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Yes, you CAN cut HST’s from Strips

After separating and rough-cutting all my scrap fabrics, it was time to start piecing Half-Square Triangles.

As you know, I have experimented with different ways to make 2½-inch half-square triangles from 2½-inch strips. This time, I pulled out Bonnie Hunter’s Essential Triangle Tool.

The cutting process is straightforward, but there are a few important steps.

First, place the two fabrics right sides together…

To help them stay in place, I placed the background over the accent strip, and then ironed them in place.

Next step….. Square up one end of the strips…

Then, position the ruler so the edge lines up with the squared edge and the little blue triangle hangs off the strip…

and cut the diagonal edge for the first HST…

Then turn the ruler the other way (see the blue triangle hanging off the edge again)…

and make the next perpendicular cut.

Continue turning the ruler back and forth as you work your way along the strips.

Once everything was cut, I clipped the triangles together in groups of four…

That kept the pairs organized and made them easy to carry over to the sewing machine.

The cutting was finished—but I still had something important to learn about sewing these triangles together.

I’ll share that discovery in tomorrow’s post.

An accidental Braided Border

I sat down at my machine to learn a quilting border I had seen. Somewhere along the way, my stitching took a different turn—and suddenly I had a braided border design that I really liked!

In the video below, I show you the design and stitch it so you can follow the movement. Watching the lines develop is much easier than trying to explain every turn in words.

VIEW VIDEO HERE

Why I’m keeping this one…

I love a border that adds movement around a quilt, and this braided effect gives me another option when I want the border quilting to be part of the design. I’m looking forward to trying it on a quilt!

Have you ever been practicing one quilting design and ended up discovering another? Tell me what happened in the comments—I’d love to hear about your happy accident.

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Check out my new, ONLINE, ON-DEMAND Free-Motion Quilting Course

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What’s Happened to my Applique?

At the beginning of the year, I started a hand-appliqué project—and for the first few months, I did really well!

Then May arrived, life got busy, and the project slowly stalled.

The problem wasn’t finding time to stitch. I often had time in the evenings to sit and work on it. The problem was that I hadn’t prepared any more appliqué pieces. That required going upstairs to the studio, choosing fabrics, tracing shapes, cutting pieces, and getting everything ready.

Somehow, I never found time for that part.

There was another issue, too. My eyesight has worsened over the past few months because of cataracts. I haven’t felt comfortable with how my stitches looked, so I decided putting the project aside for a while might be the best choice.

But this appliqué project is definitely not becoming a UFO!

I have two cataract surgeries scheduled for November, and I cannot wait to see clearly again. Then, in December, I am having knee replacement surgery—which means I should have plenty of time to sit, recover, and sew.

Between now and then, my goal is to spend some time in the studio preparing a good supply of appliqué pieces. If everything is ready and waiting, I can simply pick up the project whenever I feel like stitching.

Sometimes a project stalls because we lose interest. Other times, it just needs to wait until life—and our eyes—are ready for it again.

This one is waiting patiently. I’m looking forward to picking it back up!

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Who knew I would enjoy hand-appliqué SO much!

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