Yellow Gradation

I've been having 

FUN!

Gradations have fascinated me for some time now.

Sew...

I thought I'd start small.

Missouri Star Quilt Company had these on sale...

I bought 2 of these CHARM packs!

Small enough?

Yep!

I've already cut it all up...

so here's what the colors look like...

Now...

let's cut it up!

I recently got the Accuquilt Studio Die Cutter!

Whoop!  Whoop!!

Then Accuquilt had their Studio dies 50% OFF!!!

YES...

There was a purchase of dies made!

A CHARM pack is 5" squares,

usually a whole line of fabric and 1, 2, or 3 of each.

In order to made a gradation, 

there had to be more pieces than 5" squares.

Now, how many shapes can you get out of a small 5" square?

1 CHARM pack was left alone,

1 CHARM pack was cut up.

Here is it...

With this die, I could cut the 5" square in half.

Here's a paper cut of the die...

it's laying on top of a 5" square card board.

Then,

with the other half of the square

I used this die.

Here is a paper cut of the die.

If you fold the left over triangle in half, 

You'll get 2 of these triangles out of it.

So,

here's how the whole 5" CHARM piece was cut using these two die.

Then,

how do you put it all together?

First,

with the solid 5" squares, 

I laid them out in a gradation from lightest to darkest.

The grid was laid so there was a fabric 5" square, then an open 5" square.

This allowed the space for the smaller pieces to come in.

Second,

all those quarter square triangles (die # 50274),

were laid down in as good a gradation as there could be 

without colors/fabrics being up against each other.

Third,

the smaller half square triangles (die #50275),

were laid down to fill in the remainder spaces.

Again, with no same colors/fabrics against each other. 

Here's the layout...

Not bad...huh?

Now,

to sew all the pieced squares together!

It actually went pretty fast!

You can see the pieced squares are now 4" squares,

and the CHARM pieces are still 5" squares.

So,

you guessed it...

All the 5" squares now had to be trimmed to make them 4" squares!

Here it is...

all 4" squares!

Let's sew the rows together now!

You can see it shrinks even more when you sew it all together.

And the gradation is truly starting to come out!

And here is the FINISHED piece!

(So far!)

The idea is to applique something on it.

Then,

there will probably be a boarder added.

This was LOADS of FUN!!!

A FABULOUS person challenge!

A FUNTASTIC little project to take on vacation!

(All the pieces actually fit in a quart size ziplock bag!

Handy to travel with!)

You'll see this project again!

Promise!

I'll share the applique as it's created...

Sew the pieces of life together!

They make a BEAUTIFUL quilt!

Nina