HST fun!

I don't know when to quit, but sometimes that's OK.

The following is not so much a tutorial as it is a documentation of my thought process.  Maybe it will inspire you to work your blocks a little more????  Or maybe you will just shake your head at my foibles.  In any case, I hope you'll enjoy the read let me know what you thought about it by leaving a comment.

I blogged about my discovery of how to make 4 half square triangles (HST's) from two squares of fabric HERE.  I cut the HST's in half, as shown the the above left photo.  Then I rearranged and stitched them together as shown in the above right photo.  I played around with these new blocks for-ev-er!

1. I had 3 fabrics: ticking, blue linen-like cotton, and a thin cotton with a subtle tan stripe.  I used combinations of those to make a dozen of the aforementioned blocks.
2. I couldn't stop there so I used the HST technique to make more complicated and smaller blocks.  I places two blocks right sides together, stitched around the outside and cut into quarters as shown.
3. The only problem with what I did was that the blocks I started with weren't perfect squares so the resulting smaller blocks needed to to be trimmed up.  Next time I'll square 'em up first.
4. The resulting blocks were variations of the 6-triangle block circled in yellow and the 2-triangle block circled in fuchsia. 

1. Here's a pic of all the 6-triangle blocks I ended up with.
2. And here are all the 2-triangle blocks I made.
3. Trying to figure out how to mix the two blocks in a pattern.....
4. Still trying.....  It's interesting, but I just wasn't feeling it.

Ultimately, I ended up making two big blocks that will be the backs of my Typography Challenge pillows.  The one on the left uses the 6-triangle blocks and on the right you can see I used the 2-triangle blocks.  On both I added some sashing of alternating fabrics.  I'm pleased with the results.  Surprisingly all the corners match up pretty well and the random pattern is fun to look at.  

Thanks for reading!

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

My favorite brand is "clearance".  Here are some clearance boots you might be interested in:

Free blog buttons, well nearly free anyway...

My new favicon

Look at all the stuff I made on picnik.com!  I'll be sad when it's gone on April 19th.  Until then I'll be utilizing the heck out of it!  Normally I am a green sort of person.  If there is any choice of color I invariably choose green.  But this is a new year and it's time for me try new things.  So here I am trying red on for size!  I'm not sure how it fits, but it's new and kinda "pow!", right?

I've been wanting to make a cooler menu bar as well as those little social media buttons (facebook, twitter, etc.) for a long time.  I ended up stringing them all together in row.  I haven't seen that before, but I like the look.  It uses less vertical space as well.  Now that I have it all up and working I see I made a mistake.  The "t" icon I used to connect to my twitter is not the right font.  It looks like the tumbler "t" doesn't it?  I will eventually change it to the twitter bird icon.  For now though, I'm content to leave it be.

Besides the "red", I switched around and added many more things to this blog. I added a "challenge" button to my menu bar.  My challenge page is kinda lame at the moment, but I plan to beef it up a bit soon.  I changed the layout to include a column on each side.  That way I could keep all my ads together near the top on one side and all my favorite widgets are not shoved down towards the bottom.  Maybe you noticed the floating social media button on my left side bar?  I saw that on Donatella's blog, Inspiration & Realisation, and stole it! It's another way to conserve vertical space.  I got rid of all my gadgets at the bottom of my blog.  You never noticed they're missing?  Well, that just proves that they were superfluous.

I enjoy playing with graphics and will most likely change from this red before the year is up.  I hope to one day be proficient enough in both graphics and HTML to design and sell buttons and headers for other bloggers.  That would be fun, I think.  Until that happens, I would appreciate some practice.  So I would like to put out the following offer:

I'll make you a free blog button in exchange for an honest assessment I can use as a testimonial in the future.  

So, think about it and let me know if you're interested.

If you're reading this before March 31, 2012, go HERE and sign up! 

Happy Crafting and big hugs from Montana,

My favorite brand name is "clearance".  Here are some clearance boots you might be interested in:

Naughty Notions Winners!!!!

I am late posting this.  Sorry!

The winners of the Naughty Notions Challenge can be found HERE!!!!

Congrats to the winners.  Keren and I were so impressed by all the entries.  It is just amazing to see how you all tackled our challenge in so many different ways.  Inspiring!

From Ricochet's Tool Box:

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I've been sewing for a few years now, but I only just recently bought myself a self-healing cutting mat to use with my rotary cutter.  What did I use before that?  The plastic chair mat under my office chair.  Yes.  Seriously.  You see when we moved into our current home, the carpet in the office was too thick to roll our office chair on.  So we bought a floor mat.  Turns out we bought one that was too rigid for the pile of our carpet so it cracked.  The cracked mat was rolled up and set aside.  I could see the ruined mat when I was typing away on the computer (as I am now!).  Throwing away all that nice plastic seemed a waste.  But what else could you use a cracked floor mat for?

I don't know how it works in your house, but in mine the leftover bits of furniture go to my craft room.  I have the old computer desk for my sewing machine, the old dining room table, the old filing cabinets, some mismatched end tables, bits and pieces of old closet systems, etc.  I eventually ended up with the old broken chair mat as well.  I'm not too sure what the circumstances were or when I started making cuts on the floor mat, but I did and it worked.  

I didn't have an acrylic ruler either, but I had a metal straight edge with a cork back.  The straight edge worked great with my little rotary cutter and the floor mat.  Remember my Naughty Notions Clutch?  I used my floor mat for all the squaring up and trimming in that project.

[source]

The spikes under the mat (my mat at least) are spaced exactly one inch apart.  They form a perfect grid which I used to square up all my cuts.

Remember the patchwork pillows I made for my mom for Christmas?  I used the floor mat to cut all the fabric.  Even though it meant doing all the cutting on my knees on the carpet, it still beat cutting all those strips of fabric with scissors.

