within a 1/4" or so don't stress and send what you've got.

Thanks so much for being an awesome group, Nurture Circle! I look forward to our finished quilt!

(Edited to add: See the finished quilt here!)

Post-Christmas Recap Part II

The last of the Christmas gifts have been received and my old roommate was kind enough to take pictures for me, since I forgot to before I boxed everything up! The major item was this large wall hanging. I didn't measure, but it was in the 40x60" ballpark. It is inspired by Santa Fe, NM, a city that is near and dear to the recipients' hearts. The mountains at the bottom of the quilt are topped by stripes of "sunset" colors fading into a turquoise "night sky" print. 

I used the Easy Curves techniques to blend the dark purple block into the sky print. The mountains were done with fusible.  I transferred the silhouette of the Sandia and Ortiz mountains as viewed from Santa Fe onto fusible webbing and then onto three shades of blue.  Other Santa Fe touches in this are the Native American motifs and Kokopelli batik fabric.

Sandia and Ortiz mountains at sunset

This shot of the back shows how dense some of the quilting was. I did straight line quilting with my walking foot, starting off most dense at the bottom and gradually spreading out as I went up.

The back of the Santa Fe wallhanging

This smaller wall hanging went to another member of the family. A physics professor. It's the Fibonacci Spiral, based off the Fibonacci sequence. That whole topic in and of itself is something I find fascinating and someday I plan to make a full-size Fibonacci Spiral quilt. I hand quilted the spiral itself; the first real hand quilting I've ever done.

Fibonacci Spiral Wall hanging

Finally, the youngest member of the family with her pillowcase! It had to be pink, that was for sure, so I dug up some of my very limited stash of pinks. It came out great, and best of all, she loves it! I'm planning to post a pillowcase tutorial soon about my method of making them.

Well, that's the gift round up for Christmas 2012. Now to begin working toward next year!

Fibonacci and Firemen

Design wall Monday again. My design wall has been busy since the Texas quilt came down! First up is the Fibonacci quilt for do. Good Stitches. Link to my tutorial is here.

I broke my own cardinal rule of bees with this quilt: never ask for a block where it will be critical that seams line up in the end!  Sure enough, they were all different sizes, but with a little fiddling I made it work.  And after quilting the fiddling won't be noticeable.

After getting the Fibonacci top sewn together I had to quickly put together this one for a friend of a friend diagnosed with leukemia.  Seems like he went from fine to dangerously ill in just a day :( Scary stuff.

The pattern is The Anna Quilt by Jibberish Designs.  I put the whole thing together in about 4 hours! he cute fireman fabrics come from the line "All Fired Up" by Dan Morris for RJR Fabrics.  

Wilson says "Dignity is an illusion."

So that's what I've been up to. The fireman quilt is basted and I am hoping to get it quilted Tuesday.  Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Distortions {July do. Good Stitches}

The July Nurture Circle do. Good Stitches quilt is done!  I designed the block for this quilt based on the Fibonacci Sequence, a really cool natural, mathematical phenomenon. You can read the original post and tutorial for the block here.

Block tutorial available here

After seeing how well the final illusion works I decided to name this quilt Distortions.  It's the ratios of the blocks, from the Fibonacci Sequence, that creates the curving effect.

For the quilt each circle member made (2) 10" finished blocks (and a few made extra) to give us a 50"x60" finished quilt. I broke my own cardinal rule of quilt bees with this one: never request a block that will rely on seams matching up. But the girls in my group are superstars and it worked out fine!

I quilted the top with my walking foot with lines that follow the design.  It's easiest to see from the back. Thread choice for quilting was an issue with so many different fabrics in the top, I was afraid that highly contrasting thread would be distracting and detract from the illusion.

 
After researching I decided to try invisible thread and bought Sulky's clear poly.  I had read before that some invisible threads have issues with heat from an iron or the dryer. Although I never iron my finished quilts I do dry them. However, the Sulky thread had good reviews and after a couple trips through the dryer seems none the worse for wear. I have even found a few stray thread tails on my ironing mat and they don't seem to be affected by the heat.

Aesthetically the invisible thread worked perfectly. It seems to take on the color of whichever fabric is passes over.

Backing is the IKEA numbers print again. I figured it was perfect for a math-centric quilt. I also included the 4 extra quilt blocks I had and pieced the label right in.

This quilt will soon by on its way to My Very Own Blanket, a charity that gives blankets to children in the foster system.  Thanks as always to the ladies of the Nurture Circle, this was a fun one!

Linking to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Distortions do. Good Stitches Quilt {Bloggers Quilt Show}

It's time once again for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, where all of us who wish we were in Houston console ourselves with our own quilt show. Which is totally better that Houston anyway, right? Maybe ;)

Every year it seems I am liking up my latest do. Good Stitches quilt for the show, but they really are usually my favorites and the ones I am most proud of.  This year is no exception. I designed this block based on the Fibonacci Sequence and the final quilt is called "Distortions" after the illusion of curves it creates.  You can read my tutorial for the block with explanations of the sequence and its significance here.

I asked my group members for blocks made in solid, boy-friendly colors and they delivered handily.  I didn't want to detract from the illusion is a lot of quilting so instead I used an invisible thread to try to amplify the curves.

