This block was chock full of triangles, and in some cases, smaller triangles were sewn together to create bigger triangles. It reminds me of those count the squares games, where everyone always forgets to count the big square made up of all the other squares.

The downside of this design is the cutting instructions wasted a lot of fabric. For instance, to make those two big green triangles, you would cut out a big green square, then cut it into four triangles … but only use two of them. Same scenario for the medium green triangles (cut 4, use 2) and the medium red triangles (cut 8, use 6).

Ever thrifty, I cut up some of the unused triangles to make the tiny triangles in the corners of the block. The leftover big green triangles could be trimmed down to make those tiny green corner triangles. I also had two big red triangles left over from the non-noteworthy block of a few weeks ago, which came in handy for making the tiny red corner triangles (you never know when a scrap of fabric will come in handy). Here’s how I cut out smaller triangles from a larger one:

You can see I’m now only wasting that tiny strip in the middle of the triangle. I’ve been a little worried about running out of the red fabric before this quilt is done, so I’m happy to take advantage of any fabric-saving opportunities that I can.

All of this cutting out of pieces happened in a mad scramble the night before I left on a trip, because I didn’t want to mess with taking sharp implements on the plane. Other than the cutting out of pieces, almost the entire block was created on the road … most of it in a hotel room in Las Vegas. Here’s my makeshift workspace in the hotel:

That glass-topped table sure was slippery. I was really missing my green cutting mat – not for cutting, but for its general grippiness. Trying to mark the stitching lines with both the rulers and the pieces of fabric sliding around was an unexpected challenge.

The lighting left something to be desired too – probably most people don’t require craft lighting in their hotel room! I’ve ordered an adorable fold-up portable LED lamp from Amazon though, so I’ll be set for my next trip. The new lamp looks like it belongs in a Pixar movie – it’s that cute.

You can see in the photo above that I got a lot of the block done on the trip. By the time I got home, I only had a couple of seams left to sew.

 

My next block (you may be able to see a sneak peek of it in the top right of the workspace picture) is my last in this triangle series … which is good, because I’m feeling a little triangled out. This block alone had eighteen triangles – or twenty if you count the triangles made up of other triangles. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a circle to sew! I might even be willing to appliqué, just for a change of pace.