Half Square Hell

Anyone ever look at a stack of HST and think, "what the hell!" 

That's me each and every time I look at even one HST. So, times that by 200ish. 

I belong to the no waste community of quilters. It's just wrong criminal tossing so much good fabric away. So while making my latest pattern, I ended up with a 200+ HST byproduct.

Jokes on me. As part of my design I used flying geese so I could avoid trimming HST. 

Who's not laughing now. 

Back to the drawing board on the design. The pattern ended up using HST. Less fabric use, less waste.

A quilting miracle did occur recently. I hosted a quilting bee at my house with some NHMQG members to help teach the members about paper piecing and while people waited to use a machine they started trimming.

And trimming. And trimming ... Finally I got some quilting minions! 

Eventually the whole stack was completed. It was a great day.

Now that these suckers are all trimmed it was fun to get out my HST Quilt Along pages and start over with this bold array of colors. The best part was knowing that no trimming would have to happen :)

Check out the blocks so far. At this point my original Sunrise Stars pattern is a 2 for 1 special. Oops.

Eventually there will be 16 blocks ... so more to come. 

Luckily, I am headed to retreat this weekend. 

Tomorrow is only a day away!!!!!! 

There is so much potential packed away right now, maybe too much. Either way I will be excited to share what I am able to accomplish in three sewing days! Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty is my wonderful co-pilot as we head north to Marden's then retreat, oceanside. 

I am already doing a victory dance as I finish packing thinking how great it's going to be! 

Sunrise Stars: Pattern

FINALLY!

Look it's my new pattern, Sunrise Stars! It's finally done and ready to download. Head over to my Craftsy site and maybe even drop it in your cart. 

The design for this pattern started as part of the 2016 Paintbrush Studios New Block Blog Hop inspired by their Ocean Sunrise palette of colors. Then it got scaled up to an 18 inch block. Bigger is better for this block. It packs more punch at the bigger size. 

Originally, this pattern started with a strong desire to avoid HST's. In the end I succumbed. There was too much waste otherwise. 

Good news for me, I got another whole quilt out of the "waste" from this one.

Bad news for me, I had to trim 200+ to get this other quilt. Joke's on me for trying to avoid them at all cost! More on that quilt later (promise!).

Good news for you, the new design has minimal waste! 

The test quilt started with a bundle of Kona Solids by Emily Cier, and got edited down to form a perfect rainbow color palette.

Lately I have been wanting to try a gradient/rainbow quilt.

The stars then got paired with some Essex Linen in Denim as an accent color. Then finished off with some straight line quilting to echo the X drawn from corner to corner.

The backing and binding is a large cut of fabric I picked up during our fall Shop Hop with the NHMQG. I believe the fabric is by Amy Butler. 

Either way, the floral colors matched perfectly with the solids on the front. Win for stash usage.

Net: - 16.5 yards YTD