What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Some of those great scraps from Stephanie have found an idea.

And a purple patchwork project is in progress.

Diane sent me a Second Chances Quilt challenge. She had started this quilt and even cut much of the fabric.

Hmmmm…what to do? I didn’t want to build the tesselated star, but the fabric was already in triangles and rectangles.

Sudden inspiration struck…the triangles could be saved. I could cut a 2″ square and a 1-1/2″ square from each one. Yes, there was some waste, but not as much waste as doing nothing with it at all.

I decided to make snowball blocks in two sizes–6″ and 3″.

Each 6″ blocks uses 4 2-1/2 ...

Debra was so kind to share some of her leftover half square triangle blocks.

All they needed was some sorting and squaring up.

The backing was from stash, also donated, maybe by Stephanie?

Isn’t it lovely how fabric can find a purpose over time and distance?! I am really pleased with the results.

Sometimes you have a good idea that doesn’t quite work out. But, it did require effort and fabric and time…you hate to throw it away.

I was fortunate enough to inherit some such items. It appears the original maker was working towards a wonky coin quilt of some kind. Foundation pieced. But a little odd…

First I squared them up and trimmed to a standard size: 5-1/2″ x 46″.

It felt like a border would both make them more stable and give definition. Added 1-1/2″ strip all the way around. Now they are 7-1/2″ x ...

A friend recently made a quilt with her mother out of fabric that the mother had brought back from the Far East several years ago.

The quilt with stay with the mother, but there were a few small scraps. I suggested she give them to me.

Using the picture of the top as a guide, I made a matching mini.

Yes, a few solids were added, but hopefully the spirit of the quilt has been maintained. The mini will probably hang on the wall of her sewing room and remind her of a wonderful weekend with family.

A hand-me-down bag had a lot of fairly large half-square triangles in it. They weren’t all the same size, but the colors looked nice together. Some were already stitched across the diagonal, some weren’t.

First, I stitched the diagonals as needed, then pressed the blocks open and trimmed them to 4″, the largest size that would fit the blocks.

TIP: When working with Half Square Triangle blocks (HSTs), it is completely worth your time to trim and square up the blocks. There are many good tutorials out there and a variety of methods. Try a few and decide ...