** NOTE - This post is part of a series of posts for the Roundabout Quilt-Along. If you would like to join (and have a chance to win one of three $75.00 Gift Certificates from Fat Quarter Shop ) you can find a list of the post links here :) Here is the schedule
October 11th - Half Square Triangles with Goosed Corners - That's Today!!
October 25th - Drunkards Path
November 8th - Building Blocks
November 22nd - Piecing Top and Grand Prize Linky
December 13th - Roundabout Parade and Grand Prize Winners
Now, first off for this week, we need to pick a winner for the Flying Geese Assignment. And great job to everyone on their gaggle of geese!!! It is so much fun to be quilting-a-long with you all!!!
The Flying Geese assignment winner who gets a collection of Matilda Fat Quarters from
Four Peaches Fabric is . . .
#3 - Christmas Geese (which is Danette)!!! - Congrats :)
And now it's on to a new weekly assignment . . . so let's get right to it :) If you are just finding this QAL, it's never to late to join in the fun :)
THIS WEEKS ASSIGNMENT - HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES with GOOSED CORNERS
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, print fabrics and background fabrics. These are the squares you labeled with HST and should measure one of the following sizes.
For a 15" Block - 6" x 6" squares
For a 18" Block - 7" x 7" squares
For a 21" Block - 8" x 8" squares
So has everyone found their squares?? Excellent, let's make some Half Square Triangles!!!
Start by using a ruler to draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of all of your print fabrics. I like to draw my lines with a Frixion Pen as the lines will disappear with heat. Note - If you have a marked 1/4" line on your machine (
like I explained in last years QAL) lots of times you can skip the drawing step, but where these HST's are so big, I still drawn the line, just to let you know ;)
Take a print square and a background square and align them 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, if you are feeling confident and your squares aren't to large, you can stitch these without pinning :) Stitch a seam 1/4" from EITHER side of the drawn line (the black lines represent your stitching lines :)
And just like our Flying Geese, the easiest way to do this is to chain stitch in assembly line fashion ;) So just like in the Flying Geese, Start by stitching a 1/4" seam on the left hand side of the drawn line. Chain stitched all your paired squares making a very long snake. There will be 2 squares sets for each of your blocks.
Then clip the threads between the squares, stack them up, and you are ready for more stitching. Now stitch the 1/4" seam on the other side of the drawn line. Once they are all stitched, clip the threads between the squares and stack them up.
Now, with the stitching done, it's time to do some more cutting. Align your ruler along the drawn center line (or from corner to corner). Cut along the edge of your ruler, creating two triangles that each have a 1/4" seam along the long side.
Now Pressing. (and this is where I like to watch a good movie hence why my bedspread is in the photo :) Press your HST units towards the print fabric. I prefer to press them from the front rather than the back, but do what is comfortable for you :)
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 :
For a 15" Block - 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" squares
For a 18" Block - 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" squares
For a 21" Block - 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" squares
I am making 21" blocks so this trimming example will have raw 8" HST's that are being trimmed to 7 1/2" square. So lets start ;) Begin 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 7 1/2" 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 half square triangle unit 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 7 1/2" lines on your ruler. Trim the 2 sides along the edge of the ruler.
And you have perfectly square Half Square Triangles. They are just so pretty! And I know, it seems like a lot of work to just trim off a little, but having perfect HST's allows the next step where we Goose the Corners to be right on, otherwise, you blocks are not going to align right ;)
Now, when I trim, I like to do some massive assembly trimming. (again, this saves some time ;) So I lay out as many units as I can fit on my large cutting mat at once and I trim the first two sides on all of my HST's. If you have the exact size ruler that you are trimming it helps as you don't have to double check measurements as much. If you don't, you can always mark your ruler with a bit of tape or the little arrows like I used to speed up finding the measurement each time.
Then, I rotate them all of the HST Units 180 degrees, and I don't worry about all of the previous trims, they can be picked up later. Now I trim the remaining 2 sides on all the HST's. I just move up and down the rows, quick as a bunny :) Now just shake them off, and stack them up :)
And just like that, you have a whole ton of perfectly trimmed Half Square Triangle units ;) You will have twice as many Half Square Triangle Units as you had squares to start ie 4 Half Square Triangle Units per block in your quilt :)
And now that you have a beautiful stack of perfect Half Square Triangles, it's time to add a little Goose to the Corners!!! And be sure you have trimmed your HST's before you add your Goosed Corners. It won't work to trim the blocks after you have added the goose as the goose will get trimmed and won't align when it goes into the Roundabout block ;)
So go ahead and grab your GC Print and GC Background squares. The prints and background squares will be the same size and should measure according to this
For a 15" Block - 3" x 3" squares
For a 18" Block - 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" squares
For a 21" Block - 4" x 4" squares
Again, we will start this step by using a ruler to draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of all of your print and background GC squares. Note - If you have a marked 1/4" line on your machine (
like I explained in last years QAL) you can skip the drawing step, but if you want to do the next optional HST it is easier to have this line drawn.
