Let's Revisit Essence Table Topper

Here is my second entry for the Festival of Half Square Triangles hosted by Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations.  Linky party runs from April 16 - 22.



This table topper has been documented already, but let's revisit it because I'm kinda proud of it. It represents my very first try at half square triangles (HSTs).  And, I think they turned out pretty darn good.  To think I would have never tried them, at least not yet, if not for the encouragement of my dear husband to try something new. He things they are cool, loves that you can get some many different looks just by twisting them this way and that.

Here it is layered and ready to be basted. (the best photo I have of it, I think).

This one will always be special to me because of the teamwork of myself and my husband that went into it. It all started when I picked up Big Block Quilts by Moose on the Porch Quilts (love this little book) on sale at a local store.  My husband flipped through it a bit when he saw it lying around.

          DH:  These look cool. You should try something like this.

          Me:  Really? I don't think I'm ready for triangles.

          DH:  Yes, you are. Go for it.  I think you will like them.

And I do, a lot.

Linking up with the Festival of Half Square Triangles linky party.

Patriotic Half Square Triangle Table Topper

Here is my first entry for the Festival of Half Square Triangles hosted by Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations.  The linky party runs from April 16 - 22.



About a week or so ago my dear husband asked me if I could make something quilty "with triangles like you did before" for the employees' club auction on April 25. "I think I can, honey, but I need to get the baby's quilt done first." What was I thinking?? I could have, maybe should have, just put the baby's quilt aside for a couple days and done this topper for the auction, but, oh no, for once I decided to stick to my resolution, good or bad. So, I proceeded to work on baby's quilt while putzing at different designs layouts for a patriotic table topper. (Went with patriotic because I thought it would have the widest appeal and because I had a charm pack of Prairie Paisley II) Friday (April 13) he informs me that the auction has been moved up to April 18 (which also happened to be my birthday. OH Gads!! Planning and designing phase - over!  Pick a layout and go with it. No time to dilly dally now.

But first, determined to finish baby's quilt first I basted, quilted and bound it by Monday a.m. (will share later) then proceeded to the table topper.  (Sorry, no work-in-progress photos this time, folks.) Pieced triangles Monday afternoon. Cut and ironed triangles Monday evening and lay them out for a final look see. Pieced rows Tuesday before supper. Stopped for supper and evening going ons.  Then discover (Oh crud!) that I don't have a suitable binding. It NEEDS something navy. Not a snitch of anything navy in the house. (how can that be? Navy is one of my favorite colors??? Note to self: rectify the lack of navy and navy-like fabric in stash) So, ran out for something that I hoped would work.

Finally back at it from 9:30 p.m. until 12:30 p.m. - finished piecing top, ironed, made binding, quilted, and attached binding to front. Up at 5:30 with baby and to see dear husband off to work. "Honey, you will have to stop over and pick up that table topper you need this afternoon at 1 p.m. I need to finish the binding." He is so cool. "No, big deal, sweetheart. You have plenty of time."  Finished sewing down the binding by 8:30 a.m. Took some photos. Husband picked up at 9:30 a.m.

Not perfect, but another favorite. Wish my photos did it justice. 

Think it would work very nicely as a wallhanging.

Impressed my children, which is always kinda cool.  "Wow, Mommy! You did that last night?!"  It got finished on time and nobody went underloved or undernourished.  Teamwork, folks, teamwork : )

PS:  I think I more than earned that free motion quilting foot I got for my birthday : ) Yay!!!
PPS:  The French Silk birthday pie he brought home for me was delish!!!

Linking up with the Festival of Half Square Triangles linky party.  A lot of great handiwork has been linked. I wonder how I'll do?

Finished HST Essence Table Topper

With some very helpful tweaking from my husband, this is the final layout of my Essence half square triangle table topper. I really enjoy when my husband comes and sees me when I'm in my crafting space. But then he decides to swap a couple blocks. "Wait a minute. Who said you could touch?" Oh...wait another minute. I really like that better! I never thought we would be sharing time of quilting. It's so very, very cool.

My rows all labeled and ready to be pieced. I work from top to bottom, left to right, always. I decided with my very first quilting project that I needed to establish a system and stick with it so that hopefully my blocks and rows stay in the proper order without too much extra thought.