[source]

Over President's Day weekend I finally bought a real rotary cutting set.  I waited for the 50% off sale and used my 20% military discount and bought this very nice cutting set for under $20.  It was well worth my money.  Now that I am making my first large quilt, I can appreciate getting up off the floor to cut all my strips of fabric.

Now you all know a bit more about me and my cheapskate make-do-with-what-you-got attitude towards craft supplies.  I have a few more tricks up my sleeve so stay tuned.

While I have you here, please check out our current (March 2012) sewing challenge HERE.

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Half Square Triangles (plus more!) DIY

Quilting is so flippin' Cool!I've been working on my Typography Challenge project which will include some patchwork.  I came across some cool quilting techniques.  My favorite new technique is making 4 half square triangles (HST's) with 2 squares of fabric and 2 diagonal cuts.  I found out about it from this tutorial on whipup.net.  It's a very clever technique.  I didn't need to measure any angles, which I think is a major plus.  Go to HERE to learn how to make 8 HST's at a time.  Blows your mind doesn't it?

I went a step beyond the HST's and came up with a . . . a . . . I don't what you'd call it but it looks like step number 6 in the first series of pics  below.   Then I started playing around with the arrangement of the new blocks and came up with so many different looks that I made 2 more collages to share.  There are many more variations but I'm sure you don't want to scroll down through miles of pictures of the same 4 blocks.

So take a look at what I've been having fun with these last couple of days:

	Begin with 2 squares right sides together. Stitch around the perimeter with a 1/4 in. seam allowance. With your rotary cutter and acrylic ruler, cut from corner to corner as shown. Open up and look at what you have! Press.  Now you have 4 perfect HST's. Cut each square in half creating 2 rectangles. Rearrange the rectangles and stitch together as shown.
	Start with your 4 HST's that have been split, rearranged and sewn back together. Does this look familiar?  Kind of like a star or a pinwheel? Now check it out with the small diamond center. Keep flipping them around and discover new variations.
	Again, starting with the 4 HST's that have been split, rearranged and sewn back together. Some large and leaning diamonds. A variation of the previous picture. Now stagger the blocks!

I've got a lot more to learn about quilting.  However, I don't find that idea daunting at all.  I'm loving this new journey of discovery and experimentation.  Have you ever spent the afternoon rearranging quilt blocks?  Can you suggest any other simple quilting shortcuts that I could throw into my bag of tricks?
If you're reading this before March 31, 2012, go HERE and sign up! 


Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

Tagged.....blogger style!

I've been tagged by Kadie from Seven Alive.  Thanks for thinking of me, Kadie!  I enjoyed answering your questions and hope other bloggers will join in as well.

RULES
**You must post the rules {?!}
**Answer the 11 questions that the tagger posted for you & then create 11 questions to ask the people you’ve tagged
**Tag 11 people and link them in your post
**Let them know you have tagged them

Here's the questions Kadie came up with for us:

1)What is the last book you read, or are currently reading? 

     

I'm simultaneously reading Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series and George R. R. Martin's Songs of Fire and Ice series.  

2)What is your all time favorite movie and why?   

  

E.T.  I always loved it.  I've been watching it a couple times a year for most of my life and it never gets old.  

3)Would you rather dress up and go out to eat or stay home?  

Can I say both?  

I love to cook but sometimes it gets old.  It's a nice treat to go out have someone else do all the work.  

4)How much time do you spend on the computer a day?  

Too much time. I'm on the computer for 2-3 hours every week day morning and maybe a couple more hours over the weekend.  

5)What is your favorite city or town, you have visited, and why? 

 I've always liked Santa Barbara, CA because it has it all: beautiful beaches, tasty restaurants, great shopping, and a thriving art community.

6)Are you a cake or pie person?  

Pie!!!!  

7)If time, money, and kids were not a factor and you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I can't pick just one place!  I'd love to travel Europe.  

8)You are on a beautiful beach, warm sun and sand.  Are you most likely to build a sand castle, or swim in the ocean?  

I have no ocean swimming experience so I'd have to say build a sandcastle.  

9)What is your favorite book? 

    

Actually anything by Heinlein is great.  

10)What is your favorite type of food, Italian, Mexican, or Chinese?

  Mexican.  I make it at least once a week for dinner.  

11)What is your favorite drink?  

Bloody Mary is my favorite drink to order.  I like to make virgin Bloody Mary's at home.  I love spicy V-8 too.

The bloggers I'd like to tag are:

Amy @ Mo Momma
Bethany @ Sweet Bee Buzzings
Cat @ Minoaka Bebe
Donatella @ inspiration&realisation
June @ CreationsbyJune
Kasia @ Designs by Kasia
Kelly @ Blue Bird Sews
Merry @ MerryMade Cards and Crafts
PJ @ Seens From The Backs Of My Eyelids
Stephanie @ Toatie Studio Sewing Blog

Terrie @ Terrie~.~smiling.....


The 11 new questions I came up with are:

1. How old do you feel?
2. What's your favorite saying or quote?
3. What's the ultimate craft item that you covet but will probably never own? 
4. What's the best gift you've ever received?
5. What's that song that always gets stuck in your head?
6. How many times a day do you think about your blog?
7. What do you eat for breakfast?
8. Going to the theater or sitting at home to watch a movie?
9. Do you own or plan to own an eReader (nook, kindle)?  
10. Can you please describe your favorite thrift store or yard sale purchase?
11. What recent craft trend are you excited about trying out?

We're all busy so I understand if you don't have the time to answer the questions I've posed for you.  I'd love to hear from the peanut gallery as well.  Please put your answers in the comment section.  It's fun to get to know people this way, don't you think?

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,