Quilting 911 - head over heels in love

January 19, 2012 Very Shannon

oh my...last night i fell in love with hst. no not our dreaded canadian tax but " half square triangles". oh yes, i fell head over heels in love. i have never done a hst before being a newbie quilter but let me just say they are fun! i got so excited i even bored the hubby to death with all my quilting giddiness...poor guy :P

i took a charm pack of oliver & s city weekend and a charm pack of white fabric that my lovely sponsor stitchsimple.com just sent me (yes, she even cuts to your request and washes/presses your fabric!) and matched those puppies all up, drew my lines, sewed my stitches and cut my triangles and i made it through almost the whole stack in under half an hour!!!! now that is what i like people! hardly any cutting! woot woot! you guys all know how bad i am with a rotary cutter..lol...useless :P

1. city weekend by oliver + s 2. balloon in aqua from children at play by sarah jane

i decided the other week to make a zig zag quilt for mackenzie's quilt of choice. i'm supposed to be making a queen size for me but the poor thing was so sad when she saw harper's that i promised her i would make one for her too with a "m" on the back to match harper's "h". after a lot of drooling all over flickr and pinterest i got sucked in by the purl bee's and cluck cluck sew's zig zag quilt and was stuck on the combo of the white with the printed fabric. after using a lot of bright colors for harper's quilt i liked the idea of doing a softer yet still colorful palette for mack's. i'm also hoping that it will match up with my beloved balloon print from sarah jane's children at play line for the backing. i bought enough of it in the summertime in the hopes that i could use it for the backing of a quilt.

1. cluck cluck sew 2. the purl bee

i've been following the purl bee zig zag quilt tutorial and also relied on the lovely rachel of p.s. i quilt's half square triangle tutorial just to make sure i was doing it right :) now i whipped through mine pretty fast so i'm hoping my accuracy is still good and that i didn't wonk anything up.

i already had one oopsie though...one of my charm squares was stuck to the other (same print on top of it) and i unknowingly sewed the two identical prints to 1 white square and didn't realize i had done this till after i cut it! eeeek! anybody have any tips on how i can fix this??? i haven't ripped it out yet. i could use any tips any of your master quilters may have :)

i'm super excited to just power through this quilt but not sure how much time i'll get to work on it. our modern sewing group is in lingo as we are homeless. the lovely sewing shop we were being housed at has changed ownership and is moving so we are still in the process of finding out what and where we are going. i'm bummed though because that was pretty much dedicated time for me to quilt. hopefully everything will work out in the end and someone will adopt us :) in the meantime i'm sure i'll be dreaming of hst's.....

have you made a zig zag quilt before? any tips? are you a lover of all things hst? what is your favorite quilt pattern to make using an hst block? i can't wait to hear what you all are working on!