Pieced and ready to be quilted

which was not without it's mishaps

But all turned out well.  See, I told ya not to worry (kind reminder to myself : ) Here it is in all its fresh quiltedness (is that a word?).

This was a gift for my parents. I wanted to do something special for them this year as they spent a lot of time over the summer doing up extra veggies from their garden for us.  We were in the process of moving to northeast Minnesota and weren't able to put a garden in this year. It's nice to be able to go to the freeze for green beans or corn. I'm so grateful for the extra work everyone put in.

Thankful For Generous Souls

OMG!!! Look what came in the mail today. I almost didn't open it. I thought about wrapping it up and putting it under the tree. But, I broke weak.

It expanded into this lovely collection (Poetry for Moda) of prints, dots, and solids, fat quarters and yardage, pale buttery yellow, the nicest green, teal, coral, and dusty pink. Oh my goodness! From Kelly's photo on her giveaway post I was thinking maybe a couple dozen fat quarters, but this! This just might be enough to make a couple of quilts just perfect for two very special little girls. Do you think I can get two quilts out of this bundle??? They are going to be thrilled. I know I am thrilled.

I am beyond thrilled. I'm touched, warmed to the very tip of my toes by the generosity and kindness of someone who doesn't even know me although I feel I know her a little bit after spending so much time reading through her blog, which I somehow stumbled across a couple weeks ago.  She had a fun Christmas giveaway and I'm one of the very fortunate recipients.  And, to think, I almost didn't participate. Why wouldn't I participate? Because I didn't feel like sharing anything of myself. "It's Christmastime," I told myself. "That's a lousy spirit. What are you afraid of? Just leave a comment." But, a comment isn't just a comment to me. It's a little bit about me, a little glimpse of me. I'm so glad I did. Not because of this awesome box that arrived today, but because it was fun and I really needed that little bit of fun. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to blog and for sharing so generously with us. I truly appreciate it.

Now, what about patterns? what would be suitable for these fabrics? I have no idea. Any suggestions, anyone?  I just know what I like. Guess I will go look through my Pins and see if I can come up with some ideas, after Christmas, like in January when the snow is a couple feet deep and temps are so low you can't leave the house.  Oh. My. Gosh. I have fabric to make a big quilt (or two)!!! (just looked at table again)

 Yup, it's still there. It's for real. : ) Thanks again, Kelly. A very merry and joyful Christmas season to all.

Moving on with HSTs

I did it! and absolutely love how it all turned out! Whoa! Let's slow down and back up a bit first before I reveal the grand finale.

I made my half-square triangles following what appears to be a very popular method of constructing them - pair up your squares right sides to together (in my case a light and a dark), mark diagonally from one corner to the other (see previous post), sew 1/4" seam each side of this line, and slice the squares in half along this line. Voila! two half-square triangles!

I chain stitched them together as I sewed along my diagonal line. First time doing this as well. It IS a very efficient technique for piecing, I must say, although I don't have a lot of piecing experience to compare...yet. Stitched all seams on one side of the line then switched my chain around and stitched seams down the other side of the line.



Then I sliced. Whew! Scary moment..but all ended well, trust me.

Yes, that is a peek at a GO! Baby. Mother's Day gift, to me. More details on that coming up.

Then a bit of ironing. About halfway through I was asking myself, "Whose idea was this? Did anyone ask if there was ironing involved?"  I don't really mind ironing. At that moment it just seemed like a LOT of pieced triangles until I reminded myself,  "Really?! A lot? Really?! It is only a 24"x24" table topper. Get a grip."

(Note to self: If you are going to continue to take photos on your ironing board, must make a new ironing board cover. Response to self:  DON'T even think about it until after Christmas!)


All blocks were then squared up. Don't have any photos to share of that step. They were all too blurry.

Played with layout a bit, FUN :)  Who knew that you could create so many different layouts with just two little triangles sewn together?! Here are just a couple...

All along though I had a specific layout in mind initially inspired by this tutorial, but more about that later. I going to mess around with blogger a bit and see if I can figure out why it keeps wanting to rotate the picture incorrectly.