New Project

This weekend, I began a new project.

This is a little Schnibbles pattern I bought last summer in Shipshewana.  I have been waiting to make it, and now is the time!  I'm a little behind in Miss Rosie patterns, this is my first.  I have now figured out that her Schnibbles patterns are designed to work with charm packs.  I don't have any, but I do have stacks of fabrics and am doing fine so far without. 

She has the neatest trick for making half square triangle units (HSTs).  You use one light and one dark 5" square, layer them together (right sides together, of course) and draw and x on the light.

Sew your 1/4" seam allowance on both sides of the X and take it back to the cutting board.

First cut the block in half both directions to yield 4 2.5" squares.  I "exploded" the block to show you the cuts, but when you are doing it, leave it alone!

Then cut on your diagonal lines--the X you drew.  Suddenly, you have 8 HSTs!  Press them open.

And then trim...

(I LOVE the Bias Square ruler for this)

The HSTs square up to 2", so they will be 1.5" finished.  I've seen this technique before, but I really like it because it seems much more effortless than cutting a bunch of smaller squares.  It also seems like you get a lot of HSTs from just 2 5"squares.

Speaking of HSTs, I was reading an article on them in the current issue of McCalls Quilting magazine.  They featured different tools, techniques, etc.  What is you favorite way to make them?  My "weak spot" in the construction process is the pressing--I manage to distort them very easily, so I always make them a bit bigger and then square them up so they are perfect--but all that squaring up can get really tedious!

This is a rough week for us--I'll write more about that later. 

Aloha,
JoAnne