Half-Square Triangle Quilt

Some of you know that I love love love making and using half-square triangles!  Maybe it's something about the idea of sewing the seams and ending up with two blocks when I'm finished that turns me on.  I'm not sure.  

Anyway, I recently sewed some white squares with blue squares from my Bear Patch Bits.  

I press them four at a time, with the dark side on top.  First I press them as sewn, to set the seam, which I learned on Fons and Porter.

Then it's easy to "unfold" them and press the seam to the dark side.

Pretty ironing board cover is compliments of SisterStitches!

I put them up on my design wall, but it looked too small to me.  So I chose more blue squares, and paired a light blue square with a darker one.  Made them into HSTs, and put them around the edges of my first group of HSTs.

I like how the second group of blocks sort of "contains" the first blocks.  Now the plan is to add a white border, then bind it all up with a dark blue.  Should make a nice little baby quilt.

HST Quilt

I've been having some trouble with tendonitis in my right wrist since a little before Christmas.  I was doing way too much hand embroidery and crocheting.  One evening as I sat watching tv and embroidering yet another Christmas ornament, my wrist was feeling pretty sore.  But I didn't stop, because I like embroidering!  I really should have stopped, because it didn't feel better the next morning like I thought it would.  What a bummer!

So this has really put a crimp in my hand sewing and crocheting.  Plus a lot of other day-to-day activities.  I've been discouraged and bored.  I've been reading many, many books while I sit and ice my wrist.  (I've resorted to using my left hand for my computer mouse!)  One day I just needed to

do something! 

This is the little basket that I was using to store my sewn HST units, now empty.

 I looked at my little plastic basket filled to bursting with HST units.  These have been made in the past six months or so from my Bear Patch Bits samples that I receive every month.  You see, I've been receiving my Bear Patch Bits for several years now, and needless to say, I have about a gazillion 5" squares.  I had decided that I really needed to do something with them, as my plastic shoebox was getting too full.    So I paired up many, many light/dark squares and sewed them into half square triangles.  I really love making and using HSTs.  

This is how I store my Bear Patch Bits, which is not bursting at the seams anymore!

So the day when I was bored and couldn't do any sewing, I decided to put these HSTs up on my design wall, arrange them, and play with them.  I did all of this with my left hand, too!  This is what I created.  I apologize that it's not a better picture, but there's a table in front of it, so I had to take the photo from the side.

This exercise made me really, really happy!  I just love walking into my studio and seeing this up on the wall.  It's so bright and colorful.  Just to be clear, these are not sewn together yet, just placed on the design wall.  And I covered most of the design wall.  When I had gotten this done, I counted up the number of HST units that are in this "quilt."  Because I didn't fill in the upper right hand corner, there is an odd number:  255 HST units.

Now to let you in on a little secret.  There are still 349 HST units sitting on the table ready to be put together into something too!  Maybe I went a little overboard on this project!

The "leftovers."

A Half-Square Triangle Quilt From Bear Patch Bits

Some of you may know that I am a long-time subscriber to Bear Patch Bits.  Clicking on the link will tell you how to receive 20 five-inch squares in the mail each month.  Since I've been receiving them for so long, I have Quite A Few Squares.  My plastic shoe box gets more and more crowded each month.  Finally I said, "Enough!"  (Not "enough" bear patch bits--I can never get too many of them!)  But I knew that I had to finally do something to use all of these fabric squares (or at least a good chunk of them).

I am quite a fan of the half square triangle (HST) and have made a few baby quilts with them.  Like here, here, and here.  I like the process of sewing them, and how I get "two for the price of one."  Because when I'm done sewing I have two identical squares.

So I started off by going through my squares and pairing up a light and dark value of the same color. I used my nifty Fons & Porter quarter inch seam marker, which made marking the squares pretty quick and easy.  It has a center line to line up with the diagonal corners, and both edges of the ruler are 1/4 inch away from the center.