Now, I don't like to have a lot of waste in my quilts, so I add one little extra step in here to get a bonus HST. This is optional, but think how cute it would be to make a matching HST pillow to go along with your quilt, and it means no waste ;)
So, if you want to get the optional bonus HST, align your ruler 1/2" over the drawn center line and draw a second line along the edge of your ruler on all your Print and Background GC squares.
Taking care that your Print Fabrics match, place a marked GC Print square and a marked GC Background square on your HST as shown below. Make sure that your bonus line is facing outwards from the center line, and that the Print GC is aligned on the Background side of the HST and vice versa. And with it all aligned you can choose to pin or just hold your squares in place and then you will now be stitching directly on the drawn line. Yes, this is a change from stitching 1/4" away from the line, so be sure you remind yourself that you are now stitching on top of the drawn line!!! And again, we are going to Chain Stitch to save time and thread!
So once again, Start by chain stitching directly on the center drawn line on the Print GC squares. If you haven't pinned, be sure and keep those squares perfectly centered in the corner of the HST. Chain stitch all your GC Print squares making another very long snake. There will be 4 square sets for each of your blocks.
Then clip the threads between the squares, stack them up, and you are ready for Optional stitching if you choose. If you are doing the bonus HST, chain stitch directly on the outer drawn line on each of the Print GC squares. Once they are all stitched, clip the threads between the squares and stack them up. If you are not doing the Bonus HST, just skip this step :)
Now rotate all of your sets and you are ready to chain stitch once again on the other side of your HST. Chain Stitch directly on the outer drawn line on all of the Background GC squares. Then clip your threads and stack your squares.
And if you are doing the bonus HST, you have one last set of chain stitching to do. Chain stitch directly on the outer drawn line on each of the Background GC squares. Once they are all stitched, clip the threads between the squares and stack them up. And again, if you are not doing the Bonus HST, just skip this step :)
Now, with the stitching done, it's time to do some more cutting. Align your ruler 1/4" over the drawn center line. If you did the optional HST, your ruler will be centered between your two stitched lines. Cut along the edge of your ruler, creating Goosed Corners or Stitch and Flip corners on your HST triangle unit and possibly two bonus HST's.
And last but not least, some more pressing. Press your Goosed Corners seams outwards towards the Goosed Corner units. Again, I prefer to press them from the front rather than the back, but do what is comfortable for you :) And once again, if you made the bonus HST's you can press them towards the Print fabric. (But don't feel like you have to press them all now, they are bonus so get to them whenever :)
And just like that, you are done and will have a stack of beautiful Half Square Triangles with Goosed Corners all ready to be put into your blocks!!! And as you can see, I didn't get to far in pressing my bonus HST's or trimming the dog ears on the ones I pressed, but all in good time ;)
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 :)
The Weekly Prize is sponsored by
The Scarlet Thread Quilt Co. and a huge thanks goes out to them for their support of the
Roundabout Quilt-Along.
This weeks prize is for a super fantastic
By The Sea Rollie Pollie by Dani Mogstad for Riley Blake Designs. These happy nautical prints just make me smile and will be so cute in a quilt!!! Someone is going to get very lucky indeed this week!!!
So what do you have to do for a chance to win this Rollie Pollie? Simple . . . Just link up your stacks of Goosed HST's :) You can link to a blog post or a flickr picture, or whatever. Just make sure to link up by the morning of Wednesday October 25th when I will be announcing a winner in the next post :)
If you don't get your Goosed HST's done by October 25th 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 beautiful pictures to the
Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long Flickr group and to post it on social media with using
#roundaboutquiltalong. I am so excited to see all of your stacks of Goosed Half Square Triangles ;)
So let's get sewing and trimming and sewing some more ;) Oh, and if you have questions, don't hesitate to email me at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com. Have a Happy Quilting Day!!
book, the newest book in their 
and I am am just so thrilled that I got to be a part of this amazing compilation of Star quilts!!!! It is amazing to me, no matter how many star quilts I make, there are always more Star quilts to be designed and they are always so much fun to make!!!
