Tilting Pig Tutorial

Today's tutorial shows how to tilt a pig to run uphill to the right...

or downhill to the left.

The measurements given are for the small piglet with a finished size of 4.5 by 6 inches. However, this technique can be used for any size. Yesterday I showed how to tilt a pig using mass amounts of fabric...however, I only did that to figure out the size of the triangles that I need for this particular block size.

And yes, they are really more wedge like shapes with four sides, but we're calling them triangles anyway.

But let's spoil the ending a bit and show the pieces we need to cut. We need two short side triangles of sky that are sewn on first. Then we have two long triangles for the top and bottom that form more sky at the top and a hill on the bottom.

Once I had the finished block from yesterday, I could measure the triangles to figure out how to cut them without all that waste.

And yes...this is a faux pig block. I do have extra piglet blocks but it was easier to cut out a stand-in than find finished blocks in my quasi-moving state.

To make the side triangles cut a rectangle 2.5 inches by 5 inches. (I cut mine 2.5 by 5.25 inches to have more wiggle room for this tutorial, but then I had to trim a bit at the end.) In any case, be consistent.

The triangle I made using yesterday's technique gave me a triangle that was 2 inches high and 5 inches long. That means the rectangle will be 2.5 inches high and 5 inches long because I need to add .5 inches to the height measurement so I can make two triangles at the same time.

On the rectangle, I mark one half inch up from the bottom on the left side and one half inch down from the bottom on the right side. I also marked where I am going to cut but I don't typically draw this. I just line up my ruler at each of my side marks and slice through the rectangle.

And now we have the two small triangle shapes of sky fabric to sew on either side of the pig.

Next, cut a rectangle 3.5 by 7.75 inches (or 3.5 by 8 inches if you want extra wiggle room). As before, mark one half inch from the bottom on the left and one half inch from the top on the right, and then slice through the rectangle to get two hills.

You will only need one of these hills but you can use the extra hill for another piglet. And as you can see you get two hills tilting in the same direction. And it is probably crossing your mind, that to make the tilt go in the other direction, you would be making your slice in the other direction.

Make two sky triangles for the top of the piglet following the instructions for making the green hill. You will have two sky triangles but will only use one of them (for this piglet).

And now let's pause and ask ourselves if we are neglecting our loved ones. Are they having to burrow in fabric on the cutting mat just to get a tiny morsel of attention?  Now that you have experienced two seconds of guilt, let's move on.

And here are your triangles all laid out and ready to sew to your piglet.

You are sewing the bias of your triangles to the sides of the piglet block. Align the right triangle so that the skinny corner tip of the triangle bias matches the right bottom corner of the piglet block. And align the left triangle so that the skinny corner tip of the triangle bias matches the top left corner of the piglet block. Sew the triangles on using the standard quarter inch seam.

 

Iron the flaps back.

 Now layout the top sky triangle and the bottom hill.

To sew, align the top triangle of sky and the bottom hill triangle face down on piglet block. Match the corners like you did for the side triangles. You can also use this as an opportunity to trim any excess.  Now sew the top and bottom triangles to the piglet block.

I made my triangles a bit longer than they needed to be so I have some trimming to do.  When trimmed, my block is 7.25 inches high and 7.5 inches long. But ultimately, you want all of your tilting pig blocks to be the same size when you go to sew them into the quilt top.

In the next tutorial, I'll show how to make piglets go downhill to the right and uphill to the left.