I used either a Frixion pen or a chalk pencil to mark the seam lines, depending on how light or dark the fabric was.  

Here you can see a stack of squares which are all marked, just waiting to be chain pieced together.  (I also love chain piecing!)

And here is one stack, all sewn, cut apart, and pressed.

This photo shows that the stack is as tall as this pill bottle.

And now I have finally stopped sewing squares together.  {pant, pant}  Then I counted them all.  That was a big job, too!  Do you want to guess the number of triangle squares I have?

590

Yes, five hundred ninety half square triangles.  I couldn't believe it either.  I think that should be enough to make a quilt.  Maybe a big one!!

And at this point, my plastic shoe box looks like it went on a huge diet!  Instead of being bursting to overflow status, it looks rather sad and empty.  I didn't intend to use every single square, but I only left a few unsewn.  Fortunately, my Bear Patch Bits continue to arrive, so my box is slowly building up another supply.

Quilt Retreat 2014

Our guild's annual quilt retreat was held in February.  This is truly one of the high points of the year for me!  We go away for three nights to a hotel.  We set up all our sewing machines and irons in one of the conference rooms.  Then we sew away!  All day and sometimes all night.  We do, however, take breaks for food, happy hour, and hot tubbing.

Here are a couple shots of our little sweat shop, with people busy, busy, busy.  It's really a treat for us to be away for 3+ days with no cooking and no bed making.

One of the projects I worked on this year was quilting a Quilt of Valor.  These are quilts that are given away to wounded veterans to help comfort them in their recovery.  I was actually given this quilt top already pieced, so I can't take credit for its beauty.

I'm happy I was able to get this quilt sandwiched at home before I went to retreat.  I like to use a quilt like this as a way to practice my free motion quilting.  I used a variety of quilting patterns on different areas of the quilt.  I did simple loopy lines down these red stripes (below).

Here I have marked a removable line down the center of a border strip and am quilting a different design.

Unfortunately it doesn't show up real well, but I found a cute design to use in the square star centers. It is called "circuit board" and is made by making random square-cornered meanderings.

* * * * *

After I had all that quilting done, I started on a baby quilt.  This one is made from 5" charm squares that I received from Bear Patch Quilt Company.  I belong to their Bear Patch Bits club, where I receive 20 charm squares every month.

I chose 72 of my blue squares for this quilt.  Then I sewed them into half-square-triangles.  This is a photo of all the half-square triangles placed on my design wall, before I sewed them together into rows.

Then, of course, there is always a tremendous amount of inspiration to be found at our retreats.  Everywhere I looked I saw beautiful quilts in different stages of completion.  And I always want to 

make each one for myself!

My friend Gail's beautiful color combinations coming together.

This is Dee's quilt, pieced from very small bright scraps that she stores up.
 I just love the brightness of it!

I just adore the beautiful colors--and the color combinations--in this
quilt started on a design wall.

These small squares were appliquéd on, rather than pieced in, in order to preserve
the beautiful prints in the background fabrics.

Isn't this amazing!?!  Circles appliquéd to small white squares.

Quilt of Valor 2013

Here is another Quilt of Valor I made this year.  Some of my quilting buddies and I found a Mystery Quilt pattern in a quilting magazine, and we all decided we'd make the quilt in reds, whites, and blues to be valor quilts.  I don't make pieced quilts from patterns very often, and this was interesting for me to do.  Especially interesting because I had no idea what the final quilt would look like!

And when I did finish it, I was really surprised at the secondary designs which appeared.  In the photo above, try to look at it as a series of independent rows.  For example, the striped blocks were simply large blocks with corners added to them.  But when the other rows are added to it, a more star-like pattern emerges.  

Then the quilting started.  I chose to do different free motion designs in different areas of the quilt.  In the blue borders I did really big spirals, all down the row.

And each of the small squares received a leaf design,with a curving "vine" connecting all of them.

