Monday, February 29, 2016

What was I thinking?


155 blue HST
What was I thinking?  The design looks great on paper, but 350, 2" finished HST squares now seems like a bit much!.    I made 310 of them 18 at a time using a "sew on the marked lines and cut apart" triangle paper method, so that went pretty quickly.  It gave me 18 of each color combination, but spread over 310 I figured it would still look scrappy.  I made the other 40 two at a time because I wanted variety in the colors and color combos.

They are all ready but now I need to sew them all together and that's where things are slowing down!  First, random is hard.  To ensure I spread the 18 duplicates of each HST square more or less randomly around the quilt, I divided the 350 into piles of 10 for my 35 blocks.  I thought I would chain sew...but then I lose track of what belongs in which block.  I might just give up on keeping track when I get to the blocks that only have blue units and start chain sewing with abandon.  Right now I'm sewing one block at a time to make sure the colors are positioned properly, so it's slow going.

Piles of units waiting their turns
I have 4 blocks done so far.  I'm grinding my teeth a little because I measure at each step, and everything is perfect until I add those large corner triangles.  At that point the block seems to miraculously (and frustratingly!) shrink by about 1/8" in one direction.  Now I'm trying to starch everything stiff and see if that helps.

At least I can see something pretty start to take shape as I grind my teeth!




14 comments:

  1. It IS pretty, but I would never have the patience.

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  2. You may be struggling with the piecing at this point, but for sure the finished project will be a perfect companion to your last yellow/blue quilt I love how the first block turned out, and will be watching for more. Remember: Quilting is supposed to be fun; so enjoy the process! ---"Love"

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  3. That is a LOT of HSTs! My eyes blur at the thought.
    At my house "random" means very carefully placed blocks to create the illusion of randomness.
    Looking really pretty so far!

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  4. This will be absolutely lovely. You're off to a great start with a super plan, but, my goodness, that's a lot of HSTs!

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  5. Ohhh, I love it! And it does look random so far. Sometimes when I have a project like this, I end up doing another project or two at the same time - I do not like to do tedious work very long without a break and my break is working on something else. When this is finished, I bet your diligence will pay off. ~Jeanne

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  6. It is looking very pretty. I made a quilt using all HST and it took a lot of patience for me to finish it.

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  7. Ooh. That's very pretty. I can see why it's frustrating! I look forward to seeing the end result.

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  8. Oh please don't give up! It will be such an awesome quilt. I hope that first block will motive you to finish it real soon because I can't wait to see more of this. ;^)

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  9. Wow that's a lot of HST's. I certainly like the block they make and I think it will look wonderful when done.

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  10. I'm sure liking this block Joanne! But yikes that IS a ton of HSTs... I do not mind them at all. Until squaring up time comes...

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  11. This is so pretty! Looks like a lot of work, but really beautiful.

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  12. Very pretty - love blue and yellow together. Realized my comment originally did not post - bad computer =). Hope you are making progress.

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  13. It all seemed like a good idea in the design phase I guess. I don't do random very well either so I empathise with your frustration. Despite all the consternation that block suggests a very dramatic quilt is in the off'ing.

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