For the backing I used the thematically-appropriate IKEA Numbers fabrics and a couple of stray blocks.

The quilt has since been sent to "My Very Own Blanket" a charity that provides quilts for children in foster care. Thanks, as ever, to my wonderful do. Good Stitches Circle!

I am linking up this quilt in the "Modern" category. You can see my other entry in the "Large Quilt Category" here.

Stats:
Block designed by me, tutorial here
Pieced by the members of the NURTURE circle of do. Good Stitches
Quilted by me on my home machine
Dimensions 50"x60"

Beth T

Pattern "Splitting Squares" by Canuck Quilter Designs

Happy Friday, quilters! This week I have quilts to show sent in by Beth T. starting with this Fibonacci pattern one. Thanks to Beth! One of our most consistent supporters. 

In better cat-news than I shared last week, my foster cat Stuart has been adopted! Happy tails to the best orange boy!

GE Designs, Strippy Stairways.

With the foster room freed up I've been given a new foster kitty family of a Mom and 5 kittens who were two weeks old (now four weeks). I've named them all after characters from The Pitt.

The are extremely cute and very orange. I think they're going to be long haired kitties. They mostly bumble around their play pen looking for milk at this point.

Mama is very friendly and also very LOUD. She has a lot to say! Fortunately she's quiet all night, but if she can see me she has the siren going.  She's very small and probably not very old, herself. She's doing a great job growing fat babies. 

After a hard day at work there's nothing better than getting in the kitten play pen!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Summer 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Throwback Thursday

Obit and Tribute for one of the most remarkable men I've ever known.  I was privileged to call him family.

Obituary -- SFI write up

No Friday Finish this week... I have some quilts done but I got called out of town suddenly and ran out of content that I had photographed already.  I'm back in Texas now but haven't made it home so this post is going to be a mix of some old favorite quilts that are hopefully new to most of you and some thoughts I had over the past couple weeks. Click on the quilts to see more photos.

Mariner's Compass

Death in the modern hospital is a bizarre event.  We've become totally disconnected from the natural way of living, growing old or ill, and dying at home.  Although most people have never experienced that, they at least have some frame of reference for how it might looks.  On the other hand, hospital death with all the machines and the waiting and the false impression that we can control when and how we go, is completely foreign. For families to navigate this system and learn enough to make choices they are comfortable within the short period of time right before death is like trying to master quantum mechanics in just a couple days.

Bargello

I was fortunate enough to be able to be with my family 24 hours a day as they processed understanding what was going on and what decisions needed to be made.  But it's hard work! Processing that the end of life has come, and this is what it looks like, doesn't happen in one conversation.  By its nature shocking information needs to be heard again and again, it needs time to sink in. It's big conversations and little conversations. It's answering random questions as they come up. It's talking sometimes in a big group and sometimes one on one and sometimes two or three.

Memory Quilt

I was able to talk to them at any time, day or night, for two days, and I wasn't the only one with a medical background who could help explain things, and I still felt like we barely had enough time to get everyone kind of understanding and accepting before we ran out of time.

Nursery Mobile

Nursery wall hanging

This is the field I'm going in to, and the last couple weeks have done nothing but reaffirm that this is what I want to do.  But no matter how good of a clinician I am I can never be available 24 hours a day. With my patients I won't have the advantage of years of relationship and trust already built. Really good, holistic, palliative care for the last two days or week of life is too little, too late for families.

Quilt-As-You-Go Sampler Tutorial

The new normal in American medicine is to fling families off the deep end into a strange world of breathing machines and artificial nutrition and, "The most compassionate thing to do would be to turn off life-support."  Since when has that been a normal decision to expect someone to make?  Families don't understand anything and doctors don't understand why the family doesn't "get it". The quick fly-by conversations at the patient's bedside serve to further confuse, as much as anything. They may as well be speaking different languages.

Drunken Circles, do. Good Stitches

I've known of course that the whole chronic-disease, end-of-life system needs serious a overhaul. I see it every time I work.  But living through it with one family, following them from beginning to end and being there in all the in-between moments, in the hospital and out, has given me a new perspective on just how grand this problem is in scope.

Scrappy Country Home

This is just another reason I'm so grateful that Covered in Love has been able to reach so many people.  A quilt really is a small thing when you're in these situations, but at least it's something. At least it's some small comfort for the people who are in those hospital rooms right now, something to say, "I'm sorry! I know it sucks; I'm trying to fix it but it's taking a while. You are loved; you are cared for; someone recognizes your suffering."

Fibonacci, do. Good Stitches

Do me a favor if you're reading this and start to educate yourself about end-of-life and death issues. We all think it's too soon and it won't happen to us, but we all get there eventually. Remember, it's always too soon until it's too late. The most important thing you can do it talk to you family and make sure they know your wishes.  I'll link some of my favorite resources below.

• The Conversation Project -don't know where to start? Start here.
• Being Mortal and When Breath Becomes Air - excellent, easy reading introductions to end-of-life issues in modern America and what matters in the end
• Handbook for Mortals - this is the "What to Expect When You're Expecting" for dying
• Have Your Funeral Before You Die - nice article on celebrating life
• With the End in Mind - another article with links to many good books

If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a fun string block and there's a GIVEAWAY going on, too!  More info here!

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday