Making HST's~

Do you have a favorite way to make half square triangles?  Does it make a difference if you only need a few, or you need a lot? 

If I have bunches to make, I love my Triangulations program. It is easy, fast, and no trimming up when the sewing is finished. ;-)  But if I only have a few to make, I usually draw a line and sew on either side. Today I needed to make some using charm squares.  When I cut my white to coordinate with them, I discovered my charms weren't very uniform. So I decided to sew around the outside of them and cut on the diagonals. Granted~ you do end up with bias around all the edges, but if you've pressed and used a little starch they are manageable.

I'm  working on a little something I can't show you for a few more weeks. I saved part of the trimming until I had the HST's sewn into blocks, handling the HST's a little as possible. It is working out very well.  I have no idea who first thought of this method~ I've known about it for years, but just didn't really like it so much. Having charm squares changed that. ;-)

Hope you are having a little fun behind your sewing machine today too!
Until next time~
Happy stitching!

Friday, 'Operator Error', and...

Friday already! This week went too fast!~ too bad we can't have do-overs. ;-) LOL

I'll bet you are wondering about that 'operator error'~ yeah, that would be me. ;-) I thought I had all the HST's done for my last exchange of blocks with Bonnie (see this post)... until I laid everything out and counted yesterday! I had in my head that we needed to do 16 and 16 stuck... I even made more HST's so I'd have plenty to choose from. Well, I should've had 32 stuck in my head, because we are making doubles of all the blocks~ one to give, one to keep. So in reality, I have enough for 8 sets of blocks. :-/ Some real 'fuzzy math' on my part! So back to the scraps! ;-))

While I was out last Friday I picked up this cute panel~

Actually I picked up 2! :-) And this book has lots of cute ideas and fun things to make quickly and easily.

So how about a giveaway?! ~ just leave me a comment for a chance. No need to sign on to follow me (unless you want to remember to come back to see who wins) ;-) and no need to post about it. I really appreciate all of you stopping by and visiting with me and I would like to treat each of you, but since I can't do that, we'll just keep it our little giveaway, ok? I'll draw on Monday and let you know where it will be headed. Good luck! :-)

Now off to stitch more HST's!
Have a happy day and until next time~
Happy stitching!

~Busy~Busy~

Or maybe I should title this "I Am In Love'! :-))
I have a friend who was in some of my swaps this year and she lives in Australia. We decided instead of trying to mail currency for postage, I'd pay the postage and she would send me something 'Australian' in exchange. She sent me the Westalee adjustable ruler and I am in love!! They make different rulers for different tasks and the one I received is great for cutting strips. It has a little guide and little screws to adjust the strip width~ The black part is movable. I set it for 2.5 inch strips for my binding for 'Bears'. You don't have to tighten the screws much and you don't have to worry about the ruler shifting!! Whoohoo!! I don't know about you, but even with my pinky hanging over the edge and my hand 'crawling' up the ruler~ I always manage to shift it a bit when using my longer rulers. They were thinking about me when they made this ruler! LOL :-) And I really like that you don't have to use much pressure to hold the ruler in place~ hardly any. Now what else can I cut into strips?? :-)) LOL

She also sent these cute little ornaments that she made! :-)

And this is for Bonnie~~ I only needed a few more HST's for my blocks, but I needed a variety, so I cut the Triangulations grids in half. :-)) I'll get my next 12 blocks finished shortly. ;-) I want to finish them today because my Gran always said 'Sew on Sunday, rip on Monday'... I need for my sewing to stay put, so I'll finish them today! LOL ;-)

Hope y'all are enjoying your weekend~
Happy Stitchin'!!

Too Hot to Sew?

I never thought that would be possible here in the Pacific NW, but it is!! :-o Especially if you don't have A/C. :-/ And now, when my mojo is back is not the time to be slacking off! :-( But ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right? So to appease myself a little bit, I sewed up a bunch of HST's this morning when it was a mite cooler, and then sat in front of the fan ~LOL :-)) ~and took the papers off this afternoon. ;-) I may repeat this process a few more times this week! LOL :-) ..And hope that this heat wave doesn't last too long. ;-)

Have a great evening and until next time~

Keep stitchin'!! :-)