It’s hard to judge which took longer — hand cutting the 5,110 triangles, or sewing them together. Originally I had planned to put these triangles on a design wall, but that never happened because I soon realized it was a crazy idea. Other than including one light-ish and one-darkish piece in the two-triangle units, I made very little effort to coordinate or distribute the colors and patterns.
The top contains around 75% antique fabric, while the remaining triangles are reproduction prints, most of which were sent to me by two quilters (thank you so much Mickie and Meredith). Because madders do not hold up well over time, most of the those pieces are repros, as are some of the reds, double-pinks, purples, and yellows. All of the cadet, indigo, mourning, neon, homespun, and shirting prints are very old.
The quilt was inspired by an antique triangle quilt I saw on Jan’s blog, What a Load a Scrap. That quilt had larger triangles and was created with an amazing amount of beautiful madders, while mine is made with small triangles and is more scrappy. My quilt is large (84″ x 90″), and contains 73 rows, each of which has 70 triangles. I plan to use the zig-zag quilting design from the original quilt, which cleverly avoids having to stitch through the points.
Wow Martha what a quilt! And it looks so straight too.
Now the fun of quilting it.
It’s just gorgeous!
Oh WOW! Very pretty, Martha. I am very impressed by all those triangles.
Just fabulous!
This is incredible and lovely. Congratulations, it looks great! Thank you for sharing your pictures.
What an amazing accomplishment! It is stunning. Congratulations!
Love it Love it. Wonderful accomplishment. Looking forward to photos after it is quilted.
Seems like quilting produces vast amounts of leftover triangles. Excellent way to use them up.
Amazing!!! I would never have the patience!
This was either really crazy or very therapeutic.
Awesome, just awesome! Love the idea of not quilting through the points…must remember that. I wish I felt the urge to get to quilting again. I dropped off around 100. Have you ever figured how many you’ve made? I was fortunate enough to get advice early on (1990) to keep a diary, so I have pretty good records. Oh, my brother-in-law just had a fire at his house and lost 8 quilts I had made him 🙁
Martha! You are a quilting superhero! Excellent!
Wow, Amazing quilt!! The yellows look really sweet shining in between other triangles! I can’t imagine hand cutting each triangle and laying them out patiently! It is truly a labor of love!
Incredible!! And I’m so curious about vintage neon…
Hi Martha,
I am just finding your blog due to a pin on pinterest, and I’m so glad I did! I began browsing bottom up and so have barely been looking really, but your talent is so impressive I had to stop already to say something. First, I would like to say that your sister is incredibly lucky with the Halloween things you have made her. I love vintage Halloween and your reproductions are just amazing. And then to see this triangle quilt… Well, all I can do is shake my head in awe. I will definitely be coming by to see what you’re up to 🙂 and I have a lot of catching up to do! Sorry about the long post but, honestly, your work is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing. And I hope you don’t mind if I add my sympathy for the passing of your puppy. They are a special member of our family and it is so hard when they’re gone. Again, thank you for sharing!
WoW!! You have incredible talent and patience!! it is just beautiful! a Treasure. Just curious: how did you keep the triangle sides from stretching and distorting?
Just found your site from a link of ‘images’ she searching for quilt patterns to inspire me. And you have inspired me!
Elaine