26 April 2014

HST! CRAZY!

HST, Half Square Triangles, I have been making a Whole Lot of them, for different blocks.  There's Sew At Home Mummy's block this month, all HST's.

The Double Z Block, I made the Z's out of black and grey Kona and the center hourglass is a bubble white on white print (thinking it could look like sand going through time) and the exterior is plain white.

April's Aurifil block had a few HST's, not to many.

I used the same Kona colors here as I did for my Sew At Home Mummy's January Block.

I was  a little late to the game, in fact this week is the last week for Patchwork Posse's Round Robin, now block 12 does not have any HST's but block 9, 10 and 11 did.

Block 9 was the first one I heard about and did, and guess what I won a whole bundle of fabric!  Sweet right, except I was trying to do the pinwheels based on the tutorial and turned out awful, missed points and everything.

 A Rainbow of Colors with grey and black pinwheels.
The next one, I decided to be a little safe and did my pinwheels using Triangles on a Roll, have you heard about this?  It is a paper pieced method and I used the HST's paper to make Half Square Triangles.   Since it was my first time using it, I thought I would make a few videos.
Please at least watch the last video, lol, the surprise in my voice is evident, and I will apologize if my words offend anyone.  I was very surprised you see when the roll says Finished Size it means as inside of the block HST finished size.  Now I made this beautiful block, using this method, but I did end up trimming since I needed a different size.
Patchwork Posse Round Robin Block 10
Patchwork Posse Round Robin Block 11
Block 11 is a little different, it uses a differnt method to make 4 HST's at one time using a larger piece of fabric than the normal 1/2" larger than what you want you HST to end up as, I can't really explain it, check this tutorial out for some good photos.   And then this lady gives you some additional sizes, to make the pinwheels, I did this method to make pinwheels for my European Siblings Together group this month.
See points match much better.
I would like to say, my favorite way for making masses of HST's is going to be the Paper way, but if you need only 2 or 3 then do the square on square, if you need 4 HST's then do the Big Square on Big Square method this makes 4, but the problem with this method is you have to do the math and this is where the Paper comes in handy. I talked to the owner of Triangles on a Roll, and she is resending me the size I need cause I need to make 180 2" HST's that finish at 1.5" and 240 3.5" HST's that will finish at 3".  Please watch video 4 above to make sure you understand.  When I get the correct papers I will show you what I am making with all of those HST's, I think this is probably the MOST used type of block making for quilts, it's everywhere. Linking to these 2 new linky parties for me.
Patchouli Moon Studio's Weekend Link Party

7 comments:

patchouli moon studio said...

Mara it's always good to know several ways to make hst's, because the papers work when you have large pieces of fabric, but sometimes you are working with scraps and that's when you need to know other methods of making them. The paper method is great and faster and easier, but then you have to take off the paper. Well your cute little helper can help you with that, LOL!!
Thanks for linking up to my new Link Party. Enjoy your weekend.

myrtovl said...

Hi Mara, I have drawn different sizes of the paper method on sizes A4 and A3 paper and I give copies to my students who are new to sewing machine sewing, so as they practice on the paper which is pinned on two layers of fabric they produce HST as well and they love it.
Myrto

Brenda said...

I hope you only made a few HSTs of the wrong size before you realized your mistake. I'm sure if you talk to your quilting buddies you can find a good home for the wrong size paper rolls. It was great of the owner of Triangles on a Roll to send you the sizes that you needed!

Erin @ Sew at Home Mummy said...

Absolutely gorgeous!!! I love them all Mara!

Kathy said...

Now that is a good idea! I remember back in 8th grade (that was a LONG time ago . . .) when I was learning how to sew, we had to stitch on lines on paper just to get the feel for the machine. What a bonus to be producing something at the same time doing it your way!

Kathy said...

You are not alone . . . I always have a hard time getting that finished/unfinished thing straight in my head!

Michelle Bartholomew said...

Loving all of your HST blocks! I've never heard of the roll method and I'm excited to learn more.