Quilting

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This year my friend Bernie over on Needle and Foot ran a series of blogger bundles in her shop. I was the curator of the first bundle way back in January. I had such fun shopping her inventory of beautiful fabrics at her shop, Needle and Foot Fine Fabrics. Here are the first two blocks that I made from my curated bundle, with a solid grey added in.

Bernie is having a special event this week on her blog to show off all eleven bundles and for you to vote for your favorite (and have a chance to win them all! -- US residents only). Below is a glimpse of all eleven bundles. Be sure to hop over to Needle and Foot to vote there!

I'd also love to hear what your favorite bundle is and what you love about it. But be sure to place your official vote over at Bernie's giveaway post.

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This tutorial features fabric given to me by Island Batik.

My two favorite ways to make HSTs (half square triangles) are to make them 2-at-a-time or 8-at-a-time. For my September Island Batik project I chose to make sawtooth stars. 8-at-a-time HSTs are perfect for these blocks, so I thought I'd put together a tutorial for you!

For this project I used precut 10" squares, but they work with any size squares. See the table below for size of squares and size of HSTs you can create. Two starting squares will create eight HSTs.

Step 1: With right sides together, mark the two diagonals on the wrong side of one square with your favorite marking tool. When marking the second diagonal it helps to make sure that one of the lines of your ruler lies on the previous line. This will ensure that your marked lines are perpendicular. My preferred marking tools are Dritz Dual Purpose Marking Pen (for light fabrics), Fons and Porter White Mechanical Fabric Pencil (for dark fabrics -- that's the one I used here), and a Hera marker (which I generally use for solids). 

Step 2: Stitch 1/4" on either side of each line. I use my 1/4" foot. If you don't have a 1/4" foot, you may want to mark your lines before sewing.

Step 3: Cut the square in half in both the horizontal and vertical directions to make four squares.

Step 4: Cut on your original marked diagonal lines.

Step 5: Press seams. Note: If you are pressing seams open (which is my preference), you'll have to trim off the stitches in your seam allowance as shown in the first picture below. This can be done with scissors or your rotary cutter.

Step 6: Trim down each HST to the desired size. Use the chart below to determine the largest HST you can make from each starting square size.

Happy quilting!

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I am just loving my palette for the Waterfall Quilt Along. Light tones are a bit of a struggle in my fabric collection though... so we'll see how this comes together.

This weekend I got the strip piecing done for the first sewing step of the quilt along. (I think this makes me just one week behind schedule. Yay!) Next up, I will be cutting the strips and then I can start piecing blocks. I'm making the baby size quilt, so I should be back on track soon. :-)

You can read more on my fabric pull in my previous Waterfall QAL post. The pattern was designed and the QAL is being run by Amy at Amy's Creative Side. Be sure to check out the version she's making in the QAL. Her's is such a great palette!