All the Details

I am flabbergasted by your response to yesterday's Wordless Wednesday sneak peek at my new quilt. Thank you so much for all those amazing and positive comments, I can now only hope that the rest of the quilt lives up to expectations!

Finished Quilt Top 55" x 55"

I am happy to share with you some of the details of this quilt as I think this really is a very simple quilt, made from only one block, and that is the Half Square Triangle. I have mentioned before that there are many great tutorials on the internet for making Half Square Triangles including videos on YouTube. Half Square Triangles are quick and easy to make if you use one of these piecing techniques.

I made 400 Half Square Triangle Blocks, using bright and colorful designer fabrics for one side of the block and the solid fabric that I used for the other half of the block was a linen/cotton blend in Hessian colorway purchased locally. I cut 200 squares of solid fabric and 200 squares of printed patchwork fabric, each square was cut to measure 3.75 inches. With the printed fabric facing up I paired each square with a solid, drew a diagonal line, and stitched a scant 1/4 inch on either side of the line. I then cut along the already marked center line. Ah Presto! (See this tutorial if you need further clarification).

I carefully pressed each block with the seam allowance towards the solid fabric as this linen blend fabric was a little heavier in weight then the cotton fabric. Once pressed each block was trimmed back to measure 3.25 inches.

The layout possibilities are endless for Half Square Triangle Blocks. When I started this project my intentions were to make a Baby Zig Zag Quilt (that's why the blocks are so small), but the project grew and I started to envision all the layout variations. I even searched the Internet for inspiration, but found none! So I laid out 400 blocks many times, and turned them, and cleared the slate, and started again time and again until I was happy with the overall look.

It was then time to piece them together. No mean feat as I had laid out the blocks upstairs, away from the dog and the teens who might inadvertently wreak havoc amongst the blocks. I pieced the quilt together row by row, carefully stacking the blocks of each row one on top of the other, being careful not to turn the pile in my hand even before I got downstairs!

The piecing went well, however, I would not recommend you tackle this project with linen/blend fabric as it really is too heavy for small pieced blocks. Some of the seams are bulky to say the least, and my sewing machine was less then happy at times, even breaking a needle to show contempt! (I also had to re- press some of the HST blocks seam allowances in the opposite direction to make the piecing process easier and to reduce bulk).

I am very pleased with this quilt. This is such a simple quilt: - it can be made from scraps of colorful fabrics, you can adjust block size and and quilt size, as well as endless variations in layout. Hope you are inspired to make your own!

RELEVANT LINKS:
Blog post for the finished Half SquareTriangle Quilt can be found here:
http://www.redpepperquilts.com/2009/07/finished-quilt-hooray.html