In the large striped blocks I did a large starburst(?).  Not quite sure what to call it.  It was actually quite easy and fun to do.  I marked the center of the square.  Then I started at the outside edge and made a curvy line into that center spot.  After that I simply swirled back out to the edge, more or less following the same curve as the first line, travelled a little bit in the seam, and made another curvy line back to the center.

I really like how it looks.  This was a design I found in one of Leah Day's books.

And when I got to the very end of the quilting, I had exactly this much thread left on the bobbin!  Good timing, don't you think?

I found a nice piece of patriotic fabric on sale (whoopee!!) and pieced it with some red pieces for the back.

As part of the piecing process, I was left with a lot of half-square triangles, which had been trimmed off one of the blocks.  We quilters do like to save things, don't we!  And after all, these were perfectly good HST's, all cut and sewn and ready to be used.

So I sewed twelve of them together into a strip like this.

And I used them to embellish the pillow case which goes along with each quilt as a presentation bag.  

Now, I still have quite a few of those pieces left, and no, I haven't thrown them away yet!

HST Baby Quilt

Quite a while ago I started a baby quilt from half square triangles.  You can see it here.

Now it is all completed.  I found an interesting orange batik for the inner border, then a light blue by Harmony Art for the outer border.

I really love the fabric I found for the backing.  It was a very lush, fairly large-print yellow and orange floral.  When I bought it, I remember that I loved it so much that I absolutely had to have it.  Then, after a year or two went by, I started thinking, "What ever will I use this fabric for?!?"

But that fabric found a perfect spot to live, on the back of this quilt!

I had the usual struggle with how to quilt it.  After I looked through my Leah Day quilt books, I decided on this design, which she calls a paisley.  It went pretty well.  I am not the most experienced or the most proficient machine quilter; I prefer to say I'm still learning and getting better each time!  This design was very easy for me to do, and I quickly had the quilt covered in stitches.

When it came time to bind this quilt (I used the same Harmony Art blue as the outer border) I decided to try a new method.  I had seen a video of the Sharon Schamber method of binding and was so excited to try it.  Here is a link to her website, where you can find the video.

The method basically uses glue and an iron to secure the binding, instead of pins.  And she has a few other really good "tricks."  Yes, it does take a little longer to do, but the results are great.  I won't be using this method for every quilt I make, but I will definitely use it for my best quilts.  I think what I liked most was how great the mitered corners look.  I didn't take photos while I was doing it, but here are a couple photos of my corners.



Don't these corners look nice!?!

Not quite sure where this quilt will find a home.  I think I'll hang onto it for a while and see what kind of need arises.

Progress on My HST Baby Quilt

I recently posted about this baby quilt here.  And I fixed it up a bit, with some quarter square triangles on the top and bottom.

I found a great orange batik for the inner lining, and a really pretty soft light blue for the outer border. The blue is an organic fabric from HarmonyArt. It's actually more blue than the photo shows.  Poor lighting.  Poor photographer! 

I can't wait to start quilting on this one.  It would be easy to follow the diagonal lines, but I think I'd like to practice my free-motion quilting.  I'll keep you posted!

Half-Square Triangle Baby Quilt

I have a small quilt top finished.  It is a simple half-square triangle quilt, made from my Bear Patch Bits and some white Kona cotton.  I haven't mentioned my "Bits" lately, but they come from this quilt shop in Minnesota.  For $40 per year they send me 20 charm squares every month, cut from the new fabrics they have received that month.  It's really fun receiving the packets.  It also includes a newsletter, and quite often, a recipe and/or a pattern.  And it is all written by my SisterStitches!  She works at Bear Patch Quilting.

Any-hoo, I used several of my pastel-colored Bits to make HSTs.  In the above photo they are all laid out on a carpet. Following are a few close-ups of some of them.

I really like the rooster in this one below!

 And here they are all sewn together.  

Oops!  

I didn't add triangles to the ends of the rows.  That's something I'll file away for next time.  This time I'll just trim everything straight along the edges.  Stay tuned to see the finished product.