Feb12 - Half Square Triangles
Feb 19 - Building Block Centers
Feb 26 - Building Block Sides
Mar 5 - Building Block Corners
Mar 12 - Piecing Top and Grand Prize Linky
April 2- Star Light Star Bright Parade and Grand Prize Winners
Before we get to this weeks assignment, we need to pick a winner for the Flying Geese Assignment. And great job to everyone on finishing that assignment, I am so glad so many of you found this method of making flying geese to be enjoyable ;)
The cutting assignment winner who gets a $25.00 Gift Certificate to Cotton Bliss is . . .
#66 - Malia!!! - Congrats :)
The cutting assignment winner who gets a $25.00 Gift Certificate to Cotton Bliss is . . .
#66 - Malia!!! - Congrats :)
So now, onto this weeks assignment ;) If you are just finding this QAL, it's never to late to join in the fun :) You don't have to sign up or anything, just start following along with the weekly assignments ;)
THIS WEEKS ASSIGNMENT - HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES
Half Square triangles are fun and fast and probably the most versatile building block in all of the piecing units you can make. (At least in my opinion :)
Start by gathering all your squares for the HST's. These are the second cut or red highlighted squares from the cutting assignment. As the sizes are different I will lay it out by block size :) You will have squares of your print fabrics as well as well as a big old stack of background fabrics.
16" Block - 3" squares
20" Block - 3 1/2" squares
24" Block - 4" squares
28" Block - 4 1/2" squares
32" Block - 5" squares
40" Block - 6" squares
48" Block - 7" squares
72" Block - 10" squares
If you are doing a 1 block project then you have already made your layout decisions. In the cutting chart the "Main" color is what the Diamond and the 2 "Star" fabrics are the Star 1 and Star 2 in this layout.
EDIT - I know, trying to figure out this layout can be a little tuff. I am adding this image to try and help. Each red highlighted box is a half square triangle. And from each pairing of squares you make, you get 2 Half Square Triangles. So to do the top corner, you need to make a pair of the blue star fabric and the grey diamond fabric. Does that make sense?? Hopefull this helps :)
If you have not already decided on the layout of each of the blocks in your quilt, I have made some "coloring sheets" that you might find helpful. Just save the image and print it out and then color in your fabrics where you want them ;)
So go ahead and group 16 pairs for each of the blocks in your project and place them with right sides together in piles for each block. You will want to keep your squares grouped in these pairs throughout the entire sewing process. One last note on grouping - You will have the same print fabric in 3 different piles, (2 star layouts and 1 diamond layout) so don't stress when you put your first grouping together and have leftovers of each fabric :)
And now with your piles all made, you are ready to start making your Half Square Triangles. To save time, I like to do each of these steps in assembly line fashion keeping a break between each block grouping, however, most of the pictures will just show one or two pair at a time being done.
On the wrong side of the darker fabric square in your pair, using your ruler, draw a pen line diagonally from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. Like mentioned, draw all of the lines for all the squares but still keep the pairs grouped in block sets.
Lay your print square on your background square (or your two print squares) with rights sides together. Pin both sides adjacent to that drawn line, be sure to place them far enough out to leave room for your presser foot to stitch on by. Depending on the size of the square will determine how many pins you want to use. (if you use any at all :) Stitch a seam 1/4" from EITHER side of the drawn line (the black lines represent your stitching lines :)
The easiest way to assembly line stitch is to chain stitch the 1/4" seam on the right hand side of the line first. I liked to chain stitch these in block groupings, but feel free to do them how you like, 2 blocks at a time, 4 blocks at a time, all of them at once . . . just make sure you keep track of which squares go in which blocks.
And now the fun part, trimming. You will be trimming your blocks to 1/2" smaller than their original size. So that means trim to the following sizes :
16" Block - 2 1/2"" squares
20" Block - 3" squares
24" Block - 3 1/2" squares
28" Block - 4" squares
32" Block - 4 1/2" squares
40" Block - 5 1/2" squares
48" Block - 6 1/2" squares
72" Block - 9 1/2" squares
This example has 4 1/2" HST's that are being trimmed to 4" square. Start by aligning the 45 degree line on your square ruler with the seam line on your half square triangle. Make sure that the raw edges of the half square triangle are over the 4" line's on your ruler. Trim the 2 sides along the edge of the ruler. There won't be a whole lot to trim.
Now spin your block 180 degrees. Once again, align the 45 degree line on your ruler with the seam line on your half square triangle. Align the raw edges of the half square triangle under the ruler on the 4" lines on your ruler. Trim the 2 sides along the edge of the ruler.
It took me two sets of trimming to finish each block grouping, laying out 16 at a time. Once you are finished you should have 32 beautiful HST's for each block grouping :)
And that is how it is done!!! A pile of 32 HST's for each block in your project. Now, I want to throw in a quick note here. I know just how much trimming this is, a ton!!! Especially if you are doing the 3 x 3 or 4 x 4 layouts. So if your piles for linking look a little like this (aka not trimmed) that is totally okay. You can continue to trim over the coming weeks as you need your HST's for piecing. Don't go making your hand unusable for 5 days because you trimmed all at once. And please link up your untrimmed blocks if you cant finish your trimming. Linked untrimmed piles are just as perfect as linked trimmed piles.
Oh, and in case you don't have a square ruler you can see the end of this tutorial on how to square up your HST's using a rectangle ruler. It takes a second longer but still works :)
And that's it!! And now you can enter to win the weekly prize :)
This weeks prize is 2 charm packs, 1 Happy Go Lucky and 1 Simply Style. Don't you just love charm packs, they are so much fun!!!
So what do you have to do for a chance to win the charm packs? Simple . . . Just link up your stacks of HST's :) You can link to a blog post or a flickr picture, or whatever. Just make sure to link up by next Wednesday morning as I will be announcing a winner in next weeks post :)
If you don't get your HST's done (trimmed or untrimmed) by next week you can still link it up :) (just not in time for the prize :) The linky will remain open until the end of the Quilt-A-Long. So if your out of town, or just had a busy week, no worries!!! Just link up when you can :)
And don't forget to add your Flock to the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long Flickr group!!! I can't wait to see them all ;)
So let's get sewing and trimming!! Oh, and if you have questions, don't hesitate to email me at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com. Have a Happy Quilting Day!!
Blog Hop we were asked to make another designers project and add some Valentine's flair to it. So that got me to thinking, Valentines is all about love. Well what our family loves to do more than anything is camping. (The dirty faces attest to the joy here ;) 
